Go here-
www.wikipedia.com
and type in "Stem Cell Research"

May have a little more medical jargon than you want, but wikipedia usually explains things very nicely.

__________________
WELL AMERICANS, WHAT?
NOTHIN BETTER TO DO?
WHY DON'T YOU KICK YOURSELF OUT?
YOU'RE AN IMMIGRANT TOO.

As an undergraduate student getting a degree in Bioengineering, many of the classes I've taken have covered stem-cells to one degree or another, with one elective class exclusively covering stem-cells and potential products from stem-cells.

Right now, from personal experience, the naysayers of stem-cell research seem to equate stem-cells with the certain destruction of embryos, and by extension equating it with abortions. This is a very misinformed stance!

The type of stem cells which require destruction of embryos are Embryonic Stem Cells (ES). These are the most promising source of stem cells, as they are pluripotent (can give rise to all cells within the body besides reproductive cells) and are more importantly self-renewing and immortal, meaning they can divide indefinitely. Problems with ES right now are that creating the micro-environment to induce them to differentiate into specific cells is very difficult to do, and so far has not been very successful. Furthermore, since the cells are immortal, they can potentially be a cause for cancer. Also, since ES cells come from a donor, implantation into a patient can cause an immune response.

However, ES cells are not the only stem cells worth studying! Already studies done with Mesenchymal Stem Cells (MSC) are showing great promise in treating degenerate neural disorders such as ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and Multiple Sclerosis. These cells are found in bone marrow, and are more importantly autologus, which means it comes from the patients own body (and no worry for an immune response!)! Furthermore, since they cannot give rise to as many different kinds of cells as ES cells, inducing them to differentiate is not as difficult. The downside is that they are not immortal, but so far show decent self-renewing capabilities where growing them in-vitro (out of the body) is not so much of a concern. In fact for many diseases plaguing humans, Adult Stem Cells such as MSC, Neural Stem Cells, and Cord-Blood cells have shown greater promise than Embryonic Stem Cells, and therefore no need to be destroying fetuses.

The world of stem-cells is very exciting, as diseases in which current medicine can only slow down now have potential cures. We're talking about a host of diseases, from Type II diabetes, to Multiple Sclerosis, to Hunington's and even Alzeihmer's Disease. Stem-cells have even been showing some promise in tackling heart disease, the number one killer disease! I can tell you as a student studying the subject, it's very thrilling to be at the cutting edge of new medicine!

Thank you for that! It was very informative.

__________________
WELL AMERICANS, WHAT?
NOTHIN BETTER TO DO?
WHY DON'T YOU KICK YOURSELF OUT?
YOU'RE AN IMMIGRANT TOO.

I heard somewhere that you had to submit like a virus into people to get it? What's up with that?

You mean submit a virus to get a stem cell?

No! Not with stem cells!

Using viruses is more for gene therapy. A virus is just a capsule that contains DNA. In gene therapy, when they want to repair a faulty segment of DNA that is causing some debilitating genetic disorder, they'll impose the corrected DNA into a virus and have it fuse a host cell. It's shown some success in SCID ("bubble boy sydrome") where faulty DNA has caused a protein which filters the blood to not be expressed, henceforth causing the need to live in a very sterile environment.