REAL LIFE NEWS: NEW WAY TO MAKE STEM CELLS COULD REVOLUTIONISE MEDICINE
by Hazed
Stem cells are the cells that can become any type of cell, and thus have huge potential for medical treatments. Now researchers have come up with a way to make them quickly and easily, which could herald a new age of personalised medicine.
Stem cells are already being trialled for use in healing the eye, the heart and the brain but it can take months to create the necessary cells from a skin sample.
The new method involves dripping blood cells into acid, which is a lot cheaper, faster and safer. A new study shows that by shocking blood cells with acid, it can trigger a transformation into stem cells. Researchers have demonstrated this effect with mouse blood cells, and are now trying it with human blood to see if they get the same results.
If it does work for humans then this opens up a whole lot of possibilities of using a patient’s blood to create their own personalised stem cells which could then be used in a number of different treatments.
This really could be a game-changer.