<no subject>

[Guest guest]

Rosemary Lee has recommended that you read an article from The Scientist,

th=

e News Journal for the Life Scientist=2E

Please read the article from The Scientist at:

http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom/yr2002/apr/profile=5F020401=2Ehtml=2E

-----------------------------------------------------

The Scientist web site at http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom

is free to all readers=2E It contains a complete archive

of articles from The Scientist, including news, reviews,

opinions, research, and profession news for life scientists

and all those interested in the life sciences=2E

The Scientist web site is free, but requires a simple

one-time registration before you can read individual

articles=2E

[Guest guest]

Rosemary,

I can`t open this link.

<no subject>

> Rosemary Lee has recommended that you read an article from The Scientist,

> th=

> e News Journal for the Life Scientist=2E

>

> Please read the article from The Scientist at:

> http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom/yr2002/apr/profile=5F020401=2Ehtml=2E

>

>

> -----------------------------------------------------

> The Scientist web site at http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom

> is free to all readers=2E It contains a complete archive

> of articles from The Scientist, including news, reviews,

> opinions, research, and profession news for life scientists

> and all those interested in the life sciences=2E

>

> The Scientist web site is free, but requires a simple

> one-time registration before you can read individual

> articles=2E

>

>

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

I can't open it either

<no subject>> Rosemary Lee has recommended that you read an article from The Scientist,> th=> e News Journal for the Life Scientist=2E>> Please read the article from The Scientist at:> http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom/yr2002/apr/profile=5F020401=2Ehtml=2E>>> -----------------------------------------------------> The Scientist web site at http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom> is free to all readers=2E It contains a complete archive> of articles from The Scientist, including news, reviews,> opinions, research, and profession news for life scientists> and all those interested in the life sciences=2E>> The Scientist web site is free, but requires a simple> one-time registration before you can read individual> articles=2E>>>>>>

[Guest guest]

I can't open it either

<no subject>> Rosemary Lee has recommended that you read an article from The Scientist,> th=> e News Journal for the Life Scientist=2E>> Please read the article from The Scientist at:> http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom/yr2002/apr/profile=5F020401=2Ehtml=2E>>> -----------------------------------------------------> The Scientist web site at http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom> is free to all readers=2E It contains a complete archive> of articles from The Scientist, including news, reviews,> opinions, research, and profession news for life scientists> and all those interested in the life sciences=2E>> The Scientist web site is free, but requires a simple> one-time registration before you can read individual> articles=2E>>>>>>

[Guest guest]

I couldn't open the link either..........

Bruno Tamassia wrote:

> Rosemary,

>

> I can`t open this link.

>

> <no subject>

>

> > Rosemary Lee has recommended that you read an article from The Scientist,

> > th=

> > e News Journal for the Life Scientist=2E

> >

> > Please read the article from The Scientist at:

> > http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom/yr2002/apr/profile=5F020401=2Ehtml=2E

> >

> >

> > -----------------------------------------------------

> > The Scientist web site at http://www=2Ethe-scientist=2Ecom

> > is free to all readers=2E It contains a complete archive

> > of articles from The Scientist, including news, reviews,

> > opinions, research, and profession news for life scientists

> > and all those interested in the life sciences=2E

> >

> > The Scientist web site is free, but requires a simple

> > one-time registration before you can read individual

> > articles=2E

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

I had a similar experience, Pete. I had bad headaches in July and all I wanted was something to kill the pain, but it was midnight and we went to the emergency room at our local county hospital. Sheesh, big mistake. I told them I had tumors and they insisted on doing a CT scan and they were flabbergasted after they saw it. "Wow, you have brain tumors." Doh. I got home FINALLY at 6:30 am and was able to sleep for a whopping 45 mins before the pain hit again. WASTE of time!!! Thank goodness for the pain clinic! No hassles, just good drugs.

na

-----Original Message-----From: Brayman Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 1:05 PMTo: NF2_Crew Subject: RE: <no subject>

,

I think you are right.. if we had one famous person with NF2, we'd suddenly be in the spotlight. The closest we have that I'm aware of is Gillian (X-Files)'s brother has NF1 I beleive.

I had to go to the ER last week, and it literally freaked the doctors out, they did a Head-CT and saw I have a head full of tumors and they were like stunned and ready to ship me off in a Helicopter for Emergency Surgery LOL

Pete

-----Original Message-----From: & Larry Orr Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 1:56 PMTo: NF2_Crew Subject: Re: <no subject>

Are screams are not loud enough!!!!! I find myself always educating someone about NF2. Today at pre-testing, the nurse never heard of NF. I gave her a lil' pamphlet I had on it.

I think if there was a face to put with this disease/disorder it would help. Look what J. Fox has done for Parkinsons and Reeves with spinal injury. We need the face. hmmmmm hmmmmm Ok Jimmy now is your time to do stand up comic.

Love and Blessings,

<no subject>

OK, DUMB QUESTION, WHY ISN'T anybody doing anything with stem-cells andNf2? Custom-Tailored Cellular Therapies for Genetic IllsSource: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research03/11/2002 While the promise of nuclear transplantation therapy, commonly referred toas "therapeutic cloning," has given hope to patients such as Reeve and excited the research community and the public, it has never beensuccessfully demonstrated.Now, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research haveused a mouse model to establish for the first time that a combination ofnuclear transplantation, gene therapy and embryonic stem celldifferentiation can be used to create custom-tailored cellular therapies forgenetic disorders.The work is a result of a collaboration between Whitehead Member RudolfJaenisch's lab and Whitehead Fellow Daley's lab and have beenpublished as two companion papers on the website of the journal Cell onFriday, March 8, 2002.The Whitehead researchers joined forces to work on a problem that until nowhas proven difficult to overcome. Scientists have been able to use nucleartransfer to create embryonic stem cells and differentiate them in culture tocreate many different cell types, including muscle, neurons, andhematopoietic stem cells, which are the precursors to all immune and bloodcells.But they have never shown that the cells created in culture could bereintroduced into an animal to treat a disease.Combining their independent research interests, the Jaenisch and Daley labsused skin cells from a mouse that was completely immune deficient to createa cellular therapy that was able to partially restore immune function in themouse."Though the immune system wasn't completely restored, there was enoughimprovement to predict that a comparable result in humans would translateinto a significant clinical benefit," says Daley."This is a proof-of-principle experiment which shows that nucleartransplantation therapy may be possible for human application. Furthermore,it shows that gene therapy can be incorporated into the approach to correctgenetic mutations in defective cells without affecting the germ line," addedJaenisch.Postdoctoral fellow Rideout and graduate student KonradHochedlinger, both of the Jaenisch lab, used the nuclear transfer procedureto remove the nucleus, which contains the DNA of a cell, from an egg andreplace it with the nucleus from a skin cell of an adult mouse with agenetic immune deficiency.In this procedure, the egg resets the developmental clock of the adultnucleus and the reprogrammed cell starts developing into an embryo that isgenetically identical to the donor cell.At the stage when the embryo develops into a hollow ball of approximately ahundred cells, called a blastocyst, it contains a nub composed of embryonicstem (ES) cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body.The ES cells from the blastocyst were isolated and the genetic defectcausing the immune deficiency was corrected by gene therapy.These corrected embryonic stem cells, however, couldn't be successfullytransplanted into the adult mouse to treat the immune disorder. For somereason, adult mice reject transplants of blood cell precursors derived fromembryonic stem cells in culture."While embryonic stem cells could be induced to form hematopoietic cells inculture, these cells wouldn't reliably generate the blood and immune systemwhen transplanted into mice. For the last 15 years, engrafting mice withblood derived from embryonic stem cells has been the Holy Grail of thefield," explained Daley. Kyba, a postdoctoral fellow in the Daley lab, found a way to achievethis goal by inserting a gene called HoxB4 that stimulates blood cellproliferation. The HoxB4 modified cells generated hematopoietic stem cellprecursors that could be successfully transplanted into adult mice.With this newfound ability, the researchers applied the same strategy to thegenetically corrected embryonic stem cells made from the immunodeficientmouse. Remarkably, these genetically corrected cells were able to partiallyrescue the immune systems of mice suffering from complete immune deficiency.In principle, this approach might be useful some day for treating humanpatients with immune deficiency ("bubble boy disease") or be applied to ahost of other genetic diseases that can be corrected by celltransplantation. Embryonic stem cells can form any tissue in the body,including neurons, muscle cells of the heart, and pancreatic beta cells,which produce insulin.In addition to the potential broad range of use, nuclear transplantationtherapy to create embryonic stem cells has many benefits -- the creation ofcells that are genetically matched to the patient, the repair of geneticdefects within cells to treat or cure inherited diseases, and thepossibility of growing embryonic stem cells in culture for continued therapyas needed."Before the potential of nuclear transplantation therapy can be realized,much more research about the basic biology of stem cells has to be done,"says Daley.Unexpectedly, the researchers confronted interesting biological principles,which appear to be related to a fundamental difference between adults cellsand cells derived from embryonic stem cells, even when the two types ofcells are genetically identical."While these results show nuclear transplantation therapy can work inprinciple, there are technical issues that we are working on now," explainedJaenisch.The work from the Daley lab was supported by grants from the NIH, theNational Science Foundation, MIT Biotechnology Process Engineering Center,the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta HeritageFoundation for Medical Research.The work from the Jaenisch lab was supported by Boehringer Ingelheim Fondsand the National Cancer Institute.

[Guest guest]

this is so true I even have to spell it for the nurses and over and over and over again explain to them what it is or what it does oh God those nights Mike would start that uncontrollable vomiting and I'd have to go to the ER and try to explain it all to them ...

We need to get the word out people look at me with a blank look on their faces when I tell them about NF But if you mention other Illnesses EVERY ONE knows exactly what they are ... We should definitely work on this ...Lois

<no subject>

OK, DUMB QUESTION, WHY ISN'T anybody doing anything with stem-cells andNf2? Custom-Tailored Cellular Therapies for Genetic IllsSource: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research03/11/2002 While the promise of nuclear transplantation therapy, commonly referred toas "therapeutic cloning," has given hope to patients such as Reeve and excited the research community and the public, it has never beensuccessfully demonstrated.Now, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research haveused a mouse model to establish for the first time that a combination ofnuclear transplantation, gene therapy and embryonic stem celldifferentiation can be used to create custom-tailored cellular therapies forgenetic disorders.The work is a result of a collaboration between Whitehead Member RudolfJaenisch's lab and Whitehead Fellow Daley's lab and have beenpublished as two companion papers on the website of the journal Cell onFriday, March 8, 2002.The Whitehead researchers joined forces to work on a problem that until nowhas proven difficult to overcome. Scientists have been able to use nucleartransfer to create embryonic stem cells and differentiate them in culture tocreate many different cell types, including muscle, neurons, andhematopoietic stem cells, which are the precursors to all immune and bloodcells.But they have never shown that the cells created in culture could bereintroduced into an animal to treat a disease.Combining their independent research interests, the Jaenisch and Daley labsused skin cells from a mouse that was completely immune deficient to createa cellular therapy that was able to partially restore immune function in themouse."Though the immune system wasn't completely restored, there was enoughimprovement to predict that a comparable result in humans would translateinto a significant clinical benefit," says Daley."This is a proof-of-principle experiment which shows that nucleartransplantation therapy may be possible for human application. Furthermore,it shows that gene therapy can be incorporated into the approach to correctgenetic mutations in defective cells without affecting the germ line," addedJaenisch.Postdoctoral fellow Rideout and graduate student KonradHochedlinger, both of the Jaenisch lab, used the nuclear transfer procedureto remove the nucleus, which contains the DNA of a cell, from an egg andreplace it with the nucleus from a skin cell of an adult mouse with agenetic immune deficiency.In this procedure, the egg resets the developmental clock of the adultnucleus and the reprogrammed cell starts developing into an embryo that isgenetically identical to the donor cell.At the stage when the embryo develops into a hollow ball of approximately ahundred cells, called a blastocyst, it contains a nub composed of embryonicstem (ES) cells that have the potential to become any cell in the body.The ES cells from the blastocyst were isolated and the genetic defectcausing the immune deficiency was corrected by gene therapy.These corrected embryonic stem cells, however, couldn't be successfullytransplanted into the adult mouse to treat the immune disorder. For somereason, adult mice reject transplants of blood cell precursors derived fromembryonic stem cells in culture."While embryonic stem cells could be induced to form hematopoietic cells inculture, these cells wouldn't reliably generate the blood and immune systemwhen transplanted into mice. For the last 15 years, engrafting mice withblood derived from embryonic stem cells has been the Holy Grail of thefield," explained Daley. Kyba, a postdoctoral fellow in the Daley lab, found a way to achievethis goal by inserting a gene called HoxB4 that stimulates blood cellproliferation. The HoxB4 modified cells generated hematopoietic stem cellprecursors that could be successfully transplanted into adult mice.With this newfound ability, the researchers applied the same strategy to thegenetically corrected embryonic stem cells made from the immunodeficientmouse. Remarkably, these genetically corrected cells were able to partiallyrescue the immune systems of mice suffering from complete immune deficiency.In principle, this approach might be useful some day for treating humanpatients with immune deficiency ("bubble boy disease") or be applied to ahost of other genetic diseases that can be corrected by celltransplantation. Embryonic stem cells can form any tissue in the body,including neurons, muscle cells of the heart, and pancreatic beta cells,which produce insulin.In addition to the potential broad range of use, nuclear transplantationtherapy to create embryonic stem cells has many benefits -- the creation ofcells that are genetically matched to the patient, the repair of geneticdefects within cells to treat or cure inherited diseases, and thepossibility of growing embryonic stem cells in culture for continued therapyas needed."Before the potential of nuclear transplantation therapy can be realized,much more research about the basic biology of stem cells has to be done,"says Daley.Unexpectedly, the researchers confronted interesting biological principles,which appear to be related to a fundamental difference between adults cellsand cells derived from embryonic stem cells, even when the two types ofcells are genetically identical."While these results show nuclear transplantation therapy can work inprinciple, there are technical issues that we are working on now," explainedJaenisch.The work from the Daley lab was supported by grants from the NIH, theNational Science Foundation, MIT Biotechnology Process Engineering Center,the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Alberta HeritageFoundation for Medical Research.The work from the Jaenisch lab was supported by Boehringer Ingelheim Fondsand the National Cancer Institute.