Advancement in biotechnology

[Babyblue]

Sorry but I totally disagree. All these "Medical advances" have been around so long. It's all "medical advances" and I don't believe a word of it.

So far all things are tested on animals first then on humans and it doesnt always work on humans. Sometimes people get killed when it comes to human trials.

Actually animal testing actually delays research. Their are better ways if we would stop torturing animals in laboritories since it is just plain wrong.

This is not an animal testing debate.


This is speaking of the possibilities of future medicine. (regardless) of animal testing or not.

So please kindly keep your animal testing out of this thread, and create your own.

I am asking you kindly to not turn this thread into an animal debate thread.

 

[Babyblue]

I feel it will happen one day.

We have so much technology today, that one day we will have a cure for a lot of health related genetic illnesses, and others one day.

 

[kokonut]

Yes, kokonut, this is precisely what I have questions for on the rest of the users and discussions and opinions here on AD when it comes to animal testing regarding advancements in biomedical technology.

http://www.alldeaf.com/topic-debates/64130-should-we-use-experimental-drugs-prisoners.html

In this topic, you will see lots of varying opinions on not just animal, but various forms of human testing.

The way I see it, without animal testing at a small extent from somewhere, there's no possible way it can be done safely on humans unless the research team gets within that 0.00000001% lucky chance to know the right DNA sequence to replace for hearing loss. Its just impossible. Misson(s) Impossible 1, + 2, + 3, + 4 all combined even looks easier than this.

Though, perhaps an individual could argue that not everyone wants to be cured of deafness as well. You surely are aware of that minority too, am I not mistaken?

Not sure what you're getting at but this is about finding a way to "turn on" or even stimulate ear hair cells and regenerate new ear hair cells over the damaged ones.

 

[naisho]

Ah, what I'm getting at is the obstructions, protesting, and rallying against laboratory animal testing by the public, not only affects the research we are conducting; those who work on stem cell researching and germline therapy won't have a base to start from, won't we?
It's a rhetorical question steered towards those who despise animals being used as guinea pigs.

That's why I said, without animal testing in order to cure deafness, even Mission Impossible(s) look easier to do.

Then also we can argue that there are those who don't want to be cured of deafness, remember that family that wanted their child guaranteed deaf on birth?

 

[kokonut]

Ah, what I'm getting at is the obstructions, protesting, and rallying against laboratory animal testing by the public, not only affects the research we are conducting; those who work on stem cell researching and germline therapy won't have a base to start from, won't we?
It's a rhetorical question steered towards those who despise animals being used as guinea pigs.

That's why I said, without animal testing in order to cure deafness, even Mission Impossible(s) look easier to do.

Then also we can argue that there are those who don't want to be cured of deafness, remember that family that wanted their child guaranteed deaf on birth?

Ah, I see. Thanks. Animal testing is a necessary component in the field of medicine which is why you do all these testings before human trials can be done at a reasonable and and safe level. Else we wouldn't have the myriads of life saving and life improvement drugs or even gene therapies that are being used/done today. At any rate, reading these peer review journals covering research on improving/eradicating hearing loss I see things are beginning to move rapidly where we'll see human trials perhaps several years away from now.

Stem cells may help deaf people hear again, according to early stage research by British scientists reported in the journal Stem Cell. A team at the University of Sheffield has discovered how to turn stem cells into ones that behave like sensory hair cells or auditory neurons. It may be possible to surgically insert these into the ear to restore lost hearing.

The approach is being tested on animals but human trials are several years away.

The cells in the ear that detect sound are created only in the womb, which means that it is impossible to repair them once they have been damaged, resulting in permanent hearing loss.

Marcelo Rivolta, who led the study at the University of Sheffield, said: “The potential of stem cells is very exciting. We have now an experimental system to study genes and drugs in a human context. Moreover, these cells would help us to develop the technologies needed to deliver them into damaged tissues, such as the cochlea, in order to restore the different cell types. This should facilitate the development of a stem-cell treatment for deafness.”

April 2009 - BioEdge: Stem cells may help hearing loss