"People think stem cell therapies are 10 or 20 years away. The reality is that they're right around the corner," says Joshua Hare, MD, director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at America's University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
Stem cells are sometimes called the body's generic cells. Because they have the ability to differentiate into most kinds of cells in the body, they could theoretically offer an infinite supply closet when body parts are damaged. In 2009, Hare and his colleagues not only proved that it was safe to infuse heart attact patients with stem, but they also found evidence that the treatment halped the damaged hearts recover. "This is still experimental," Dr Hare says. "But it's very, very exciting."
Hare's group was one of several that has recently been leapfrogging past each other with advances. "In one of our studies, 45 patients were so sick, they had troble talking," says Bob Nellis, a spokesperson for the Maya Clinic in Rochester, New york state. "Now they can easily walk the lenght of a football field. One took up the trumpet.
"The real story is how fast it's all happening," Nellis adds. "It's the fastest - advancing field in human biology right now."
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