In the 1920s, insulin changed the medical world. The 1940s brought us the wonder drug penicillin. In the 1960s, experimental organ transplants gave patients new life. Now in the 21st century, researchers are realizing that the answer to good health may already be within us.

“Regenerative medicine’s potential was realized long ago,” says Dr. Jim Woodgett, Director of Research at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital. Regenerative medicine refers to enabling the human body to repair, replace, restore and regenerate its own damaged or diseased cells, tissues and organs.

“We’ve known that as biological organisms we self-renew, and we do a pretty good job of it throughout our lives. Now, we are learning how to exploit these processes in repairing tissue damage caused by disease.”

Researchers at the Lunenfeld are leading the charge in regenerative medicine. In a recent study, Lunenfeld Senior Investigator Dr. Andras Nagy discovered a new method of creating stem cells that could lead to possible cures for devastating diseases including spinal cord injury, macular degeneration, diabetes and Parkinson’s disease. The study accelerates stem cell technology and provides a road map for new clinical approaches to regenerative medicine.

Dr. Nagy and his team are improving methods of reprogramming adult cells to become another type of cell in the body - and can now harvest stem cells from a patient’s own skin.

“We hope that these stem cells will form the basis for treatment for many diseases and conditions that are currently considered incurable,” says Dr. Nagy, who created the first human embryonic stem cell lines in Canada in 2005.

Stem cells have a built-in capacity to be coaxed into becoming certain other cell types in the adult body. Unlike the majority of human cells which have a specified function, stem cells can generate different types of cells.

Nagy’s colleague, Lunenfeld Associate Scientist Dr. Ian Rogers researches blood stem cells. Using the discarded umbilical cords of newborn babies after delivery, he “tricks” the blood cells into becoming pancreas, muscle and neural tissues. Dr. Rogers’ lab has designed a method to grow cells that would treat type 1 diabetes, regulate insulin in patients and improve circulation in those with type 2 diabetes.

Dr. Rita Kandel, clinician-scientist and Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Mount Sinai, works with stem cells to then grow more cells that can replace damaged tissue. Dr. Kandel’s work helps to create articular joints. In other words, Dr. Kandel and her team are working toward making tissues in the lab that can be transplanted directly into a patient to remedy aging knees and hips, or repair joints damaged by sports injuries. Her lab is also creating intervertebral discs to solve degenerative disc disease — a condition that affects 80 per cent of the population at some point in their lives.

“It’s living tissue that’s your own — it’s a permanent replacement,” says Dr. Kandel. “Regenerative medicine is the medicine of the future.”