• Question: why arent people investing in stem cell reaserch

    Asked by xxbluewafflexx to Anouk, Chris, Judith, Leisha, Seyyed on 19 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Seyyed Shah

      Seyyed Shah answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      That is a good question.

      There is a lot of investment in stem cell research, and I think a lot more will come. So, it is a good field to be in. Perhaps there is not as much investment as in heart disease or cancer. But, there is a healthy level of funding.

      One thing I would advise if you want to do research in stem cells later on after you finish your college/university studies, is to join a research group that is doing well – meaning they are getting a lot of funding, are big names in the field and publish lots of papers and are well regarded by other scientists. The problem is that stem cells are very tricky to work with. Not many people have made breakthroughs with stem cells as they have lets say with treating cancer, and there is more uncertainty regarding stem cells (in most cases) at the moment.

      Scientists are taking stem cells and trying to re-create conditions that the cells would normally be exposed to in the body. These include sending the cells specific signals to try and get them to become a particular cell type, like a pancreas cell or a liver cell. But, this is very difficult, and the cells often don’t become proper liver or pancreas cells and they don’t live very long. So, at the moment it would be very difficult to use most of them to treat people.

      It will take time, but I think stem cell research will pay off in the end.

    • Photo: Judith Sleeman

      Judith Sleeman answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      @xxbluewafflexx: Mad username!

      As Seyyed says, there is a healthy investment in stem cells in the UK. And, yes, they can be a right pain to work with! Seyyed’s advice on finding a well respected lab with a good level of funding is absolutely sound in any area of research science, not just stem cells!

      Using stem cells for regenerative medicine (to replace damaged cells in the body) is quite a challenge. It’s difficult to ‘make’ them turn into the cells you want and difficult to avoid the risk of cancer from uncontrolled division of the stem cells.

      Perhaps you have heard about the problems with stem cell funding in the USA? George W Bush was very against any work on human stem cells because human stem cells need to be taken from early human embryos, either from extras from in vitro fertilization or from abortions. Bush was very much anti- this type of research, so from 2001 no federal (state) funding in the USA could be used for human stem cell research. Barack Obama overturned the ban on funding for stem cell research in 2009, but ran into a great deal of opposition. I’m not sure what the political situation in the USA is now, but in the UK there is no restriction on using public funds for stem cell research.

    • Photo: Chris Kettle

      Chris Kettle answered on 19 Jun 2012:

      People believe stem cell research is wrong due to the misconception that babies have to die to get the stem cells. More educationis needed and then the investments will come

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