This story in the Korean times makes the claim that Korean researchers have demonstrated the ability of this patient to walk as a result of umbilical cord blood derived stem cells. The story is being trumpeted everywhere as the ‘research Reeve was pushing for, if only society would have allowed it to go forward’, but in fact the most likely spin of this report – if it even turns out to be real and replicable – will be that the embryo-derived stem cells Reeve lobbied for aren’t what he needed. Which may or may not be true, but either way it is annoying because the power of adult cells to heal cannot be fully explored without continuing research on embryos at least for a few more years.
Labels: Korea, stem cell therapy, umbilical stem cells