Stem Cell Research: Changing The face of Medicine

1. Stem Cell Research:Changing The face of Medicine By: Dakota Hamlett 10/13/09 Mrs. Pugh – Adv. English 12

2. Survey Results for 2009: CBS News took a survey to see how American’s felt about Stem Cell Research now, compared to what it was in past years. The survey found that 65% of American’s now supported the research because of the things it could achieve, while 25% still did not support it, and the rest remained neutral on the topic. This shows that the country is using their heads and moving in the right direction, eventually the controversy won’t even exist.

3. Where They Come From: Human Blastocyst They are harvested from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst seven to ten days after fertilization.

4. When Stem Cells Were Discovered: Dr. James Thomson discovered stem cells in November of 1998. • He discovered them while teaching Biology at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

5. What They Can Do: • After cell division, they have the ability to morph into any of the two hundred and twenty two different cells is in the body. • Such As: • Blood Cells • Heart Cells • Brain Cells • Nerve Cells

6. Continued… A stem cell is a cell that has the ability to continuously divide and develop into various other kinds of cells and tissues. Think of them as a “blank microchip” that you can take and program to do any specific function you want. They do not have a set specialized function, but when the proper conditions are created in a laboratory, stem cells can be coaxed to turn into any cell or organ you want. Also, they are self-sustaining, replicating through cell division.

7. Different Ways to Gather Stem Cells: Adult Stem Cells • Gathered from such things as: • Bone marrow • Umbilical cords These stem cells have to ability to morph into any type of cell that deals with the area it came from. Example: Stem Cells extracted from bone marrow can turn into any type of cell that deals with the blood system.

8. Continued… Adult Stem Cells are almost as flexible as Embryonic Stem Cells, but without the controversy. The most useful thing about them is the fact that since every cell is coming from your own body, rarely ever will your immune system reject them. Which is something that happens often in big surgeries now, usually resulting in death.

9. Continued… Your body already has stem cells inside it acting as a natural repair system, but most are dysfunctional or just do not work. So another possibility that can come from research, is to simply find a way to jumpstart the cells in certain areas to heal whatever disease has taken over.

10. The Banning: When stem cell research first started to come to light, ex-president George W. Bush but a nation wide ban on all funding for the research. He limited all the scientists in America to only be able to use 21 stem cell lines to do their testing. He claimed he was defending days-old embryos, which are already destined to be destroyed, to create stem cells. This just shows that he didn’t put any thought into his decision, he just jumped to conclusions without even knowing all the facts.

11. History Made: On March 9, 2009, President Barack Obama issued an Executive Order to allow the funding and studying of Embryonic Stem Cells. Later that month, New Jersey became the first state to appropriate funding for stem cell research. Not to long after that, California passed Proposition 71, which set aside $3 billion dollars over the next 10 years for research. This could easily turn into one of the best decisions an American President has ever done for our country.

12. The Effects of the Banning and Controversy: Because of the banning, our country, who were the first ones to discover stem cell research, is now playing catch up to the world. Most of our young, bright scientists have had to move overseas and study abroad in countries that understood the importance of the research. Because of this, many important discoveries have been made outside the United States that should have never happened. However, now that we are all on the same page, hopefully we can all work together and help change the world.

13. Regenerative Medicine: A new medical field that is on the horizon because of stem cell research is call Regenerative Therapy. Scientist are aiming to eventually be able to create tissue replacement therapies that could restore function to damaged organs, or even grow completely new, fully functioning organs for transplant. This will put an end to the thousands of people that die every year on the organ donor list waiting to be one of the lucky people who get to live. Instead, you will be able to take stem cells from your own body, and create a brand new organ perfectly matched for your body, just like your old one.

14. The Verdict: All the good that will come from Stem Cell Research should outweigh the bad hands down. After only a decade of research, which is still relatively new in “science time”, it has produced 72 cures for minors things already. While such things as human cell cloning and other sciences still haven’t produced anything beneficial to humans. Also, all of this research has mostly been done in the dark, under the radar from the government, and was never funded. Imagine the leaps forward stem cell research is going to make in the next ten years now with our government and their money backing it. Who knows, by the time you or I are 50, more than likely we’ll be able to reap the benefits of this amazing feat of science.