Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Tulane Stem Cell Scientist Coming to Texas

From the Temple, Texas news, we hear that the "brain drain" is gaining Texas another adult stem cell pioneer.

Read about Dr. Darwin Prockop's move to Texas and his research in adult stem cells, here.

He will serve as inaugural holder of the Stearman Chair in Genomic Medicine, professor of molecular and cellular medicine in the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Scott & White.

Everyone has stem cells, which are “generic” cells that can make exact copies of themselves indefinitely. In addition, a stem cell has the ability to produce specialized cells for various tissues in the body - such as heart muscle, brain tissue.

“There are still some mysteries about stem cells, but many people are now using the cells to treat almost any disease you can name - arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, stokes, kidney diseases,” Prockop said.

Why stems cells do what they do is a puzzle, he said.

“Our ideas have changed,” Prockop said. “It seems as though we are tapping into cells that are there to repair any tissue in the body.”

1 comment:

Suricou Raven said...

Completly unrelated, but I would like to here your views on a line of thinking at my own blog which I think may have interesting interactions with your views on abortion:

http://moronality.blogspot.com/2008/02/one-for-lifeethics.html