Stem cells bring life to biotech industry

Five researchers, clad from head to toe in sterilized surgical attire, assiduously prepared for a stem cell transplant, extracting from the blood of an umbilical cord and implanting the cells into an 80-year-old patient with cerebral palsy.

“We will be injecting stem cells we produced from umbilical cord blood into the patient,” explained Chung Hyung-min, president of CHA Bio & Diostech at the Chaum Global Stem Cell Clinical Trials Center in Bundang District, Gyeonggi. “This treatment has been showing some good results in trials, and previous patients have shown significant improvements within a six-month follow-up period.”

According to medical experts, one of the first signs of improvement in patients suffering from cerebral palsy after stem cell treatment is an increase in muscle tone, often followed by improved vocabulary, socialization and logical comprehension.

Operating rooms of the medical center’s stem cell clinical trials center are designed to allow for the quick transference of stem cells extracted in laboratories to patients undergoing surgery. According to Chung, the CHA Medical Center is the first facility to adopt such a design, and others may follow suit in the near future.

For full article see Joongang Daily.