Australian First For Melbourne Stem Cell Scientists

Melbourne scientists have created Australia's first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines.Scientists from the Monash Institute of Medical Research (MIMR) have derived the cells from skin cells, and reprogrammed them to behave as embryonic stem cells; a breakthrough that will allow Australian scientists unlimited access to study a range of diseases.
Until now, Australian scientists have had to import human iPS cells from America or Japan.
Program leader, Dr Paul Verma, said the significance of developing iPS cells 'in-house' cannot be underestimated. "We now have the capability to investigate any human disease we wish, rather than relying on iPS cells from specific diseases that have been generated elsewhere."
"In addition, each iPS cell line generated from the same adult cells appears to be subtly different. We are keen to investigate these differences between iPS lines, which would be impossible to do if we had to rely on cells provided by other laboratories," Dr Verma said.
Dr Verma and his team are working with Professor Bernie Tuch from the Sydney Cell Therapy Foundation, and will now generate iPS cells from type 1 diabetes patients to help understand the disease and develop better drugs.
Creating iPS cells does not require donated excess IVF embryos or human eggs; therefore, no human embryos are destroyed in the process. However, Dr Verma said it is still too early to assume iPS cells are the preferable alternative to working with embryonic stem cells.
"While the iPS cells we have created appear in an identical manner to embryonic stem cells, iPS cell lines show great variability in their potential to produce mature cells. If, through our research, we can overcome this, iPS cells would certainly pose a great alternative to embryonic stem cells," he said.
Dr Verma's research is funded by a joint Victorian and NSW Government grant. The Victorian Minister for Innovation, Gavin Jennings, said that Dr Verma's creation of iPS cells will greatly assist Victorian researchers to progress their research into serious diseases, and to develop better treatments.
"Creating Australia's first iPS cell line is another example of how Victoria's world-leading stem cell research capabilities have the potential to improve our quality of life he said.

Octuplet Sunday

Peanuts on Sunday

Car One

OMG! Did Google Earth find Atlantis?

Is this Atlantis? Apparently not, according to those meanies at Google.


Google is officially denying widespread Internet rumors that its Google Earth software located the mythical sunken city of Atlantis off the coast of Africa. Either that, or Google is totally trying to hide something. Since I always appreciate a nice juicy conspiracy theory, I'm going to go with the latter.
From what it sounds like, a British aeronautical engineer was playing around with the new Google Earth 5.0, which includes undersea data, and noticed something funny off the coast of Africa, about 600 miles west of the Canary Islands, that resembled a pattern of a street grid. According to the United Kingdom's Press Association, the pattern of streets equated to an area the size of Wales.
In case you've had more important things to read about for the past few thousand years, Atlantis was a legendary island city first mentioned by Plato, allegedly a hard-core naval power located somewhere near North Africa that disappeared when it sank into the ocean. Guess global warming was a problem back then, too.
Anyway, most people think that Plato made it up, kind of like how those guys in Georgia made up the story about shooting Bigfoot, but others just won't stop believin'.
So this guy is trawling the ocean floor with Google Earth--ah, if only we had that kind of free time on our hands--and was quick to announce his discovery. It looks like The Telegraph reported the story first, adding that the exact coordinates are 31 15'15.53N, 24 15'30.53W.
Recently, Google's mapping products have revealed everything from a creepy dude walking around with a sniper rifle to what appear to be U.S. drones in Pakistan.
But when it comes to Atlantis, Google totally had to rain on everyone's parade. "It's true that many amazing discoveries have been made in Google Earth, including a pristine forest in Mozambique that is home to previously unknown species and the remains of an ancient Roman villa," a statement from Google read. "In this case, however, what users are seeing is an artifact of the data collection process. Bathymetric (or sea floor terrain) data is often collected from boats using sonar to take measurements of the sea floor. The lines reflect the path of the boat as it gathers the data."
I smell a cover-up!
In other news, that pendulum map on last week's "Lost" was totally awesome.
by Caroline McCarthy

Mommas Today

Medicine Class

At school little Johnny's class is learning about medicines. Sister Catherine, the teacher, asks the pupils what kind of medicines they know and what they are used for.

The first pupil said: 'Tylenol?'

'Very good! And what is it used for?'

'It is used for a headache.'

The second pupil said: 'Nytol.'

'Excellent!' said Sister Catherine. 'And what it is used for?'

'To help you sleep', replied the student.

Now it is Johnny's turn and he said: 'Viagra.'

'And what is it used for, Johnny?' asked the surprised Sister Catherine.

'It is used for diarrhea..'

'And who told you this, Johnny?'

'Nobody, but every evening my mother tells my father 'take a Viagra, and maybe that shit will get harder.''

Sister Catherine fainted.