Researcher brings future of medicine to Saskatoon – CBC.ca

His lab can grow human heart cells that beat, and today Dr. Gordon Keller, one of the world's leading stem cell scientists, brings his vision of future medical therapies to Innovation Place at the University of Saskatchewan.

The future, Keller told CBC Radio's Saskatoon Morning isn't far off. After all, he said, stem cellsare already inuse for people needing bone marrow transplants.

"That is, in essence, the gold standard of stem cell therapies," saidKeller, who is the director ofthe McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto.

While the idea of growing complete new human organs may bea future dream, Keller said that introducing strong new stem cells to damaged organs is a reality.

"We can make those cells now to try and repair those damaged areas following, let's say, a heart attack areas of the brain, pieces of cartilage we can make, liver cells we can make," he said.

"We are looking at trying to create a universal donor cell that would not be rejected, so it would really be the workhorse of what we want to do."

Keller said stem cells show great promise in being able to eradicate ailments like heart diseaseandParkinson's disease.

"It'll be a game changer, if what we believe can be done works."

Keller has already been at this for decades, watching the sometimes slow progress of new medical therapies, struggling as all researchers do to find the money they need to save lives.

So what keeps him going?

"People come by the lab all the time and we show them a dish full of human heart cells that are beating. If you go into work every day and see that "

Keller is speaking at the Atrium at Innovation Place from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. CST today.

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Researcher brings future of medicine to Saskatoon - CBC.ca