Courtesy of Ronald Crystal
Today, gene therapy, genomics, and stem cell therapy are considered to be discrete fields of research. I believe that within 20 years, these three fields will team up to form a new medical specialty: genetic medicine.
These worlds are going to come together because they have so much to offer one another. Genetic transfer will be useful for instructing stem cells to differentiate, and it may enhance their therapeutic potential or control their possible side effects. Stem cells may be the ultimate vehicle to deliver genetic therapy, solving many of the problems that hamper current vectors. Stem cells home to a specific organ, and thus may be able to carry a gene to a specific target, without the immune system activation that can occur with viral vectors. Genomics may supply the specific data to both engineer and control stem cells, thus providing the underpinnings of genetic ...
