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Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) Files Additional Legal Arguments in Sherley v. Sebelius Stem Cell Case

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28, 2012 -- This week the Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) joined the Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) in filing an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, supporting federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

Advanced Cell Technology: Stem cell retinal implants safe

Early results from the world's first human trial using embryonic stem cells to treat diseases of the eye suggest the method is safe, say researchers.

US firm Advanced Cell Technology told The Lancet how two patients who had received the retinal implants were doing well, four months on.

Trials of the same technique have now started at London's Moorfields Eye Hospital.

But experts say it will be years before these treatments are proven.

The aim of these first human studies is to establish that the treatment is safe to use.

Giving sight to macular degeneration patients

January 23, 2012 7:10 PM

There is a new treatment for the leading cause of blindness in older people. The treatment uses embryonic stem cells, and Dr. Jon LaPook reports there is a new study out today showing the treatment's promising results.

Seventy-six-year-old Sue Freeman has gradually lost her vision to macular degeneration. As her sight faded, so did her independence.

Stem Cell Treatment for Eye Diseases Shows Promise

Stem Cell Treatment for Eye Diseases Shows Promise
By ANDREW POLLACK

LOS ANGELES — A treatment for eye diseases that is derived from human embryonic stem cells might have improved the vision of two patients, bolstering the beleaguered field, researchers reported Monday.

The report, published online in the medical journal The Lancet, is the first to describe the effect on patients of a therapy involving human embryonic stem cells.

Embryonic stem cell research challenged, again

Sherley continues stem cell debate with an appeal to a panel of judges for the third time
By John A. Hawkinson
STAFF REPORTER
January 18, 2012

James L. Sherley has filed the first brief of his formal appeal in his battle to stop government funding of human embryonic stem cell research.

European Court Bans Patents Based on Embryo Destruction

This week the highest court in Europe ruled that stem cell research based on the destruction of human embryos is contrary to morality and cannot be patented. The Court of Justice of the European Union sided with arguments by its advocate general, who earlier this year termed stem cell patents "contrary to ethics and public policy."

Suit against federal stem cell research dismissed

A lawsuit that had threatened to end the Obama administration's funding of embryonic stem cell research was thrown out Wednesday, allowing the U.S. to continue supporting a search for cures to deadly diseases over protests that the work relies on destroyed human embryos.

The lawsuit claimed that research funded by the National Institutes of Health violated the 1996 Dickey-Wicker law that prohibits taxpayer financing for work that harms an embryo. But the administration policy allows research on embryos that were culled long ago through private funding.

U.S. judge upholds federal embryonic stem cell funds

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Wednesday upheld the federal government's rules that allow funding of human embryonic stem cell research, ruling for the Obama administration.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines on such research do not violate federal law and he dismissed a legal challenge to the funding.

Embryonic Stem-Cell Approvals Rise

Research using human embryonic stem- cell lines approved under President Barack Obama is accelerating, boosting a scientific field that’s been dogged by legal and political threats.

Adult stem cell's successes don't eliminate need for embryonic stem cells

Angina relief and an artificial windpipe. No doubt about it: Stem cells have had a big week. But any time stem cells show up in the news, there’s bound to be a lot of controversy and misunderstandings.

Researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois published a study showing that stem cell injections into the heart can help reduce angina attacks, presumably by spurring the growth of new blood vessels feeding the heart. And Swedish doctors announced that they had given acancer patient a brand new windpipe grown in a lab using his own stem cells.