Scientists hope to treat disease by increasing the body’s natural ability to repair itself; other approaches include directly administering stem cells to damaged areas or replacing organs altogether.
Regenerative medicine offers promise, yet has an uncertain path ahead to prove its efficacy. Research requires commitment, time and perseverance despite initial setbacks.
1. Stem Cell Therapy
Stem cell injection can repair damaged tissue and restore function, providing relief for diseases and conditions including spinal cord injuries, Type 1 diabetes, arthritis, Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Stem cells are cells that have the ability to become different types of cells. Stem cells play an integral part in developmental biology and researchers hope that stem cell research can shed light on how healthy tissues develop – knowledge which can then be applied towards making new therapies to repair or replace damaged parts in our bodies.
Researchers have also used genetic reprogramming to turn adult cells into pluripotent stem cells through genetic reprogramming. These pluripotent cells can then differentiate into specific tissues in the body like liver or skin cells without inducing immune reactions, making them ideal for clinical trials. Japan passed legislation in 2014 allowing early phase clinical trials that use cell therapies to bypass some regulatory requirements, making these stem cell-based treatments even easier to access than ever.
2. Medical Devices
World leaders urgently require more effective means of diagnosing and treating diseases, particularly those that recur or intract. Next-generation therapeutics known as biologics could offer targeted healing with reduced side effects; as such, leading medical centers such as Mayo Clinic and others are currently undertaking efforts to develop this field further. This year.
Medical devices refers to any instrument, apparatus, implement, machine, contrivance implant in vitro reagent or similar article designed to aid in diagnosing, mitigating or treating disease or other conditions. They differ from pharmaceutical or biological products in that their primary mode of action does not lie with drugs such as pharmaceuticals that work via immunological mechanisms and metabolic pathways.
Common medical devices include blood pressure cuffs and monitors, glucometers (for diabetes), pulse oximeters (to measure oxygen levels in blood) as well as other devices used for testing urine or blood samples for illegal drugs, pregnancy or other conditions.
3. Artificial Organs
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon are creating bioartificial organs designed to support or replace diseased or failing organs. Through 3-D printing, tissue engineering and cellular mechanics techniques they aim to produce bioartificial organs capable of living inside humans while fulfilling various physiological functions.
These artificial organs could dramatically improve both quality of life and lifespan of humans, eliminating organ donation needs while simultaneously decreasing rejection rates.
Scientists are currently engaged in efforts to create stem cells capable of growing into replacement parts for the body, such as heart muscle and blood cells. Furthermore, models of human organs like gut-on-a-chip can aid in combating diarrheal diseases like cholera and rotavirus which kill 800,000.
4. Biotechnology
Biotechnology is an area of research which uses organisms or parts thereof as well as molecular analogs to develop products and solve problems. This field includes genetic engineering – creating new organisms by combining DNA from multiple sources into one organism – leading to innovations such as corn producing its own insecticide, plants growing without chemical spraying and organisms capable of breaking down plastic in landfills.
Regenerative medicine seeks to restore functions in diseased or damaged tissues, cells and organs by either rejuvenating existing ones or transplanting new ones – potentially providing cures for diseases, injuries and genetic disorders.
Regenerative medicine offers some exciting advances, yet this field can still present numerous obstacles and difficulties. Ethical questions related to using biotechnology for treating individuals remain, with some objecting to insurance companies or employers using genetic information collected through insurance policies or employers for treatment purposes. Furthermore, biotechnology may cause unintended ecological consequences; crops designed to produce their own pesticide may lead to changes in wild plant populations that might prove unexpectedly altering.
