STEM CELL RESEARCH - WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT?
Stem cells could be the beginning of the end for deadly diseases, by allowing medical science to form custom-made tissues and organs that would replace or repair damaged ones. Scientists haven’t yet mastered the process of creating specialized cells that form body parts. But they have come a long way since the 1800s when pathologist Rudolf Virchow pioneered the idea that disease starts at the cellular level in his Berlin laboratory.

SLIDE 1 Introduction

SLIDE 2 At the centre of the controversy is a wave of political and religious fervour, with zealots who liken the research to cannibalism, and warn of a dark, science fiction-like future filled with “embryo farms” and “cloning mills”

SLIDE 3 The U.K., China, Korea and Singapore are competing with one another to become the epicentre of stem cell research. In addition to providing funding, they’ve set up ethical oversights to encourage and support research in the field, within carefully drawn guidelines. Despite the varied political climates, scientists too are working furiously to see which techniques will produce viable treatments the fastest.

SLIDE 4 In the United Kingdom, scientists are allowed to extract stem cells from embryos left over from in-vitro fertilizations, and to clone embryos specifically for study. With an eye on the future, the U.K. has built the world’s first Stem Cell bank. It is a repository where stem cell lines are kept in cold storage. Researchers can deposit and withdraw both adult and embryonic stem cells. They apply the same rigorous standards to all cells, and scientists hope that eventually they will be able to create batches of stem cells that are as uniform as the drugs created by pharmaceutical companies.

SLIDE 5 Even in the midst of all the controversy, few question the medical promise of embryonic stem cells. And while the arguments go back and forth, policymakers and governments aren’t waiting for medical answers. Their reactions – and actions – that have included limiting government funding and the type of research that is allowed are varied. Germany for example has banned some types of stem cell research. Under President George W. Bush, the U.S. has imposed stern limits on the government funding, but left private funding wide open.

SLIDE 6 Each embryo’s inner cell mass has 40 or so stem cells. The mass is transferred to a culture dish lined with feeder cells. As the cells divide and multiply, they are re-planted into fresh culture dishes. If, after many months, the original stem cells have grown into millions of healthy cells without maturing and differentiating into specialized cells, they are referred to as a “stem cell line” and are capable of reproducing indefinitely.

SLIDE 7 The adult body has a limited number of stem cells in many tissues and organs that are dormant until activated by illness or injury. Adult stem cells aren’t as functional or a multi-talented as embryonic stem cells however. They can’t morph into any kind of cell and may be limited to becoming only the cell types of their original tissue. (So while an adult stem cell in brain can become a neuron or a glial cell (both are neural cells), present research hasn’t provided us with the formula for ordering to change into a liver or bone cell.

SLIDE 8 So far however, only adult stem cells have been tested on humans, although research on both adult and embryonic stem cells continues at a fast pace. Some of the results to date show promise in being able to treat heart disease, leukaemia and other cancers, rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s Disease, and Type I diabetes.

SLIDE 9 Research on adult stem cells has recently generated a great deal of excitement. Scientists have found adult stem cells in many more tissues than they once thought possible. This finding has led scientists to ask whether adult stem cells could be used for transplants. In fact, adult blood forming stem cells from bone marrow have been used in transplants for 30 years. Certain kinds of adult stem cells seem to have the ability to differentiate into a number of different cell types, given the right conditions. If this differentiation of adult stem cells can be controlled in the laboratory, these cells may become the basis of therapies for many serious common diseases.

SLIDE 10 In the 1960s, researchers discovered that the bone marrow contains at least two kinds of stem cells. One population, called hematopoietic stem cells, forms all the types of blood cells in the body. A second population, called bone marrow stromal cells, was discovered a few years later.

SLIDE 11 Also in the 1960s, scientists who were studying rats discovered two regions of the brain that contained dividing cells, which become nerve cells. Despite these reports, most scientists believed that new nerve cells could not be generated in the adult brain. It was not until the 1990s that scientists agreed that the adult brain does contain stem cells that are able to generate the brain's three major cell types—astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, which are non-neuronal cells, and neurons, or nerve cells.

SLIDE 12 Each embryo’s inner cell mass has 30 or so stem cells. The mass is transferred to a culture dish lined with feeder cells. As the cells divide and multiply, they are re-planted into fresh culture dishes. If, after many months, the original stem cells have grown into millions of healthy cells without maturing and differentiating into specialized cells, they are referred to as a “stem cell line” and are capable of reproducing indefinitely.

SLIDE 13 Embryonic stem cells can develop into any type of cell through a process called pluripotency. The challenge for scientists is to keep the harvested cells from maturing and then at the proper time, give them the right signals so that the cells differentiate into the needed tissue.

SLIDE 14 We have not yet figured out nature’s secret – how to tell one stem cell to form blood, another a specific organ and yet another skin. Scientists know that complex combinations of growth factors, genetic and chemical signals drive the process, but they’re a long way from making the leap to being able to perfect or order the process.

SLIDE 15 In truth, every year thousands of unwanted embryos are slated for disposal at fertility clinics around the country. These embryos are smaller than the dot above the letter “i” when typed onto a piece of paper. They have no identifying features, and not even a hint of a nervous system. To throw them away, advocates say, when the stem cells themselves would be unable to develop into a baby – even if planted inside a uterus – seems an unthinkable waste that they claim borders on immoral.

SLIDE 19 It works like this – one cell divides, and becomes two. The two become four. And so on and so on, until they multiply into a ball of millions of cells. Similar cells combine into tissues, and the tissues combine into organs. There are over 200 different types of cells that create the human body. And inside each of us are billions of cells, each with a specific job to do.

SLIDE 22 Before 1989, the only way to treat patients with leukaemia, aplastic anaemia, and some immune deficiency diseases, was Bone Marrow and Peripheral Blood Transplantation (in some cases). But with Bone Marrow there was a big problem that mostly patients do not find a suitable donor for bone marrow. But today you have another great option and that is Cord Blood Stem Cell Transplantation.

SLIDE 23 Much like bone marrow, cord blood is one of the richest sources of stem cells that can ever be collected. It is from the umbilical cord and the placenta right after the cord has been cut. Normally cord blood is discarded after birth, but with increasing knowledge and awareness to the benefits of this blood today, people are saving or donating this blood to a cord blood bank.

SLIDE 25 Einstein was unable to carry out the experiments to prove his theory of relativity. The technology simply did not exist at the time to make the measurements from Earth of the bending of light around the Sun, or to travel away from Earth at high speed and return to compare changes in Atomic clocks etc.

SLIDE 26 All the details for how to write up and submit your research report will be on the website from the second week of January.

SLIDE 27 All the details for how to write up and submit your research report will be on the website from the second week of January.

SLIDE 28 All the details for how to write up and submit your research report will be on the website from the second week of January.

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