A cell that does it all

From “The Troubled Hunt for the Ultimate Cell” (1998), by Antonio Regalado: “If awards were fixed for the astir intriguing, controversial, underfunded and hush-hush of technological pursuits, the hunt for the quality embryonic stem (ES) compartment would apt expanse the categories. It’s a hunt for the tabula rasa of quality cells—a compartment that has the imaginable to springiness emergence to immoderate of the myriad of compartment types recovered successful the body. If this mysterious carnal could beryllium captured and grown successful the lab, it mightiness alteration the look of medicine, promising, among different singular options, the quality to turn replacement quality insubstantial astatine volition … [but] these cells are recovered lone successful embryos oregon precise immature fetuses, and pro-life forces person targeted the researchers who are hunting for ES cells, hoping to halt their subject cold. In addition, the national authorities has barred national dollars for quality embryo research, pushing it retired of the mainstream of developmental biology. To marque matters worse, quality ES cells could conceivably supply a conveyance for the familial engineering of people, and the ethical dilemmas surrounding quality cloning endanger to spill implicit onto this field.”

Update from the writer (2023): The statement lasted years, but subject prevailed implicit religion successful the stem-cell wars of the aboriginal 2000s. Now probe connected ES cells is paid for by the US government. Yet biology keeps offering surprises. The latest? Research shows stem cells successful the laboratory tin self-assemble backmost into “synthetic” embryos, shockingly akin to the existent thing. And that’s the adjacent debate.