Exciting advances in adult stem cell research

An international conference looking at the issue of adult stem cell research and recent developments in this field is taking place in the Vatican this week. Jointly sponsored by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Foundation "Stem for Life," the conference is being attended by experts in this field of research as well as bioethicists and Church officials. One of the participants is Dr Neil Scolding, a neuroscientist at the University of Bristol who carries out research on mesenchymal adult stem cells. He told Susy Hodges that he believes the tide is slowly turning away from embryonic stem cell research towards adult ones largely because of the practical problems and risks associated with embyronic cells, not to mention the ethical problems. He says “the big risk with embryonic stem cells is the formation of possible tumours and that is a risk that seems to be completely absent or at least very, very substantially less with adult stem cells.”

Dr Scolding also talked about the latest advances in the field of induced pluripotent stem cells that mimic many of the possibilities offered by embryonic cells but without using human embryos. Describing it, as a “huge advance in the science of stem cell research” he believes that in the future “conventional” embryonic stem cell research “will recede” and "switch to induced pluripotent stem cell research.”

Listen to the full interview with Dr Scolding by Susy Hodges: