introducing....

Dominic Christopher!

This beautiful little guy is the first child of my dear friend (and former roommate!) Amy and her husband Bryan. What a lucky little man to have such awesome parents!!

He is just as sweet as can be, and too cute not to share. Welcome to the world Dominic. We are so blessed that you are here!

'i saw what i saw...'

"May the eyes of our hearts be enlightened, that we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call..." -St. Paul's letter to the Ephesians chapter one verse eighteen

leaning from my saint for the year...

Happy Feast Day of Saint Joseph today and CONGRATULATIONS to Amy and Bryan on the birth of their son, Dominic!

amazima

I know I've posted about this before, but I want to share it again for anyone who might not have seen the previous posts.

The blog of 20 year old Katie Davis -- The Journey-- of her life and work serving children in Uganda is a story like no other. I've also recently been following the blog of a team of people who are Joining the Journey.

Amazima Ministries is the organization she has founded. Her story is amazing, as are the stories of the children that she serves.

Have a blessed Sunday!

the other news about stem cells...

I receive a daily e-mail update from the American Medical Association, and this was the headline news as of March 2, 2009. (This news may have been a bit overshadowed by the other news about stem cells that broke a week later.)

Scientists may have created promising alternative to embryonic stem cells, studies indicate.

The Washington Post (3/2, A5, Stein) reports that two teams of scientists "have developed what appears to be a safer way to create a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells." The work that is being detailed in two Nature papers is expected "to have a massive impact on this field." It also "comes at a politically sensitive moment" -- the scientific community is "anxiously waiting for President Obama to follow through on his promise to lift restrictions on federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells." Some who oppose "such a move immediately pointed to the work as the latest evidence" that an alternative is plausible, making the issue a moot point.

For years, scientists have scrambled to develop ways to generate "stem cell treatments without using embryos," BBC News (3/1) added. "In 2007, teams in Japan and the US managed to genetically modify skin cells to be pluripotent." These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) were to become "a new source of stem cells for use in research." But "the technique used viruses to genetically modify the cells." This "Trojan horse" method, according to AFP (3/2), essentially "modifies their DNA in such a way that they cannot be given to patients without boosting the risk of cancer." Now, researchers have found a way to circumvent that problem.

In fact, "the teams in Edinburgh and Toronto had been working separately on iPS cells, until Andras Nagy from Toronto had a chance meeting with Keisuke Kaji, head of the Edinburgh group," the UK's Financial Times (3/2, Cookson) points out. "They found that each had independently solved half the problem." Dr. Kaji's team "discovered how to deliver the four crucial reprogramming genes without using a virus," while Dr. Nagy and his lab mates at the Mount Sinai Hospital were "able to remove all trace of the added genes from the new iPS cells, which avoids disrupting the cells' own genetic machinery."

They were able to do so by using "a snippet of DNA from, of all things, a cabbage looper moth, which delivers the genes needed to reprogram cells into stem cells," the Canadian Press (3/2) reports. More specifically, the "team used a jumping gene, a mobile piece of DNA also known as a transposon," the Globe and Mail (3/1, McIlroy) added. Apparently, "in moths, corn, and other species, these genes hop from chromosome to chromosome, inserting themselves randomly into the genome." During the current experiment, the team "inserted the four reprogramming genes into a jumping gene from a moth," and later "put the jumping gene and its cargo into a skin cell." Eventually, the "jumping gene cut and pasted the stem cell genes into a chromosome in the skin cell. The scientists were then able to coax the skin cell back to its embryonic state, giving it the superhero-like ability to turn into many types of cells."

And, "once the genes had done their job, the scientists removed them, leaving the cells healthy and intact," the UK's Guardian (3/1, Sample) added. A member of the "lobby group Comment on Reproductive Ethics" maintains that there are "some scientists who like to hold on to what they've got, but" she doesn't "think people are going to waste time on embryonic stem cells any more."

Similarly, scientific "experts say the elegant discovery will quickly be adopted by labs around the world and will accelerate further advances in biology's hottest field," according to the Toronto Star (3/1, Ogilvie, Hall). Alan Trounson, "president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine," said, "It's a very innovative way of delivering the gene products that are needed for reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem cell-like cells. Well done to the Nagy group."

To recap: Induced pluripotent stem cells (created from genetically "reprogramming" an adult cell back to its pluripotent stem cell stage) were first produced in 2006 from mouse cells and in 2007 from human cells. As of this month, safer methods of this technology have been discovered.

Why is this significant? "Scientists have demonstrated that they can reprogram ordinary human skin skills into pluripotent stems cells which will not cause tumors or rejection. There are several ethical stem cell research alternatives that already have successfully treated thousands of patients. By using adult sources of stem cells (including umbilical cord blood, amniotic fluid and placental sources) it has been possible to treat, and sometimes even cure, numerous maladies and pathologies, from spinal cord injury to cardiac disease, pediatric brain tumors to cerebral palsy, to the widely-known successes in blood diseases." -National Catholic Bioethic Center

I was very struck by two OpEd pieces today, one in the Washington Post and one in the L.A. Times, that discuss recent decisions by President Obama regarding embryonic stem cell research. Mr. Krauthammer (the author of the Washington Post piece) sat for five years on the President's Council for Bioethics which he explains "consisted of scientists, ethicists, theologians, philosophers, physicians -- and others (James Q. Wilson, Francis Fukuyama and me among them) of a secular bent not committed to one school or the other."

As a member of the council he had "long argued... that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics." He now, though, believes that the new executive orders have gone too far. What drives his reaction? I think it makes for an interesting read.


Okay, I must get to the library.... time to study biochemistry. If you'd like to know more about the Catholic Church's response to embryonic stem cell research, I can recommend a few resources:

Declaration of the Production and the Scientific and Theraputic Use of Embryonic Stem Cells
Practical Problems with Embryonic Stem Cells
Adult vs. Embryonic Stem Cells Educational Video

"If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough." -Dr. James Thomson, the pioneer of embryonic stem cells

Emmanuel's Gift

If you are going to rent/buy/watch one movie this year please consider this one...




Emmanuel's Gift.

I just watched it and am speechless.

Gift yourself the gift...


Also... regarding the last post (the one below)... I humbly ask for your prayers for this man. (Please pray especially on March 19th if you can.) Thank you.

"The ultimate measure of a man or woman is not where he or she stands in moments of comfort and convenience; It's where they stand in times of challenges and controversy." - Osagyefuo Amoatio Ofori (Akyem Abuakwa, Ghana)