X-Message-Number: 18440
From: "Bryan Hall" <>
Subject: ACT claims to have made a kidney from stem cells
Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2002 23:31:13 -0800

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991855

US scientists claim to have grown functional kidneys using stem cells taken
from cloned cow embryos. Robert Lanza of biotech company Advanced Cell
Technology told New Scientist that his team, working in collaboration with a
group at Harvard University, coaxed the stem cells into becoming kidney
cells, and then "grew" them on a kidney-shaped scaffold.

The two-inch-long mini-kidneys were then transplanted back into genetically
identical cows, where they started making urine, Lanza says.

If confirmed, the work raises the prospect of using stem cells taken from
human patients with kidney failure to create new organs for transplant.

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