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"It is true, and thus the question of whether it is sad or happy has no meaning whatever."
Bernhard Schlink



Science is best when discussed: leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments!!



Thursday, April 29, 2004

New Alternatives, Continued 

Gene therapy is a very cool thing, with lots of potential to make life better. A new GT method for Alzheimers is underway: A Phase 1 trial (designed to assess basic safety and toxicity issues) of genetically modified cell grafts into deep cholinergic brain regions of early-stage AD patients has been deemed a success. Skin cells were harvested from patients, grown and engineered in culture to produce NGF, and then reimplanted. Both PET and diagnostic tests showed improvement in disease process (increased metabolism and decreased rate of decline, respectively) 1-1.5 years after the procedure. This is fuckin' awesome!!

Grafting pigments from spinach onto the retina may help restore vision in some types of blindness. Pretty cool: I'm just waiting for those thingeys like the blind guy on Star Trek wore.


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