Regenerative Medicine

On July 15, 2007, in Regenerative Medicine

For the first time, human embryonic and fetal stem cells have successfully treated a human disease, albeit in mice. The researchers want to move quickly to human trials. The question will be whether it is more moral to protect cells taken from discarded embryos that will never reach infancy, than to suffer little children to […]

Regenerative Medicine – Genetics

On March 20, 2007, in Genetics Regenerative Medicine

New understanding of the genetics of immune system cells could lead to better-targeted therapies for some major diseases, including diabetes, lupus (note advances in lupus treatments covered elsewhere in this issue), and rheumatoid arthritis. New genetic understandings also open up new avenues of potential cancer therapies. For example, the discovery that genetically damaging an already […]

Regenerative Medicine – Tissue Engineering/Stem Cell Therapies

On March 20, 2007, in Regenerative Medicine

Tissue engineering, already on a roll at Wake Forest University’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine, is adding heart valves to the list of body parts (bladders and blood vessels are already available) likely to become staples of regenerative medicine. One angineered heart valve was grown in the lab from a type of stem cell found in […]

Regenerative Medicine

On November 20, 2006, in Regenerative Medicine

Serious money is finally going into one of the most exciting of all developments in healthcare: human limb and organ regeneration. The US Department of Health and Human Services thinks “tissue on demand” will be here by 2020, and meaningful regenerative therapies will arrive sooner — within five to ten years. A phase II trial […]

Regenerative & Personalized Medicine

On May 21, 2006, in Regenerative Medicine

In a major milestone for regenerative medicine, the regeneration of torn knee ligament has been achieved in dogs. Despite its slow start, another form of regenerative medicine — gene therapy — is advancing, with a gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy underway, and with the discovery of the genetic foundation for fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP), […]

Regenerative Medicine

On March 21, 2006, in Regenerative Medicine

The possibility of tissue and organ regeneration through the use of adult stem cells with the pluripotent properties of embryonic stem cells has advanced significantly, for men at least, with their creation (in a mouse model) from cells abundant in the testes. We have also found a way to cultivate adult stem cells prolifically in […]

Tissue Engineering & Regeneration

On November 6, 2005, in Regenerative Medicine

With lots of help from stem cells, tissue engineering and regeneration is growing up fast. Tissue-engineered skin and cartilage are already here, and starting next year replacement bladders engineered from adult stem cells will likely join them. Windpipes engineered from adult stem cells have cured lamb fetuses of windpipe defects from which they might otherwise […]