Word: celling
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Researchers at Newcastle University in England report they have coaxed the first human sperm cells from embryonic stem cells, in a remarkable demonstration of how quickly the field of stem-cell science is moving...
...achievement, described in the journal Stem Cells and Development, comes just 11 years after the first human-embryonic-stem-cell line was created - an eyeblink in scientific terms - in the lab of James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries...
Although the development once again raises the specter of creating humans in a petri dish or custom-designing egg and sperm cells for reproduction, lead author Karim Nayernia says that was not his team's intention. Rather, the experiment was a proof of concept that stem cells can generate any cell in the body - not only the dozens of tissues that make up the human body but also those egg and sperm cells that may give rise to altogether new bodies. "Other cell types don't generate the next generation," says Nayernia, a professor of stem-cell biology at Newcastle...
...This area has potential powerful clinical applications mixed with people's concerns over embryo research," says Insoo Hyun, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University who specializes in stem-cell-related ethical issues. "All the ingredients are there for a really, really lively ethical debate...
...speed with which stem-cell advances in recent years have been made is any indication, those revisions may be on the horizon very soon. "These NIH guidelines represent a reasonable compromise, based on where the science stands today," says Dr. Sean Morrison, director of the Center for Stem Cell Biology at the University of Michigan. "But this field is evolving at an incredibly rapid pace, and it may be necessary, down the road, to revisit some of the elements on this policy as the science evolves...