Cultured epidermal sheetCMR UNIMOREThanks to an international team of scientists and doctors, a seven-year-old Syrian refugee who lost most of his outer skin to a life-threatening genetic disease now has a transgenic replacement, derived from his own cells, over approximately 80 percent of his body. And, as the team documents today (November 8) in Nature, he’s doing well.
“The work provides in-depth, novel information on skin stem cells and demonstrates the great potential of these cells for treating a devastating disorder,” says Alessandro Aiuti, a professor of pediatrics at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Italy who was not involved in the study.
“[It] establishes a landmark in the field of stem cell therapy,” Elaine Fuchs, a skin scientist at the Rockefeller University who also did not participate in the research, writes in an email to The Scientist. “In addition, it makes considerable headway in resolving a brewing controversy in the epidermal stem cell field,” she adds. Specifically, the study has clarified the way skin cells regenerate, which has been a subject of intense discussion among skin biologists.
He’s back to school, he’s ...
