Alexander Battler and Jonathan Leor

2006

Frontiers in Regenerative Medicine

The human body has limited potential to rejuvenate injured organs and tissues. An old dream of scientists and physicians is to be able to rebuild “spare parts” to replace injured or diseased tissues—a notion that was once referred to as the field of science fiction. The new discipline of regenerative medicine aims to help the body heal itself with cells, genes, and bioactive molecules and materials. In the last decade, the notion that stem cells can give rise to mature tissues has made stem cells the focus of intense research designed to explore their promise for the treatment of a variety of diseases.