Another boost for adult stem cells

Nobel-winning stem-cell work helps curtail embryonic research

A combination photo shows Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka of Japan in April 2009 and John Gurdon of Britain in London Oct. 8, 2012. CNS photo / Kyodo and Suzanne Plunkett, handout via Reuters.

This Catholic News Agency story reports that moral theologian Father Thomas Berg is praising the work of Shinya Yamanaka, the winner of this year's Nobel Prize in medicine, for helping to "put human embryonic stem-cell research largely out of business."

Yamanaka and John B. Gurdon, researchers in cell biology, were awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries about the generation of stem cells.

"Yamanaka will be remembered in history as the man who put human embryonic stem-cell research largely out of business, motivated by reflection on the fact that his own daughters were once human embryos," Father Berg, a professor of moral theology at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., told CNA Oct. 8.

The Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Community announced that this "is an important milestone in recognizing the key role that non-embryonic stem cells play in the development of new medical therapies, as alternatives to human embryonic stem cells."

For full story see The B.C. Catholic website.