Regenerative medicine: Hope for healing

Jan 13, 2017 | Tony Hart | @TonyHart87

“Imagine a world where incurable diseases can in fact be cured. Where failing hearts can be strengthened without surgical transplant or organ donors. … Science has long known that the human body responds to injury and disease by attempting to heal itself. Regenerative medicine accelerates this natural healing process by harnessing advances in biology, immunology, and other sciences to restore health and function to damaged tissues and organs.”

─ Healing From Within: The Promise of Regenerative Medicine, Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine
Mayo Clinic’s Center for Regenerative Medicine leaders believe that regenerative medicine, which makes it possible to repair diseased, injured or congenitally defective tissues and organs, will be a vital component of medical and surgical practice over the coming years. By harnessing the potential of regenerative medicine, Mayo Clinic is poised to create new models of health care and transform medicine and surgery.

Who can regenerative medicine help?

On average, people are living longer than ever. In part, this is due to medical advances that have made it possible to save more people from life-threatening diseases, injuries and congenital conditions.

But, as people live longer, they're more likely to acquire chronic diseases or develop age-related conditions. Globally, there is an increasing incidence of chronic and degenerative diseases, and nearly 1 in 2 Americans has a chronic medical condition.

After the onset of most chronic diseases or injuries, the damage is there to stay. Consider scarring of heart tissue from a heart attack, beta cell dysfunction in diabetes or a spinal cord injury from an accident. Symptoms can be managed, often with success, but the underlying tissue or organ damage remains unhealed and can cause complications over time.

To develop new clinical applications that address the unmet needs of these patients, Mayo Clinic established the Center for Regenerative Medicine in 2011. Learn more about the Center for Regenerative Medicine in this video:

How can you learn more about regenerative medicine?

The Center for Regenerative Medicine activities are not just laboratory- or clinic-based. They're both — and everything in-between. Efforts in each of the center's programs, which build on Mayo's extensive research resources and clinical practice, span the full spectrum of discovery science, translational research and clinical application.

The center also offers a consult service that provides educational guidance and referrals to research studies and clinical trials in stem cell therapies. The Regenerative Medicine Consult Service at Mayo Clinic is the first consult service established in the U.S. to provide guidance for patients and families regarding stem cell-based protocols and treatment options.

Learn more about the Regenerative Medicine Consult Service.