First patient treated with Stem Cells

[Escaep]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-11517680

US doctors have begun the first official trial of using human embryonic stem cells in patients after getting the green light from regulators.

The Food and Drug Administration has given a license to Geron to use the controversial cells to treat people with spinal injuries.

The cells have the potential to become many of the different cell types found in the body, including nerve cells.

The trials at a hospital in Atlanta will check if the treatment is safe.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/11/AR2010101102946.html

Doctors have injected millions of human embryonic stem cells into a patient partially paralyzed by a spinal cord injury, marking the beginning of the first carefully designed attempt to test the promising but controversial therapy, officials announced Monday.

 

[Eejit]

They've been doing it for quite a while in countries like India, there's a good bit of medical tourism there. Of course, most of the treatments aren't based on good science.

 

[ríomhaire]

I can't help but think of that episode of South Park with Christopher Reeves.

 

[Krynn72]

Now that guy has to live with the fact that he just had millions of babies injected into his spine.

 

[99.vikram]

They've been doing it for quite a while in countries like India, there's a good bit of medical tourism there. Of course, most of the treatments aren't based on good science.

I don't know what you're talking about, doctors and medical facilities here are as good as anywhere else in the world if you can afford it.

Unless you go for that ayurveda, "traditional remedies" stuff that may get you paralysed or whatever.

 

[Au-heppa]

They will develope and then it's "Quaid, Start the Reactor." before you know it.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

I can't help but think of that episode of South Park with Christopher Reeves.

That was a goodie. "You can't stop me, HACK-MAN!"

 

[Remus]

This doesn't make sense. Why are they using embryonic stem cells? I've seen plenty of documentaries explaining how that is no longer necessary because they have developed a technique by which they can use stem cells from the patient, and make them just as versatile as embryonic stem cells.

 

[Acepilotf14]

It's bad to skip to a manufactured version before fully understanding the source.

 

[Eejit]

I don't know what you're talking about, doctors and medical facilities here are as good as anywhere else in the world if you can afford it.

There are several untested and unverified steam cell treatments made available in India. This has been the case since at least 2005.

 

[Remus]

It's bad to skip to a manufactured version before fully understanding the source.

Yeah, I guess.

Anyway, I'll be more enthusiastic when the first medical nanobots are manufactured.

 

[Eejit]

Haha, good luck with that.

 

[Remus]

Haha, good luck with that.

"Hur hur, it will never work, it will never happen"

Yeah, I've heard that one before.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

Anybody else read the thread title as "Stern Cells?"

 

[Higlac]

inb4 tumor

 

[Eejit]

"Hur hur, it will never work, it will never happen"

Yeah, I've heard that one before.

Where's my grandad's anti-gravity car to take me on daytrips to Mars?

I've never heard any plausible ideas for solving the issues of viscosity, shear forces or power supply on the scales facing medical nanobots. Pipe dreams, for centuries more at least.

 

[Raziaar]

Anybody else read the thread title as "Stern Cells?"

inb4 tumor

How can it be removed? We'll need more than a scalpel. NURSE! Fetch me the kukri!

 

[15357]

Also, I doubt that they'd be of much use, considering current technology. Why pour millions of dollars worth of robots down people's blood vessels when you can just stick a metal wire in it?

 

[Remus]

Pipe dreams, for centuries more at least.

These pipe dreams sure seem real to me...

http://mobilelocalsocial.com/2010/nanobots-assemble-form-of-the-cure-for-cancer/

Notice that they call them targeted nanoparticles, not nanobots. However it's a promising start.

So I think true medical nanobots within the next 30 - 40 years is a realistic possibility.

Why pour millions of dollars worth of robots down people's blood vessels when you can just stick a metal wire in it?

You honestly think they would have to build each individual nanobot?

*facepalm*

Millions would be needed for one patient alone, in order to act effectively. The idea is you only have to build one, and after that it replicates itself using available organic material.

 

[Acepilotf14]

So, an artificial nanobot makes more of itself using.. non-artificial material?

 

[Remus]

An artificial nanobot made from organic material, makes more of itself using organic material...

What you thought it was going to be a metal submarine like in fantastic voyage?

 

[Acepilotf14]

You're the one with the Ph.D in nanotechnology.

 

[Bad^Hat]

steam cell

Stern Cells

Oh god.

They're already adapting.

 

[unozero]

There are several untested and unverified steam cell treatments made available in India. This has been the case since at least 2005.

60 minutes had a really good report on this snake oil of the 21st century.

 

[CowPunk]

These pipe dreams sure seem real to me...

http://mobilelocalsocial.com/2010/nanobots-assemble-form-of-the-cure-for-cancer/

Notice that they call them targeted nanoparticles, not nanobots. However it's a promising start.

So I think true medical nanobots within the next 30 - 40 years is a realistic possibility.



You honestly think they would have to build each individual nanobot?

*facepalm*

Millions would be needed for one patient alone, in order to act effectively. The idea is you only have to build one, and after that it replicates itself using available organic material.

This reminds me of a book I read once... brb looking through books

ah right, Prey by Micheal Crichton. Sounds a lot like what they do in that book.

 

[Krynn72]

Anybody else read the thread title as "Stern Cells?"

Think of what this might mean, if Stern's wife has gotten an abortion in the past couple years. STERN COULD BE IN THAT MANS BODY D: D: D: D:

 

[Warped]

This doesn't make sense. Why are they using embryonic stem cells? I've seen plenty of documentaries explaining how that is no longer necessary because they have developed a technique by which they can use stem cells from the patient, and make them just as versatile as embryonic stem cells.

If I remember correctly, adults have less stem cells than can switch roles than children do....therefor we must harvest more children for these procedures

 

[Wanted Bob]

An artificial nanobot made from organic material, makes more of itself using organic material...

What you thought it was going to be a metal submarine like in fantastic voyage?

You mean like a virus? We can already alter existing types to suit our needs.

 

[15357]

You honestly think they would have to build each individual nanobot?

*facepalm*

Millions would be needed for one patient alone, in order to act effectively. The idea is you only have to build one, and after that it replicates itself using available organic material.

Yeah, not possible in 30 years, no doubt.

Besides, I don't like the idea of machines replicating themselves. I think we're better off developing other kinds of medical technology - Stem Cells show good promise, I think.

Tbh, in 30 years if we could grow organs and bady parts in vats for transplants, I think that's be wonderful. But not nanobots. Nanobots suck.

 

[Eejit]

These pipe dreams sure seem real to me...

http://mobilelocalsocial.com/2010/nanobots-assemble-form-of-the-cure-for-cancer/

Notice that they call them targeted nanoparticles, not nanobots. However it's a promising start.

The reason for them calling them nanoparticles is that the technology used has absolutely nothing to do with nanobots. It's a typically misleading headline.

 

[Remus]

The reason for them calling them nanoparticles is that the technology used has absolutely nothing to do with nanobots. It's a typically misleading headline.

Yes, I know targeted nanoparticles are not nanobots. They are essentially nanoscale capsules containing various therapeutic payloads. However to say that the technology used to create these nanoscale devices, has nothing to do with nanobots, is absurd.The same principles/manufacturing techniques can be applied to the production of medical nanobots. I'm not saying they can be built now, obviously, but what we can see is the beginnings of this technology today.

 

[jerkasaur]

You should put an "Embryonic" before "Stem cells" in the title..

 

[Eejit]

Nice wishful thinking Remus. We've had nano-scale technologies for years. Nanobots are a whole different ballgame in terms of complexity than the necessarily simple and limited (but often effective) ways we've used them.

 

[ríomhaire]

Most of my knowledge of nanobots comes from Deus Ex and a mostly forgotten National Geographic article, but what Remus is saying is basically equivalent to saying we can build man-sized pipes, therefore we can build robots, isn't it?

 

[Remus]

Most of my knowledge of nanobots comes from Deus Ex and a mostly forgotten National Geographic article

I rest my case.


The point I am trying to make is that true nanobots are not fantasy, they are not hundreds of years away, but decades away.

Don't like the targeted nanoparticle? OK fine:

Here's an article from 2005 talking about a micron size (the size of a speck of dust) inchworm like robot.
http://www.trnmag.com/Roundup/2005/TRN_Research_News_Roundup_9-19-05.html

The limitation is that it can only move and receive power on a special surface.

And here's an article from 2008 talking about the first steps taken in constructing a prototype nanoassebler:
http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2008/04/prototype-nano.html

Progress is moving faster than ever before, to say that this technology is a pipedream, or hundreds of years away, is foolish.

But, fine whatever, continue dismissing it as nonsense.

 

[ríomhaire]

I'm not dismissing the technology. I'm saying you're overstating what's there already.

 

[Danimal]

"Hur hur, it will never work, it will never happen"

Yeah, I've heard that one before.

Don't tell me that you think RFID chipping everyone is a good idea, too.

 

[Remus]

Don't tell me that you think RFID chipping everyone is a good idea, too.

No, I don't approve. This is yet another case of security vs freedom/privacy. Has there been a poll? How many people in the US approve or dissaprove of this idea?

 

[Eejit]

http://www.trnmag.com/Roundup/2005/TRN_Research_News_Roundup_9-19-05.html[/URL]

The limitation is that it can only move and receive power on a special surface.

250 microns by 60 by 10? That's at least three orders of magnitude away from being a nanobot. And even at that scale it has problems with power supply and movement.

You realise that at a nanometer scale fluids are effectively far more viscous? Blood and lymph like a thick treacle. No special surfaces there, sorry.


Microbots are plausible for the next few decades with a bit of luck, nanobots will take much, much longer.