Dame Julia Polak is founder of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative
Medicine Centre at Imperial College.
Extraordinarily, in 1995 she was also the recipient of a heart and lung
transplant, making her one of the longest survivors of the procedure. It was
an experience which led her to a pioneering career in the fledgling science
of growing new organs from cells.
The new technologies mean scientists can create a three-dimensional
structure which can be implanted into the patient. There have been some
initial clinical trials for the heart and for the bladder.
A group in the US created a three-dimensional tissue engineered bladder in
the laboratory and implanted it into children and eight years on the bladder
is still working.
Dame Julia Polak admits the new knowledge may mean, in theory, we could
live forever.
“We are rewriting the book of medicine in that respect,” she says. “Nobody
imagined that you can use even your own cells, grow them in the laboratory
and put them back.”
At the moment, most of the new science is still bound within the confines
of the laboratory. But Dame Polak seems optimistic about the future.
“Who knows what will happen in five or ten years but there are lots of
hurdles to overcome because there are regulatory hurdles, financial hurdles
and creating an atmosphere of really multidisciplinary teams including
everybody including patients to work together with companies and science.
It needs work on it but it’s happening,” she says.
I asked her if in a decade’s time, it was plausible that she might be able to
make me a kidney from my own cells. She clearly sees problems ahead but
my theoretical request doesn’t seem too outlandish.
From London we flew to Stanford University in California to see another
new technology which could change the world.
Professor Ada Poon has developed a revolutionary prototype device.
Powered and controlled by radio waves generated outside of the body, it is
so small it could move through a patient’s bloodstream, collecting medical
data or delivering medication.
This could be the start of miniature robot doctors searching through your
body, looking for problems and fixing them.
It sounds like a movie but it’s probably too unbelievable for fiction. For the
whole truth about the possibilities of future medicine, tune into our
Horizons programme on robotics and the future of medicine. Dame Julia Polak is founder of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative
Medicine Centre at Imperial College.
Extraordinarily, in 1995 she was also the recipient of a heart and lung
transplant, making her one of the longest survivors of the procedure. It was
an experience which led her to a pioneering career in the fledgling science
of growing new organs from cells.
The new technologies mean scientists can create a three-dimensional
structure which can be implanted into the patient. There have been some
initial clinical trials for the heart and for the bladder.
A group in the US created a three-dimensional tissue engineered bladder in
the laboratory and implanted it into children and eight years on the bladder
is still working.
Dame Julia Polak admits the new knowledge may mean, in theory, we could
live forever.
“We are rewriting the book of medicine in that respect,” she says. “Nobody
imagined that you can use even your own cells, grow them in the laboratory
and put them back.”
At the moment, most of the new science is still bound within the confines
of the laboratory. But Dame Polak seems optimistic about the future.
“Who knows what will happen in five or ten years but there are lots of
hurdles to overcome because there are regulatory hurdles, financial hurdles
and creating an atmosphere of really multidisciplinary teams including
everybody including patients to work together with companies and science.
It needs work on it but it’s happening,” she says.
I asked her if in a decade’s time, it was plausible that she might be able to
make me a kidney from my own cells. She clearly sees problems ahead but
my theoretical request doesn’t seem too outlandish.
From London we flew to Stanford University in California to see another
new technology which could change the world.
Professor Ada Poon has developed a revolutionary prototype device.
Powered and controlled by radio waves generated outside of the body, it is
so small it could move through a patient’s bloodstream, collecting medical
data or delivering medication.
This could be the start of miniature robot doctors searching through your
body, looking for problems and fixing them.
It sounds like a movie but it’s probably too unbelievable for fiction. For the
whole truth about the possibilities of future medicine, tune into our
Horizons programme on robotics and the future of medicine.