When embryonic stem cells were first isolated in November of 1998 they were known as blank cells. This means that they can be manipulated into any of the 220 human cells, and tissues that we as humans are comprised of. These cells have brought up the idea of gene therapy. This could lead to cures for paralysis, diabetes, and AIDS.

With the use of embryonic stem cells, scientists believe that nerve cells, heart muscle cells, and brain cells can be created in a culture. In turn, using the nerve cells to help heal people with spinal injuries and restore function to paralyzed limbs. The heart muscle cells would be used to renew the scar tissue around the heart after a heart attack. The brain cells would be used to secre

While generating these cells, scientists need a means of determining whether these cells are good. There is no standard battery of tests that will measure the cell’s fundamental properties. There are no tests that scientists used to acknowledge any of the indicators of the cell’s most important biological properties and functions. Some tests include growing and sub-culturing the stem cells for many months. This ensures that the cells are capable of long-term self renewal. They use specific techniques to determine the presence of surface markers that are found only on embryonic stem cells. Also if the protein OCT 4 is present then they are the correct cells. If the cells are frozen, the thawed, then sub-cultured again and they do reproduce, then they are good as well.

In order for stem cells to be explored more in depth it requires a great deal of funding. There has been exactly $170 million dollars invested into stem cell research, but only $10 million has been used for embryonic stem cells. This is because there is no federal funding for stem cell research. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) has funded most of the money for these projects, due to President Bush’s opposition on stem cell research.

In conclusion there is still a lot of time for stem cell research. Despite the fact that President Bush, Anti-Abortionists, and the Pope disagree with stem cell research. Even though there is no use of Federal funding, stem cell research still continues today. The pace of the research will be slower due to the factor of money. Someday we will hopefully use stem cells for gene therapy, diseases, and cancers.

Some topics in this essay:
James Thompson, Paul II, stem cells, Anti-Abortionists Pope, embryonic stem, embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells, stem cell, adult stem, stem cell research, cell research, Institutes Health, President Bush’s, English Composition, Kazimer December, cells help, bone marrow, Research” November, cells scientists, Wisconsin University, cells cells, stem cells scientists, cells bone marrow, cells bone,