Stem cell everything
Stem cell research is too large an area to review in its entirety, but in 2012 more than any other year since their stumbling entry to the world stage, stem cells have proven to be a vitally important part of our quest to master all disease. The problem posed by embryonic stem cells, which provided total pluripotency, has been largely solved by the ability to roll back adult cells to more stem-y versions (this was the 2012 Nobel Prize in medicine). As a result, research has lurched forward like a dog let slip, and the results are already exciting to say the least.
Stem cells have let researchers treat multiple sclerosis in mice or ease a certain sort of blindness. A patient’s stem cells can be used to repair damaged heart tissue following heart attack, or just grow some new ones from nothing more than a skin sample. Stem cells can grow us an organ, and they can increase that organ’s chance of acceptance by the body. They can be programmed to seek out viruses, like HIV. Perhaps most excitingly, 2012 saw the successful development of a cluster of cloned brain neurons, a tiny grown brain sample with enormous implications of psycho-pharmacological research; if everybody reacts differently to a medicine, just test the medicine on their brain before giving it to them at all. Stem cells have the potential to make the “take this and tell me if you feel bad” school of medicating seem crude, like leeching an infection.
Embryonic cells are still necessary for a few things, however, such as growing bone or bone marrow. Still, the future is bright.
Next page: The next step to transhumanism…