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1. •  
     CommentAuthorV
   • CommentTimeMar 24th 2008 edited

    (1535.1)

   An international team has restored mice with a condition similar to Parkinson's disease back to health, using neurons grown in the lab that were made from their own cloned skin cells.
   
   This is the first time that a disease has been successfully treated using cloned cells that had been derived from the recipient animals

   
   (Click through for full article)
   
   No need to suppress your immune system for the grafts to survive.
   
   Then again:
   

   While Studer's study shows the value of achieving genetic matching by cloning, it is unclear whether the technique will prove viable in people. For one thing, nobody has yet managed to create a single human ES cell line by cloning. Even if this can be done, human eggs are in very short supply, which would limit the number of patients who could be treated.

   
   
   Still. It's a step.
2. • CommentAuthorpi8you
   • CommentTimeMar 24th 2008

    (1535.2)
   I love the idea, and have thought about the possiblity for a while now, but there's one thing that always bugs me about it- How the hell does it help if its something, y'know, genetic, won't it come back? Maybe not right away since they're new cells, but would it even hold things off for a reasonable amount of time? Perhaps when we're more readily able to alter specific genes this might become truly useful, but that and having enough people with the know-how for the process to be more generally available are quite a ways off methinks.