Stem Cell essays

Stem Cell essays The discovery, made by Dr. James A. Thomson, a biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, offers great promise for new ways of treating disease. ES cells, which are derived from four-day-old embryos, can theoretically differentiate into virtually any type of human cell, from blood cells to skin cells. Scientists hope to find ways of using these cells to repair damaged tissue. About stem cell transplantation In the bone marrow, there is approximately 1 stem cell in every 100,000 blood cells. The bone marrow in the breast bone, skull, hips, ribs, and spine contains the stem cells. In the blood stream, the number of stem cells is about 1/100 of that in the bone marrow. Transplantation of these stem cells from the blood stream is sometimes used in addition to, or instead of, traditional bone marrow transplantation. The range of diseases for which bone marrow/stem cell transplantation can be considered has increased greatly and includes the The problem that surrounds all this is that Dr. Thomson's breakthrough work was not eligible for funding from NIH, the federal government's primary sponsor of biomedical research, and the sponsor of some of his other research projects. Instead, he set up a separate lab to work on human ES cells supported by private funding from the Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Because of the great potential promised by Dr. Thomson's discovery, NIH sought legal counsel from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the question of whether or not the ban applies to ES cell research. In January 1999, HHS concluded that public funds could be used for research on ES cells as long as they were not used for the derivation of the cells, the process that results in the destruction of an embryo. NIH thus began drafting guidelines governing funding for ES cell studies. The work was ineligible for public funding...