Stem cells: Hope and hype

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lesley Curwen reports on the magical aura that has been drawing so many people around the world to pay for “regenerative” therapies which harness the healing power of stem cells. In this programme, she reports on the battle of regulators in the USA and in Australia to stop unproven and risky therapies harming patients. Featuring: Texas lawyer Hartley Hampton; Galen Dinning; stem cell researcher and host of The Niche blog, Professor Paul Knoepfler from the University of California, Davis School of Medicine; Dr Sean Morrison, Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Texas South Western and former president of the global body representing stem cell researchers the ISSCR; Laura Beil, host of the Wondery podcast, Bad Batch; Peter Marks of the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA; Professor Megan Munsie from Stem Cell Australia and chair of the ISSCR Ethics Committee; Dr Sarah Chan from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. (Picture: Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that can specialized through mitosis to many other cell types of multicellular organisms. Credit: selvanegra/Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan
0:05.2	I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy
0:10.1	podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. Comedy is a bit of a dream job really.
0:13.0	Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh,
0:18.0	making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things.
0:22.0	But you know, I also know that comedy is really
0:24.3	subjective and everyone has different tastes. So we've got a huge range of comedy on offer from
0:29.8	satire to silly, shocking to soothing, profound to just general pratting about.
0:35.0	So if you fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:45.0	Hello and welcome to Discovery on the BBC.
0:49.0	I'm Leslie Cohen and I'm investigating the Global Promise and the global hype around stem cells,
0:55.8	those amazing cells which have powers to transform themselves into new cells
1:00.7	or even repair damage in our bodies. In the second of two programs, I'm looking at
1:06.0	the rise of the stem cell industry in the United States and Australia and the lure of its
1:12.2	slick marketing which has left regulators struggling to cope.
1:16.0	You were born with the ability to heal yourself.
1:20.0	Through science and technology, those abilities are now available on demand through regenerative medicine treatments
1:27.6	Ask your doctor how you can stimulate the healing from within and it's that magical aura that's been drawing so many people across the world
1:37.0	to commercial treatments marketed as regenerative therapies
1:41.0	which harness the healing power of stem cells. They may be offered for
1:45.6	anything from male incontinence or hair loss to joint problems or far more
	...

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