Dr. Steve Stice will be at our meeting this week! It’s going to be great, we’ll see you there at 6 p.m. this Wednesday (February 28) in SLC 350.

Background:

Dr. Stice and his company, which has a partnership with UGA, have just found a way to create billions of embryonic stem cells at a time. Embryonic which have the ability to change into any type of tissue; whereas adult stem cells are limited to a certain type of tissue. Thus stem cells are used for research that potentially have the could prevent, treat, or cure diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and diabetes (to name a few), as well as providing a way to create donor organs and tissues for transplants or accident victims. Dr. Stice’s research would greatly speed up the research process.

There are certain ethical objections to embryonic research, which led President Bush to limit federal funding of embryonic stem cell research to only those lines which had already been harvested at the time. A lack of federal funding in this area could (read: WILL) cause the US to fall far behind in the medical research field. Dr. Stice has worked with state and locals politicians to help re-gain federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.

The National Institute of Health has a good overview of stem cells if you want to read more before the meeting. Also, the Washington Times gives an update on the most recent research and the debate. Finally, the New York Times discusses different uses for stem cells.

Leave a comment if you have more information!