"Tornadoes touched down near Dallas," the report said. Hearing this made me grateful to live in the western tip of the state, where the Franklin Mountains act as a buffer against such storms. Then a memory crept in from the back of my mind. I remembered the commotion that brought me outside one day, where I found Abuelita [grandmother] praying and watching a twister twirling in the distance. Abuelita's black hair was touched with silver, plaited in a long braid and wrapped into a bun. Her skin, the color of cinnamon, was wrinkled with time, and her brown eyes were intensely focused on the twister in the sky.

I was more interested in Abuelita's behavior than the funnel-shaped cloud in the distance. At eight, I was already accustomed to her ways. "Jesús, María y José!" she'd say at the clap of thunder and "Jesús mil veces!" when lightning followed.

Isolagen Inc. Completes Injections Of Isolagen Therapy(TM) In Phase III Wrinkle And Phase II Full Face Studies

Isolagen(TM), Inc. (Amex: ILE) announced that injections have been completed in the pivotal Phase III multi-center, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials evaluating the Isolagen Therapy(TM) for the treatment of nasolabial folds, or wrinkles (Studies IT-A-005 and IT-A-006). Subjects have advanced to the follow-up period of the study.

Isolagen also announced the completion of injections in the Phase II open label study designed to gather further safety and potential application information on the use of the Isolagen Therapy(TM) for the full face (Study IT-A-007). The subjects in this study also have advanced to the follow-up period.

"These are important clinical milestones to Isolagen, especially the advancement of our lead Phase III pivotal wrinkle study to the follow-up period of the trial," said Declan Daly, Chief Executive Officer of Isolagen, Inc.

Movie Review: I am Legend, Will Smith and the Dangers of Playing God ...

The public is always used as guinea pigs when it comes to testing drugs. (See Vaccines and Medical Experiments on Children, Minorities, Woman and Inmates.)

Big Pharma is so crazy about selling dangerous drugs to the public that if the virus depicted in the film actually existed, I can definitely see Merck launching it as a "miracle weight loss drug!" Notice that none of the beasts in the movie are fat?

Real Medical Experiment Gone Wrong: TGN1412While it's unlikely that the recipients of such biotech drugs would turn into raging night creatures who are thin, athletic and afraid of sunlight, the truth is actually far scarier. Case in point: The TGN1412 drug trial, which I reported on it March, 2006. Click here to read the original report.

In this drug trial, which tested an experimental arthritis drug on volunteer patients, things went terribly wrong: After being injected with the anti-inflammatory drug TGN1412, patients began tearing their shirts off, screaming that their heads were going to explode.