• Question: whilst developing stem cells would you be able to adapt animals to have new skills could this be also appealed to humans as well? looking at the research of stem cells could we also grow a new body part like a new eye or something else useful?

    Asked by lollyockham01 to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 19 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Regenerative medicine and tissue engineering are whole areas of science where the focus is on regrowing and repairing diseased and damaged tissue. Many researchers in these fields work with stem cells to try and develop treatments for parts of the body like the eye. So I think in the future we will definitely be able to grow or repair body parts using stem cells, maybe not whole organs for a while, but definitely parts of the body. For example in the eye there are people using cells called limbal stem cells to try and repair damaged corneas (the clear part at the front).

      In terms of adaptation, I don’t think we would be allowed to change animals or people, there are pretty strict rules which prevent us doing things like that. Plus there would need to be a reason to do it, and somebody to pay for it. Although I think there could be plenty of good science fiction stories about it.

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      One of the aims of stem cell research is for us to be able to grow new body parts in a lab to then transplant those into a patient. Recently scientists have made kidneys and hearts from stem cells and then transplanted those into rats. In the future it should also be able to do this for people with these and other organs including eyes.

      I’m not sure what you mean by new skills, but I can’t think of many ways in which stem cells could be used easily to change animals or humans. The best use of stem cells is their ability to allow repair and regeneration after injury, so the most we could expect to learn from studying stem cells would be to improve the way wounds heal after injury in humans and animals. It might be possible to do other things, but as Matt says it would be highly unlikely that any scientist would be allowed to do that kind of research. Sorry if this is a disappointing answer!

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