Term paper about stem cells

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Hi all. I’m not sure which forum this should be in so I put it here. I’ve got a term paper in biochemistry which requires us to research something that’s “big” in the biochem world currently. The first thought that came to my mind was stem cells and how the embryonic stem cells differ from the adult stem cells. For example which ones are more viable and produce lines easier, which one has found cures for diseases, and other stuff along those lines.

I’m not that informed on this subject which is why I was going to pick it, and I was wondering if anybody here had some good sources that don’t constantly praise the potential of embryonic stem cells. My ultimate goal, besides educating myself, is to write a paper focused on how unnecessary (and possibly even counter-productive) embryonic stem cell research is.

Any sources, or even opinions about this topic, are welcome. Scholarly articles, books, research papers, and abstracts written in the last four years are what our sources have to be, but since I’m fairly ignorant on the whole subject I welcome everything! Thanks in advance for any replies.
 
stemcellresearch.org/

That should get you most of the way there. Please let me know if you need more (I’m taking a course on Biomedical Ethics in the Legal Context right now).

God Bless,
RyanL
 
journey137 said:
Hi all. I’m not sure which forum this should be in so I put it here. I’ve got a term paper in biochemistry which requires us to research something that’s “big” in the biochem world currently. The first thought that came to my mind was stem cells and how the embryonic stem cells differ from the adult stem cells. For example which ones are more viable and produce lines easier, which one has found cures for diseases, and other stuff along those lines.

I’m not that informed on this subject which is why I was going to pick it, and I was wondering if anybody here had some good sources that don’t constantly praise the potential of embryonic stem cells. My ultimate goal, besides educating myself, is to write a paper focused on how unnecessary (and possibly even counter-productive) embryonic stem cell research is.

Any sources, or even opinions about this topic, are welcome. Scholarly articles, books, research papers, and abstracts written in the last four years are what our sources have to be, but since I’m fairly ignorant on the whole subject I welcome everything! Thanks in advance for any replies.
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My basic knowledge is this…

Embryonic stem cells have the highest potential for differentiating into every cell type in the body. However, there have not been any significant breakthroughs with embryonic stem cells…
One reason is that they cannot yet control why type of cell the stem cells with transform into. For example, I know of an experiment done on mice, injecting embroynic stem cells into the brain… instead of transforming into “brain cells”, the experiment litterally yielded a tumorous section on the brain that appeared to be growing into “teeth cells”… yes, they actually saw bones growing on the brain of the mouse. They cannot control the differentiation of the embryonic stem cells…

Adult (and umbilical cord) stem cells (which are COMPLETELY ETHICAL!) are already partially differentiated… but this has lead them to an advantage because it’s KNOWN how they will further differentiate. Adult and umbilical cord stem cells HAVE already proven results on humans…

I read an awesome article (maybe 1 1/2 years ago) in Scientific American Magazine that had a wonderful description of all the technicalities… (I’m an engineer, not a biologist, so I don’t know all the details)… so maybe try to look for that article…

So that’s just my basics… do lots of google searches and you’ll probably find a lot more!

Good luck on your paper!
 
Thanks Emily and Ryan. That website looks like it will provide very useful. I plan on doing lots of google and probably some pubmed searches along with requesting a ton of stuff from the intralibrary loan program (the BEST thing since sliced bread, lol). I will also try and find something about that experiment you mentioned Emily. This general overview type thing is exactly what I wanted.
 
That website basically takes the approach that ESCR is complete junk, since it hasn’t produced any results of which to speak. If you’re looking for backup on this (with citations), here’s a paper from the site (warning: evil .pdf format). Some things you can read about:
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Umbilical cord blood stem cells can now help suffering patients with six dozen illnesses, and show promise in treating many more. Due to a lack of national coordination and funds for cord blood banking, 4 million samples of cord blood are discarded in hospital nurseries every year – a tragedy that Washington-area Channel 4 News calls “throwing away the future
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Embryos currently frozen in fertility clinics offer nothing like the inexhaustible supply of stem cells some claim.
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Oh, and to get you started, here’s a list of the treatments ESCR has to offer against a list of the treatments ASCR has.

God Bless,
RyanL
 
From what I understand John Hopkins has an informative website that looks at both types of research.
I don’t have a link, but if you go to google and search John Hopkins stem cell research you should be able to find it.
 
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