Report on The Future of Regenerative Medicine

At the UK National Stem Cell Network 2010 Annual Meeting, Professor Fiona Watt, from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge (UK) detailed a new approach to screening for drugs that target stem cells.   Explaining that: “We are very interested in developing regenerative medicine as a way to heal our bodies when they can’t heal themselves – when the damage from an injury or disease is too severe, for example,” Professor Watt proposes that: “It is important to have powerful ways of identifying the processes that stimulate stem cells to renew themselves or mature into the cells that are needed for healing. When we know what these processes are, we can use that knowledge to develop new treatments.”  Professor Watt and colleagues have developed is a technique that allows the examination of individual stem cells in such a way as we can learn about their biology and also screen new drugs for their potential to encourage stem cells to repair damaged tissues.  While the technique is being explored on adult skin stem cells, the  methodology can also be applied to stem cells from a wide range of embryonic and adult stem cells.