Japanese technology for treating blood cancers Special Correspondent

It doesn’t involve usage of embryonic stem cells

CHENNAI: Treating blood cancers such as aplastic aneamia and thalassemia by stem cells engineered in the lab will be possible in the near future, according to Yukio Nakamura, stem cell scientist and head of bio resources centre, Riken Institute, Japan.

Delivering a lecture at an international stem cells meeting in commemoration of the fourth anniversary of Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) here on Saturday, he said “the Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells technology discovered by Japanese scientists would pave the way for such a breakthrough as this technology doesn’t involve usage of embryonic stem cells and therefore is devoid of ethical conflicts.”

P. Thangaraju, Vice-Chancellor, TANUVAS, said that they were proposing to set up a world-class facility for animal stem cell research treatment and banking in Chennai in collaboration with NCRM. Ryuji Hata of Ehime University, Japan, presented his work on prevention of auditory hair cell damage in animal models using hematopoietic stem cells which he said in future may help treat sensory neural hearing loss.

Takayuki Kitagawa, Deputy Consul General of Japan in Chennai, distributed the prizes to the winners of the Fujio Cup Quiz.

The first prize and Fujio Cup was bagged by Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Bangalore.