While The Federal Parliament Continues to Agonise About Permitting Embryonic Stem Cell Research, the World Marches On. (June 22, 2006)

    Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have succeeded in getting transplanted nerve cells to establish connections with other neurons to improve movement in paralysed rats. ScienceNow reports the success is thanks to neurons cultivated from embryonic stem cells and the right "cocktail" of ingredients to guide cell development.

The researchers cultivated rat embyronic stem cells in a dish until they developed into neural precursors. The researchers then injected 60,000 of the cells into the spinal columns of rats that had been paralysed by the injection of a virus.

A number of different regimes were followed until the team led by neurologist Douglas Kerr succeeded in getting the injected cells to 'take', and less than 1% made it out of the spinal column. Only a few hundred of the original 60,000 eventually made it all the way to form new neuromuscular junctions, but "that was enough to bring about partial but significant recovery of function in 11 of 15 rats in the group with the winning [regime], the scientists report in a paper published online in Neurology on 26 June. The scientists now plan to try the experiment using pigs, injecting them with neural precursors developed from human embryonic stem cells."

University of Wisconsin stem cell researcher Clive Svendsen told ScienceNow,  "It's really stimulated everybody in the field." He says the success of the experiment underscores the importance of having human embryonic stem cells available for research. "Of all the stem cells it's really only the embryonic stem cells that can make motor neurons."

To prevent leading Australian researchers from being able to contribute to furthering such research really would appear to neglect parliamentary responsibility to further the well being of the citizens to whom it is accountable.