Benefits
Stem cells are an important biological resource for the advancement of human medicine, because they can be grown in large quantities and yet still produce all cell types found in the body. Stem cells can provide an important benefit to humans via:
- Gene and drug discovery
- Testing the function of the large number of genes generated from the Human Genome Project
- Testing millions of potential new drugs in a ‘human environment’
- Reducing the need for animal testing
- Studying disease onset and progression (disease modelling)
- Cell therapy
- Replacing diseased or damaged cells in patient tissues
- Correcting genetic disorders (when combined with gene therapy)