This course takes no position as to which side is right, or even whether the ASCB is right that stem cell research will result in cures for human diseases. But you should be able to answer questions from this list:

1) What kind of stem cells are found in bone marrow? (and umbilical cords!)
2) Are any stem cells found in the brain?
3) Are any of the stem cells in the adult body what the current political debate is about?
4) At what stage of embryonic development do mammal embryos implant in the uterus?
5) At this stage of development, mammal embryos are made of what two classes of cells?
6) What is meant by "putting embryonic cells into tissue culture"?
7) Undifferentiated cells that can potentially differentiate into any of the 250+ cell types of the body are therefore said to be "totipotent". (this is just a statement about vocabulary, not a question)
8) What now-common medical procedure generates large numbers of blastocyst stage human embryos (the mammal equivalent of the blastula stage)? And why this particular stage, rather than embryos at either earlier or later stages?
9) What is usually done with these human blastocysts?
10) What would many researchers like to do with some of these blastocysts?
11) Why can researchers do such experiments in England, but rarely in the United States?
12) Which stem cell cultures are US researchers allowed to use?
13) What does the ASCB claim is wrong with these stem cell lines?
14) Can you suggest some reasonably plausible ways to treat particular diseases, using stem cell cultures whose differentiation could be controlled at will, for example by adding certain protein growth factors to their tissue culture medium?
15) Did you ever read "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley, or any other science fiction novels based on possibilities like those now being debated in relation to stem cells? (It's OK if you haven't read any!)
But if you have, then it might be worth thinking about the differences and similarities to the present.
16) Could you argue pro or con whether in vitro fertilization should itself be banned? What about the original research that led to the development of in vitro fertilization: should it have been banned?

Background information: Any dividing population of undifferentiated cells that can be induced to differentiate into one or many cell types, are called stem cells.

For example, the bone marrow contains stem cells that constantly replace all the cells of the blood, including red blood cells, leucocytes, macrophages, blood platelets, etc.

Recently (and to most people's surprise) some neural stem cells have been proven to exist inside the brain. These can divide, and can also differentiate into nerve cells, perhaps in regeneration.
Cells that are already differentiated are not called stem cells, and neither are cells that cannot divide.

In recent years, researchers discovered that you can take out the inner cell mass cells from mammal embryos, and grow them in tissue culture, and then stimulate them to differentiate.
Perhaps these could be used to replace damaged cells in adults! Anyway, the stem cells that are being argued about in politics are these embryo-derived "totipotent" tissue culture cells.

This debate is also related to "In Vitro Fertilization" methods, by which wives can have babies even though their Fallopian tubes are blocked, or their husband's sperm can't swim, etc.

Several unfertilized oocytes are taken surgically from the woman; each one is injected with a single sperm from her husband, and the fertilized eggs are watched in tissue culture for a few days.
Then, the most normal-looking embryo is surgically inserted into the uterus of the mother-to-be.
The embryos from the other fertilized eggs are frozen in liquid nitrogen.
Over four hundred thousand such frozen human embryos now exist.

Many researchers want to use some of these frozen embryos to start stem cell cultures, and try to use these to treat diseases. So far, there is not much evidence that such stem cells can cure diseases, but cell implants have helped some victims of Parkinson's disease.

The American Society for Cell Biology Position Paper on Stem Cells is at http://www.ascb.org/publicpolicy/

A petition by congressmen is now being circulated: Below is the text of this "Castle-DeGette letter"

Dear Mr. President: We write to urge you to expand the current federal policy concerning embryonic stem cell research.

As you know, embryonic stem cells have the potential to be used to treat and better understand deadly and disabling diseases that affect more than 100 million Americans, such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injury, and many others.

Embryonic stem cells are derived from in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos that are developed in excess of those needed for the process to allow infertile couples to have children. The IVF process results in more embryos than are needed by the couple. There are estimated to be more than 400,000 IVF embryos, which are currently frozen and will likely be destroyed if not donated, with informed consent of the couple, for research.

We very much appreciate your words of support for the enormous potential of this research, and we know that you intended your policy to help promote this research to its fullest. As you know, the Administration's policy limits federal funding only to embryonic stem cells that were derived by August 9, 2001, the date of the policy announcement.

However, scientists have told us that since the policy went into effect more than two years ago, we have learned much more about why the embryonic stem cell lines eligible for federal funding will not be suitable to effectively promote this research. We therefore feel it is essential to relax the restrictions in the current policy for this research to be fully explored.

* Among the current challenges with the current policy are the following:

* While it originally appeared that 78 embryonic stem cell lines would be available for research under the federal policy, now, more than two years after August 9, 2001, only 15 are available to researchers.

* All available stem cell lines are contaminated with mouse feeder cells, making their therapeutic use for humans uncertain.

* Scientists are reporting that it is increasingly difficult to attract new scientists to this area of research because of concerns that funding restrictions will keep this research from being successful.

* This promising field of research is moving overseas. We have already seen researchers move to countries like the United Kingdom, which have more supportive policies. In addition, leadership in this area of research has shifted to the United Kingdom, which sees this scientific area as a cornerstone of its biotech industry and which is leading the International Stem Cell Forum, made up of scientific agencies from nearly a dozen countries.

Mr. President, we know that you have been a strong supporter of medical research and share our commitment to curing disease and alleviating human suffering. We would very much like to work with you to modify the current embryonic stem cell policy so that it provides this area of research the greatest opportunity to lead to the treatments and cures we all are hoping for.

Sincerely,

Members of Congress