Election Day Musings

Election Day Musings

Not much going on on the research front today—all the news articles I’ve seen on research developments are ones already blogged on. Here are a few incidental happenings.

A press release today on MarketWire: "Vitro Diagnostics, Inc. (OTC BB: VODG), dba Vitro Biopharma, announced completion of significant milestones in the development of its stem cell technology for use in diabetes treatment. The Company had previously generated 29 adult human beta islet stem cell lines and filed for patent protection. The new advances include a process to induce differentiation of functional beta cells from these stem cells that contain and release insulin in response to elevated glucose levels."

In Korea, an investigation continues regarding whether or not any of the ova used by Dr. Hwang Woo-suk were obtained illegally, without donor consent. Chosunilbo reported on the investigation by police of Roh Sung-il, the head of the clinic at Mizmedi Women’s Hospital in Seoul. Roh denies any illegal activity. The investigation is not related to the stem cell work at all, and Hwang is not under investigation.

Thought—SCNT cloning is a very different matter if the eggs were not provided with donor consent. While I support SCNT research, I do not support any form of research which uses one person’s biological material without informed consent. How we treat living people is the greatest ethical concern.

Moving on….

Next week in Washington the 2005 Society for Neuroscience 35th Annual Meeting will include a Stem Cell Biology Satellite Symposium. I hope there will be some interesting research coming out of that. The details are available on Genetic Engineering News on-line.

By tomorrow we should know who won the New Jersey governor’s race and how much stem cell funding was an issue. I have to think that although there may be single issue voters out there, there are probably a lot more of them on other issues than on stem cell research. But I’m not a policy wonk….