Monday, February 16, 2009

Reprogramming Virus'... I've heard that story before

Last week I was listening to NPR and heard an interview regarding stem cells and the ability to attack tumors using stem cells and a reprogrammed herpes virus. This immediately caught my attention and made me wonder. I heard something like that before....The first couple minutes of "I Am Legend".
From Movie/Music clips

I'm all in favor of science and new discoveries, but I sure hope appropriate steps are taken to test things out without causing a major catastrophe such as in my favorite horror movie.
Here are some links to related articles:
Link 1
Link 2
I'm no doctor, and don't understand the details, but the similarities kind of freak me out. "If anybody is out there..." (who is a geneticist, virologist, stem cell researcher) would you please calm my nerves a little regarding the use of virus' to deliver DNA to stem cells and how the introduction of these stem cells in humans affect or potentially could affect the person taking these stem cells, in layman's terms please?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dude, that movie totally freaked me out because it seemed too possible. I can stand most horror movies about dolls or boogey men, but the horror of possible situations like "I am Legend" stay with me and totally stress me out during the movie. I even remember "Red Dawn" and how that freaked me out as a kid...and still does.
DD