, they become specialized tissue that can be used to model different diseases.)
After stem cells grow for 30 days in culture medium (red), they become specialized tissue that can be used to model different diseases.
Image: Photograph by Grant Delin
In Brief
- Still waiting: Stem cells from embryos hold promise for treating incurable conditions; however, investigators have not so far made much progress in deriving therapies from stem cells.
- A new idea: Rather than focusing on treatments, a few researchers think stem cells are better suited—for now—to help screen for drugs and to investigate how different diseases damage the body.
- Creative approach: Until recently, the stem cells needed to pursue this idea were made using embryos. But in 2007 scientists managed to reprogram adult human cells into stem cells.
- Customized stem cells: Researchers are using these reprogrammed cells to re-create various diseases in a petri dish. Then they can test potential drugs against the refashioned tissue samples.
More In This Article
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Overview
More on IPS cells
On June 26, 2007, Wendy Chung, director of clinical genetics at Columbia University, drove to the New York City borough of Queens with a delicate request for the Croatian matriarchs of a star-crossed family. She asked the two sisters, one 82 and the other 89, if they would donate some of their skin cells for an ambitious, highly uncertain experiment that, if it succeeded, promised a double payoff. One, it might accelerate the search for treatments for the incurable disease that ran in their family. Two, it might establish a valuable new use for stem cells: unspecialized cells able to give rise to many different kinds of cells in the body. “We had a very nice lunch and literally went back to the house and took the biopsies,” Chung remembers. As they sat around the dining-room table, the elderly sisters were “very happy sticking out their arms,” recalls the daughter of the 82-year-old woman. The younger sister told Chung: “I get it. Go right ahead.”
The sisters suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a degenerative and slowly paralyzing nerve disorder that is also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, after the Yankee slugger who was told he had it in 1939 and died two years later. The 89-year-old showed few signs of the disease, whereas her 82-year-old sister had trouble walking and swallowing.
This article was originally published with the title Diseases in a Dish.
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3 Comments
Add CommentIf they can grow the affected cells in a petri dish, can they then repair the genetic defect and reinject the cells into the body? If so, would the repaired cell lines eventually displace the defective cell lines and result in a healthy organ?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisScience has been experimenting with cloning and they have not realized that there is a cell orbiting nuclei speed difference between young and old cells. The longevity of Dolly the Sheep is minimal and will find the same of cells produced by ‘T’ cells of maturity. Science, however, has realized that Stem Cells from our babies work better and won’t realize why until they read my paper.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHair follicles contain stem cells.
The same would be found in cuticles of the fingernail – The thing here is that to grow new STUPH, cell division must take place. Fast orbiting nucleus nuclei such as fetus, hair follicle or fingernail cuticle (instigating cell division) would help in cell division of cells in a packed state.
Because of inflammation again causing cell packing, the success rate of this will be low.
No matter what is used, AURA of adjoining cells will influence and change (clone) the new substance (as long as it’s same species).The big problem is controlling inflammation.
All that AURA of an amputee that is just going to waste, is now, with the help of New Technology and a open minded surgeon, capable of growing a new limb or whatever (blood) and stem cells of any kind are not required!
cbc.ca bruce voigt
Neocell Laboratories in South Africa is a private biotech accredited laboratory. We do cell culturing and would be prepared to do drug testing for pharmaceutical companies on request. Please contact us at +27219794605 or marcelle@neocell.biz for collaboration.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe director