Remember cryonics, the idea that you could hit pause on human life? This relies on the super-cold power of liquid nitrogen or some other ultra-freezing method.
Apparently cryonics is still a thing and there are people with even just their heads frozen. A new story claims a different way to hit the pause button on “human life”. Unfortunately, the news story and its headline have some issues.
Diapause as a way to hit pause on human life
Here’s the story: Scientists Have Figured Out How to Hit the ‘Pause Button’ on Human Life, Prevention via AOL. Here’s the source Cell paper: mTOR activity paces human blastocyst stage developmental progression. The research paper itself seems solid and interesting to me, but the Prevention piece not so much. The science is about diapause, which is a cool phenomenon. One issue with it is that human embryos are not seen as actual human life by most people.
Yes, some people view fertilization as the start of human life (and I expect a comment on this post from one of them I know), but I believe news articles should be more precise and not make such assumptions.
When most readers take in that headline, they are going to think perhaps about cryonics or some other way for actual people to go into suspended animation. They won’t be bringing to mind the microscopic balls of cells that are human embryos.
What is diapause? It’s a phenomenon where organismal development temporarily stops and is on hold.
I wish we could hit pause on human life for kids or adults in certain situations like for those facing potentially fatal health crises. Maybe diapause research could be one key element on the path in that direction. What if cryonics was shown to work and we could then bring people back in healthy form? But for you sci-fi nerds out there like me, would we end up shouting “Khan!” like Captain Kirk at some point?
More recommended reads
- Speaking of pauses: Temporary Pause for New Applications, CIRM. CIRM will pause most grant applications. “To ensure future applications align with the updated SAF priorities, CIRM is implementing a temporary pause on accepting applications. This pause applies to all programs, except for DISC0, which will accept new applications through the deadline of February 6, 2025.”
- UC Merced Announces New Facility Will Expand Groundbreaking Stem Cell Research, Sierra Sun Times.
- 23andMe is on the brink. What happens to all its DNA data? NPR. Like millions of other people, I did 23andMe years ago. The uncertainty about all of our data is pretty unsettling.
- They Were Made Without Eggs or Sperm. Are They Human? The Atlantic. This piece from Kristen V. Brown covers human embryo models including work by Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Jacob Hanna. I wonder if these two researchers are getting along these days. There’s been some tension between the two related to credit for human embryo model research. I first wrote about embryo model research from her lab in 2007. Years ago Hanna seemed to have had a skirmish with one of his own past mentors, Rudy Jaenisch too.
- Her Face Was Unrecognizable After an Explosion. A Placenta Restored It, The New York Times. Placental material can act like a reparative sheet and be very helpful for healing in some cases. Keep in mind that this story is not about placental cell preparations, which are tissue drugs. The FDA has not approved any placental cell therapy but they are widely offered by unproven clinics anyway.
- Effective regulatory responses to predatory stem cell markets in Australia and Canada, Cell Stem Cell. Maybe the U.S. can do a more effective job too in coming years.
Blast from the past: 10 years ago on Duke & autism EAP
Duke Launches Large, Debated Stem Cells for Autism Trial. This was a post I did a decade ago. The trial was unsuccessful but as best as I can tell the Duke team kept infusing many autistic kids, perhaps hundreds, through their EAP even after they had the discouraging data.
Stay tuned for more on this still-active Duke EAP, which is “treating” (they say) kids with other neurological conditions with cord blood material. It’s unproven but expensive.
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- Source: https://ipscell.com/2024/10/weekly-reads-hit-pause-on-human-life-cirm-pause-23andme-data-blast-from-the-past/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=weekly-reads-hit-pause-on-human-life-cirm-pause-23andme-data-blast-from-the-past