diabetes and stem cell research

an australian scientific discovery using stem cells derived from human skin, brings new treatment hope for a range of diseases. for the first time in australia, researchers from the university of melbourne and monash institute of medical research have converted skin cells into steam cells using human biopsies from patients with the rare genetic disease friedreich's ataxia.

doctor paul verma and his research team at the monash institute of medical research converted the original skin cells and made them into ips cells for the use by the university of melbourne researchers. doctor elyse pebay anddoctor marelar detourey; co-leaders of the studyfrom the university of melbourne, characterised and directed the friedreich's ataxia ips cellsto become specific cell types

including heart cells and nerves. the advantage of having induced pluripotent stem cells is that they can be used to generate all the various different cell types in the body, and so for friedreich's ataxia ips cells we can use those to generate thecell types that specifically degenerate in this disease, so thatincludes heart cells or nerve cells. what is significant about this find and what we find so exciting is the fact

that it's the first australian report for the generation of ips cellscoming from a specific disease. it's the first time thathas happened in australia. the significance of thiswork will be potentially in the generation ofcells for transplantation for organs in the future andalso more in the short term the fact that these cellscan be used for drug screening to understand how drugscan act on specific cells, as well as for thegeneration of specific cell type,

and understanding ofcourse, of specific diseases processes along the way. it's the collective effortof clinicians, scientists, patients and the friedreich'sataxia research association; australasia and in the united states, which has made this discovery possible. currently there are no treatments for fa; it's the most common inherited disease of its type, one in thirty thousand

people suffer from friedreich ataxia however we haven't beenable to find a treatment as yet, but now this research holds great hope that we might be able todo that in the near future. we're extremely excited about theresults from the stem cell research, we've been very proud tosupport it on behalf of the friedreich ataxia research association. i have a sister and a brother who have fa, so i know exactly whatimpact this research has

on people and their hopethat there might be a treatment developed forthis disease in the near future. the study was done in collaboration with the murdoch children's researchinstitute, monash university, austin health and the o'brian institute.