Studies developed by researchers at Ohio State University believe they have come up with a method to mass-produce embryonic stem cells. Because Federal rules currently forbid federal funding of research into human embryonic stem cell lines that are not listed within the National Institutes of Health's Human Embryonic Stem Cell Registry, demand for such stem cell lines is growing. Traditional laboratory methods used to grow such cells are expensive, and quite slow, and there are not enough supplies of such to address the growing demand in embryonic stem cell research.

"We have to find a way to mass produce them, because traditional cell culturing methods can't meet the projected high market demand for stem cells," says Professor Shang-Tian Yang of the Chemical and Bimolecular Engineering at Ohio State University. He and a fellow colleague attempted to grow embryonic stem cells from mice in a bioreactor, and were pleasantly surprised to realize a significant growth increase within a two-week period. Excited by the results, Yang believes the mass production of such cells could reduce the cost of stem cell production by as much as 80%.

Embryonic stem cells are capable of growing into any type of the body's 200 different types of cell tissues. Cells grown in such a manner could last for much longer, and researchers are developing ways to program embryonic stem cells to differentiate, or morph, into specific types of cells.

Yang in his colleague presented their findings recently in San Diego's national meeting of the American Chemical Society.