Stem cells can become any cell type in the body and may help cure diseases like diabetes and sickle cell anemia. Early research harvested stem cells from embryos, killing the potential child, but scientists have since developed methods using skin cells, introducing viruses to change them into stem cells which could cause cancer. Recent research removed cancer-causing genes when testing stem cells on mice with sickle cell anemia, curing them without cancer developing. Ethical debates remain around using embryonic stem cells or risking cancer from other methods.

1. Stem Cell Research By Calvin Koder Henry Hauser and Max Hoffmann

2. Acknowldgments http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/0305/03.html for information

3. Stem Cells Stem cells are cells that form during the embryonic stage Stem cells can become any cell in the body They can be used to cure diseases such as Sickle Cell Anemia and Diabetes They are 2 ways to get stem cells Harvested from embryos Taken from skin cells which requires a virus to be implanted in the cell

4. Pros and Cons of Stem Cells and research about them Pros: Able to cure diseases that can't be cured without stem cells such as: Parkinson's Diabetes Sickle Cell Anemia Cons: If the cells are harvested from the embryo, the child will not be born If cells are made from other cells, they can lead to cancer

5. Creating Stem Cells The earlier method was to harvest embryonic cells from embryos and make them turn into whatever cell they wanted Unfortunately, this process killed the child that would have been born In 2007, a Japanese scientist named Shinya Yamanaka developed a way to change ordinary human skin cells into stem cells The process involves adding a virus to the cells, which unfortunately can lead to cancer in some cases

6. Creating Stem Cells (Continued) A Scientist at M.I.T tested created stem cells on mice with Sickle Cell Anemia He took out the gene that caused Cancer and none of the mice developed cancer, and all were cured

7. Questions and Topics Should embrionic stem cell research be allowed if it kills the unborn child? Should stem cells coming from other cells be allowed if it could give the patients cancer? Should there be clones made so that they could be used as test subjects for this research?