July 15, 1987 |
In the first operation of its kind in California, surgeons at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center have implanted adrenal gland tissues into the brain of a 43-year-old man with Parkinson's disease, it was announced Tuesday. The patient, a former Los Angeles carpet layer, is at least the 46th Parkinson's victim in the world to undergo the experimental surgery and the 11th in the United States. The first U.S. patient underwent the test procedure on April 9 at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
December 15, 1988 |
A National Institutes of Health advisory committee recommended Wednesday that the organization lift its nine-month ban on federal funds for fetal tissue research. The committee unanimously accepted a report that said the research using fetal tissue from voluntarily induced abortions is morally acceptable in light of the legality of abortion and the possible medical benefits that such research may bring.
August 13, 2000 |
Reviving a debate over how society should treat the earliest stages of human life, the National Institutes of Health is close to authorizing a plan to fund medical research that relies on the destruction of human embryos. The NIH plan, in the works for more than a year, would clear the way for the first public funding of potentially groundbreaking research on embryo "stem cells," which scientists first isolated only 21 months ago.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
August 20, 1990 |
An experimental transplant operation designed to free diabetics from insulin injections has produced the most promising results since the technique was developed, researchers reported last week. The procedure enabled five of nine patients to significantly reduce their need for daily insulin injections, including one 16-year-old Louisville, Ky., girl who has remained completely independent of injections for more than six months, the researchers reported. "I'm completely excited," said Dr.
November 21, 1988 |
Twelve days ago Curt Freed, a neurobiologist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, led a team that implanted brain cells from an aborted fetus into the brain of a 52-year-old victim of Parkinson's disease in hopes of improving the man's condition. It was the first time this operation was performed in the United States.
March 10, 1993
In operations that doctors at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center say were the first of their kind, a device that employs the cells of a miniature pig to act as a temporary liver was used on two dying patients while they awaited human liver transplants. Both Cedars-Sinai patients, a 36-year-old woman and a 10-year-old boy, are doing well after the transplants, according to Dr. Achilles A. Demetriou, the physician who developed the device. The procedures were done within the past two weeks.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
January 20, 1992 |
Scientists have used genetic engineering techniques to produce cells that can sense the concentration of sugar in the blood and release insulin in response, mimicking cells in the pancreas. Researchers hope that the cells can eventually be transplanted into diabetics to cure the disease, but major kinks have to be ironed out first.
July 3, 2001 |
Republican House leaders urged the Bush administration to uphold a ban on embryonic stem cell research and block any federal funding of projects that use such cells. The lawmakers oppose federal support of the research because human embryos are destroyed to extract stem cells--master cells that can be grown into virtually any tissue in the human body.
November 12, 1988 |
The first patient to undergo a brain-to-brain transplant in the United States was discharged from the hospital Friday as scientists called the decision to perform the surgery with cells from an aborted fetus "courageous." The 52-year-old Parkinson's disease patient was released from the University of Colorado Health Science Center two days after surgeons had implanted cells from the brain of the aborted fetus into his brain. "He's doing well," said Dr.
September 17, 1988 |
A federal advisory panel Friday declared as acceptable the use of human fetal tissue obtained from legal abortions and recommended that such research continue. The committee refused to take a position on the "morality of abortion in general or the various and diverse circumstances under which it occurs." But it said it recognized "the deep moral issues involved" and called for the development of research safeguards "respecting the principled viewpoints of all affected parties."