Alan Lewis: Embryonic Stem Cell Therapies for diabetes

Embryonic stem cells have the potential to help treat 70 or more diseases, but developing those new therapies will take time. Alan Lewis is president and CEO of Novocell, a La Jolla-based company that has been developing a potential therapy for diabetes. Novocell has a CIRM grant to assemble a team of researchers who will accelerate the time it takes to get that potential therapy to the FDA for clinical trials.

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Science & Technology

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• California
• Institute
• Regenerative
• Medicine
• human
• embryonic
• stem
• cell
• research
• alan
• lewis
• novocell
• diabetes
• juvenile
• proposition
• prop
• 71
• medical

[CIRMTV]

I think youll see that we answered your concerns regarding self-renewal. Embryonic stem cells do not become more differentiated with each division. Some cells differentiate and others remain as embryonic stem cells. At this point we cant know how many cell lines will be needed, but the number will be far fewer than the roughly 400,000 left over IVF embryos currently in storage.

[CIRMTV]

Great question. When grown in the lab, some embryonic stem cells will divide to form more stem cells, others differentiate into mature cell types. It is possible to pick out the cells that have not differentiated and maintain an ongoing line of embryonic stem cells. Groups like Novocell can take some of their one line of stem cells, mature them into cells that can treat diabetes, and leave other cells in the embryonic form. These cells can act as an ongoing pool of cells for future therapies

[oran6es]

So how many embryos to be destroyed to reach that point? Also, how do you replicate embryonic cells without additional differentiation? An embryonic cell migrates and differentiates as it replicates, becoming more specific. Self-renewal several million times over is bound to result in something undesired, correct? You failed to answer this question yesterday.

[oran6es]

A typical embryonic cell, as it undergoes cell division (self-renewal) also differentiates into a more specific cell, more differentiated cell, correct? Hence, teeth, hair, etc in a teratoma. If you replicate a cell a million times over, how do you prevent that?

[CIRMTV]

Your comment assumes that each person treated with a stem cell-based therapy would require a unique cell line derived from a left over IVF embryo. One of the reasons researchers use embryonic stem cells is their ability to self-renew generating more cells. In fact, the treatment in development by Novocell uses a single stem cell line and could treat potentially thousands or millions of diabetics. So, a single left over blastocyst-stage embryo could yield treatments for all those diabetics.

[skatergirl333]

go Alan !!!