X-Message-Number: 15838
Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 13:32:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Scott Badger <>
Subject: Checking In

Just wanted to say hi to Fred and Linda, Bob E., Rudi,
George, Michael D. and P., Ruthanna, Jeff D., John G.,
and all the rest of the cryonet clan. I haven't posted
in quite a while. I'm still alive and kicking, but I
only seem to have a chance to catch up on cryonet
posts on weekends. It's good to see continued debate
and interest in a variety of issues.

Maybe it was already posted but did everyone see the
recent article: "Scientists Craft Mouse with Human
Brain Cells"? I guess we'll be able to harvest a
variety of organs from different animals pretty soon.
Weird. I recall hearing that they're working on
altering cows to produce human milk. That's fine with
me, but I forsee lots of potential opposition in this
area.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010224/ts/brain_dc_1.html

Also, I was listening to NPR on the way home a couple
days ago and heard a discussion on a recent experiment
where doctors implanted brain cells grown from stem
cells into Parkinsons patients. A few responded so
well that they were able to stop medication treatments
completely. The only problematic apsect of this
treatment was supposedly that some of the patients had
negative side effects similar to those of patients who
take too much medication (resulting in excessively
high levels of dopamine). Also troubling was the fact
that it is much more difficult to regulate the
dopamine production of the cells than to simply adjust
the dosage of prescribed meds. The researcher
interviewed was still pretty excited though because
one of their initial concerns was that they would have
a difficult time implanting enough cells to produce
the amount of dopamine needed and it turns out instead
that, on average, considerably fewer cells were needed
than anticipated.

Other news ... I've accepted a position at U of Idaho.
 Moving there from Texas will be a big change but I
look forward to it.

Well, anyway. Just wanted to share. Take care,
everyone.

Scott

"Vita Perpetuem"

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