Submitted by Brian Ragain

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Science might have advanced at a more substantial rate than you expected. Around the turn of the century, the controversy over stem cells was centered around how they were obtained. Umbilical cord blood seemed to be the source of the most abundant supply, and bone marrow was also an option. But times are changing!

Stem cells are now harvested, for a lack of a better term, from the backbone of a healthy female donor. One donor can supply upwards of 100,000 doses of stem cells. This same donor might also be donating one heart, one liver, two kidneys, etc. Although these stem cells are the age of the donor, we can revert them to back to an embryotic state and ask them to be a new type of cell. These cells are called induced pluripotent stem cells. To simplify this, imagine totally rebuilding a car or a home. The structure may be the original age, but the entirety of the car or the home is now totally updated. This is how we avoid the controversy over cord blood, as well as the finite supply. And we avoid any chance of outsourcing to another country for potentially inferior products.

If you want to see what kinds of therapies are being performed with stem cells, or any other health advances, go to ClinicalTrials.gov and look around. Or visit CMMRF.org and update yourself on our work. Then speak to your Councils about the medical breakthroughs that are being perfected because of your continued support of CMMRF!