Isabella Murray Stem cells carry a vast potential for treating disease but they also come with hurdles that must be overcome to ensure their success and viability for treating disease. One challenging area is that involving a patient’s immune system. The challenges are also unusual because they mostly pertain to embryonic stem …
A bone marrow stem cell transplant uses stem cells derived from bone marrow to provide a fresh and healthy source of new blood cells which in turn, allows for a patient to receive higher doses of chemotherapy to treat certain types of cancer such as leukaemia. This ultimately means that …
It is an unfortunate reality that the therapies often holding the most potential also carry numerous queries regarding their safety. Stem cells are one such topic of concern – their potential to treat disease is exciting but their safety concerns have kept them from being approved for many treatments, despite …
While stem cell research is widely recognised and funded in the United Kingdom (UK), policies and efforts in other parts of the world vary a great deal. Stem cell policies specifically for UK research are covered in depth in the article titled Policies for Stem Cell Research. It’s interesting to …
The United Kingdom (UK) has shown considerable lead and strength in stem cell research. In fact, the UK government follows the premise that stem cell research provides vast potential to create new treatments for many serious diseases such as diabetes and heart disease. This recognition of stem cell potential to …
New harvesting techniques are crucial to successful stem cell research because they provide greater opportunities to treat diseases in a more unique case-by-case basis. They also provide ways to overcome challenges with current techniques as well as extending stem cell therapies to diseases that may otherwise have been untreatable by …
Stem cell therapy encompasses new technologies and therapies that aim to replace damaged cells with healthy new ones. Cells may be dysfunctional due to any number of reasons such as genetics, disease, injury or aging. Currently, stem cells offer the potential to treat cancer, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord injuries and …
When people think of the word ‘cloning’ they are often hit with frightening images of duplicate human beings being created in somewhat of a mad scientist style experiment. In fact, many members of the public were outraged when “Dolly” the sheep resulted from a cloning experiment in Scotland. Therapeutic cloning, …
A peripheral blood stem cell harvest is a technique used to restore a person’s blood cells after they have been damaged by chemotherapy or radiation. The procedure is often used to treat patients with either leukaemia or lymphoma cancer. Because the chemotherapy or radiation treatment damages healthy cells alongside cancer …
Although many people may think of a transplant to mean replacing a diseased organ with another one, such as in heart or liver transplants, stem cells have an important and often life saving use for treating disease. A stem cell transplant doesn’t involve surgery in the same sense as an …
