Stem Cells

• Stem cells can either be found in: Bone marrow, Human embryos or plant tissues (meristem)
• Embryonic stem cells can turn into any type of cell
• Embryonic stem cells can be used to replace faulty cells in the body
• Theraputic cloning - giving an embyro the same genetic information as the patient
• Stem cells grown in the lab may become contaminated with a virus and passed on to the patient
• Uses of stem cells

  • Curing blindness
  • Curing paralysis
  • Curing some cancers
• Problems with research

  • Ethical issues - each embryo has potential to become human life
  • Expensive
  • Unproven to work
• Stem cells can produce identical plants or animals, so they can be used to produce clones
• Meristems can be used to produce clones of whole plants quickly and cheaply
• Meristems can be used to grow more plants of a rare species
• Meristems can be used to grow crops of identical plants, that have desired features
• Meristem can be found in the roots and shoots of a plant
• Embryonic cells can be found in embryos
• Adult stem cells can be found in bone marrow