• Question: Why is stem cell research so important?

    Asked by benlolplaster13 to Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 21 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 21 Nov 2013:

      It’s important for a couple of reasons. Firstly because we all come from a stem cell (the fertilised egg) it is really important to understand how the cells which make up us develop so that we can understand what happens when development goes wrong.

      Secondly stem cells have great potential to replace diseased and damaged tissue because they are able to become all different types of cells which make up that tissue. If we can understand what stem cells can become and how to make them do it, then we will be able to treat so many illnesses like blindness, paralysis, diabetes, heart failure, broken bones etc.

      I hope you can see why we think stem cell research is so important!

    • Photo: David Christensen

      David Christensen answered on 22 Nov 2013:

      Stem cell research is really important because we hope that we might be able to use stem cells to treat a huge number of diseases to improves the lives of countless people.

      Also, we can’t always see how our research might be used by other scientists in the future and I might discover something about stem cells that leads to discoveries about other cells that bring about something else new and exciting in research, such as new medicines or new uses of cells. Because of this I think all research is important – increasing our knowledge will always be useful and never a bad thing, in my opinion.

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