Today's Edition
MELBOURNE (WAM)
Australian researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne said they have developed innovative treatments for blood diseases and cancer aimed at improving recovery rates, expanding access to care, and reducing the costs associated with bone marrow transplants, in what they described as a world-first scientific and medical breakthrough.
Professor Andrew Elefant, who leads the research team, said developing blood stem cells remains one of the most complex challenges in biomedical science, noting that such cells are extremely rare in humans and difficult to produce.
He added that, after more than 25 years of work, the team succeeded in replicating stages of embryonic development in the laboratory.
The technique involves generating human blood cells in the lab from stem cells, potentially enabling the use of stem cell transplants as an alternative to bone-marrow transplants for patients who lack a perfectly matched donor.
The technology may be able to correct genetic defects in blood stem cell development, which cause disease, and a wide array of immune clinical applications may open up in future.
Elefant said laboratory experiments had demonstrated the effectiveness of these cells, showing their ability to reconstitute the blood system in animal models, marking an important step toward clinical trials in humans in the next phase.
