Stem cells from human sources can have a variety of useful applications in
disease treatment and biotechnology. More particularly the umbilical cord
matrix cell cultures of the invention have a variety of totipotent,
pluripotent, or multipotent cells for a variety of end uses from a
non-controversial, universally available, species-specific source. The
technology can have application to any amniotic animal, including
agricultural and laboratory animals and humans. The invention relates to
isolating the stem cells, culturing the stem cells, maintaining the stem
cells, transforming the stem cells into useful cell types using genetic
or other transformation technologies, stem cell and tissue banking and
using untransformed or transformed cells in disease treatment.