There’s a lot of hope surrounding stem-cell science and a lot of patients waiting for researchers to come up with cures for diseases like diabetes and Parkinson’s and a treatment for spinal-cord injuries using the technology. Thanks to Derrick Rossi, 45, they’re that much closer to benefiting from those therapies. Working with stem cells generated from a patient’s own skin cells, Rossi has managed to rid them of the potentially dangerous genes and viruses that efficiently reprogram the older cells to their embryonic state but at the same time make them unsafe to transplant into patients because of their cancer-causing properties. With Rossi’s method, a skin cell can erase its developmental history and emerge as a biological tabula rasa, primed to morph into any type of cell a patient might need to have replaced. It’s not a cure — yet — but it’s an important first step in turning the promise of stem cells into a lifesaving reality.
Related Articles
A prince’s fight for the youth
the work of the Prince’s Trust
India, a laboratory for all kinds of innovation
John Elkington on things that need to be done (and some things that should not continue being done) in India
providing financial services for all
author of two wonderful films about the worst of humanity
Shaping the world beyond the pandemic
The Netherlands: Peter Merry, Chief Innovation Officer at Ubiquity, writes on Humanity Rising and on how the pandemic has brought everyone into the conversation as we all face the same predicament and future.
When the East meets the West
Salma Hayek gives an opportunity
the vision of Chime for Change
The best Web 2.0 Classrooms Tools (3)
part 3: Poll Everywhere
a proposal from Argentina
Celso Athayde's uses them in order to inspire favela dwellers
STAY IN TOUCH
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
AND RECEIVE OUR LATEST STORIES