Patient-Specific Stem Cells: Major Step Toward Cell-Based Therapies for Life-Threatening Diseases

In the recent ScienceDaily article “Patient-Specific Stem Cells: Major Step Toward Cell-Based Therapies for Life-Threatening Diseases”, new findings in stem cell research is optimistically investigated in order to find a cure for type 1 diabetes. Although the solution to type 1 diabetes is the main focus of the scientific research, scientists are also hopeful that a similar procedure could be employed to curing other diseases, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The new research, directed by Dieter Egli and Scott Noggle, involves adding nuclei of adult skin cells of patients with type 1 diabetes to unfertilized oocytes, which will be specific for individual patients. The reprogramming of the cell’s nucleus will allow for the damaged cells to be replaced, and also the research showed that the procedure increases beta cells. With more beta cells in the body, more insulin is created, and therefore the body will better monitor type 1 diabetes. The research was experimented using the skin cells from type 1 diabetes patients as well as those of healthy patients, therefore both types of cells could demonstrate the way that universal tissue production could take place. This research demonstrated the complicated process that researchers have practiced in order to find a way that diabetes will be cured.

This article also foresaw the effects of this stem cell research, and how it will touch many lives. By creating healthier cells and replacing damaged cells in the investigated process, scientists estimate that millions of people around the world will benefit from the procedure, whether they are type 1 diabetes, Parkinson’s, or Alzheimer’s patients. Also, because this process relates to individuals and their skin cells, it can also help to identify patients.

This ScienceDaily article was very interesting as it explored a subject that is not familiar to many people, stem cell research, and also explains how the new procedure will affect many people in the years to come. Although this article explained many groundbreaking medical discoveries that will be crucial to diabetes research, it seemed as though the article could have explained the procedure in a way that was more, “reader-friendly.” It was as if the writer of the article assumed that the reader had an understanding of the tricky concepts of oocytes and skin cell nuclei, yet a little more explanation would have been helpful.

New York Stem Cell Foundation. "Patient-specific stem cells: Major step toward cell-based therapies for life-threatening diseases." ScienceDaily, 6 Oct. 2011. Web. 6 Oct. 2011.