Does the CMRI use human embryonic stem cells for research?
No human embryonic stem cells are used in any research at CMRI. CMRI believes there is much more to be learnt from mouse embryos and human adult stem cells (easily found and collected from adult tissue such as muscle and bone) before human embryos are considered for research purposes. CMRI has six research labs, studying different aspects of human genetics and development including cancer research and cell biology, muscle development, cell signalling in the brain, gene therapy and embryology. Our embryology lab studies the developing embryo and genes important in this process, however, we only use mouse embryos as a model to study human development. No human embryos or stem cells are used in any of our research at all. We have communicated our position on this important issue in previous issues of our newsletter ‘Under the Microscope’; these can be viewed in the Newsletters section of our website. There are messages from the “Director’s Desk” in the May 2002 and August 2002 and the Aug
