Stem Cells
The Jurassic Park of Modern Age: Endangered Animals and Stem Cell Technology
Who likes sci-fi movies? Sci-fi movies about awesome technology, giant mutant creatures, characters with extraordinary powers? In the 21st century, one can hardly find a scenario that is more appealing to the general public than that of crazy scientists pushing too far the boundaries of science and suffering the dangerous outcomes of their messing up [...]
Transdifferentiation－Exploring Biological Alchemy
How to turn lead into gold may still remain a mystery, but the discovery of what is equivalent to alchemy at a cellular level opens up a new range of possibilities. Contrary to previous belief that cellular differentiation is a permanent process, recent work has shown that differentiated cells under specific defined factors have the [...]
Regenerative Medicine: A Peek into the Future
Regenerative medicine is a growing field that offers the potential to repair and replace damaged cells, tissues, and organs by using those that are specially grown. Thus, instead of merely providing treatments to heal damaged body parts, as with transplants, doctors would be able to treat the underlying cause of the disease. Scientists and researchers [...]
Stem Cells: Weighing Scientific Potential and Ethics
Introduction Human embryonic stem cell (hES cell) research is extremely important in the field of medicine. Scientists have used these cells to regenerate portions of an injured spinal cord and have created pancreatic beta cells to cure diabetes. In addition, scientists can test drugs on hES cells rather than on live animals or humans. hES [...]
Building New Foundations: Recent Advances in Tissue Engineering
Since the development of in-depth stem cell research and particularly the ability to induce pluripotency – the ability to differentiate cells into many or all cell-types – the promise of generating replacement tissues and organs for patients has been a virtual “holy grail” for the field of regenerative medicine. Many advances have been made in [...]
Bioethical Revolution: Changing Paradigms in Decision-making
Stem cells. What does this topic immediately bring to mind? Although for a select few hearing these words highlights a plethora of scientific knowledge or emotional overflow, for the wide majority of the population, newspaper headings and sound bites from various television news sources are summoned. This topic has undoubtedly evoked public debate and near [...]
Stem Cell Research: Effects of the Patenting Landscape
Ever since stem cell research began in the late 1900’s, the field has been fraught with a variety of issues including bioethics, funding, and general skepticism. The debate on stem cells has been unrelenting, and policies on the field are usually contentious topics during political campaigns. Apart from bone marrow transplantation [1], all other potential [...]
Stem Cells: Opening Another Avenue
Since their discovery, stem cells have caused a big stir in the biomedical field for a variety of reasons. However, the controversy surrounding embryonic stem cells – cells derived from embryos – is the most fervent. While their totipotency – their ability to become any kind of cell in the human body – makes them [...]
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