Revolutionary stem cell therapies could replace diseased body tissues, offering enormous promise for patients with incurable conditions such as Parkinson's disease and diabetes. Stem cells are immature cells that can divide into various types of cells that make up the bodies different organs and tissues. Stem cell therapy has been used for over 30 years to cure severe blood disorders such as leukaemia. At the 35th Annual Meeting of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), Prof. Katarina Le Blanc (Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden) chaired a session in which researchers discussed how stem cell therapy could regenerate other body tissues, thereby greatly improving human health and quality of life.

Regenerative medicine aims to treat currently incurable disorders, including neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's disease a devastating condition affecting around 6.3 million people worldwide. Regenerative medicine may also be used to treat muscular dystrophy and multiple sclerosis, and to repair or replace nerve cells (or 'neurons') damaged by spinal cord injury.

Regenerative medicine also has potential to generate new insulin-producing cells in people with diabetes. Around the world, 180 million people have diabetes and the condition contributes to 1-3 million deaths a year through complications such as heart disease and strokes…