Editor's note: Madeleine Howell-Moroney created the above image for this article. You can find the full image and all relevant information here.

When James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin announced in 1998 that he had derived and cultured human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), Americans widely believed—and accepted—that

The purpose of regenerative medicine, especially tissue engineering, is to replace damaged tissue with new tissue that will allow the body to resume normal function. The uniqueness of tissue engineering is that it can restore normal structure in addition to repairing tissue function, and is often accomplished using

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are studied carefully by scientists not just because they are a potential source of stem cells that circumvents ethical controversy involved with experimentation on human embryos, but also because of their unique potential to advance the field of

The recent development of

Nightlight Christian Adoptions et al. v. Thompson et al. was a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on 8 March 2001. The suit was filed because

Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that are capable of dividing for long periods of time and can give rise to specialized cells under particular conditions. Embryonic stem cells are a particular type of stem cell derived from

In November 1998, two independent reports were published concerning the first isolation of pluripotent human stem cells, one of which was “Derivation of Pluripotent Stem Cells from Cultured Human Primordial Germ Cells.” This paper, authored by

According to the US