Today 11 new stem cell lines were approved for use since the ban on new lines was lifted. As a recap, the ‘newest’ stem cells until now were still from 2001.
A big problem that was happening with the old cell lines were people were simply getting worse and worse quality cells to use as time went on, so this is a big step in spurring ALL research done with stem or un-differentiated cells.
A quick rundown on the cell preservation process:
1. grow cells out in some sort of nutrient media. This needs to be done quickly and with as little ‘doubling’ as possible, since there are always mutations with each iteration, and each iteration of doubling exponentially builds more and more of these mutated cells. You need to basically balance creating as many cells as you can, with time spent in a dish in an incubator being exposed to non-body like conditions and causing weird cell changes.
2.Freeze them down with a whole bunch of preservatives and stabilizers that would kill the cell normally
3. Hope you can keep ice-crystals from ripping the cells apart while they sit in cryo-preservation for 8+ years.
You see, this is just like the problems facing Darth Vader when he was trying to freeze Luke Skywalker, that’s why he tested it out on Han Solo first.
Imagine you were Leia Organa, beautiful princess of destroyed planet Alderaan, and there was no lifeform display on the side of the carbonite slab. The only way to check on Han’s status is to chip off part of him and thaw it. As you start chipping off parts of him, you have to locally thaw that area and parts of Han get damaged (hopefully not the roguish charm). Then, Boba Fett (The 2001 Stem Cell Ban) steals your carbonite frozen love-interest and stashes him in Slave I (National Stem Cell Databank). Meanwhile, Chewbacca (The National Institute of Health) is trying to rescue Han Solo with the help of Lando Calrissian (National Science Foundation) who initially didn’t put up enough of a fight because he’s a dirty double-crossing scoundrel. R2D2 (Congressional Vote on the 2001 bill) is still trying to locate a data port to open that damn blast door and help you all escape and chase after Han but gets shocked by a power inlet instead because C-3PO (George Bush) doesn’t know his sockets.
ITS ALL SO SIMPLE.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/12/02/new.stem.cells/index.html
