Currently, patients who require a stem cell transplant often have to wait months while doctors generate enough stem cells to give them a suitable dose.  A new platform has just been approved by the FDA which will speed this process up, generating billions of stem cells in a matter of days.

This new platform has been developed by researchers at the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Regenerative Medicine.  It is expected to make stem cell research easier and allow doctors to organise stem cell transplants for patients much more quickly.

Stem cells are highly valuable because of their ability to transform into other types of cells. Pluripotent stem cells, for example, can transform into virtually every other type of cell, including bone cells, brain cells, lung cells, and skin cells.  Scientists have been using this characteristic to develop new stem cell treatments to cure conditions including macular degeneration, certain forms of cancer, heart disease and autoimmune conditions.

The new platform manufactures billions of stem cells from a patient’s bone marrow.  The stem cells can be processed before being transplanted back into the patient to treat many different conditions.  The process can also be used to create stem cells from a donor.

Dr. Guojun Bu explains why the platform is so important: “The new platform represents a giant leap in regenerative medicine, in which stem cells currently are being investigated as treatments for wide-ranging medical conditions.”

Researchers will now be able to quickly create stem cells for use in their research projects.  This will increase the rate of progress in many different stem cell research projects and lead to many new stem cell breakthroughs in the coming years.

Source: Newly FDA-Approved Platform Will Rapidly “Manufacture” Stem Cells to Repair Our Bodies

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