CNA\/EWTN News<\/a>).- 3-D printing of human tissue. Organ transplant therapy for cancer victims that reduces fatalities by 75 percent.<\/p>\nThese developments are on the cutting edge of what adult stem cells can do for the medical field. And standing alongside them is the Catholic Church, which promotes ethical forms of research that have yielded the most promising results.<\/p>\n
A recent Vatican conference focused specifically on ethical forms of stem cell research drew companies and leading experts to discuss the future of the rapidly developing field.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Church to be working with those who are finding exciting new cures and new therapies is a very natural thing to do,\u201d Archbishop Paul Tighe told CNA.<\/p>\n
The Ireland-born archbishop, who serves as adjunct secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture, told CNA that the Catholic Church\u2019s concern for the good of human beings means the Church has to be involved in the discussion.<\/p>\n
Catholics have an institutional presence in the forms of universities and hospitals. They\u2019re also motivated by another inspiration.<\/p>\n
Jesus was \u201cabove all a healer,\u201d he said. \u201cHe restored health to people. And that\u2019s really the care that people responded to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The April 28-30 conference at the Vatican was titled \u201cCellular Horizons: How Science, Technology, Information and Communication Will Impact Society.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was co-hosted by the Pontifical Council for Culture and the U.S.-based Stem for Life Foundation, a non-profit based in New York. Since 2011, it is the third regenerative medicine conference that has been organized in the Vatican.<\/p>\n
The conference gathers scientists, physicians, patients, religious leaders, philanthropists and government officials to discuss adult stem cell research and its uses and therapies.<\/p>\n
Among those at the conference was Dr. Donna Skerrett, M.D., the chief medical officer of the Australia-based medical company Mesoblast Limited. She said her company\u2019s stem cell research appears to have aided treatments for complications in organ transplants for cancer victims.<\/p>\n
Donated adult stem cells can help a condition called acute graft versus host disease, which otherwise has a fatality rate of over 80 percent among transplant patients. According to Mesoblast\u2019s trial research data, Skerrett said, these patients are now surviving at a rate of 80 percent.<\/p>\n
She said \u201cwe\u2019re very encouraged by the positive results and the ongoing trial is in place to keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Keith Murphy, the CEO of the San Diego-based company Organovo, told CNA about his company\u2019s technology that creates living human tissues in a technique known as \u201cbioprinting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take cells of many different types and we print them with a 3-D printer to make tissues,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a little like making something out of Legos, where you\u2019re going to actually place specific blocks of specific colors in a position and you\u2019re going to build something up layer by layer. Except that we use cells as a blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou put different cell types on top of each other or next to each other. You create a pattern, you put that into a computer, and the automated system deposits the cells and creates a living tissue. All the cells will join together and make one living tissue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just as 3-D printers use plastic or metal, human tissues can be printed in a way useful for research and, perhaps one day, transplant.<\/p>\n
Murphy\u2019s company creates human tissue for drug research.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so reliant on animal models for drugs and drug discovery,\u201d he said. Research like his company\u2019s could help find new drugs for conditions like fibrosis and Alzheimer\u2019s disease, where good animal research models are lacking.<\/p>\n
In three or four years, Organovo hopes to start clinical trials for a \u201cliver patch\u201d to help diseased or failing organs. The treatment could extend the waiting period for a person who needs a liver transplant.<\/p>\n
While Catholic teaching forbids research on embryonic stem cells \u2013 which requires the destruction of humans at the early embryonic stage \u2013 it allows and even encourages research on adult stem cells, taken from developed tissue without destroying a human life.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost cell therapies these days are not embryonic anymore,\u201d Murphy explained. \u201cNot a lot of companies have used embryonic stem cells as therapies, in part just because you stay away from any ethical issues if you go a different route.\u201d<\/p>\n
Embryonic stem cell treatments tend to rely on injection into the bloodstream, while Organovo\u2019s patching technology could allow a large amount of cells to go \u201cexactly where you want them and stay there.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said adult stem cells have also shown promise in fighting immune diseases, strokes and Crohn\u2019s Disease.<\/p>\n
Embryonic stem cells, in contrast, have failed to yield results in any treatment or cure, despite large amounts of government funding.<\/p>\n
Archbishop Tighe said that the Church has always tried to ensure that researchers would prioritize adult stem cell research, which avoids the ethical problem of embryonic stem cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a form of research that doesn\u2019t have that ethical difficulty about it. What\u2019s reassuring is that the experts seem to be saying that it\u2019s also a more efficient form of research. It\u2019s giving more results,\u201d he said of the adult stem cells.<\/p>\n
He said such research examines \u201cforms of healing that come from within our own God-given bodies.\u201d He suggested that the Church\u2019s lack of a commercial interest in the research can help it serve as an \u201chonest broker\u201d to ensure good attention.<\/p>\n
The archbishop said it is important that the research benefit the whole world and not just address the diseases prioritized in the technologically advanced West. It is also important that financial approaches to the research both respect those who have invested in new medicine and ensure that humanity\u2019s benefits can be shared by everyone.<\/p>\n
Discoveries about nature\u2019s capacity to cure itself might also draw from \u201csome of the traditional wisdom that was embodied in traditional medicine\u201d in the less developed parts of the world, he suggested.<\/p>\n
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Vatican City, May 11, 2016 \/ 04:51 pm (CNA\/EWTN News).- 3-D printing of human tissue. Organ transplant therapy for cancer victims that reduces fatalities by 75 percent.<\/p>\n
These developments are on the cutting edge of what adult stem cells can do for the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vatican"],"yoast_head":"\n
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