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Adriana Silva
LeBeau
Drop
March 16, 2015
Customize a New Beginning
Imagine a world where anything becomes possible with medicine, from the development
of cells that can create new limbs or skin from a childs burn face. For many years, scientists and
physicians have been experimenting on animals to create stem cells. Stem cells are potentially
capable of becoming any kind of cell for a certain purpose of repairing some part of the body.
Stem cells are the key to a new creation of skin, eyes, hearts, and lungs and much more we
havent been capable to replace after an accident. It is a cure for many diseases that have been
part of history and the ones that will come in the future. It will become essential once diseases
start to build up a better immune system to the vaccines. Under every circumstance, with science
advancements, people should create stem cells for the greater good.
It is often believed that physicians dont contain all of the knowledge or resources to be
completely successful in curing all of the diseases in the world. New products become placed in
markets where the people can easily access and try out to see if the new medication actually will
help them out with their illness. With this new instrument at hand, the physicians have to learn
the new techniques and training to become successful in the following procedures with the
product. This can cause mistakes and issues during the surgical operation. Although the core of
this claim is valid, it suffers from a flaw in its reasoning. The stem cell research offers a creation
of new organisms in which the medical field will be able to treat a range of medical problems.
One of these issues would be a brain tumor, which has been around for many years. In Harvard

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Stem Cell Institute, Dr. Shah with a MS and PhD, has come up with a potential solution in
overcoming brain tumors with the use of herpes. As Dr. Shah continued to experiment on mice
for a cure, he came to encounter a ratifying improvement on the mice when he noticed that the
biocompatible gel kept the stem cell alive longer, which allowed the virus to replicate and kill
any residual cancer cells that were not cut out during the debulking surgery (qtd in Herpes
Loaded). Although this experiment has only been tested on mice, it still gives hope to finding a
cure to fight off brain tumors. It isnt about learning new techniques, but applying the old ones a
different way that they become improved and more efficient on the time it is needed. Trail was a
new procedure that became useful for brain tumors, but it became engineered a different way to
attack other kind of forms of tumors. Once again, mice showed more survival rates as the trail
fight off the brain tumor cells that were resistant to the herpes virus (Herpes Loaded). This
has been an improvement in science due to the efficiency of developing the next stage of the
herpes to be able to kill any tumor that becomes adaptive to the first layer of herpes.
Physicians constantly question themselves if stem cell research can progress in defining
how one cell can determine the results and foundation of many more a like. It can be proven that
cells from one human being can not be used for another. Although they carry the same purpose
and outcome to help a human, it will be rejected and cause more harm than good. The stem cell
may only be used by whom it was taken out . This, however, is just one small challenge of the
bigger picture that will give results to greater advantages. The stem cells of volunteers may be
used for the understanding of the human development and growth. At the Johns Hopkins Institute
for Cell Engineering, physicians have been testing different possibilities to uncover the way an
embryo grows to fully understand the way a human evolves. With much experimentation, they
have identified a critical signal mediated by the protein BMP-4 that drives the differentiation of

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stem cells into what will become the placenta (Chen). The BMP-4 is a protein used for the
formation of an early embryo. The development of the placenta will help maintain and stabilize
the creation of an embryo in a lab. In this situation, only human embryonic cells can produce the
specific information needed for this kind of testing. This new investigation highlights one
aspect of human cell biology that has not been replicated in other animal model systems (Chen).
Stepping away from the use of the lab rats that were so different from humans, these scientists
were able to discover this amazing opportunity to learn new greater knowledge. Understanding
our own kind first, may open the results humans will be waiting in order to be able to share their
stem cells with others. This factor will open more doors to a different level in which more people
will be able to benefit from it.
The continuation of new technology, society will get to a point where babies will become
born in labs instead of a womans uterus because the stem cells would have progressed. In
reality, would people let society go that far? As the advancements of technology proceed to
appear each year, a new door to the world of science has been opened. At Hopkins, the
biomedical engineers, have been able to produce stem cells from adult goats to grow into tissue
to resemble cartilage (Sneiderman). This grown tissue can turn out to help in the future when
people will need it after harming parts of the body like the nose or knee. With the new
opportunity of having a new item be successful has proven that we have been evolving with our
science. Not only has science been able to produce a new way to make cartilage, but also to
reduce seizure in mice. Sangmi Chung, PhD, from the laboratory of McLean Associate
Neurobiologist, experimented on mice by inserting human embryonic stem cell-derived
neurons into the brain causing epilepsy (qtd in Human Stem). The result of this experiment
was that half of the mice who received the transplanted neurons no longer had seizures, while

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the other half experienced a significant drop in seizure frequency (Human Stem). This
discovery can be useful when a child has extreme seizures that may affect their health and even
their life. Seizures occur randomly and is different for every person. A seizure can be from a
slight tremble of the hand to becoming unconscious and trembling uncontrollably. The way the
experiment works is that the transplanted neurons begin to receive excitatory input from host
neurons and in turn generate inhibitory responses that reverse the electrical hyperactivity that
cause seizures (Human Stem). This switch can help those who have been dealing with
seizures there whole lives. It is an opportunity to give people a chance to change the way they
live and to make their health improve. This can not just help one section of people, but science
and with the use of technology, can as well help other people around the world.
Opponents argue that the creation of stem cells is unethical and playing with the human
life. Although it may appear unethical, the circumstances a stem cell is created and used is not
the way a normal embryo is being produced. The embryo that is gathered to gain stem cells are
a blastocyst, a cluster of 180 to 200 cells, growing in a petri dish, barely visible to the naked
eye (Examining the Ethics). This result that no human is being produced to the extent that a
scientist is murdering a human being. as provided, these creations are being made safely and
secured it doesnt develop to the stage where a baby is being formed. The form of extracting
stem cells from a blastocyst is as morally abhorrent as harvesting organs from a baby to save
other peoples lives (Examining the Ethics). It is a chance that people need to take to help the
population recover from diseases that may be terminal. It has become a possibility that many
people have been looking for so long. Not only the United States will be able to benefit, but the
other countries as well.

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Studies have been made every day to improve the way physicians help those with
diseases that come at an older age. An experiment held at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute would
be when biologist were able to apply the protein GDF11 into mice. As the time passed by, the
mice their exercise capability and also improved the function of the olfactory region of the
brains of the older mice (Functioning of Aged Brains). The older people get, the less abilities
they are able to conquer because their body starts to decay. Older people arent able to hear, see,
walk or even be able to take care of themselves like eat, shower or go to the bathroom. This new
test has been able to raise the protein of older mice to equal as the one in young mice, which
result on improving the function of every organ system thus far studied (Functioning of Aged
Brains). It gives out hope to know that when people become older, they are able to complete the
task they normally complete each day and not be bound to boundaries that older age comes with.
Body functions like the heart will be healthy and pumping like in the youth days and functions in
the brain may improve.
The sick, the weak and the vulnerable will always need the attention and need help from
people in the medical profession. The stem cells offer the kind of opportunity that can help those
in need. It is like a dream that seemed impossible to reach, but then out of the nowhere it
became an opportunity at the reach of one finger. Not only will it bring a child or adults wish
come true of once again being able to walk, but it can also make those who cared and as well
suffered for a relative injury be able to smile once again for their recoveries due to the stem cells.

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Works Cited
Chen, Guibin. "Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research Reveals Earliest Step in Human
Development." Johns Hopkins Medicine. The Johns Hopkins University, 09 Apr. 2008.
Web. 28 Feb. 2015.
"Examining the Ethics of Embryonic Stem Cell Research." Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 2015. Web. 3 Mar. 2015.
"Functioning of Aged Brains and Muscles in Mice Made Younger." Harvard Stem Cell
Institute. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 4 May 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

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"Herpes-Loaded Stem Cells Used to Kill Brain Tumors." Harvard Stem Cell Institute.
The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 16 May 2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.
"Human Stem Cell-Derived Neuron Transplants Reduce Seizures in Mice." Harvard
Stem Cell Institute. The President and Fellows of Harvard College, 6 Nov. 2014. Web. 21
Feb. 2015.
Sneiderman, Phil. "Joint Repair." Johns Hopkins Medicine. The Johns Hopkins
University, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2015.