The drafted guidelines set specific criteria for research and call for establishment of a "Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Review Group, " which would document and monitor compliance.

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Her enthusiasm for the promise of adult stem cell therapies and induced pluripotent stem cells (adult cells that have been reprogrammed into stem cells) was evident.

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A. A stem cell is a pluripotent cell, meaning a cell that can develop into any kind of tissue.

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Induced pluripotent stem cells can come from any cell in the human body, including skin cells, so they don't have the moral quandaries surrounding them.

CNN: Cloning stem cells: What does it mean?

Defenders of embryonic stem cell work say that it is important even in understand adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, which resemble the embryonic cells but can be created without destroying embryos.

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While cloning stem cells is a technical breakthrough, there's already a method of deriving embryonic-like stem cells that doesn't require the use of embryos at all: induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, said Dr. George Daley, who is director of the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at Children's Hospital Boston and an international expert in stem cells.

CNN: Cloning stem cells: What does it mean?

Since that time, more advanced cloning technologies have evolved, including the iPS system of induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be grown from nearly any skin cell.

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Embryonic stem cells are advantageous in research because they can be grown more easily than adult stem cells in a culture, and are pluripotent, meaning they can develop into any of the various cell types of the body, according to the National Institutes of Health.

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