What is the process for using the amniotic fluid and placental stem cells?
Dr. Atala: The amniotic fluid and placental stem cells can be obtained right up to the time of birth. After the baby’s born, one can take the cells, expand those cells, isolate a stem cell population, and use that for treatment. We’re re-visiting one of your patients – a young lady who has received a bladder and is now going off to college. How do stories like that touch you in the work that all of you do here? Dr. Atala: The greatest reward for us is to really see that patients are benefitting from these technologies and that they are able to live lives which are better because of the treatment they received. At the end of the day, that’s why we chose this field of medicine, and that is also why we do everything we do here for our patients. Hopefully someday in the future, we’ll be able to grow every tissue and organ; in the distant future, for sure. END OF INTERVIEW This information is intended for additional research purposes only. It is not to be used as a prescription or advice fr
