Via Slashdot and Good Morning Silicon Valley, South Korean scientists have made a major breakthrough by deriving stem cells from cloned embryos of patients with spinal cord injuries. Stem cell research debate aside, this is a remarkable development:
Researchers must test the cells in animals before they can try the therapy in humans. But embryonic stem-cell researchers were shocked and delighted by the advance, which many had referred to as a distant possibility until they saw this study by Woo Suk Hwang and his colleagues at Seoul National University, which appears in the May 20 issue of Science.
This research offers new hope for sufferers of spinal-cord injuries. Of course, this type of research is illegal much-debated in the United States, Canada and many other Western nations.