On January 15th our class had a Skype call with Charis Walko, a stem cell researcher in Vancouver. She has a degree with stuff relating to liver stem cells and has done multiple drug screenings. During the Skype chat she explains to the class about what exactly she does for her job. I was not there during the discussion but I did get a chance to watch a brief video of some of the questions being asked and answered. I would of liked to been there for the discussion because the Skype chat would of been a good way for me to ask any questions I was unsure about before the test.

Questions asked during Skype call:

1) “What types of diseases can be treated with Stem Cells?”
Answer: “Lots and lots of diseases can be treated, and right now there are about 80 diseases that can be treated with stem cells, and most of them are associated with blood disorders, like leukaemia or embryonic. Blood is one of the stem cells which is actually easy to put back into the body. In order to come up with other diseases that can currently be treated with stem cells is also cornea disease, but there is lots of research to try and see if we can renew muscle, or neurons in the brain.”

2) “What was the biggest controversy with stem cells?”
Answer: “The embryonic stem cells controversy, which is the research of embryo cells. Most people question the ethnics of this and believe the research is done involving the development and destruction of human embryos”