THE INSTA-WIFE COULD HAVE USED THIS: “Transplanting genetically engineered cells into the heart may reduce the risk of a fatal condition which occurs after heart attack, research suggests. Ventricular tachycardia – an unusually fast heart rhythm – is the main cause of sudden death after heart attack. In mice, transplants of skeletal muscle cells engineered to produce a specific protein prevented the condition.” Instead she got Tikosyn and an ICD — good, but not as good as a cure.

UPDATE: Note that this starts out with embryonic stem-cell research, but led to reverse-engineering adult stem cells to do the same thing. This seems to underscore my point, made here repeatedly, that it’s a mistake to shut down embryonic stem cell research even if you believe that adult stem cells will eventually be the winning play.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Reader Jeff Johnson emails: “Thanks for linking to the article on heart stem cells. Like you, my 43 year-old wife has had a ICD implanted due to ventricular tachycardia after heart failure. This is definitely a ‘faster please’ development for us.” Yep. I get irritated at people who don’t seem to realize that slowing down research costs lives.