This article describes a recent trend in Japanese research, development and commercialization toward the application of stem cell technologies. Japan is the world's third largest economy and has a significant national presence in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology businesses; as such, stem cell R&D is abundant in the country. As indicated by the second largest share of patent applications worldwide, Japan had been expected to assert significant added value in the commercialization and industrial application of stem cell technologies; however, difficulties have impeded clinical development in this area, particularly the very small number of clinical trials and approved products for regenerative medicine or cell therapy.

Scientists have figured out how to grow primitive human kidneys in a lab. Researchers hope the advance will someday lead to new ways to save thousands of people dying from kidney failure. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has the story.

Stem cells are stirring great excitement in medical research. What are they? Why are scientists so intrigued by them? And what are some of the concerns about stem cell research? When an egg is fertilised by a sperm to make a human embryo, that single fertilised egg cell divides millions of times to form the six billion or more cells that make up our bodies. Most of these cells have undergone a process called differentiation that leads to them becoming specialised for a certain function, such as neurons (nerve cells) that convey electrical messages around the body.

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Stem cell science is an extremely fast moving field of research with new breakthroughs being reported almost daily. This swiftly changing landscape has seen many different stem cell types and technologies capture the public's imagination including embryonic stem cells, tissue stem cells, umbilical cord blood stem cells, and more recently, induced pluripotent stem cells.

Stem cell research holds great promise as a source of development for new medical treatments for a range of human injury and disease. In addition, the study of stem cells continues to advance cell biology and research into early fetal development. However, the use of stem cells, especially those derived from embryonic tissue, remains controversial in some parts of the world (including the United States) and is opposed by some religious groups.

This article compares and contrasts the pressures of both open access data sharing and commercialization policies in the context of publicly funded embryonic stem cell research (SCR).

Stem cell research can potentially help treat a range of medical problems. It could lead humanity closer to better treatment and possibly cure a number of diseases. Better treatment of these diseases could also give significant social benefits for individuals and economic gains for society.

Due to scientists reliably directing the differentiation of the embryonic stem cells into specific cell types, they can be able to use the differentiated cells that result to treat certain diseases that require transplanting cells generated from human embryonic stem cells. These diseases include traumatic spinal cord injury, diabetes, Duchenne’s muscular dystrophy, vision and hearing loss as well as heart disease.

Japanese and US scientists believe they may finally have
cracked the stem cell code without having to use human embryos. Melody Towns examines the implications for a massive breakthrough in health research worldwide.

One day, when you are ill, when your heart finally beats a thousand times too many, when your liver is sclerotic beyond use, when your pancreas stops producing insulin, when your kidneys no longer protect you from toxins, Dr. Anthony Atala wants to heal you. In his vision, you will visit a hospital in Omaha or San Francisco or Buffalo, and a specialist will diagnose you. Then you'll have blood taken to determine your genetic makeup, and then those results will be transmitted to an office manager in charge of a sterile white room in North Carolina that Atala has built. In a few days a small vial of stem cells that match your immunological profile perfectly will be extracted from a cryogenic tank in that room and shipped to your surgeon, who will use them to build you a new organ from scratch. It will take four to eight weeks to build and grow and implant the organ, and then you will be whole once again.

The controversy regarding the method involved was much tenser when researchers used Embryonic Stem Cells as their main method for stem cell research. Critics against stem cell research argued that the ethical issues of scientific work on aborted fetuses did not justify the possible benefits.

The embryonic stem cell research is controversial because the cells are derived from human embryos and for them to be obtained the embryo must be disassembled. The component cells after the disassembling are then grown in culture.

Embryonic stem cells are the basic building blocks for some 260 types of cells in the body and can become anything: heart, muscle, brain, skin, blood. Researchers hope that by guiding stem cells in the laboratory into specific cell types, they can be used to treat diabetes, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, or other disorders. The primary clinical source is the aborted fetus and unused embryos currently housed in frozen storage at IVF facilities. A developed stem cell line comes from a single embryo, becoming a colony of cells that reproduces indefinitely. Consider now the following ten problems with Embryonic Stem Cell Research (ESCR).