• Question: How many years will it take for stem cell research to develop into the stage where it is openly availible as treatment?

    Asked by mehrab to Anzy, Aoife, Dave, Matt, Tomasz on 12 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Matthew Tomlinson

      Matthew Tomlinson answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi mehrab

      There are some treatments which use stem cells already, leukaemia patients can have blood stem cell treatment after chemotherapy for example. Closer to my heart is the use of stem cells to help heal broken bones which have not healed normally. These treatments use a combination of cells, a scaffold, chemical treatments and metal pins and plates to help heal the broken bone. At the moment the cells are not just stem cells and one of things I am trying to do is improve the bone healing ability of these cells by removing unhelpful cells like white blood cells.

      However the majority of stem cell treatments are still a little way off and really depends on far on the research is at this time. For example I can see skin treatments based on stem cells being available in the next 5 years as this area has been researched a lot, whereas other organs like the lungs may be a lot further off. Overall though I would say that for most tissue types there will be some sort of stem cell based therapy within the next 20 years.

    • Photo: Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan

      Aoife O'Shaughnessy-Kirwan answered on 12 Nov 2013:

      Hi mehrab,
      I agree with what Matt has said. There is one other treatment I know of that’s been done and that’s growing a new cornea for damaged eyes, which is pretty cool. I also recently saw a talk from a guy working on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy who is taking a cell therapy through clinical trials now, but again it may be a number of years before a therapy like that is widely available. The same can be said for the treatment of Cystic Fibrosis, where clinical trials are also currently ongoing.

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