6 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Tuesday, November 27, 2007 - 3

NEWS BRIEFS
WASHINGTON
Bush optimistic
on eve of Mideast
peace conference
President Bush stepped cau-
tiously into the most direct Mideast
peacemaking of his administration
on yesterday, meeting separately
with the leaders of Israel and the
Palestinian Authority to explore
whether peace is possible. "Diffi-
cult compromises" will be required
but the Israeli and Palestinian lead-
ers are committed to making them,
he said.
A day ahead of a major Mideast
peace conference in Annapolis,
Md., Bush said he was optimistic.
The gathering is to launch the first
direct peace talks between Israel
and the Palestinians of Bush's
nearly seven years in office, and has
attracted Arab and other outside
backing.
Israeli and Palestinian lead-
ers have already said they want to
conclude a bargain within the 14
months that Bush has left in office.
WASHINGTON
Bush signs deal, sets
up long-term troop
presence in Iraq
President Bush signed a deal
yesterday setting the foundation
for a potential long-term U.S. troop
presence in Iraq, with details to be
negotiated over matters that have
defined the war debate at home
- how many U.S. forces will stay in
the country, and for how long.
The agreement between Bush
and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri
al-Maliki confirms that the United
States and Iraq will hash out an
"enduring" relationship in mili-
tary, economic and political terms.
Details of that relationship will be
negotiated in 2008, with a comple-
tion goal of July, when the U.S.
intends to finish withdrawing the
five combat brigades sent in 2007
as part of the troop buildup that has
helped curb sectarian violence.
PASCAGOULA, Miss. s
Lott plans to
retire at year's end
Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott 0
announced yesterday he will leave
a 35-year career in Congress in t
which he epitomized the Republi-
cans' political takeover of the South s
after the civil rights struggles of c
the 1960s. U
Lott said he wanted to leave on
a "positive note" after winning re-
election last year to a leadership t
post and fostering legislation for
rebuildingthe Gulf Coast after Hur- s
ricane Katrina. He was first elected f
to Congress onthe coattails of Rich-
ard Nixon's re-election landslide in
1972-with 78 percentofthe vote in i
Mississippi. He won election to the e
Senate in 1988, succeeding retiring
veteran Democrat John Stennis. S
His decision to retire by year's
end occurred five years after he

was bounced as the leader of his -
party in the Senate over remarks
praising a Senate colleague that
were interpreted as endorsing seg-
regation.
BAGHDAD
Gunmen raid home
of man tied to
Hussein's party
Masked gunmen stormed the
family home of a journalist who
was associated with Saddam
Hussein's party and critical of
the Iraqi government, killing 11
relatives as they ate breakfast in
a neighborhood known as a Shi-
ite militia stronghold, colleagues
said yesterday.
Dhia al-Kawaz, editor of the
Jordan-based Asawat al-Iraq
news agency, was in Jordan when
his sisters, their husbands and
children were reportedly killed
Sunday in north Baghdad's Shaab
district.
- Compiled from
Daily wire reports
3,876
Number of American service mem-
bers who have died in the war in
Iraq, according to The Associated
Press. The following dead service
member was identified yesterday:
Sgt. Jonathon L. Martin, 33,
of Bellvue, Ohio

Work remains after
stem cell advance

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Downstream an early read on a new Alzheim-
er's drug by trying it out on the
)roblems' still newly created neurons.
"You cannot really go to a
exist for patient and say, 'I want to study
your brain,"' said Dr. Lorenz
researchers Studer, who works on neural
stem cells at the Memorial Sloan-
ANDREW POLLOCK Kettering Cancer Center. "For
The New York Times the first time it gets us access to
these cells."
tem cell researchers were Some scientists have been
spectors, it could be said trying to make disease-spe-
hey struck a gusher last cific embryonic cells by creat-
But to realize the potential ing a cloned embryo of a person
less riches they now must with the disease. But that effort
out how to build refiner- requires women to undergo
elines and gas stations. sometimes risky treatments to
ogists were electrified donate their eggs.
reek when scientists in Some diseased cells, like those
and Wisconsin reported from a tumor biopsy, are already
:ey could turn human skin available for study, but those
nto cells that behave like are from a person already sick.
onic stem cells, able to The new approach would allow
ndefinitely and to poten- scientists to watch the disease
urn into any type of tissue as it developed and potentially
body. design drugs not just to treat it
discovery, if it holds up, but to prevent it.
decisively solve the raw "This is a whole new way of
al problem. It should thinking about how we might
e an unlimited supply of investigate human disease," said
ells without the ethically Kenneth S. Zaret, program lead-
versial embryo destruc- er for cell and developmental
id the restrictions on fed- biology at the Fox Chase Cancer
ancingthatchave impeded Center in Philadelphia.
n human embryonic cells. Just this month, Israeli scien-
scientists still face the tists reported in the journal Cell
nge of taking that abun- Stem Cell that they had created
iw material and turning it stem cell lines from embryos
seful medical treatments, donated by families with a his-
placement tissue for dam- tory of fragile X syndrome, a
earts and brains. And that disease that leads to mental
nge will be roughly as retardation and is caused by the
ng for the new cells as it silencing of a particular gene.
en for the embryonic stem Studying the stem cells, they got
a better understanding of when
en though we have this and how this silencing occurred.
ew sources of cells, it Still, it is not yet clear how
t solve all the downstream useful this new approach will
ms of getting them into be. Will a neuron from an
dy in useful form," said Alzheimer's patient have to sit in
A. Thomson of the Uni- a petri dish for 70 years before it
of Wisconsin, who led becomes diseased? Or, as is the
the teams that developed case with some diseases, will the
m cell substitutes. Thom- neurons have to interact with
is also the first to isolate other types of cells?
embryonic stem cells, Moreover, scientists already
decade ago. have many tools to figure out
the new discovery causes of disease -- imaging
accelerate progress -- if systems that can peer into cells,
ecause with the ethical knockout mice, genome studies.
seemingly out of the way, But it is not always easy to trans-
cientists and money will late knowledge about a disease
wn to the field. into a treatment. And even if it
re are two ways that stem were, it still takes years of test-
an lead to treatments for ing in animals and people before
s. Making replacement a drug can reach the market.
for ailing organs is the The gene responsible for Hun-
way. But many scientists tington's disease was discovered
biggest impact of the new in 1993, but there is still no cure.
ill be on the indirect way: And the decoding of the human
the cells to learn about genome, contrary to some early
s and then applying that expectations, has not led to a
rdge to develop conven- burst of new drugs, at least not
drugs. yet.
g the new technique, When it comes to the direct
sts could take a skin cell approach, creating replacement
person with a certain cells and tissues for transplants,
and generate stem cells. there are many challenges for
cells could then be turned both cells. Scientists do not
her cells, allowing the sci- envision transplanting embry-
to look at neurons from a onic stem cells themselves,
with Alzheimer's disease, either the real ones or the new
heart cells from a person close imitations, because they
eart failure. And a phar- could turn into tumors inside
ical company might get the body.

SAM WOLSON/Daily
Face AIDS, a group that raises funds for AIDS awareness, sold bagels and coffee in Angell Hall yesterday. The $3 that Face AIDS
charged its patrons for a bagel and Starbucks Coffee, paired with the $2 it charged for AIDS awareness pins, was equivalent to
the amount it costs to provide AIDS nedication to a single child for one month.

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