Regenerative medicine: a 2009 overview

Abstract

The rapidly evolving field of regenerative medicine holds much promise for cell-based therapies for a range of debilitating conditions from spinal cord injury to haematological and neurological diseases. The groundbreaking discovery of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells has offered new perspectives on disease progression and the possibility of patient-specific cell transplants. In this review we first give a brief history of the field of regenerative medicine and then discuss the current state of regenerative medicine with a focus on embryonic stem cells and iPS cells. In order to keep abreast with this rapidly developing field, the Journal of Internal Medicine organized a 2-day Symposium, on March 12-13(th) 2009, at the Karolinska Insitute in Stockholm, which featured talks by 19 leading scientists in the field of regenerative medicine. In this review, we discuss the Symposium and introduce six accompanying review articles, by Symposium speakers, which focus on some of the topics discussed at the meeting.