The future for stem cell research

Stem cells have offered much hope by promising to greatly extend the numbers and range of patients who could benefit from transplants, and to provide cell replacement therapy to treat debilitating diseases such as diabetes, Parkinson's and Huntington's disease. The issue of stem cell research is politically charged, prompting biologists to begin engaging in ethical debates, and generating in the general public an unusually high level of interest in this aspect of biology. But excitement notwithstanding, there is a long way to go in basic research before new therapies will be established, and now the pressure is on for scientists and clinicians to deliver.