Jeff Brady December 06, 2016
http://www.kens5.com/news/health/san-antonio-could-become-the-stem-cell-capital-of-the-world/364417326
Ayssa Ayala is a typical teenager who just happened to conquer cancer with the help of stem cells.
The 14-year-old leukemia survivor owes her life to a bone marrow donor.
"I'm grateful," she says. "Life is like a gift. After everything I went through, I'm glad to be alive."
She was diagnosed with the disease two years ago, but now she's cancer-free and back in school. Stem cells in the donated marrow kickstarted her body to fight the cancer. The treatment's been available for 40 years.
On Monday, advanced stem cell research has ushered in a new generation of healthcare, called regenerative medicine; actually regenerating human tissue one cell at a time, and San Antonio's leading the way.
"We're a global player," says Becky Cap, the COO of GenCure, a local non-profit providing human cell and tissue support services to the regenerative medicine industry.
Cap envisions a future where San Antonio can mass-produce stem cells for a global healthcare industry.
"The biggest obstacle is getting to that industrial scale of manufacturing," Cap said. "Getting to billions of cells of a particular type, not millions of cells."
She says that San Antonio has the infrastructure, talent, and collaborative relationships to make it the stem cell supplier to the world.
"All of the collaborators we've brought from outside San Antonio have been surprised at the depth and breadth of the activity we have going on here," Cap noted.
Labs at Gencure already have access to millions of donated adults stem cells, which are processed, frozen and stored in metallic cartridges for healthcare clients and for research. But the goal is to grow many more.
A century ago, individual stem cells were grown in test tubes and petri dishes. Now, the process is automated. One mechanical bio-reactor, the size of a desktop box, replaces hundreds of individual petri dishes and a half-dozen technicians who would have spent endless hours monitoring stem cell cultures in a lab. GenCure has several of the devices humming in a secure lab, where they can grow 3 million stem cells into 300 million, weekly.
Bio-Bridge, a non-profit that oversees Gen-Cure and several others companies, recently received a federal grant of almost $8 million to create a stem cell farm to mass-produce hundreds of billions of stem cells from every unit of donated cells.
The plan is to purchase at least a dozen more mechanical bio-reactors to expand production dramatically.
"We're putting in the infrastructure that will allow us to produce cells at the level of hundreds of billions, so that for all of these applications, you could send source cell material all over the world," Cap said.
Stem cells are crucial in healing because they do what no other cell does: They can reproduce and become almost any other cell in the human body. So, with enough stem cells, surgeons could hypothetically grow new skin, bones or even an organ for a patient who needs one.
"We're getting there. We need billions of cells in order to produce some of the tissues that are required," Cap said.
Cap admits that the ability to grow human tissue for surgical use remains a long-term goal. But the first step toward that end is creating a supply of enough quality stem cells to make them a health-care commodity.
"There may be an opportunity someday for a patient with a spinal cord injury to actually have function restored, regrow the connections in a severed spinal cord," Cap explained.
Stem cells already do the miraculous, helping the human body heal itself. Ayssa Ayala remains cancer-free and is back in school. But San Antonio may soon help open a field of medicine where stem cells can actually regrow human tissue that disease or disaster destroys.
http://www.kens5.com/news/health/san-antonio-could-become-the-stem-cell-capital-of-the-world/364417326
Ayssa Ayala is a typical teenager who just happened to conquer cancer with the help of stem cells.
The 14-year-old leukemia survivor owes her life to a bone marrow donor.
"I'm grateful," she says. "Life is like a gift. After everything I went through, I'm glad to be alive."
She was diagnosed with the disease two years ago, but now she's cancer-free and back in school. Stem cells in the donated marrow kickstarted her body to fight the cancer. The treatment's been available for 40 years.
On Monday, advanced stem cell research has ushered in a new generation of healthcare, called regenerative medicine; actually regenerating human tissue one cell at a time, and San Antonio's leading the way.
"We're a global player," says Becky Cap, the COO of GenCure, a local non-profit providing human cell and tissue support services to the regenerative medicine industry.
Cap envisions a future where San Antonio can mass-produce stem cells for a global healthcare industry.
"The biggest obstacle is getting to that industrial scale of manufacturing," Cap said. "Getting to billions of cells of a particular type, not millions of cells."
She says that San Antonio has the infrastructure, talent, and collaborative relationships to make it the stem cell supplier to the world.
"All of the collaborators we've brought from outside San Antonio have been surprised at the depth and breadth of the activity we have going on here," Cap noted.
Labs at Gencure already have access to millions of donated adults stem cells, which are processed, frozen and stored in metallic cartridges for healthcare clients and for research. But the goal is to grow many more.
A century ago, individual stem cells were grown in test tubes and petri dishes. Now, the process is automated. One mechanical bio-reactor, the size of a desktop box, replaces hundreds of individual petri dishes and a half-dozen technicians who would have spent endless hours monitoring stem cell cultures in a lab. GenCure has several of the devices humming in a secure lab, where they can grow 3 million stem cells into 300 million, weekly.
Bio-Bridge, a non-profit that oversees Gen-Cure and several others companies, recently received a federal grant of almost $8 million to create a stem cell farm to mass-produce hundreds of billions of stem cells from every unit of donated cells.
The plan is to purchase at least a dozen more mechanical bio-reactors to expand production dramatically.
"We're putting in the infrastructure that will allow us to produce cells at the level of hundreds of billions, so that for all of these applications, you could send source cell material all over the world," Cap said.
Stem cells are crucial in healing because they do what no other cell does: They can reproduce and become almost any other cell in the human body. So, with enough stem cells, surgeons could hypothetically grow new skin, bones or even an organ for a patient who needs one.
"We're getting there. We need billions of cells in order to produce some of the tissues that are required," Cap said.
Cap admits that the ability to grow human tissue for surgical use remains a long-term goal. But the first step toward that end is creating a supply of enough quality stem cells to make them a health-care commodity.
"There may be an opportunity someday for a patient with a spinal cord injury to actually have function restored, regrow the connections in a severed spinal cord," Cap explained.
Stem cells already do the miraculous, helping the human body heal itself. Ayssa Ayala remains cancer-free and is back in school. But San Antonio may soon help open a field of medicine where stem cells can actually regrow human tissue that disease or disaster destroys.