human cell foundation for all life

let us look at a foundation for all life, the cell. Let's look at a human cell, since all of us who will read this will be human, and thus we all have cells in common. Some of us were told in school that cells are a simple structure, however we have learned in the last decade or so that actually cells are extremely complex structures and they even contain complex structures in them!
Here are a few complex parts of cells that are common to every cell in every species.

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is the molecule that contains the chemical instructions for cells to manufacture various proteins.


Chromosome – a carrier of genes and one of the 46 molecules of DNA. It comes in 23 pairs, and is found in each cell in the human body, together contains all the genes. These chromosomes contain the instructions to make all the proteins that are needed. Other species contain more or fewer chromosomes. One member of each pair of the 23 pairs comes from the gamete of each parent.


Gene – Is the basic unit for the transmission of heredity, consisting of a string of chemicals coding for the manufacture of certain proteins. The instructions from the 46 chromosomes are organized into genes on the chromosome. Each gene is a separate section of a chromosome, and every gene contains instructions for specific proteins. Each gene has chemicals (amino acids) that are paired and then arranged in groups of three (triplets). Genes direct the creation of 20 types of amino acids.

Also consider this:
Human genome – Is the full set of all the 25,000 or so genes on 46 chromosomes that are the instructions for making a human. There is a genome for every species, even plants. Every human except for mono zygotic twins has a slightly different code, otherwise the human genome is 99.99% the same for any two people.

Is there any one out there who can tell me that how by chance amino acids would ever get together and form genes, and then form chromosomes, and then make DNA? Also explain to me why these complex structures whose instructions are specific would randomly do anything, let alone randomly form a whole different creature from what is currently is? The purpose of the DNA of the cell is to guide it to do what needs to be done. A muscular cell does not try to think, nor does a hair cell try to flex. Most cells also reproduce; you do not have blood cells try to make a cell for the stomach. Yes, we do occasionally we have cancer cells, a group of cells that are similar to normal cells yet abnormal and uncontrollably multiply and destroy healthy tissues. However from cancer we do not find another whole species being created. There was a cellular malfunction. This look at cells is a very crude and simple glance; I am not doing it justice. Yet can you deny the complexity of the cell?

How about looking at a different cell, or just one part of a different cell; the flagellum motor of a bacterium. The flagellum is a hair like structure on bacteria that propels a bacterium around.

human embryonic stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells have been cultured under chemically controlled conditions without the use of animal substances, which is essential for future clinical uses. The method has been developed by researchers at Karolinska Institute and is presented in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

Embryonic stem cells can be turned into any other type of cell in the body and have potential uses in treatments where sick cells need to be replaced. One problem, however, is that it is difficult to culture and develop human embryonic stem cells without simultaneously contaminating them. They are currently cultured with the help of proteins from animals, which rules out subsequent use in the treatment of humans. Alternatively the stem cells can be cultured on other human cells, known as feeder cells, but these release thousands of uncontrolled proteins and therefore lead to unreliable research results.

A research team at the Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, Karolinska Institute has now managed to produce human stem cells entirely without the use of other cells or substances from animals. Instead they are cultured on a matrix of a single human protein: laminin-511.

"Now, for the first time, we can produce large quantities of human embryonic stem cells in an environment that is completely chemically defined," says professor Karl Tryggvason, who led the study.

"This opens up new opportunities for developing different types of cell which can then be tested for the treatment of disease."

Together with researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, the researchers have also shown that in the same way they can culture what are known as reprogrammed stem cells, which have been converted back from tissue cells to stem cells.

Laminin-511 is part of our connective tissue and acts in the body as a matrix to which cells can attach. In the newly formed embryo, the protein is also needed to keep stem cells as stem cells. Once the embryo begins to develop different types of tissue, other types of laminin are needed.

Until now, different types of laminin have not been available to researchers, because they are almost impossible to extract from tissues and difficult to produce. Over the last couple of decades, Karl Tryggvason’s research group has cloned the genes for most human laminins, studied their biological role, described two genetic laminin diseases and, in recent years, even managed to produce several types of laminin using gene technology. In this latest experiment, the researchers produced the laminin-511 using recombinant techniques.