Researchers aiming to overcome the acute shortage of bone marrow by finding ways of ‘growing’ it in artificial conditions will be discussing their work at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research next week.
Researchers aiming to overcome the acute shortage of bone marrow by finding ways of ‘growing’ it in artificial conditions will be discussing their work at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research next week.
Researchers from the University of Cambridge will be joined by colleagues from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - with whom they are collaborating - at The First Cambridge-MIT Institute (CMI) Stem Cell Symposium on 30 May. They are inviting interested biotechnology firms to hear about their CMI-funded research into developing a successful way of growing bone marrow and adult blood stem cells outside the body.
In addition, the Symposium will showcase the wider aspects of stem cell research at the University of Cambridge.
Stem cells are vital, but rare: they number fewer than one in 10,000 of the cells in the bone marrow. They are already used to regenerate healthy blood cells in patients with diseases like leukaemia.
Studies over the past two years have suggested that the stem cells are ‘plastic’ and could be manipulated to repair other body tissues in patients with degenerative diseases - for example, they could be used to repair wasted muscle in patients with muscular dystrophy.
Dr Bertie Gottgens, a Cambridge researcher working on the CMI project says:
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