The paper was published online ahead of print and is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.

The great promise of embryonic stem cells for treating a range of human diseases will only be realized through combined research on human ES cells and studies in animal models. Intensive research and protocol development using ES cells derived from rhesus monkey embryos would greatly contribute to and accelerate the optimization of techniques for transforming human stem cells into safe and functional cells, tissues, and organs for replacement therapy.

Commonly studied mouse ES cells are not very good models for human ES cells, and research on mouse cells makes a limited contribution to our understanding and ability to work with human ES cells, contend Barry Bavister, Ph.D., Don Wolf, Ph.D., and Carol Brenner, Ph.D., of the University of New Orleans and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, and authors of the paper entitled, "Challenges of Primate Embryonic Stem Cell Research."

"In this Opinion Piece, the authors make a powerful case for additional research with non-human primate embryo stem cells in parallel with those on human embryo stem and adult stem cells," says Ian Wilmut, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of Cloning and Stem Cells and Head of the Department of Gene Expression and Development at the Roslin Institute.

"As the authors point out, working with an experimental animal is the only way to gain all the information needed about the biology of normal stem cells in a primate. As all human embryo stem cells are obtained from embryos produced during in vitro fertilization procedures, it is possible that they are all affected by the period of embryo culture," Wilmut says. "The present culture regimes are known to cause changes in the embryos that may persist in embryo stem cells. By contrast, rhesus monkey cells have been derived from embryos recovered from mated donors. Furthermore, it would be possible to assess the use of cells to treat disease in an animal model with similar physiology to humans and a longer lifespan than the mouse."

Cloning and Stem Cells is an authoritative peer-reviewed journal published quarterly in print and online that focuses on understanding developmental plasticity and defining the molecular mechanisms that regulate differentiation or dedifferentiation of nuclei and cells. Tables of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online at www.liebertpub.com/clo.

Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Human Gene Therapy, Stem Cells and Development, and Tissue Engineering. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at www.liebertpub.com.

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