Blood stem cell hopes

SCIENTISTS have grown blood stem cells in a laboratory dish for the first time, raising hope for cancer patients.

After more than 20 years of trying, scientists can now create master cells that can turn into white and red blood cells.

In the long-term they could replace blood banks which rely on people giving blood.

But researchers’ main hope is that people could grow their own blood cells, used instead of bone marrow transplants to fight cancer and leukaemia.

Scientists have been able to grow brain and heart cells from adult skin cells for years, but blood cells have been trickier.