TORONTO – Canadian scientists have made a major breakthrough in isolating stem cells to treat cancer and other debilitating diseases.
The research, published Thursday in the scientific news journal Science, opens the door to more clinical use for the life-producing cells.
Scientists hope the discovery will help develop better and more effective treatments for heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease and spinal cord injury.
“Stem cells are so rare that this is a little like finding a needle in a haystack,” said principal investigator John Dick, a Senior Scientist at the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine and the Ontario Cancer Institute, University Health Network.
“These new findings are a major step to generate sufficient quantities of stem cells to enable greater clinical use and thus move closer to realizing the promise of regenerative medicine for patients,” Dick said.
UHN researchers at Ontario’s Cancer Institute successfully isolated a human blood stem cell in its purest form.
The cell is capable of regenerating the entire blood system, allowing scientists to select from a larger pool of life-saving cells.
“By accessing a much wider collection of cord blood samples we will be able to find matches much more quickly,” Dick explained.
Sue Smith is the Executive Director of the OneMatch Stem Cell and Marrow Network at Canadian Blood Services.
Smith lauded the discovery as a major step forward for Canadian families desperately waiting to find a stem cell match.
“It’s a very complicated process and people only find matches in their families in about 25 per cent of cases,” she said. “This research will help… make that difference particularly with patients that are hard to match.”
One of those Canadians is Shari Silverman, a stem cell recipient living in Toronto. A bone marrow transplant in 2009 saved her life.
“When you’re waiting, you don’t know if you’re going to make it, you don’t know if you’re going to stay strong enough or healthy enough or get through the treatment,” Silverman said.
“This is such a huge accomplishment for Canada, and it’s going to save lives around the world.”
The full report can be accessed from Science here.
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