| Summary: | In organizing the symposium, it was the intention to bring together scientists working on stem cells in different organisms to understand some common principles, hoping that discussions would lead to more realistic expectations of the fruits of this emerging field of biology. The 21st century, already heralded as the "century of the gene," carries great promise for alleviating suffering from disease and improving human health. But new and highly experimental technologies have inherent risks and uncertainties. Scientists must find a balance between excitement and eagerness, problem and promise, hope and hype. In addition to resolving the confusion around definition of terms and the lineage restriction of adult stem cells there were several talks on human ES cell biology focused on the pluripotent cells of the inner cell mass that can give rise to all cell types of the body. Another related area covered at the Symposium was cloning by nuclear transfer (reproductive cloning). This term refers to the transfer of the genetic information in the nucleus of a somatic cell, like a skin cell, into an unfertilized egg, which can then be induced to give rise to a full organism with the genetic content of the donor of the somatic cells
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