Stem cells research challenge

N. Lenoir, Europe confronts the embryonic stem cell research challenge. Science, 287 (2000), 1425-1427. 

As discussed in Section 4.7, stem cells have the potential to treat medical conditions beyond the scope that can be offered by drugs alone. However, there are many scientific and ethical hurdles to overcome. On the scientific front, stem cell research activities will intensify over the next decade. These challenges can broadly be divided into (1) determining how to develop stem cells into specific tissues and (2) implanting these tissues into the body without rejection by the recipient s immune system. On the ethical front, it is expected that there will be more debates on the ethical issues of stem cell research. Most scientists consent to therapeutic cloning (stem cell research) but not reproductive cloning. The ethical issue of stem cell research concerns harvesting cells from embryos that are a few days old. This action destroys the embryos. Some questions are ... 

Challenges That Face Stem Cell Research... 

Brower, V. Stem cell research and development advances in face of challenges. Genet. Eng. News 2003, 23 (9), 1. 

Sutherland, M.L., Fabre, K.M., Tagle, D.A. (2013). The national institutes of health microphysiological systems program focuses on a critical challenge in the drug discovery pipeline. Stem Cell Research and Therapy, 4, 1-5. 

With this newfound knowledge also comes the challenge of balancing the treatment of patients with new technologies and the ethical application of these treatments. Stem cell research has spurred some controversy as to how to ethically provide the stem cells needed for treatments. Another controversy arises when genetic testing for diseases or certain gene... 

For many years it was believed that adult stem cell populations were present in a very limited number of tissue types, and that they could only differentiate into cells characteristic of the tissue in which they reside. Recent research challenges both of these assertions. Adult stem cells are being discovered in a growing number of tissues, including bone marrow, peripheral blood and... 

Most anti-abortionists challenge the use of embryonic stem cells in scientific and medical research. They believe that the harvesting of human cells from intentionally aborted embryos is as outrageously immoral as the use of the victims of the holocaust in medical research by... 

In particular, stem cell engineering is still a highly contentious issue hotly debated among various segments of the population, by politicians as well as by ethically concerned self-appointed activists. Rapid and predictive in vitro test methods for bioceramics-cell responses could largely alleviate the use of costly and ethically compromised animal experiments. Both are challenging aspects of future bioceramics research and development. 

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