Vatican backs adult stem cell research with $2.7M

The Vatican will donate $2.7 million to a University of Maryland's School of Medicine project that will harvest and study intestinal adult stem cells. Researchers there want to see if they can coax the stem cells to grow outside the body and determine if the cells are pluripotent--that is, if the intestinal cells can grow into other types of cells. The Vatican is opposed to embryonic stem cell research, which the church says destroys human life. But it supports adult stem cell research and has urged the scientific community to explore them as an alternative to embryonic cells. Report