World first for UNSW stem cell researchers

Dr

and his team flag new hope for long-term sufferers of neuro-degenerative disorders

USHA RAMANUJAM ARVIND reports

Dr Kuldip Sidhu and his research team at UNSW’s prestigious Stem Cell Lab have clocked another path-breaking milestone.

In a world first, they have created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from human skin without genetic manipulation or use of viruses.

This vital step, in what has been a long and controversial journey for stem cell technologists, could eventually lead to a viable treatment for long-term sufferers of debilitating neuro-degenerative diseases.

Currently diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer’s, which are caused by the destruction of specific neural cells, have no cure.

“There are at least 80,000 sufferers in Australia alone and the burden on our national health budget is huge”, said Dr Sidhu, director of the Stem Cell Lab.

Alleviating their suffering and providing a cure will be not only be deeply satisfying personally but also a welcome step for all humanity, he added.

According to him, an “effective way to treat these diseases would be to replace those deprived cells in the brain with fresh cells by future cell therapy. And the development of such autologous cell therapy with iPSCs will create a potent pathway to cure these diseases”.

The immediate use of such cells nevertheless will be in drug discovery and toxicological studies in the laboratory, he predicts.

Explaining the complex process, Dr Sidhu told Indian Link that iPSC technology offers an opportunity to produce pluripotent stem cells that are “patient specific”.

“By bypassing the need to use viral particles or genetic manipulation, the fear of mutations like cancer is almost negligible, thus removing a major hurdle in its therapeutic use”, he added.

With this remarkable breakthrough, scientists have now begun work on using