STEM cells are used in research to make the following...
Cloning is not that big a deal.
The powerful thing is that we can play god. We can make fetuses or people.
The focus of this talk is that cloning can be used for generating specific cells. What are the implications for aging? Senescent cells (cells that no longer regenerate) can be cloned. The cloned cells can regenerate - effectively turning back the clock.
The first uses will be (not making kidneys, or lungs) but blood forming cells. If these are injected into the blood, they find their ways back to the marrow, and behave as young cells. So far this has been done in animals. Humans to follow.
"You are only as old as your arteries." (He says people say this.)
There is evidence by reintroducing some of these young cells, arteries begin to reform. The plumbing is repairing itself.
There is the potential to reverse the clock.
Audience member question : Doesn't death have a function?
Response : We grow old after procreation is done...so it isn't so much a matter of selective process prevention.
(MeÖhow long are we meant to be here? While bodies may eventually have unlimited shelf life, there may be a limit to how much change a mind can handle, how long one may be fit to be on the earth, how long before one should step aside for the next generation).
Posted by weez at October 17, 2003 09:19 AM