Stem cell everything Stem cell research is too large an area to
review in its entirety, but in 2012 more than any other year
since their stumbling entry to the world stage, stem cells have
proven to be a vitally important part of our quest to master all
disease. The problem posed by embryonic stem cells, which
provided total pluripotency, has been largely solved by the
ability to roll back adult cells to more stem-y versions (this
was the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine). As a result, research has
lurched forward like a dog let slip, and the results are already
exciting to say the least. Stem cells have let researchers treat
multiple sclerosis in mice or ease a certain sort of blindness.
A patient’s stem cells can be used to repair damaged heart
tissue following heart attack, or just grow some new ones from
nothing more than a skin sample. Stem cells can grow us an
organ, and they can increase that organ’s chance of acceptance
by the body. They can be programmed to seek out viruses, like
HIV. Perhaps most exciti