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Article: L.A. institutions poised for stem cell funds: researchers caution that breakthroughs are still years away.(Technology)
- Article from:
- San Diego Business Journal
- Article date:
- February 7, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 CBJ, L.P. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Packed inside an incubator in a laboratory at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles are dozens of miniature petri dishes containing a reddish-orange liquid.
Suspended in the gel are millions of human embryonic stem cells--and with them, the promise of destroying fatal brain tumors, repairing damaged hearts and producing insulin in diabetics.
But for researcher Carolyn Lutzko, one of the few scientists in Los Angeles actually growing the cells, any hopes for medical miracles remain far in the distance.
"With these things you are spending 50 to 70 percent of your time trying to keep them alive," said Lutzko, who is also an assistant professor of ...