This is a transcript of PM broadcast at 1800 AEST on local radio. It's a real possibility now that American scientists have grown brain cells from dead bodies. The breakthrough gives rise to the prospect that stem cells grown from cadavers could one day repair the damage caused by diseases like Alzheimers and Parkinsons.
Stem cells are the body's master cells.
They have the ability to grow into a wide variety of cells for various parts of the body and as David Mark reports, the work might also lessen the controversial demand for stem cells derived from embryos. Fred Gage is a Professor in Genetics at the Silk Institute in California. He's the man who's now grown brain cells from dead bodies. The most primitive of stem cell is the fertilised egg and that is an egg when it's fertilised with sperm forms what's called a zygote. That cell itself when implanted in the uterus can become a full blown child.