By Kathleen Gallagher of the Journal Sentinel
Cellular Dynamics International's disclosure Wednesday that its researchers have generated stem cells from ordinary human blood samples holds enormous promise in the emerging field of personalized medicine.
The promise in the long term is that, by giving a vial or two of blood, we could all have our own personal stem cells to deploy in the event of a spinal cord injury or the onset of Parkinson's disease or many other now-incurable diseases.
Cellular Dynamics is the first company to say it can make stem cells from something as readily available, and so representative of human diversity, as blood, Palay said.
"This stuff sounds like science fiction, but it's science fact - and we're doing it in a lab in Madison," said Bob Palay, the Madison biotech company's chairman and chief executive.
The discovery will allow the company in the near term to more easily provide a diverse mix of stem cells to researchers to help them understand the basis of disease and how to treat it, he said.
"It opens up all human tissue cells, in all human diversity, to pharmaceutical and academic researchers. It's so huge, and so few people understand it," Palay said.
