Advances in this field are happening so frequently, I think potentially we could dedicate a section just to cloning.

“This paper documents for the first time an important new paradigm — that cloned cells are not only immune compatible, but that they are more youthful, and potentially of far greater therapeutic value,” said leading author Dr. Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass.

“People tend to think of cloning as a way to create genetically matched cells,” Lanza told United Press International, “but an important aspect of this technology that gets overlooked is that it might be able to take decrepit cells and restore them back to a youthful state.”

In the study, Lanza and researchers from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Pennsylvania used older cows equivalent to an 80-year-old person. Cows were used because their immune systems function more closely to human immune systems than other research animals, Lanza said.

“We gave the animals less than a tablespoon of cloned stem cells, and half a year later up to 60 percent of the progenitor cells in the blood of the animals” originated from the transplanted cells, Lanza said.

In addition, the team found 10 times more cells than would be expected from a transplant of normal adult stem cells, he said.

Frankly, it’s encouraging to see American researchers continuing to work their professional butts off — in the face of a government with a Dark Ages mentality.