LC-StemArticle

Stem Cell Article (1) When were stem cells first taken from a human embryo? Dr. James A. Thomson first took stem cells from a human embryo in 1998 at the University of Wisconsin. (2) Why is obtaining stem cells from a human embryo so controversial? Stem cell plucking destroys embryos which could be considered a form of abortion, a highly controversial topic. (3) What was/is the source of human embryos for stem cell research? Embryos cultured in a fertility clinic that would have been destroyed otherwise. (4) What is a stem cell? A stem cell is a universal cell that can morph into any of the 220 cells. (5) What diseases do we think we could treat with stem cells? Scientists want to treat Alzheimer's or Parkinsons diseases. (6) Dr. Thomson is in the news again because he has turned ordinary skin cells into stem cells. How did he do this? He extracted chromosomes from a regular egg and injected the genes from a frozen udder cell