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There’s a reason you can’t donate a kidney or bone marrow to just anybody. Each person’s immune system is tuned to reject things that look foreign.
But scientists have known for years there are people in the world with a rare gift—their cells look innocuous to the immune systems of many other people. What if they became “superdonors?” Could they donate some blood cells, which could then be coaxed through stem-cell reprogramming methods to make replacement cells for failing retinas, hearts, or neurons? Could those new human cells be consistently manufactured, and transplanted into millions of patients who suffer from macular degeneration, heart attacks, and Parkinson’s disease? Could it truly be done without the fear of the cells being rejected?
If so, might patients be able to avoid taking immune-suppressants the rest of their lives, which come with all kinds of drawbacks?
It’s a tantalizing vision which stem cell biologists have been discussing for years. Now a small biotech company, Madison, Wis.-based Cellular Dynamics International, is reporting today that it has obtained and begun manufacturing cells from two...