Autism

The U.S. government has a webpage that supplies information intended to educate and provide useful information to those interested in autism. The webpage links to this which lists organizations that can be helpful.

Insulin from Adult Stem Cells

Some promising news from an article entitled: Adult stem cells from human cord umbilical cord blood successfully engineered to make insulin, at Eureka Alert. From the article:

"GALVESTON, Texas -- In a fundamental discovery that someday may help cure type 1 diabetes by allowing people to grow their own insulin-producing cells for a damaged or defective pancreas, medical researchers here have reported that they have engineered adult stem cells derived from human umbilical cord blood to produce insulin.

The researchers announced their laboratory finding, which caps nearly four years of research, in the June 2007 issue of the medical journal Cell Proliferation, posted online this week. Their paper calls it "the first demonstration that human umbilical cord blood-derived stem cells can be engineered" to synthesize insulin"

Note that the article refers to adult stem cells from an umbilical cord. It may become standard procedure some day to preserve cells from a baby's umbilical cord for their medical value when that baby matures.