Embryonic stem cells are not actually used in practice yet, they are still an experimental biological tool harvested from donated embryos. Because of this they currently have no uses and all uses talked about are simply potential uses until proven that they work. One use that is proven is the stem cells original use, scientists know that the original use of a stem cell is to create other cells, many scientist speculate at being able to use stem cells to regenerate vital parts of the human anatomy, one i found frequently was spinal cord regrowth to help people regain the ability to walk.
Since their are so many avenues of medical science there are many speculative possibilities as to what could be done with these little cells. Now that the science is being helped rather than hindered due to new funding and less governmental opposition many of these avenues have dipped into what they could use these cells for.
This site talked about the possibly of using stem cells for early drug trials instead which would be much safer and potentially cheaper than animal trials. Human trials are still many many years away but the possibilities are vast.
Regenerative medicine is definitely the main focus or at least the area of research that has garnered the most attention, although there has been some interesting work on reversing the effects of cancer cells by using a stem cell framework.
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