Reading About Stem Cells in Farsi: An Outreach Effort

California stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler has begun an effort to spread the word globally about stem cell research in languages ranging from Polish to Farsi.

Writing last week on his blog at UC Davis, Knoepfler said,

"I think stem cell technology will transform medicine across the globe, but it will take a concerted effort to make certain that stem cell-based therapies do not become a type of medicine only available to the relatively wealthy or predominantly available only to English speakers in the U.S. and around the world.

"Access is a key issue."

Knoepfler has kicked off his campaign with something he calls the Stem Cell Outreach Program for Education or SCOPE. The first entry is a short summary of key facts about stem cells and why people around the world should care about them.

The document is available in Chinese, Spanish, Portuguese, Farsi, Romanian, Polish and English. More languages are expected in coming weeks.

Knoepfler is also looking for web sites that can provide links to the material in order to make it available to the widest possible audience.


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