Overview

The University of Michigan has recently emerged as a national leader in the three main types of stem cell research: embryonic, adult, and reprogrammed cells known as iPS stem cells. Read more about U-M's stem cell research

Stem cells: Second frontier unfolds in U-M stem cell work, 01/18/2015

Five years after Michigan vote on human embryonic stem cells, U-M effort is in full swing

UM researcher uses stem cells to fight Alzheimer's, 11/11/2014

Stem cells: Five years ago, this would have been impossible

Epilepsy in a dish: Stem cell research reveals clues to disease's origins and may aid search for better drugs

U-M start-up OncoMed has initial public offering

Divide and define: Clues to understanding how stem cells produce different kinds of cells

Spring cleaning in your brain: U-M stem cell research shows how important it is, 4/10/2013

Cells culled from adults may grow human bone, 4/2/2013

Beyond stem cells: U-M's Yamashita receives Keck award, 2/4/2013

Stem cells + nanofibers = promising nerve research, 11/7/2012

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University of Michigan Stem Cell Research

Pros And Cons in Research

The debate of the pros and cons of stem cell research clearly illustrate the difficult ethics evaluations researchers sometimes must do.

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All scientists must consider whether the positive effects from their research are likely to be significantly higher than the negative effects.

Stem Cells are crucial to develop organisms. They are nonspecialized cells which have the potential to create other types of specific cells, such as blood-, brain-, tissue- or muscle-cells.

Stem cells are in all of our body and lives, but are far more potent in a fetus (also spelled foetus, ftus, faetus, or ftus) than in an adult body.

Some types of stem cells may be able to create all other cells in the body. Others have the potential to repair or replace damaged tissue or cells.

Embryonic Stem Cells are developed from a female egg after it is fertilized by sperm. The process takes 4-5 days.

Stem cell research is used for investigation of basic cells which develop organisms. The cells are grown in laboratories where tests are carried out to investigate fundamental properties of the cells.

There are stem cells in the both placenta and blood contained in the placenta. Also the primary source of stem cells is from blastocysts. These are fertilized human eggs that were not implanted into a woman.

The controversy surrounding stem cell research led to an intense debate about ethics. Up until the recent years, the research method mainly focused on Embryonic Stem Cells, which involves taking tissue from an aborted embryo to get proper material to study. This is typically done just days after conception or between the 5th and 9th week.

Since then, researchers have moved on to more ethical study methods, such as Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS). iPS are artificially derived from a non-pluripotent cell, such as adult somatic cells.

This is probably an important advancement in stem cell research, since it allows researchers to obtain pluripotent stem cells, which are important in research, without the controversial use of embryos.

There were two main issues concerning stem cell research with both pros and cons:

The first issue is really not just about stem cell research, as it may be applied to most research about human health.

Since 2007, the second point, concerns about the methods involved, has been less debated, because of scientific developments such as iPS.

As you will most probably notice, the following arguments are not exclusively in use when talking about stem cell research.

Stem cell research can potentially help treat a range of medical problems. It could lead humanity closer to better treatment and possibly cure a number of diseases:

Better treatment of these diseases could also give significant social benefits for individuals and economic gains for society

The controversy regarding the method involved was much tenser when researchers used Embryonic Stem Cells as their main method for stem cell research.

DISCLAIMER: These points are based on the old debate about the methods of stem cells research, from before 2007. Since then, scientists have moved on to use more ethical methods for stem cell research, such as iPS. This section serves as an illustration of the difficult evaluations researchers may have to analyze.

The stem cell-research is an example of the, sometimes difficult, cost-benefit analysis in ethics which scientists need to do. Even though many issues regarding the ethics of stem cell research have now been solved, it serves as a valuable example of ethical cost-benefit analysis.

The previously heated debate seems to have lead to new solutions which makes both sides happier.

Stem Cell pros and cons had to be valued carefully, for a number of reasons.

When you are planning a research project, ethics must always be considered. If you cannot defend a study ethically, you should not and will not be allowed to conduct it. You cannot defend a study ethically unless the presumed cost is lower than expected benefits. The analysis needs to include human/animal discomfort/risks, environmental issues, material costs/benefits, economy etc.

Why was the debate regarding the stem cell research so intense?

First, it was a matter of life - something impossible to measure. And in this case, researchers had to do exactly that: measure life against life.

Both an abortion and someone dying, suffering from a possible curable disease, is a tragedy. Which have the highest value? Does a big breakthrough in the research justify the use of the method in the present?

Would the benefits of studying abortions outweigh the costs? The choice was subjective: Nobody knows all the risks or all the possible outcomes, so we had to value it with our perception of the outcome. Perception is influenced by our individual feelings, morals and knowledge about the issue.

Second, at the time we did not know whether the research was necessary and sufficient to give us the mentioned health benefits.

Third, other consequences of the research are uncertain. Could the research be misused in the future or not? We simply do not know. All knowledge acquired, within research or other arenas, may be used for evil causes in the future - it is impossible to know.

The Stem cell research-debate is an example on how people value various aspects differently. It is also an example of how critics and debate can lead to significant improvements for both sides.

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Stem Cell Research Pros and Cons - Explorable

Americans Support Stem Cell Research

Do you favor or oppose expanding federal funding for research using embryonic stem cells?

Source: A Research!America poll of U.S. adults conducted in partnership with Zogby Analytics in January 2015.

Former President George W. Bush permitted federal funding for embryonic stem (ES) cell research only if the stem cells were obtained from a limited number of previously existing stem cell lines. In 2009, President Barack Obama issued an executive order expanding the opportunities for federally funded ES cell research by permitting the use of ES cells other than those obtained from the previously designated stem cell lines. However, legislation to protect this expansion in research opportunities has not been signed into law, giving future administrations the discretion to curtail or eliminate federally funded stem cell research.

On August 23, 2012, in a decision favorable to proponents of ES cell research, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court ruling dismissing a lawsuit that challenged the Obama administrations expansion of federal funding ES cell research.

The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in an announcement on January 7, 2013. The announcement allows the decision of the appeals court to stand.

Many congressional members in the House and Senate seek to codify the stem cell rules established under President Obamas executive order, preventing future administrations from unilaterally restricting or eliminating federal funding for stem cell research. Bills such as the Stem Cell Research Advancement Act, which would permit funding for research on stem cells derived from embryos produced but ultimately not used for in vitro fertilization, have been regularly introduced in the House and Senate since 2009, but no legislation has been enacted.

The debate over stem cell research continues to be fought at the state level. In March 2015, the Oklahoma House passed a bill banning all ES cell research. This legislation is currently awaiting Senate action. The Oklahoma legislature approved a similar bill in 2009, but failed to override the governors veto.

Timeline of major events in stem cell policy.

Learn more about the science of stem cells.

Access additional resources about advancing stem cell research.

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Stem Cell Research | Research!America

What is a stem cell? A stem cell is an immature cell that has the potential to become specialized into different types of cells throughout the body.

There are two basic types of stem cells: adult stems cells and embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are produced when a newly fertilized egg begins to divide. These stem cells can become any type of cell in the body.

Adult stem cells somewhat of a misnomer because they can also be found in infants and children are stem cells that reside in already developed tissue. These stem cells can act like a repair system, dividing regularly to provide new specialized cells to take the place of those that die or are lost. Tissues where adult stem cells have been found include the brain, blood, muscle, skin and bone. Research with adult stem cells has been limited due to the difficulty in growing and differentiating them under laboratory conditions.

Why are stem cells important from a medical perspective? For decades, researchers have been studying the biology of stem cells to figure out how development works and to find new ways of treating health problems. Because stem cells can give rise to any tissue found in the body, they provide nearly limitless potential for medical applications.

Current studies are researching how stem cells may be used to prevent or cure diseases and injuries such as Parkinsons disease, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, spinal cord injury, Duchenes muscular dystrophy, Alzheimers disease, strokes, burns, osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, vision, and hearing loss. Stem cells could also be used someday to replace or repair tissue damaged by disease or injury.

How are stem cells being used today? Stem cell procedures currently provide life-saving treatments for patients with leukemia, lymphoma, other blood disorders, and some solid tumors. The three main technologies in use today are:

Adult stem cell transplant: bone marrow stem cells Stem cell technology has been used for more than 20 years in bone marrow transplants, where the patient's bone marrow stem cells are replaced with those from a healthy, matching donor. If the transplant is successful, the stem cells will migrate into the patient's bone marrow and begin producing new, healthy leukocytes to replace the abnormal cells.

Adult stem cell transplant: peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) While most blood stem cells reside in the bone marrow, a small number are present in the bloodstream. PBSCs can be obtained from drawn blood, making them easier to collect than bone marrow stem cells. However, PBSCs are sparse in the bloodstream, so collecting enough to perform a transplant can pose a challenge.

Umbilical cord blood stem cell transplant Umbilical cords traditionally have been discarded as a by-product of the birth process. In recent years, however, the stem-cell-rich blood found in the umbilical cord has proven useful in treating the same types of health problems as those treated using bone marrow stem cells and PBSCs.

Where do scientists get stem cells? This is the main area of debate that surrounds this technology. Adult stem cells can be removed from adult tissues with little harmful effect on the individual while embryonic stem cells are derived from multicellular embryos that have been cultured in the laboratory.

Numerous regulatory and ethical constraints exist for the use of embryos in research. There is also a limited number of human embryonic cell lines available for research that meet all criteria for federal funding, but many scientists remain skeptical over the quality of these cells.

Following is a list of current and potential sources of stem cells:

Go here to read the rest:
Basics of Stem Cell Research