Stem cells

> Insights into the advances in stem cell research and therapy

pluripotent stem cells, which held incredible potential for regenerative medicine and before that was only accessible via a controversial procedure that involved retrieval from blastocysts (embryo). provided researchers access to the mechanism of this molecular disease (something which was not accessible before because it was buried deep inside the brain), which will perhaps lead to improved diagnostics (earlier) and drug discovery for the disease.

Gu says that Yamanaka’s discovery will also transform the way doctors tackle disease. “In the last century, life expectancy was dramatically prolonged because of the advantage of pharmacology. Its role was to pull back a functional disorder. In this century, we are seeing more advancement in regenerative medicine. So if there’s some abnormal cell function, we could potentially introduce new cells to return normal cell function (through differentiation).” repair and many more.

There has been recent evidence that stem cell can be used to tackle genetic diseases too. “Genetic disorders, because its inherent cannot be treated using chemicals. By using IPS technology, we can introduce the right gene code cell into the body to normalise the function.” The idea is to carry out gene modification on stem cells. When they contain normal gene code, the stem cells are returned to the body where these cells can differentiate to normal cell. It will then carry out normal function and replace the diseased cell. “This is an example of how stem cell can be easily combined with gene therapy and in fact increase safety of gene therapy treatments.”

In addition, last month, the US FDA approved CAR-T technology, which is used to treat B-type lymphoma. “Before people used to think, that when it comes to cancer, the only option is surgery and chemotherapy. Now, there’s a new therapy out, which uses the immune system to treat cancer. Immunotherapy like CAR-T can really reverse most cases of B-type lymphoma.”

CAR-T or Chimeric Antigen Receptors are actually antibodies retrieved from a patient’s blood, then modified to have specific protein receptors to allow these cells to recognise and destroy cancer cells.

“At the moment, the CAR