Scientists cultivate stem cells in the laboratory

Scientists have achieved a major breakthrough in efforts to culture human cells, with this week's publication of the first successful harvesting of stem cells from human embryos and their culture in the laboratory. The step opens up the possibility of using stem cells to grow a wide variety of other types of cell that make up the human body.

For more than 15 years scientists around the world have been exploring the unique qualities of pluripotent stem cells, which form within days after an egg is fertilised by a sperm and begin multiplying to become an embryo. These cells possess …