The Stability Of The Differentiated State

Recent scientific breakthroughs, celebrity patient advocates, and conflicting religious beliefs have come together to bring the state of stem cell researchâ€"specifically embryonic stem cell researchâ€"into the political crosshairs. President Bush's watershed policy statement allows federal funding for embryonic stem cell research but only on a limited number of stem cell lines. Millions of Americans could be affected by the continuing political debate among policymakers and the public. Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine provides a deeper exploration of the biological, ethical, and funding questions prompted by the therapeutic potential of undifferentiated human cells. In terms accessible to lay readers, the book summarizes what we know about adult and embryonic stem cells and discusses how to go about the transition from mouse studies to research that has therapeutic implications for people. Perhaps most important, Stem Cells and the Future of Regenerative Medicine also provides an overview of the moral and ethical problems that arise from the use of embryonic stem cells. This timely book compares the impact of public and private research funding and discusses approaches to appropriate research oversight. Based on the insights of leading scientists, ethicists, and other authorities, the book offers authoritative recommendations regarding the use of existing stem cell lines versus new lines in research, the important role of the federal government in this field of research, and other fundamental issues.

Over the past few decades numerous scientists have called for a unification of the fields of embryo development, genetics, and evolution. Each field has glaring holes in its ability to explain the fundamental phenomena of life. In this book, the author shows how the phenomenon of cell differentiation, considered in its temporal and spatial aspects during embryogenesis, provides a starting point for a unified theory of multicellular organisms (plants, fungi and animals), including their evolution and genetics. This unification is based on the recent discovery of differentiation waves by the author and his colleagues, described in the appendices, and illustrated by a flip movie prepared by a medical artist. To help the reader through the many fields covered, a glossary is included.This book will be of great value to the researcher and practicing doctors/scientists alike. The research students will receive an in-depth tutorial on the topics covered. The seasoned researcher will appreciate the applications and the gold mine of other possibilities for novel research topics.

The informational content of cells is encoded in the nucleotide sequences of their DNA. The restrictions on base pairing- A pairing with T (U), and G pairing with C - in nature assures the fidelity of replication of DNA in cell division, and of transcription. In the test tube, these restrictions can be exploited for ascertaining similarities and dissimilarities of nucleic acids of varying origin by measuring the kinetics of reassociation of polynucleotides to double-stranded molecules in DNA DNA renaturation or RNA-DNA hybridization experiments, and by determining the thermal stability and other physical-chemical properties of the resulting hybrid molecules. This method has enormous potential for developmental biology. It offers a more direct approach to the ever-present question of the genetic identity of different cell types in an individual organism, and a more direct test of the hypothesis of diffe rential gene function. It offers the possibility of localizing genes on chromosomes without the use of Mendelian genetics. It is an indispensable tool in the isolation, purification, and characterization of genes. This volume brings together six articles by investigators actively working on various aspects of developmental biology who use nucleic acid hybridization as a tool in their research. Sound in theory, the method is in a honing phase as regards the technical detail. This is expressed in the hesitation with which some of the conclusions are rightly drawn.

This lucid, well structured and jargon-free book provides an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the processes involved in gene expression and the mechanisms by which such expression is regulated. New information on how viruses modify host gene regulation has been included in this new edition. Methods used to analyze gene expression have also been given more attention, with a new section added on methods for examining DNA binding by transcriptional factors.