ALLURE MEDICAL - all•u Magazine all·u Magazine Spring 2018 | Page 31

expanding and showing a tremendous amount
of promise, several companies are working to
shape the future of medicine further—more
than just the transplantation of stem cells.
CURRENT LEADERS FORGING NEW
PATHS FOR STEM CELL THERAPY
Several companies are trying to unlock the
keys to aging and stem cell replication:
UNITY BIOTECHNOLOGY IS
“AWAKENING” SLEEPING STEM CELLS.
Unity Biotechnology is working on a process to
remove sleeping stem cells. When stem cells lie
dormant in spite of active disease, the diseased tissue
can’t regenerate fast enough to fight the disease.
Unity Biotechnology is trying to activate healthy
stem cells by destroying these dormant stem cells.
SAMUMED LLC IS ACTIVATING THE
CELLULAR SIGNALS THAT CAUSE
TISSUES TO REPAIR THEMSELVES.
Samumed LLC is working to stimulate dormant
stem cells into regenerating specific tissues.
This is exciting because they can find different
proteins that stimulate stem cells to transform
into various organ or cell line types.
ACCORDING TO THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE
CONTROL AND PREVENTION (CDC) THE
LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH ARE (3, 4) :
Heart disease Alzheimer’s
Cancer Diabetes
Chronic lower
Influenza and
respiratory disease
Pneumonia.
(COPD & Emphysema). This is virtually
Accidents
unchanged over the
past 100 years.
Stroke
HEALTHCARE OF THE FUTURE
Currently, the United States spends over $3 trillion
a year in healthcare, and that’s growing at 5 percent
per year. This is obviously not sustainable. We might
be helping people to live longer, but we’re still dying
from the same conditions we were dying from a
century ago such as heart disease and cancer.
Regenerative medicine has promised to change
the future of healthcare forever. With stem cell
therapy and other types of regenerative treatments
on the horizon, we’ll soon be moving away
from a disease-management model and finally
moving towards a disease-elimination model.
DR. CHARLES MOK has been practicing
medicine for over twenty-five years. After
receiving his medical degree, Dr. Mok
completed his post