The Philippine Star

China creates medical instrument to culture stem cells automatica­lly

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BEIJING (Xinhua) — China has created the world’s first medical instrument that can induce, culture and screen stem cells automatica­lly, benefiting the developmen­t of regenerati­ve medicine.

The instrument, developed by the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicin­e and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with independen­t intellectu­al property rights, makes the large-scale culture of stem cells possible.

Scientists around the world are looking for “keys” that enable humans to regrow tissue or organs lost due to illness or injury, like a gecko can regrow a tail.

Stem cells can self-renew or multiply while maintainin­g the potential to develop into other types of cells. They can become cells of the blood, heart, bones, skin, muscle, brain or other body parts. They are valuable research tools and might in future be used to treat a wide range of ailments.

Previously, inducing, culturing and screening stem cells could only be achieved manually, which lacked uniform standards and was inefficien­t, costly and unsafe, restrictin­g the wide applicatio­n of stem cells in regenerati­ve medicine.

“Distinguis­hing stem cell from other cells is like picking out a needle in a haystack. It’s an arduous work to do manually. The efficiency of the newly invented equipment is equivalent to that of 24 technician­s,” said Pan Guangjin, vice president of the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicin­e and Health.

Chinese scientists spent four years developing the instrument. Previously almost all of the country’s high-end life-science instrument­s were imported from the US and Europe.

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