Reviving Brain Cells From Corpses

dachshund writes: "ABCNews.com has an article on some scientists who have managed to bring a corpse's brain cells back to life in a Petri dish. Yikes. Doesn't seem to be a Frankenstien scenario, though-- the main applications have to do with stem cell research. Sort of makes you think, though..."

Risks

[Anonymous Coward]

When one reads about stem cells, one should think about the risk. They are the absolute foundation on which your body is built (even though there just stupid little cells that generally float around like there's nothing better to do). If you make even the slightest mistake with some of these and inject them, I don't think there's ANY chance of recovery.

Zombie Cancer Cells

[Anonymous Coward]

In 1950 there was a woman by the name of Helen Lane who died of cancer. Cancer cells were taken from her and they've been kept in culture continuously ever since (Cancer cells are effectively immortal). These cells are commonly used in a fair number of molecular biology experiments. You can buy these cells and products derived from them (like cDNA) from probably just about any supplier of molecular bio products. In honor of her, their named HeLa cells

Re: Zombie Cancer Cells [Grammar check]

[diaphanous]

In honor of her, their named HeLa cells

Bad me. "their" should be "they're". I never made this mistake when I was a little kid. I must be losing my neurons too fast. Usually I preview obsessive-compulsively before I post too.

Re:Zombie Cancer Cells

[PD]

Ouch! What the hell is that thing I keep bumping my head on??????

Re:Embryo alternative

[Christopher Thomas]

Hopefully this becomes a viable alternative to stem cells from embryos. As the article points out, that is frought with ethical problems.

Stem cells of various types exist in many places in your (living) body; in principle, there's no reason they have to be harvested from anywhere else at all.

In practice, embryo cells are nice because they haven't differentiated at *all* yet (stem cells in your body have differentiated a bit, and so only give rise to certain types of cell (e.g. blood cells for bone marrow stem cells).

Research is ongoing to try to convert these back into general-purpose stem cells. There has been some progress, some of which has been covered on slashdot.

In summary, we won't have to worry about harvesting by the time we're ready to use stem cells on a large scale.

For pure research into differentiation, there's no reason we'd have to use human stem cells. If I understand correctly, human stem cells are only used for research into medical procedures that are intended to be performed on humans, which could be delayed until the differentiation problem is solved or performed on animals instead (though both options mean it'll be longer until the techniques are perfected for use in humans).

Precious Roy

[The Iconoclast]

"Folks, if you're like me, you wake up in the middle of the night screaming, 'Where are all of those CORPSES!!!!!!!'"
- Olly from the Precious Roy Home Shopping Network

from Sifl and Olly, [sifl-n-olly.com] the best TV show that MTV ever cancelled.

Re:Embryo alternative

[SmellMyTeenSpirit]

does it seem odd that using dead peoples brains is better than using embryos'? just wierd to me.

If they could do that...

[Big Brass Balls]

...with a whole brain, then I betcha the person that wakes up afterward would probably thought they just had a bad acid trip.

--
Do I play Hockey? [nhl.com]
Posting at -1 since April 18/01.

Those stupid stupid bastards

[kanada]

I don't know about you guys, but in my opinion these "scientists" are some stupid stupid bastards. Frankly I'm a little scared. What if they decide to make a clone of Barbara Strisand, she's dead right?... OH NO! THEY ALREADY DID!!!

Embryo alternative

[ryants]

Hopefully this becomes a viable alternative to stem cells from embryos. As the article points out, that is frought with ethical problems.

I believe we really need to find a good supply of stem cells somewhere in the body which we can use to treat diseases like Alzheimer's. It seems to be the most promising solution proposed yet.

Hopefully cells from cadavers works well enough to make this a reality.

Ryan T. Sammartino

Re:Zombie Cancer Cells

[oldbox]

Yup, but Mrs. Lane had cervical cancer. Not quite neural matter (but perhaps closer to the tissue that many people do their thinking with).

oddbox