From: LEF Email List1 [mailto:nsantini@directnet1.net]
Sent: Monday, May 01, 2000 5:59 AM
Subject: Cloning Breakthrough Detailed On Life Extension Web Site
LEF Email List1 - http://www.lef.org
For Immediate Release:
Contact: Mike Freedman, Life Extension Foundation
(954) 561-7933 Ext. 10 or mike@lef.org
(Ft. Lauderdale, FL) The Life Extension Foundation has just posted an
exclusive interview on its comprehensive web site for health-related
information ( http://www.lef.org ). The interview, with Dr. Michael
West, the President and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), focuses on
a major breakthrough in cloning research that could sweep away today's
problems of organ rejection, limited organ and tissue supply, and gene
therapy, paving the way for cures to such diseases as Parkinson's disease,
diabetes, sickle cell anemia, muscular dystrophy, organ failure, and
perhaps aging itself.
The breakthrough involves the ability to grow biologically super-young
cells of any kind desired from skin cells that are so old as to be on the
brink of death. This is projected to allow even very old individuals to
donate a skin cell or a cell scraped from the inside of the cheek, and to
have a single such aged cell give rise to super-youthful replacement
cells, tissues, and organs. Certain of these cells could be injected into
the older donor, and would distribute themselves throughout the body,
seeking out physiological weakness and correcting it by replacing dead or
defective cells with new, youthful ones that are immune from rejection.
The work, being published in tomorrow's issue of Science, is the latest
and perhaps the most sweeping breakthrough in cloning and embryonic stem
cell research, a field so promising that it was endorsed by 67 Nobel
Laureates and several other prominent scientists in a letter published in
Science last year, urging Congress not to block developments in this field
over misconceptions involving xeroxing humans for spare parts, the science
fiction version of how cloning would be used.
As Dr. West explains in his interview on the Life Extension Foundation web
site today at
http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/apr2000_clon_01.html , he doesn't
envision growing new human beings to scavenge for body parts. Instead,
the process involves growing embryonic cells only to a point at which they
acquire total power to become any other kind of cell or tissue, and never
allowing them to move on to form any individuality. Essentially a
cellular dot smaller than the period at the end of this sentence would be
used to grow mature tissue replacements directly in a laboratory.
The new research published in Science, according to Dr. West, rewinds the
cellular aging clock "in the same way that a key can be used to wind an
old antique clock." The new work therefore corrects the major defect of
the cloning method used to create Dolly the cloned sheep, the first mammal
cloned from adult cells. Unfortunately for Dolly, in inheriting the genes
from her predecessor, she also inherited the biological age of her
predecessor. The six new cloned cows made in ACT's labs, however, are
actually biologically younger than ordinary cows of the same age, even
though they were created from cells that were at death's door.
The Life Extension Foundation's interview with Dr. West is the most
thorough examination of this breakthrough and its implications for
medicine now available. The Foundation's web site - http://www.lef.org -
is the world's best and most extensive source of comprehensive information
about how to stay healthy and young as long as possible. Its new 945-page
book, "Disease Prevention and Treatment Protocols, features advanced
therapies to prevent and treat age-related diseases. Information on the
book is available at http://www.lef.org/books-media/dispreprot.html The
protocols in this book are available free of charge on the Foundation's
web site at http://www.lef.org/protocols/
For more information, contact Mike Freedman at 954-561-7933, extension 10
or email mike@lef.org
Dr. West can be reached directly at ACT at 508-756-1212. For a general
source of information about ACT, call Renee Connolly at 212-696-4455,
extension 227.
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