The onset of regenerative medicine

Apparently paradigm shifts can happen very quickly. Before 1998, the phrase "regenerative medicine" was barely uttered. Then James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin isolated the human embryonic stem cell in ‘98, and the idea of regenerating tissue – replacing bad cells with good cells – really started taking off. One need only consider how many regenerative medicine centers and/or stem cell institutes have opened in the past few years to realize how quickly regenerative medicine is gaining ground, quite literally. Along with plans for new regenerative medicine institutes in New Jersey and California, similar new centers and departments have sprung up on many campuses, including the University of Pittsburgh, Minnesota, and South Carolina, Wake Forest University, and Harvard, as well as at a numerous medical complexes -- Massachusetts General Hospital, Maine Medical Center Research Institute, and Cleveland Clinic, to name a few. And that’s only in this country. The trend is increasingly in evidence throughout the world, from Barcelona to London to Osaka to Shanghai. Regenerative medicine could wind up this century’s predominate medical theme. -- Ann Parson, author of The Proteus Effect; Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine