>>23945316Not that you actually care, but here's what gemini has to say:
Research on embryonic stem cells (ESCs) has significantly advanced modern medicine by
providing a unique platform to study early human development, model complex diseases, and develop regenerative therapies. Because they are pluripotent, these "blank slate" cells can differentiate into any of the 200+ cell types in the body, a capability not naturally found in adult stem cells.
Key advancements include:
-Disease Modeling: Researchers use ESCs to watch how diseases develop at a cellular level. For example, scientists have created models for Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, and ALS to identify molecular causes and potential therapeutic targets.
-Regenerative Medicine: ESCs are being used in clinical trials to replace damaged or lost cells.
-Type 1 Diabetes: Scientists have successfully guided ESCs to become insulin-producing beta cells, offering hope for restoring natural insulin production.
-Heart Failure: ESC-derived cardiomyocytes (heart muscle cells) have been used in research to repair damaged heart tissue after myocardial infarctions.
-Vision Loss: ESC-derived retinal cells are being tested to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and severe vision loss.
-Spinal Cord Injury: The world’s first hESC-derived therapy targeted spinal cord injuries, showing MRI evidence of tissue formation and functional improvement in trial participants.
-Drug Discovery and Safety Testing: ESCs allow for the testing of new medicines on human-specific tissues—such as lab-grown heart or liver cells—before human trials. This helps identify potential toxicity or effectiveness more accurately than animal models.
-Foundational Science: Experimentation on ESCs led directly to the development of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPSCs), which are reprogrammed adult cells that act like embryonic cells, bypassing many of the original ethical concerns.
