Friday, July 24, 2009

Controversy surrounds research on "human sperm" from stem cells

AP noted the publication by the research group of Karim Nayernia, of Newcastle University in the journal Stem Cells and Development on the topic of creating human sperm from embryonic stem cells but separately noted the work had been criticized by Allan Pacey, a senior lecturer in andrology at the University of Sheffield and Azim Surani, a professor of physiology and reproduction at the University of Cambridge.

Of Nayernia, note previous IPBiz posts:

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/06/nayernia-to-join-stem-cell-effort-at.html

http://ipbiz.blogspot.com/2006/07/nayernia-of-newcastle-makes-mouse.html

***Although IPBiz published the comment below, it is merely a link to a discussion about the Nayernia paper and does NOT answer the criticisms raised by Pacey and Surani [see above.] Of the paper-->

Derivation of Human Sperm from Embryonic Stem Cells
Jae Ho Lee, Majlinda Lako, Lyle Armstrong, Mary Herbert, Manyu Li, Wolfgang Engel, David Elliot, Miodrag Stojkovic, John Parrington, Alison Murdoch, Tom Strachan, Karim Nayernia.
in Stem Cells and Development.

***One notes that Nayernia's development transpired outside the US, and outside the scope of California's CIRM, but during the time period CIRM existed. While things are happening in stem cell technology, the blog californiastemcellreport gave information on lobbying efforts, which included the memorable line:

“in the age of Obama, it’s a particularly good time to be named Podesta.”

referencing the successful lobbying efforts of Tony Podesta (brother of John Podesta of the Obama team) on behalf of an pharma industry-backed bill to stall competition from generic companies. Yes, you got that right, a pro-pharma bill.

***An additional example of puzzling lobbying by the Podesta group from nj.com:

Recently, efforts by Sallie Mae have now come to light. Sallie Mae, the nation's largest student-loan company, spent $3.4 million on lobbying in the first half of this year in an effort to persuade lawmakers to consider alternatives to President Obama's plan to end bank-based lending to students and replace it with direct lending, according to an analysis by the Chronicle, the Center for Responsive Politics andThe Huffington Post.

Sallie Mae is pushing a counterproposal that would allow student-loan companies to originate loans before selling them to the government. Such a great idea that Sallie Mae felt it necessary to hire several Washington-based lobbying firms, including a group led by Tony Podesta, a top Democratic fund raiser with longstanding ties to members of Congress, to push it. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, its key hire was Jamie Gorelick, a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration and partner in the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr. The firm billed Sallie Mae $270,000 for its work in the first half of 2009, according to the analysis.


Hmmm, the Democrat-based Podesta group gets money to lobby AGAINST Obama-initiatives. Who better to get traction against an Obama initiative than Obama-connected people?

1 Comments:

Blogger Medical Information said...

It has been proved that human sperms can be produced from stem cells. Stem cells have the ability to transform into any cell in the body. It would be effective treatments for male infertility. To get more knowledge on this technique, refer Human sperm

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