will also make it a priority to derive new embryonic stem cell lines from underrepresented groups, including African-Americans.

That’s. just. great. Not only are African-Americans targeted for abortion, now their embryonic children in IVF cryostorage will be targeted for destruction in the name of science. Why does the White man hate the Black man so?

I just don’t get it.

“This is a real change in the landscape. . . This is the first down payment on what is going to be a much longer list . . . that will empower the scientific community to explore the potential of embryonic stem cell research.”

More like a down payment on a long list that includes guilt, regret and God’s wrath, Dr. Collins.

The university’s board of regents is scheduled to take up the matter on Friday [November 20], and if it approves the restrictions — some opponents of the research say they have the votes, though others remain doubtful — the University of Nebraska will become the first such state institution in the country to impose limits on stem cell research that go beyond what state and federal laws allow, university officials say.

The school proposes to limit research on existing stem cell lines approved by President Bush:

The proposal before the regents would permit university researchers to work with as many as 21 cell lines that Mr. Bush approved in 2001, assuming they are deemed eligible by federal health authorities, but would close the door on research involving hundreds of cell lines created since 2001 from unused embryos at fertility clinics that the Obama administration could make eligible for federal financing.

Kudos to the Huskers, and good luck against Kansas State tomorrow!

Steinbrook: What will the results of stem-cell research mean for human health?

Collins: My crystal ball is just as cloudy as everyone else’s. However, the developments in understanding stem cells and how they could potentially be brought to bear for a whole host of medical problems are some of the more exciting things that have happened in the last decade. In terms of therapeutics, we are just so early on. The one clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration — for spinal cord injury — is currently on hold.

The clinical trial put on hold by the FDA uses embryonic stem cells.

New stem cell studies at the University of Maryland Dental School demonstrate that surgeons could one day routinely use strong, moldable, and injectable pastes to regenerate needed bone tissue to repair broken bones, fractures, genetic defects, even combat bone wounds. . . The Dental School presentation showed that human stem cells seeded in a tissue engineering scaffolding exhibited “excellent attachment and osteogenic differentiation,” which is the process of laying down new bone material.

The researchers said the new findings buoy hopes that an injectable paste of stem cells will be available one day to fill any shape of cavity from bone defects, breaks or wounds by regenerating needed bone tissue. In test tube studies, stem cells from bone marrow, when placed into an injectable scaffold of calcium phosphate and chitosan, started growing and forming minerals needed for new bone tissue.

Animals being tested using Geron Corporation’s treatment for spinal cord injury developed cysts at the injury sites, a finding that led the U.S. FDA to place a clinical hold on a planned human trial of the treatment, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based stem cell firm said on August 27. However, Geron said, the cysts did not spread, did not harm the lab animals, nor did they lead to teratomas, a form of tumor that is usually, but not always, benign. Recent testing of the product showed no cyst development, according to the company.

Teratomas or not, considering there are documented cases of teratomas forming at human ESCR injection sites, the FDA was wise in suspending adult trials.

HT: Wesley J. Smith at Secondhand Smoke.

Ordinary cells reprogrammed to act like embryonic stem cells can help repair damaged heart tissue in mice, researchers reported on Monday in a study that shows a potential practical use for the experimental cells.When injected into mice whose hearts had been damaged by a heart attack, the new cells helped improve both the structure and function of the heart. Eventually the hope would be to patch up seriously ill heart patients using their own cells.

“It was obvious to the observer which animals had been treated and which ones hadn’t,” said Dr Timothy Nelson of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, whose study appears in the journal Circulation.

The team used a promising new type of embryonic-like stem cell called an induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPS cell, made from ordinary cells. Many teams are using this new technology to look for ways to repair the body, a fast-growing field of research known as regenerative medicine.

Nelson and colleagues tested the technology as a way to regenerate heart muscle damaged by a heart attack.

HT: Wesley J. Smith at Secondhand Smoke.

Here’s a concise and sobering analysis of the Guidelines by Justin Cardinal Rigali, former Archbishop of St. Louis: