Stem Cells and Human Genome Flashcards
What are the cells called in the inside of an embryo
Embryonic stem cells
Stem cells are not specialised to start with but as the grow they begin to what
Differentiate - change into different types of cells
Do adults have stem cells?
Yes
Give an example of a stem cell in an Adult
In bone marrow to make blood cells
What happens as a stem cell matures
it can no longer differentiate and their role stays with them for life
What is stem cell therapy
using stem cells to implant into damaged tissue and the stem cells will replace the damaged tissue
Why are embryonic stem cells better than Adult stem cells
because they can differenciate into many more types of cells
Give examples of 2 diseases that can be treated with stem cells
Parkinson and diabetes
Why is using embryonic stem cells controversial
because it destroys the embryo and some people consider the embryo to be life and therefore it is unethical to kill the embryo
Name the risks of stem cell therapy
- rejection of the stem cells
- adult stem cells may have mutations for other disease or become defective
- stem cells may impact adversely the immune system
- stem cells could cause the development of cancers
- unregulated sources of stem cells makes the treatments less effective and could be dangerous
What is a Genome
all of the DNA in a cell of an organism
When did the Human Genome project begin
1989
When was the results of the HGP announced
April 2003
What did the scientists do on the HGP
broke up chromosomes of cells to get at their DNA. They could they work out the sequences of bases used to make different proteins
What machine was used on the HGP to break up the DNA
sequencers
