• Question: Who was the first person to use stem cells to heal diseases such as diabetes and cancer?

    Asked by bcarter to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 15 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 15 Mar 2011:

      hi and thanks for your question!

      Georges Mathé, who was a french cancer doctor, performed the first bone marrow transplant in 1959 on six Yugoslavian nuclear workers whose bone marrow had been damaged by accidental irradiation.A few years later in 1963, he was the first person to use a bone marrow transplant in the treatment of leukaemia, a form of blood cancer.
      For diabetes, it’s still very early days but some stem cell transplants done in the last few years in America and Canada, by Robert Burt and James Sharpiro have shown that patients have been able to produce their own insulin again, and not require any injections. More studies are planned but if this continues then it’s good news for stem cells!

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