Jeffrey R. Millman, PhD was recently interviewed for an article in Nature about scalable manufacturing of stem cell products for diabetes cell replacement therapy. In creating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells researchers take a person’s skin, blood or other cells, reprogram them into iPS cells, and then use those to grow liver cells, pancreatic β cells, neurons or whatever is needed to treat a disease. The breakthrough discovery of iPS cells promised to be a boon for regenerative medicine; however, those therapies have proved challenging to develop. In the article, Dr. Millman discusses why creating iPS cells, especially in mass production, can be so challenging.
For more on the interview:
Stem-cell start-ups seek to crack the mass-production problem