Cure for autoimmune diseases such as psoriasis, rheumatoid, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis? Targetting specific immune cells to restore normal immune system with potentially very few side effects. Medical research using immunology. But will pharmaceutical companies wish or be able to fund such research? It will be a technique not a therapy to be sold.
Future of your Business, Family and Wider World by Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist Speaker, Keynotes on Growth Strategies and Leadership, Lecture Slides, Articles and Videos from Conferences - 15 million unique visitors to MAIN Futurist site (articles / keynotes / videos) - link on right to www.globalchange.com
Showing posts with label medical research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical research. Show all posts
May 25, 2008
May 21, 2008
Staying Young - anti ageing research
Science of ageing. How to stop getting old. Medical research into physiology of ageing. How cells get old. Tissue regeneration of heart, muscle, retina, spine, brain and other organs. Repair of tissue damage. Organ regeneration. Cure for blood pressure? New facelift therapy? Humpback whales, Rockfish Project and slow ageing in turtles and parrots. Human impact of anti-aging therapy. Social impact of living longer. Impact on longevity forecasts for life insurance and pensions risk. Cure for deafness and cure for macular degeneration. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon.
May 04, 2008
How to make sense of the future - futurist methodology
Try to predict or just respond when change happens. Mining, pharmacueutical industry etc takes very long view. Pensions crisis seen decades ago. Telecom and IT trends are often relatively obvious. Moore's Law. Power of computing. Cost of phone calls. Cost of flying and process of globalisation. Older generation knew form globalization and global communications. Internet was around in late 1970s. But Google and YouTube leaders recognise that behavior can be very hard to predict. Trends analysis. Conference keynote speaker and Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon.
April 18, 2008
Sovereign wealth funds - what China will do next?
Sovereign wealth funds hold several trillion dollars. What will they do? Most was in long term Federal Bonds. Expect sovereign wealth fund managers to diversify into banking, technology, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, mining and oil industry as well as real estate if prices fall further. Selling dollars on large scale is unlikely since it would lower dollar value and value of their remaining dollar investments. Video by conference keynote Futurist speaker Dr Patrick Dixon, author Futurewise. Sovereign wealth, funds, management, dollar, US economy, outlook, fall, rise, investments, portfolio, economic trends, emerging markets, patrick dixon
April 13, 2008
Digital memory -- plug in for your brain
Fusing computer memory with brain tissue. Biodigital brains. Plug in modules for languages or data? Animal experiments. Digital memory extensions. Future of digital learning. Impact on education and university life. Video on future of education, high schools, colleges, universities, curriculum, trends, syllabus, exams, assessments, business schools, MBAs, degree courses - by Dr Patrick Dixon, Futurist conference keynote speaker for NAIS.
April 03, 2008
Joint replacement for rheumatoid and osteoarthritis
Growing need with older population. Largest market in US. New treatments and methods. Plastic and metal hips wear out, need revision, complications, infection, dislocation. Preserve neck of femur. Using adult stem cells to regrow joint surfaces. Grow new cartilage. Repair knee, hip, shoulder repairs. Chronic pain and disability, lack of mobility, improving mobility and function, range of movement. Medical research. Orthopaedics / orthopaedics and rheumatology future trends. Patrick Dixon, conference keynote speaker and futurist.
June 12, 2007
Future of genetic engineering - by Futurist Dr Patrick Dixon
Inside story on genetic engineering and how the universal language of life is being used by scientists to create new plants, animals and genetic refits for humans. Video comment by Dr Patrick Dixon
June 11, 2007
Human cloning - part one - who is doing human cloning
Who is doing human cloning research and why. Explanation of science behind human cloning and what it means for medical research - or does it? Do we really need human cloning to solve health problems? Reasons for and against human cloning. Video comment by Dr Patrick Dixon
June 18, 2006
New embryo gene screening will detect disease - ethical debate - news comment
I did an ITN 6pm news interview today on this story.
Medicine is developing faster than most people realise, raising many profound ethical challenges. This new IVF technique will allow in theory screening of a pre-implantation embryo for many thousands of different genes which have been linked to disease.
The same process could be used in future to allow selection on the basis of other characteristics such as inherited personality traits. Yes they exist. We have already found strong links between certain genes and extreme shyness, and it is well known that violent criminals are more likely to have specific genetic profiles than the general population. We also know there are genes which make addictive behaviour more likely.
Here are some interesting gene links:
FOXP2 gene is vital to language and speech development
17CREB genes are all needed for learning and memory.
Vasopressin receptor gene on chromosme 12 – huge effect on mating and pair binding in prairie voles.
Low monoamine oxidase A activity on X chromosome strongly linked to violent, antisocial or criminal behaviour.
Gene for obesity: 6% have MC4R gene.
Gene linked to serotonin production strongly linked to depression. CREB1 carries 80% risk of depression – in women.
So.... I am concerned about the kind of society we could see in the future, since screening of the unborn already happens on a millions a year scale with terribly destructive results - hunting out and destroying female fetuses in India and to a smaller extent in China. We know that many parents like controlling the characteristics of future children, and will pay to do so.
However as a reality check, the new technique announced today will only work with IVF which is a very inneficient and expensive way to produce babies and the application is likely to be only a search for major genetic abnormalities.
Embryo test cuts disease risk: "Thousands of women at risk of giving birth to sick children could be offered hope from a new technique to ensure their babies are free of genetic disorders.
It can screen out the genes for common disorders such as cystic fibrosis which is carried by 1-in-25 Britons and affects over 7,000 children.
So far the test has been used on seven women, five of whom are now pregnant.
The procedure is being hailed as a big advance and will lead to a radical shift in the way couples at risk of passing on certain diseases are treated."
Medicine is developing faster than most people realise, raising many profound ethical challenges. This new IVF technique will allow in theory screening of a pre-implantation embryo for many thousands of different genes which have been linked to disease.
The same process could be used in future to allow selection on the basis of other characteristics such as inherited personality traits. Yes they exist. We have already found strong links between certain genes and extreme shyness, and it is well known that violent criminals are more likely to have specific genetic profiles than the general population. We also know there are genes which make addictive behaviour more likely.
Here are some interesting gene links:
FOXP2 gene is vital to language and speech development
17CREB genes are all needed for learning and memory.
Vasopressin receptor gene on chromosme 12 – huge effect on mating and pair binding in prairie voles.
Low monoamine oxidase A activity on X chromosome strongly linked to violent, antisocial or criminal behaviour.
Gene for obesity: 6% have MC4R gene.
Gene linked to serotonin production strongly linked to depression. CREB1 carries 80% risk of depression – in women.
So.... I am concerned about the kind of society we could see in the future, since screening of the unborn already happens on a millions a year scale with terribly destructive results - hunting out and destroying female fetuses in India and to a smaller extent in China. We know that many parents like controlling the characteristics of future children, and will pay to do so.
However as a reality check, the new technique announced today will only work with IVF which is a very inneficient and expensive way to produce babies and the application is likely to be only a search for major genetic abnormalities.
Embryo test cuts disease risk: "Thousands of women at risk of giving birth to sick children could be offered hope from a new technique to ensure their babies are free of genetic disorders.
It can screen out the genes for common disorders such as cystic fibrosis which is carried by 1-in-25 Britons and affects over 7,000 children.
So far the test has been used on seven women, five of whom are now pregnant.
The procedure is being hailed as a big advance and will lead to a radical shift in the way couples at risk of passing on certain diseases are treated."
April 22, 2006
Teenagers getting fatter in spite of health drive - Britain - Times Online
Obesity will be a major problem in future not only in wealthy nations, but also in emerging economies among the increasingly affluent.
One third of babies born today in the United States will develop diabetes during their lives as a direct result of being overweight, and obesity is estimated already to cost the US health care system many billions of dollars a year, plus lost productivity to the economy.
Expect to see many innovative approaches by pharmacuetical companies in addition to other control measures by governments such as additional regulations on marketing junk food to children.
Creative solutions could include developing new drugs which are similar to thyroxine. One such compound causes monkeys to lose a significant amount of their body weight on a normal diet in just a couple of weeks, without the normal toxic effects that one might expect on the heart.
One third of babies born today in the United States will develop diabetes during their lives as a direct result of being overweight, and obesity is estimated already to cost the US health care system many billions of dollars a year, plus lost productivity to the economy.
Expect to see many innovative approaches by pharmacuetical companies in addition to other control measures by governments such as additional regulations on marketing junk food to children.
Creative solutions could include developing new drugs which are similar to thyroxine. One such compound causes monkeys to lose a significant amount of their body weight on a normal diet in just a couple of weeks, without the normal toxic effects that one might expect on the heart.
November 24, 2005
Human cloning pioneer confesses to breaking ethical code
Woo Suk Hwang, of Seoul National University, has confirmed that two junior researchers in his laboratory had donated their eggs for his groundbreaking experiments in human cloning.
"I am very sorry that I have to tell the public words that are too shameful and horrible," Professor Hwang said at a press conference in Seoul. He also said he would step down as head of the World Stem Cell Hub, an international research network based in Seoul that also has laboratories in San Francisco and London.
Professor Hwang's team cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them.
They went on to clone patient-specific embryos and stem cells this year. Professor Hwang also cloned the first dog, Snuppy, announced this year.
Cloning raises a number of significant ethical issues, of which this is just one.
In the meantime the rational is disappearing for human cloning as a source of stem cells to fight disease, as scientists learn more about the potential of adult stem cells.
"I am very sorry that I have to tell the public words that are too shameful and horrible," Professor Hwang said at a press conference in Seoul. He also said he would step down as head of the World Stem Cell Hub, an international research network based in Seoul that also has laboratories in San Francisco and London.
Professor Hwang's team cloned human embryos and extracted stem cells from them.
They went on to clone patient-specific embryos and stem cells this year. Professor Hwang also cloned the first dog, Snuppy, announced this year.
Cloning raises a number of significant ethical issues, of which this is just one.
In the meantime the rational is disappearing for human cloning as a source of stem cells to fight disease, as scientists learn more about the potential of adult stem cells.
November 17, 2005
BBC NEWS | Business | Pension age 'should rise to 67'
We are rapidly learning more about why people get old, and ways we can interfere with that process. When you add in all the progress we are seeing with adult stem cells in repairing tissues, and other medical advances, it is clear that we are going to see further extensions of life-expectancy.
That is why the proposal to increase retirement age from 65 to 67 has already been overtaken by the realities of biology. Workers who are in their 20s today have more than two additional years of life ahead of them compared to people now in their 60s when they were at the same age.
You will see government actuaries continue to upgrade their estimates of how long we will all live, every few years, and every time they do so, we can expect to see further worries about the solvency of corporate pension funds.
For more on these important issues see http://www.globalchange.com/ppt/index.htm
for presentations on ageing and the future of medicine, also http://www.globalchange.com/stemcells2.htm
for more on stem cell advances.
That is why the proposal to increase retirement age from 65 to 67 has already been overtaken by the realities of biology. Workers who are in their 20s today have more than two additional years of life ahead of them compared to people now in their 60s when they were at the same age.
You will see government actuaries continue to upgrade their estimates of how long we will all live, every few years, and every time they do so, we can expect to see further worries about the solvency of corporate pension funds.
For more on these important issues see http://www.globalchange.com/ppt/index.htm
for presentations on ageing and the future of medicine, also http://www.globalchange.com/stemcells2.htm
for more on stem cell advances.
November 13, 2005
Man cured of HIV in London? Comment on recent press reports
Today has been a busy day with BBC Breakfast TV and other programmes / channels looking for comment on a story about a London man who tested positve for HIV who it is said has "cured" himself. Of course one can only comment in very general terms since so many of the facts have yet to emerge and the report was in a newspaper, not a peer-reviewed scientific research publication. I have been involved since 1987 in the fight against HIV and AIDS, and founded the international AIDS agency ACET in 1988, now a growing alliance of independent AIDS care and prevention programms in countries such as Uganda, India, Thailand, Russia and Ukraine. Over the years I have come across a number of anecdotal reports of people who appeared to be infected with HIV and then had no trace of infection, but it has not been possible to verify what has happened or recheck their results. We do know that some people have a genetic profile which gives them some protection against HIV infection.
Independent researchers will want to take a very close look at any case like this, firstly to be sure that there were no errors in the testing process, and if so, to make certain that there really is no HIV infection lurking in the background. If they are satisfied on both counts, they will try and work out what process the body has used to eliminate HIV. Antibody tests are the usual way to look for HIV infection, and measure the body's reaction to the virus. Direct tests for the virus particles themselves are more difficult and expensive, but it would be very significant if they also tested positive at first, and then negative. It is unclear from the first reports what kinds of HIV tests were positive or negative at each stage.
For more comment on this important story:
http://globalchange.com/hivcurereport.htm
Independent researchers will want to take a very close look at any case like this, firstly to be sure that there were no errors in the testing process, and if so, to make certain that there really is no HIV infection lurking in the background. If they are satisfied on both counts, they will try and work out what process the body has used to eliminate HIV. Antibody tests are the usual way to look for HIV infection, and measure the body's reaction to the virus. Direct tests for the virus particles themselves are more difficult and expensive, but it would be very significant if they also tested positive at first, and then negative. It is unclear from the first reports what kinds of HIV tests were positive or negative at each stage.
For more comment on this important story:
http://globalchange.com/hivcurereport.htm
November 04, 2005
The Science of Ageing - Why actuarial forecasts for life expectancy are incorrect - for AIG by Dr Patrick Dixon
It is increasingly clear that actuarial forecasts for life expectancy are flawed. Here is a presentation made to AIG fund managers explaining some of the rapid progress being made in our understanding of ageing.
April 22, 2005
Euthanasia - update of previous article on mercy killing and assisted suicide
Euthanasia: "As a care of the dying specialist in the past I have often been asked to kill people - which is euthanasia, mercy killing or assisted suicide.
Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more: 'Isn't there something you can do to end it all?' More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm. 'I want to die', he said. 'Please can you give me something.' He felt a burden on his wife and wanted euthanasia for himself. People are often more afraid of the process of dying than of death itself.
The Voluntary Euthanasia Society wants to allow people 'with a severe illness from which no relief is known' to be lawfully killed if they wish. One US euthanasia campaigner has suggested people could be killed on the basis of their previous instructions, even if they now want to live. This is in the case of someone with Alzheimer disease where the person is no longer distressed about memory loss while others are.
Where do you start or stop euthanasia? How advanced must cancer be for euthanasia to be appropriate? How can you be sure? Doctors are often wrong about diagnosis or prognosis. What about other illnesses, dementia, or handicap? Who decides about euthanasia? On what basis do we judge? Are those in pain receiving proper medication? Has every appropriate treatment option been explored?
What is euthanasia? Mercy killing is the literal definition of the word euthanasia.
The hospice movement started in this country because people were dying badly, often in pain. In thirty years over 200 hospices have opened and 240 hospitals now have specialist nurses. Almost 100,000 people each year are visited by home care teams, over half of all those dyin"
Sometimes relatives have taken me on one side and told me they cannot bear it any more: 'Isn't there something you can do to end it all?' More often requests for euthanasia have come from those who are ill. I remember visiting a man with lung cancer. He asked his wife to leave the room. As she closed the door he leaned over and grabbed my arm. 'I want to die', he said. 'Please can you give me something.' He felt a burden on his wife and wanted euthanasia for himself. People are often more afraid of the process of dying than of death itself.
The Voluntary Euthanasia Society wants to allow people 'with a severe illness from which no relief is known' to be lawfully killed if they wish. One US euthanasia campaigner has suggested people could be killed on the basis of their previous instructions, even if they now want to live. This is in the case of someone with Alzheimer disease where the person is no longer distressed about memory loss while others are.
Where do you start or stop euthanasia? How advanced must cancer be for euthanasia to be appropriate? How can you be sure? Doctors are often wrong about diagnosis or prognosis. What about other illnesses, dementia, or handicap? Who decides about euthanasia? On what basis do we judge? Are those in pain receiving proper medication? Has every appropriate treatment option been explored?
What is euthanasia? Mercy killing is the literal definition of the word euthanasia.
The hospice movement started in this country because people were dying badly, often in pain. In thirty years over 200 hospices have opened and 240 hospitals now have specialist nurses. Almost 100,000 people each year are visited by home care teams, over half of all those dyin"
April 02, 2005
Media coverage - Dr Patrick Dixon's Futurewise, The Truth about Drugs and other books / issues relating to the future: "Recent coverage: Daily Telegraph - increasing profits by 10% by connecting with passion - and the $20,000 challenge, Financial Times - Push for Coffee Bean Levy - following speech at the World Coffee Organization: Daily Post (Liverpool) - 5 steps to a better business, TImes of India - the Spirit of Success, Borsen (Denmark equivalent of Financial Times) - how to create a better business, Lisbon press - the need for innovation in marketing, Vida Economica - Portugal, Times of Malta - marketing trends, Borsen - the need for innovation in industrial design, The Herald - handwriting demise in a techno-age, press in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Portugal on a range of issues, El Cronista Commercial (Spain) - the top 50 most influential business thinkers, Diario Economico, Portugal - innovation in marketing, ABA Banking Journal - Working for nothing - lessons for corporates from non-profits, Talk Radio on stem cell research, Daily Telegraph, Moral Maze (BBC Radio 4) - should politicians have to resign over personal indiscretions? Channel 4 News - next generation mobile phones. Daily Mail - human / animal hybrids. Daily Mail - salmon that spawn trout. Guardian - future of CDs and music downloading, MP3 and file-sharing. On cloning: Sunday Times (Perth), Irish Times, Daily Mail, Courier-Mail, The Sun, Western Daily Press, The Herald, The Scotsman, The Times, Scottish Daily Record, The Mirror, Times of Zambia. "
March 13, 2005
AARP - Future Trends - Ageing / health / demographics and society - by Dr Patrick Dixon
The Future of Ageing - Science, demographics, politics and society impact of a society that could see huge increases in life expectancy over the next 50 years. Keynote for senior leadership of AARP - US action group representing over 35 million people over the age of 50.
The Future of Ageing - Science, demographics, politics and society impact of a society that could see huge increases in life expectancy over the next 50 years. Keynote for senior leadership of AARP - US action group representing over 35 million people over the age of 50.
September 16, 2004
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Future of Stem Cells: Exciting Progress
Embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells - biotech company progress, stem cell investment, stem cell research results, should you invest in stem cell technology, stem cell organ repair and organ regeneration?
Every week there are new claims being made about embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, what is the truth? Here is a brief summary of important stem cell trends. You will also find on this site keynote presentations on stem cell research, speeches and powerpoint slides on the future of health care, the future of medicine, the future of the pharmaceutical industry, and the future of ageing - all of which are profoundly impacted by stem cell research.
There is no doubt that we are on the edge of a major stem cell breakthrough. Stem cells will one day provide effective low-cost treatment for diabetes, some forms of blindness, heart attack, stroke, spinal cord damage and many other health problems. Animal stem cell studies are already very promising and some clinical trials using stem cells have started (article written in September 2004).
As a physician and a futurist I have been monitoring the future of stem cells for over two decades, and advise corporations on these issues. Stem cell investment, research effort, and treatment focus is moving rapidly away from embryonic stem cells (ethical and technical challenges) to adult stem cells which are turning out to be far easier to convert into different tissues than we thought in 2000-2003.
I have met a number of leading researchers, and their progress in stem cell research is now astonishing, while over 2,000 new research papers on embryonic or adult stem cells are published in reputable scientific journals every year.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Stem cell technology is developing so fast that many stem cell scientists are unaware of important progress by others in their own or closely related fields. They are unable to keep up. The most interesting work is often unpublished, or waiting to be published. There is also of course commercial and reputational rivalry, which can on occaisions tempt scientists to downplay the significance of other people's results (or their claims)..
What exactly are stem cells? Will stem cells deliver? Should you invest in biotech companies that are developing stem cell technology? What should physicians, health care professionals, planners and health departments expect? What will be the impact of stem cell treatments on the pharmaceutical industry? How expensive will stem cell treatments be? What about the ban on embryonic stem cell research in many nations? Do embryonic stem cell treatments have a future or will they be overtaken by adult stem cell technology?
What are stem cells - embryonic and adult stem cells
Stem cells are relatively primitive cells that have the ability to divide rapidly to produce more specialized cells. Stem cells in the embryo are capable of huge variation in the kinds of tissues they make, reproduce rapidly and have attracted interest of researchers for decades. However embryonic stem cells are hard to get hold of in humans - you need a supply of human embryos, which requires either breaking the law in some countries or applying for complex licenses in others.
Embryonic stem cells are also hard to control, and hard to grow in a reliable way. They have "minds" of their own, and embryonic stem cells are often unstable, producing unexpected results as they divide, or even cancerous growths. Human embryonic stem cells usually cause an immune reaction when transplanted into people, which means cells used in treatment may be rapidly destroyed unless they are protected, perhaps by giving medication to suppress the immune system (which carries risks).
One reason for intense interest in human cloning technology is so-called therapeutic cloning. This involves combining an adult human cell with a human egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The result is a human embryo which is dividing rapidly to try and become an identical twin of the cloned adult. If implanted in the womb, such cloned embryos have the potential to be born normally as cloned babies, although there are many problems to overcome, including catastrophic malformations and premature ageing as seen in animals such as Dolly the sheep.
In theory, therapeutic cloning could allow scientists to take embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryo, throw the rest of the embryo away and use the stem cells to generate new tissue which is genetically identical to the person cloned. In practice this is a very expensive approach fraught with technical challenges as well as ethical questions and legal challenges.
An alternative is to try to create a vast tissue bank of tens of thousands of embryonic cells lines, by extracting stem cells from so many different human embryos that whoever needs treatment can be closely matched with the tissue type of an existing cell line. But even if this is achieved, problems of control and cancer remain. And again there are many ethical considerations with any science that uses human embryos, each of which is an early developing but complete potential human being, which is why so many countries have banned this work.
The alternative to using embryonic stem cells
Until recently it was taught in all medical schools that cells in the embryo were multipotent - able to give rise to every tissue - but by birth, this capacity was permanently lost. That has been the reason why almost all research effort focused on embryonic stem cells until just a few years ago.
However a moment's thought tells us how illogical such a view was, and indeed we are now finding that many cells in children and adults have extraordinary capacity to generate or stimulate growth of a wide variety of tissues, if encouraged in the right way.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Take for example the work of Professor Jonathan Slack at Bath University who has shown how adult human liver cells can be transformed relatively easily into insulin producing cells such as those found in the pancreas, or the work of others using bone marrow cells to repair brain and spinal cord injuries in mice and rats, and now doing the same to repair heart muscle in humans.
Why should this surprise us? We know that almost all cells in your body contain your entire genome or book of life: enough information to make an entire copy of you, which is the basis of cloning technology. So in theory just about every cell can make any tissue you need. However the reality is that in most cells almost every gene you have is turned off - but as it turns out, not as permanently as we thought.
If we take one of your skin cells and fuse it with an unfertilized human egg, the chemical bath inside a human egg activates all the silenced genes, and the combined cell becomes so totipotent that it starts to make a new human being.
What then if we could find a way to reactivate just a few silenced genes, and perhaps at the same time silence some of the others? Could we find a chemical that would mimic what happens in the embryo, with the power to transform cells from one type into another? Yes we can. Jonathan Slack and others have done just that. What was considered impossible five years ago is already history.
Could we take adult cells and force them back into a more general, undetermined embryonic state? Yes we can. It is now possible to create cells with a wide range of plasticity, all from adult tissue. The secret is to get the right gene activators into the nucleus, not so hard as we thought.
Impact of embryonic and adult stem cells on the future of medicine and health care
Stem cell therapy is not a conventional treatment using an external agent and so the normal 15 year development pipeline for new pharmaceutical products does not apply. Indeed the gap between seeing promising stem cell results in animals and starting first human trials can be as short as 15 days.
Suppose you have a heart attack. A cardiothoracic surgeon talks to you about using your own stem cells in an experimental treatment. You agree. A sample of bone marrow is taken from your hips, and processed using standard equipment found in most oncology centers for treating leukemia. The result is a concentrated number of special bone marrow cells, which are then injected back into your own body - either into a vein in your arm, or perhaps direct into the heart itself.
The surgeon is returning your own unaltered stem cells back to you, to whom these cells legally belong. This is not a new molecule requiring years of animal and clinical tests. Your own adult stem cells are available right now. No factory is involved - nor any pharmaceutical company sales team.
What is more, there are no ethical questions (unlike embryonic stem cells), no risk of tissue rejection, no risk of cancer.
Now we begin to see why research funds are moving so fast from embryonic stem cells to adult alternatives.
Harvard Medical School is another center of astonishing progress in adult stem cells. Trials have shown partially restored sight in animals with retinal damage. Clinical trials are expected within five years, using adult stem cells as a treatment to cure blindness caused by macular degeneration - old-age blindness and the commonest cause of sight-loss in America. Within 10 years it is hoped that people will be able to be treated routinely with their own stem cells in a clinic using a two-hour process.
If you want further evidence of this switch in interest from embryonic to adult stem cells,, look at the makers of Dolly the sheep. The Rosslyn Institute in Scotland are pioneers in cloning technology. They along with others campaigned successfully in UK Parliament for the legal right to use the same technology in human embryos (therapeutic cloning, not with the aim of clones being born). But three years later, they had not even bothered to apply for a human cloning licence.
Why not? Because investors were worried about throwing money at speculative embryo research with massive ethical and reputational risks. Newcastle University made headlines in August 2004 when granted the first licence to clone human embryos - but the real story was why it had taken so long to get a single research institute in the UK to actually get on and apply. Answer: medical research moved on and left the "therapeutic" human cloners behind.
Do stem cells really repair tissue?
For several years there has been a curious and very confusing debate in editorials of publications like the New England Journal of Medicine about whether adult stem cells actually regenerate tissue or not.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
The debate centers on technical questions and semantics, rather than the reality of results. Take for example heart repair. We know that bone marrow cells can land up in damaged heart and when present, the heart is repaired. It is hard to be certain what proportion of this remarkable process is due to stimulants released locally by bone marrow cells, or by the bone marrow cells actually differentiating into heart tissue.
It remains a confusing picture, not least because in the lab, cells seem to change character profoundly, but in clinical trials it appears the effects of many stem cells are stimulatory. But who cares? As a clinician I am delighted if injecting your bone marrow cells into your back means that you are walking around 3 months after a terrible injury to your spine instead of being in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. I am not so concerned with exactly how it all works, and nor will you be.
The future of stem cells
In summary, expect rapid progress in adult stem cells and slower, less intense work with embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell technology is already looking rather last-century, along with therapeutic cloning. History will show that by 2020 we were already able to produce a wide range of tissues using adult stem cells, with spectacular progress in tissue building and repair. In some cases these stem cells will be actually incorporated into the new repairs as differentiated cells, in other cases, they will be temporary assistants in local repair processes.
We will also see some exciting new pharmaceutical products in the pipeline, which promise to do some of the same tricks without having to remove a single stem cell from the body. These drugs may for example activate bone marrow cells and encourage them to migrate to parts of the body where repairs are needed.
And along the way we will see a number of biotech companies fold, as a result of over-investment into embryonic stem cells, plus angst over ethics and image, without watching the radar screen closely enough, failing to see the onward march of adult stem cell technology.
Using embryos as a source of spare-part cells will always be far more controversial than using adult tissue, or perhaps cells from umbilical cord after birth, and investors will wish to reduce uneccessary risk, both to the projects they fund, and to their own organisations by association.
Despite this, we can expect embryonic stem cell research to continue in some countries, with the hope of scientific breakthroughs of various kinds.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Future of Stem Cells: Exciting Progress
Embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells - biotech company progress, stem cell investment, stem cell research results, should you invest in stem cell technology, stem cell organ repair and organ regeneration?
Every week there are new claims being made about embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, what is the truth? Here is a brief summary of important stem cell trends. You will also find on this site keynote presentations on stem cell research, speeches and powerpoint slides on the future of health care, the future of medicine, the future of the pharmaceutical industry, and the future of ageing - all of which are profoundly impacted by stem cell research.
There is no doubt that we are on the edge of a major stem cell breakthrough. Stem cells will one day provide effective low-cost treatment for diabetes, some forms of blindness, heart attack, stroke, spinal cord damage and many other health problems. Animal stem cell studies are already very promising and some clinical trials using stem cells have started (article written in September 2004).
As a physician and a futurist I have been monitoring the future of stem cells for over two decades, and advise corporations on these issues. Stem cell investment, research effort, and treatment focus is moving rapidly away from embryonic stem cells (ethical and technical challenges) to adult stem cells which are turning out to be far easier to convert into different tissues than we thought in 2000-2003.
I have met a number of leading researchers, and their progress in stem cell research is now astonishing, while over 2,000 new research papers on embryonic or adult stem cells are published in reputable scientific journals every year.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Stem cell technology is developing so fast that many stem cell scientists are unaware of important progress by others in their own or closely related fields. They are unable to keep up. The most interesting work is often unpublished, or waiting to be published. There is also of course commercial and reputational rivalry, which can on occaisions tempt scientists to downplay the significance of other people's results (or their claims)..
What exactly are stem cells? Will stem cells deliver? Should you invest in biotech companies that are developing stem cell technology? What should physicians, health care professionals, planners and health departments expect? What will be the impact of stem cell treatments on the pharmaceutical industry? How expensive will stem cell treatments be? What about the ban on embryonic stem cell research in many nations? Do embryonic stem cell treatments have a future or will they be overtaken by adult stem cell technology?
What are stem cells - embryonic and adult stem cells
Stem cells are relatively primitive cells that have the ability to divide rapidly to produce more specialized cells. Stem cells in the embryo are capable of huge variation in the kinds of tissues they make, reproduce rapidly and have attracted interest of researchers for decades. However embryonic stem cells are hard to get hold of in humans - you need a supply of human embryos, which requires either breaking the law in some countries or applying for complex licenses in others.
Embryonic stem cells are also hard to control, and hard to grow in a reliable way. They have "minds" of their own, and embryonic stem cells are often unstable, producing unexpected results as they divide, or even cancerous growths. Human embryonic stem cells usually cause an immune reaction when transplanted into people, which means cells used in treatment may be rapidly destroyed unless they are protected, perhaps by giving medication to suppress the immune system (which carries risks).
One reason for intense interest in human cloning technology is so-called therapeutic cloning. This involves combining an adult human cell with a human egg from which the nucleus has been removed. The result is a human embryo which is dividing rapidly to try and become an identical twin of the cloned adult. If implanted in the womb, such cloned embryos have the potential to be born normally as cloned babies, although there are many problems to overcome, including catastrophic malformations and premature ageing as seen in animals such as Dolly the sheep.
In theory, therapeutic cloning could allow scientists to take embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryo, throw the rest of the embryo away and use the stem cells to generate new tissue which is genetically identical to the person cloned. In practice this is a very expensive approach fraught with technical challenges as well as ethical questions and legal challenges.
An alternative is to try to create a vast tissue bank of tens of thousands of embryonic cells lines, by extracting stem cells from so many different human embryos that whoever needs treatment can be closely matched with the tissue type of an existing cell line. But even if this is achieved, problems of control and cancer remain. And again there are many ethical considerations with any science that uses human embryos, each of which is an early developing but complete potential human being, which is why so many countries have banned this work.
The alternative to using embryonic stem cells
Until recently it was taught in all medical schools that cells in the embryo were multipotent - able to give rise to every tissue - but by birth, this capacity was permanently lost. That has been the reason why almost all research effort focused on embryonic stem cells until just a few years ago.
However a moment's thought tells us how illogical such a view was, and indeed we are now finding that many cells in children and adults have extraordinary capacity to generate or stimulate growth of a wide variety of tissues, if encouraged in the right way.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
Take for example the work of Professor Jonathan Slack at Bath University who has shown how adult human liver cells can be transformed relatively easily into insulin producing cells such as those found in the pancreas, or the work of others using bone marrow cells to repair brain and spinal cord injuries in mice and rats, and now doing the same to repair heart muscle in humans.
Why should this surprise us? We know that almost all cells in your body contain your entire genome or book of life: enough information to make an entire copy of you, which is the basis of cloning technology. So in theory just about every cell can make any tissue you need. However the reality is that in most cells almost every gene you have is turned off - but as it turns out, not as permanently as we thought.
If we take one of your skin cells and fuse it with an unfertilized human egg, the chemical bath inside a human egg activates all the silenced genes, and the combined cell becomes so totipotent that it starts to make a new human being.
What then if we could find a way to reactivate just a few silenced genes, and perhaps at the same time silence some of the others? Could we find a chemical that would mimic what happens in the embryo, with the power to transform cells from one type into another? Yes we can. Jonathan Slack and others have done just that. What was considered impossible five years ago is already history.
Could we take adult cells and force them back into a more general, undetermined embryonic state? Yes we can. It is now possible to create cells with a wide range of plasticity, all from adult tissue. The secret is to get the right gene activators into the nucleus, not so hard as we thought.
Impact of embryonic and adult stem cells on the future of medicine and health care
Stem cell therapy is not a conventional treatment using an external agent and so the normal 15 year development pipeline for new pharmaceutical products does not apply. Indeed the gap between seeing promising stem cell results in animals and starting first human trials can be as short as 15 days.
Suppose you have a heart attack. A cardiothoracic surgeon talks to you about using your own stem cells in an experimental treatment. You agree. A sample of bone marrow is taken from your hips, and processed using standard equipment found in most oncology centers for treating leukemia. The result is a concentrated number of special bone marrow cells, which are then injected back into your own body - either into a vein in your arm, or perhaps direct into the heart itself.
The surgeon is returning your own unaltered stem cells back to you, to whom these cells legally belong. This is not a new molecule requiring years of animal and clinical tests. Your own adult stem cells are available right now. No factory is involved - nor any pharmaceutical company sales team.
What is more, there are no ethical questions (unlike embryonic stem cells), no risk of tissue rejection, no risk of cancer.
Now we begin to see why research funds are moving so fast from embryonic stem cells to adult alternatives.
Harvard Medical School is another center of astonishing progress in adult stem cells. Trials have shown partially restored sight in animals with retinal damage. Clinical trials are expected within five years, using adult stem cells as a treatment to cure blindness caused by macular degeneration - old-age blindness and the commonest cause of sight-loss in America. Within 10 years it is hoped that people will be able to be treated routinely with their own stem cells in a clinic using a two-hour process.
If you want further evidence of this switch in interest from embryonic to adult stem cells,, look at the makers of Dolly the sheep. The Rosslyn Institute in Scotland are pioneers in cloning technology. They along with others campaigned successfully in UK Parliament for the legal right to use the same technology in human embryos (therapeutic cloning, not with the aim of clones being born). But three years later, they had not even bothered to apply for a human cloning licence.
Why not? Because investors were worried about throwing money at speculative embryo research with massive ethical and reputational risks. Newcastle University made headlines in August 2004 when granted the first licence to clone human embryos - but the real story was why it had taken so long to get a single research institute in the UK to actually get on and apply. Answer: medical research moved on and left the "therapeutic" human cloners behind.
Do stem cells really repair tissue?
For several years there has been a curious and very confusing debate in editorials of publications like the New England Journal of Medicine about whether adult stem cells actually regenerate tissue or not.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
The debate centers on technical questions and semantics, rather than the reality of results. Take for example heart repair. We know that bone marrow cells can land up in damaged heart and when present, the heart is repaired. It is hard to be certain what proportion of this remarkable process is due to stimulants released locally by bone marrow cells, or by the bone marrow cells actually differentiating into heart tissue.
It remains a confusing picture, not least because in the lab, cells seem to change character profoundly, but in clinical trials it appears the effects of many stem cells are stimulatory. But who cares? As a clinician I am delighted if injecting your bone marrow cells into your back means that you are walking around 3 months after a terrible injury to your spine instead of being in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. I am not so concerned with exactly how it all works, and nor will you be.
The future of stem cells
In summary, expect rapid progress in adult stem cells and slower, less intense work with embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cell technology is already looking rather last-century, along with therapeutic cloning. History will show that by 2020 we were already able to produce a wide range of tissues using adult stem cells, with spectacular progress in tissue building and repair. In some cases these stem cells will be actually incorporated into the new repairs as differentiated cells, in other cases, they will be temporary assistants in local repair processes.
We will also see some exciting new pharmaceutical products in the pipeline, which promise to do some of the same tricks without having to remove a single stem cell from the body. These drugs may for example activate bone marrow cells and encourage them to migrate to parts of the body where repairs are needed.
And along the way we will see a number of biotech companies fold, as a result of over-investment into embryonic stem cells, plus angst over ethics and image, without watching the radar screen closely enough, failing to see the onward march of adult stem cell technology.
Using embryos as a source of spare-part cells will always be far more controversial than using adult tissue, or perhaps cells from umbilical cord after birth, and investors will wish to reduce uneccessary risk, both to the projects they fund, and to their own organisations by association.
Despite this, we can expect embryonic stem cell research to continue in some countries, with the hope of scientific breakthroughs of various kinds.
More on Future of Stem Cells - 30,000 page site on future / 45 videos
March 01, 2004
THE TRUTH ABOUT DRUGS - book on drug addiction
Reports in UK press today suggesting that one in seven senior civil servants are dependent on alcohol - drinking in the morning or being warned at weekends by friends that they are drinking too much. This is far higher than the general population (6% of men and 2% of women), but probably not much higher than physicians.
Reports in UK press today suggesting that one in seven senior civil servants are dependent on alcohol - drinking in the morning or being warned at weekends by friends that they are drinking too much. This is far higher than the general population (6% of men and 2% of women), but probably not much higher than physicians.
February 26, 2004
The Future of Medicine - and health care impact of genetics / biotechnology
Presentation given at opening of a new biotech facility in Zurich - what will be the impact on the future of health care? Ageing and so on.
Presentation given at opening of a new biotech facility in Zurich - what will be the impact on the future of health care? Ageing and so on.
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