Of course adult stem cells were first discovered about forty years ago. All progress in curing humanity's many ailments is wonderful. Adult stem cells have great promise and have already given cures. ESC is only a few years old, less than ten. When both contestants have had an equal chance, we will see what great advances can be made. The almost joyful report of 'no results' for embryonic stem cells is not likely the be very satisfying in the end. Religious leaders and others who have demanded that ESC be abandoned and all the money spent on adult stem cells stand a great chance of playing the fool. We own it to ourselves to find out how embryonic stem cells function, what diseases they cause and what possible cures they can assist with.
Tags: ESC, Adult Stem Cells, Embryonic Stem Cells
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Your notion that a just comparison of effectiveness between ASCR and ESCR requires a comparable time frame is a fair point. However, your claim that the time ratio is 4:1 is dubious.
As you note, adult stem cell work has been going on for more than 40 years. The presence of self-renewing cells in the bone marrow of mice was discovered in the early '60's and stem cells were confirmed to exist (in cancer) in humans shortly thereafter. Within 5 years, the first successful therapy was developed via bone marrow transplant.
Mouse embryonic stem cells were discovered more than 25 years ago. What happened a decade ago was not the discovery of embryonic stem cells, but the Thomson team at Wisconsin being able to successfully isolate and grow embryonic stem cells (create a line).
Either way, ESCR has failed the time to first therapy challenge. And with significant (worldwide) resources available to it.
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