Question: How far can stem cells go in medical help

David Christensen answered on 15 Nov 2013:

Thanks for the question joes47.

We all hope that stem cells can be incredibly useful in treatment of a lot of different diseases. Basically any disease that is caused by cells not working properly – like diabetes where cells in the pancreas don’t work properly or Alzheimer’s where certain cells in the brain aren’t working properly. As embryonic stem cells (the cells that I work with) can become any type of cell in our bodies, we can make new cells for the pancreas or brain in the lab to then transplant into people with those diseases. The number of diseases that could be treated by giving people new cells that will work as they should is huge. At the moment, we can’t do this very well, but scientists have grown hearts and kidneys to transplant into rats, so hopefully we can do something similar for humans within 10 years.

I hope this answers your question!