These cells from the marrow can be cultured and if necessary
implanted into animals given anti rejectiond drugs . They can lead to
a cure of nearly all conditions
New Scientist Premium- India special: Sight for sore eyes ...... An
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www.newscientist.com/special/india/mg18524877.100 - 26k - 7 Mar 2005 -
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At least 220 patients had received BioMark injections, she said.

The therapy, as advertised, was simple: an injection of 1.5 million
stem cells in the abdomen. Everybody got the same type of cells,
regardless of their disease.

"Once in the body, cells migrate to the site of the disease and begin
producing the needed cells," explained a BioMark information packet.

BioMark cells, Brown told patients, were free from the "right-to-life
issues" slowing the development of stem cell cures in the U.S. The
cells did not come from embryos, but from blood harvested from
umbilical cords after childbirth.

One BioMark brochure carried a disclaimer that the treatment was not
approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

But some patients saw that as a badge of honor. Someone was working to
help them, even if that help ran afoul of the government.

It infuriated Tom that politics had trumped science.

"People suffering from disease are told they have to wait for their
cures," he wrote in a letter to his U.S. senators. "Many of these
patients do not have time to wait and a research delay could be a
death sentence."

Tom created a website to protest the federal restrictions. After 25
years as a Republican, he renounced his party membership.

He told Valerie about BioMark and instructed her not to tell his
doctors.

She didn't know what to make of all this. She had never heard of
anyone being cured of ALS, and she gingerly questioned his plan.

Tom stabbed at the keys on his voice synthesizer. An electronic retort
pulsed back at her: "I've done a lot of research."

He felt sure: This was science.

A DISCOVERY WITH GREAT PROMISE

It began 50 years ago with the discovery of an odd lump on the scrotum
of a lab mouse.

Researchers at the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, were
investigating whether cigarette paper could cause cancer. One lab
mouse had an unusual tumor.

Most tumors are made up of one type of tissue that grows out of
control. But this one was a grotesque clump of budding muscle, bone,
nerves and fat.

It was biology gone haywire.

After many experiments, the scientists found a smattering of
unfamiliar cells mixed in this mad stew of life.

These tumor cells, they surmised, were transforming into other tissue
types.

The cells gave scientists a chance to look at one of the most
mysterious processes of life.

All the complexity of the human body ? hearts, lungs, brains, limbs ?
starts from a single fertilized egg. As it divides, an unknown set of
biochemical signals tells the multiplying cells to differentiate into
the diverse tissues of the body.

When the cells are primitive, they have the ability to become any
tissue ? "pluripotent" in medical terminology.

The mouse tumors offered a crude glimpse of these "stem cells" and
their power to transform.

It would be decades before researchers possessed the technology to
find them in embryos.

In 1981, scientists isolated embryonic stem cells in mice and
successfully grew them into a kind of suspended animation in which the
cells would indefinitely divide but not differentiate.

They later found that slight chemical changes could make the cells
suddenly transform into a mishmash of tissue.

It took 17 more years before researchers at the University of
Wisconsin isolated the cells from days-old human embryos.

The floodgates of medical fantasy were thrown open.

If scientists could decode the complex series of biochemical signals
used to command the cells, they could create any type of tissue.

Doctors could grow new nerve fibers to patch a severed spine. They
could make new organs to replace damaged ones without fear of tissue
rejections. They could grow brain cells to help patients with
Alzheimer's disease.

Science has made some progress.

At the National Institutes of Health, mouse embryonic stem cells were
transformed into neurons that made the brain chemical dopamine. The
new cells were used to treat symptoms of Parkinson's disease in rats.