Stem-cell treatment is a nascent field that holds unlimited possibilities in the management of medical conditions, and India is not lagging: there already are about 20 facilities working on research and application.

Imagine a scenario where incidents like the recent kidney scam and debate on organ transplant no longer make news; a Bollywood without cancers; eating without worrying about diabetes; and growing old without getting anxious about Parkinson’s disease. All because medicine has transcended the need for transplants, zapped cancers in their infancy and precluded the possibility of dementia.
This, at least, is what the still nascent field promises — the magic being, of course, stem cell research. And while some researchers do issue statutory warnings about expecting too much too early, their grins refuse to fade despite academic scandals and seemingly insurmountable legal and ethical hurdles related to use of the primordial cells.
Of course, there is reason enough for this.
It is rare for a field no more than decade old to not only hold out such unlimited possibilities that look so real, but also offer a few concrete cures for a few real problems.
That stem cells are the building blocks of life were discovered in 1800s, but the research did not begin in earnest until the first in-vitro cell lines — from mice — were developed till 1981. In 1998, James Thompson from the University of Wisconsin isolated and cultured a stem cell line from an embryo.
But the most important and prevalent usage of stem cell treatment, through bone marrow transplants, began way back in 1950s — between identical twins. By 1973, when doctors learnt enough about the human immune system and tissue compatibility, they began marrow transplants between unrelated people.
It has since transpired that marrow transplant, which cures several diseases, including thalassaemia and leukemia, works because of the heavy presence of stem cells.

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