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February 8, 2000
NINDS Sponsors Technical Neuro-AIDS Workshop
Hooven Returns to NIH as
Slavkin To Leave NIDCR in July
NLM Wins Vice President's Hammer Award
Intern Program Seeks Applicants
STEP Session on Science Communication
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services |
NIH Employees Celebrate Life, Legacy of Martin Luther King
By Sharon Ricks Photos by Ernie Branson
It was 11:39 a.m. The Masur Auditorium was crammed to capacity.
Seventy-five students from Prince George's County's Largo High
School stood like statues in the aisles. They were draped in blue and
gray choir robes. A cue from the director launched their words into
the air: "We give alleluia." They sang like Martin Luther King was
backstage.
'Nature's Repair Shop' By Carla Garnett
Science magazine called it the "breakthrough of the year" in its Dec.
17, 1999 issue. Within the last 18 months or so, scientists had
discovered the promise of human stem cells to treat or cure perhaps
hundreds of life-threatening illnesses. Imagine, for example, a person
whose heart is so diseased or damaged that an organ transplant is
necessary. Donor organs, however, are rare, and donor hearts
among the rarest to find in time to save a person's life. In addition,
organ transplantation carries the risk of rejection by the patient's
body, further diminishing the chances for survival. But what if
doctors could somehow use cells to grow the patient a brand new,
disease-free heart, and what if that new heart were made of the
patient's own cells, thereby lessening chances of rejection?
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