Stem Cell Programs

摘要

The U.S. National Institutes of Health place a high priority on support for research using human embryonic stem cells, as well as other types of stem cells, that will also be useful for basic, transla-tional, and clinical studies. Research using human embryonic stem cells offers the po- tential to inform us about the earliest molecular and cellular processes that regulate normal develop- ment and provides a tool to discover how a cell is able to be both pluripotent and indefinitely self-renewing. In addition, research using human embryonic stem cells will help the scientific community to understand the molecular signals that specify differentiation into specific cell types, some of which may ultimately be useful for cell-based treatment of disorders that involve loss of a specific cell type (such as type 1 diabetes or Parkinson's disease, to cite two of many examples).