• Question: could you turn stem cells into cells that do other things outside the body such as helping crops by making it into water?

    Asked by jkxbl to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 16 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hi Jkxbl. I don’t think you can because if we use human cells they can only make other human cells because they only have human genes. We can put different genes in so it might be possible to make non-human type cells. However things like water are easier to make using chemical reactions, or using genetic modification to make crops better adapted to certain environments.

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      Hey jkxbl,
      No, you can only really use stem cells for treatment inside the body, they would not be able to help crops, it’s a great idea tho!!

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      oooh, ive never thought of that. what a wonderfully investigatory mind you have jkxbl!

      You can’t turn cells into water because they are completely different things, but you can manipulate crop cells themselves (thats what Genetic Modification is). You couldnt turn stem cells into plant cells because again they are very different have have different structures. Some scientists at manchester are writing computer programs to mimic crop growth to understand what happens in conditions of drought etc and how we can help the world prepare for changes in the climate

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