Oliver Smithies, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Medicine, along with Mario Capecchi of the University of Utah’s Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Sir Martin Evans of Cardiff University in Whales. The three worked together with embryonic stem cells of mice, investigating the behavior of genes. The experiments conducted showed, “stem cells could be genetically altered in the laboratory, then injected into mouse embryos to create offspring with changes to their DNA that would be passed on to future generations.”
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=200710101026814111&site=ehost-live Smithies, Capecchi, and Hughes used this gene targeting method to see how the specific genes work and how to target them to manipulate their affects. The mice are used as models for comparison to humans with cancer and diseases such as Parkinson's and diabetes.
The research of these three scientists is significant for the continuance of stem cell research and the search for cures of human disease. If working with animal stem cells is becoming so successful, don’t you think it is time to put our effort in working with human stem cells in order to begin the direct search for human cures??
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As a current student at UNC I find myself rather proud of the institute and especially Dr. Smitties. I am very fond of the idea of being able to say, in a couple of years, that I attended UNC when Dr. Smitties won the Nobel Prize for developing the use of mice for research purposes. I realize the great things that can potentially come of this. I understand that many medical breakthroughs will be able to come about because of the research being done with stem-cells and with mice. However, returning to your previous post, I have yet to make my piece with the process in which stem-cells are harvested. As an evangelical Christian it is hard too find the distinct differences between say this and abortion. Granted one difference is to prevent the continuation of life and the other's purpose is to help in the continuation of life. What I mean is that, I like the idea of having this easier way of doing research and such, but I am not sure I like the idea of using human stem-cells.
I also feel proud to be a part of the institute where Dr. Smithies is the professor. I believe it gives an even higher sense of status to the university. Abortion is closely linked with the ethical issue of using stem cell research. Using stem cell research, however, is a direct way of finding cures for humans and gain more knowlegdge about how human genes interact.
Being a student at this great University having a Nobel Prize winner makes coming here all the better. I feel honored that I attend a University that is working hard to find cures for humans. I believe stem cell research is ok to some extent. Just like on the abortion issue i believe in it in some situations but most of the time i feel like abortions are just not right. With stem cells i believe that if they are just used to cure diseases then that is great when they are further used I have to disagree with that. But from what I have heard on this research I like where it is going and i hope it will cure diseases. Being personally affected by alzheimers disease really hurts a person and I dont want other people to have to go through that.
It's great that we're advancing in stem cell research. Amazing breakthroughs in studies, such as the work of Dr. Smithies, are leading to me to believe that testing on humans will be sooner than expected. In fact, I feel that scientists are ready to conduct experiments on humans, however the fact of the matter is that people consider experimenting with humans as being unethical. To a certain extent, I can see why people feel this way, but if it's for a cause, what's the problem? Just as long as these people are being treated with respect and care during testing, I don't see anything that's negative. The time is now. We need to advance further in stem cell research to derive cures to many diseases.
Yes, I agree that it is certainly time to advance the research with humans. If we are successfully working with animals, the time is now to start the research for human cures. Researchers are extremely careful to treat their subjects and data with repect in order to fully retrieve the most information possible out of the experiment. If we are able to gain even some knowlegde toward the advancement to a cure the reseach will be worthwhile.
Well said.
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