It may sound like science fiction, but soon you will be able to "test run yourself in a dish," said Dr. Lorenz Studer, professor of developmental biology at the Sloan-Kettering Institute. "Now, for a few thousand dollars you can get your genome sequenced," he added, bringing us closer to giving our brain cells a test run in the lab.

Studer raised one of many ethical and scientific questions at the April 28 panel discussion "The Future of Stem Cells: Where Are We Headed?" in Malott Hall. The student-planned event was part of the third annual Sick in America Series, a weeklong array of lectures, discussions and documentaries focused on health care.

Studer explained that a type of stem cell called pluripotent stem cells "can basically make any cell type that's part of the body." Induced pluripotent stem cells, which have many therapeutic applications, are generated from "a differentiated cell, say a skin cell, from the individual," said panelist Robert Weiss, associate professor of molecular genetics at Cornell.

Some types of stem cells are already used therapeutically for chemotherapy patients, said panelist Michael Kotlikoff, the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. However, "we're much further away" from such areas of therapy as regeneration of damaged tissues, he added. Despite all the "hype," he said, there are still "major challenges before these cells can be effectively used."

One problem has been that the "inconsistency in decision-making from politicians creates reluctance from scientists to enter the field," said panelist Alexander Nikitin, M.D., associate professor of pathology and leader of the Stem Cell Program at Cornell. Scientists either don't do stem cell research or "the brightest and smartest" go to such countries as Australia or the United Kingdom where regulations are more lax, he added.

Studer agreed, noting that "it's really important that we have stable government support" since grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) lend credibility to research. But according to Kotlikoff, "There's a political element to every one of these decisions" by the government of what research to fund. He called the NIH "prone to exuberant enthusiasm," for example, investing in human clinical trials and giving the public "a false sense of hope about what really the outcome from these trials could be."

Since induced pluripotent stem cells are unregulated, "there are so many labs that have actually moved into studying them in the past few years," observed Vimal Selvaraj, Cornell assistant professor of animal science. In contrast to earlier research that was surrounded by inflated expectations but had a low success rate, he said, "now what we are seeing is the real progress, because people are coming back from thinking too far ahead and working on the very fundamentals" of how stem cells can be practically used.

Addressing the audience of aspiring physicians and scientists, Kotlikoff noted that "it's easy to get a little bit disillusioned by some of the hype." However, being a research doctor "is a terrific career," he added. "You actually make progress and see progress in your lifetime -- medicine constantly improves."

The Sick in America series was presented by the Cornell Undergraduate Health Cooperative, an umbrella organization for Cornell's many health-related clubs, as well as other student groups across campus.

Joseph Mansky '12 is a writer intern for the Cornell Chronicle.