Scientists of the MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine organised a successful dialogue based event at the Big Ideas programme of the Edinburgh International Science Festival on Wednesday 14 April 2010 about the real issues in stem cell research.

Can induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells PS cells – the latest major breakthrough in stem cell science – be used to treat Parkinson’s? Can we develop safe treatments now? What does science say?

The audience got to vote if a fictional clinical trial using iPS cells to treat Parkinson's was to go ahead or not. They based their opinion on news articles, short film clips and talks of researchers Professor Sir Ian Wilmut, Professor Siddharthan Chandran and Dr Tilo Kunath.

Eleanor Bradford, Health correspondent for BBC Scotland chaired the event.