PerspectivesAre you interested in submitting a Perspective Article? Be sure to read The Science Advisory Board's Editorial Guides for Perspective Articles. Click here. Regenerative Medicine and e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine by William A. Haseltine Ph.D. Improving capabilities for publication of technical material via the World Wide Web have made it the most convenient vehicle for worldwide distribution of research findings. e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine, an online, peer-reviewed journal, was created in 2000 to aid the rapid dissemination of experimental results and opinion in this burgeoning field. Both manuscript submission and peer review are electronic, and accepted papers are available to subscribers within three weeks of submission. e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine has published important articles on a range of relevant subjects, including tissue engineering, nuclear transplantation therapy, embryology, local gene delivery for tissue regeneration, articular cartilage repair, analysis technology, and bioartificial organ development. Regenerative medicine is rapidly gaining recognition as a new field that will improve and extend life. It is an approach to therapy that offers the prospect of curing diseases that cannot be treated effectively today, including those related to aging. Regenerative medicine employs human genes, proteins and cells to re-grow, restore or provide mechanical replacements for tissues that have been injured by trauma, damaged by disease or worn by time. The central unifying insight of regenerative medicine is that each of us started life as a single cell with the potential to transform itself into an adult body. Our cells retains that potential in the form of our genes. Over the past fifteen years, scientists have learned how to identify the molecules that our genes produce. Those molecules direct the unfolding of a body from a fertilized egg. We can now isolate, study and produce them in unlimited quantities and use them to regenerate our tissues and organs. Recombinant proteins such as erythropoietin and human insulin are early forms of regenerative medicine that are already transforming the lives of patients. Antibody drugs are likewise now coming into their own as potent therapeutics. Gene therapies, too, have been shown to benefit patients in clinical trials, and dozens of such therapies are now in development. Regenerative medicine will in time move beyond using just proteins and genes to repair tissue. Increasingly, therapies will be based on living cells. Although this type of regenerative medicine must negotiate substantial hurdles, early examples of cellular skin and cartilage therapeutics are already available commercially. Clinical trials of many more cellular therapies are underway or planned. The field will also benefit enormously from the rapid advances we are witnessing in nanobiotechnology. Increasingly, researchers are able to fabricate materials and structures with features small enough to guide the movements of cells. We are even starting to engineer devices and substances that accomplish specific tasks within cells. The medical implications are far-reaching, and we who are active in the area of regenerative medicine must ensure that the potential of the field is widely understood. It is clear that interventions arising from such areas of scientific endeavor as stem cell biology, tissue engineering, nanotechnology, nuclear transplantation, and gene therapy can make major inroads against some of humankind's most intractable enemies. Target therapeutic areas include cancer, cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative diseases, to name but a few. Moreover, regenerative medicines have many advantages over traditional pharmaceuticals. Besides providing more durable healing for a broader range of conditions, they are often safer. Creating and using regenerative medicines will, however, require new institutions. Most obviously, the development of regenerative medicine will require the creation of new research centers at hospitals and universities. Government funding will be necessary in some areas to speed research on problems that do not offer near-term commercial promise. We must provide leadership in the worlds of science and medicine in order to ensure that our insights are effectively and speedily exploited. Because regenerative medicine draws on many different disciplines, there is a pressing need for effective communication among researchers and others with an interest in the field. Practitioners and scientists with information to share are active both in this country and abroad. Improved information exchange can advance basic research, technology development, and clinical applications. It can even lead to the creation of new companies and facilitate the development of appropriate public policy. Yet to a large extent, regenerative medicine has hitherto been advanced by separate groups working independently from one another. As Editor-in-Chief of e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine, I intend to ensure that the journal continues to publish significant contributions to the development of the field. The subject is too important for controversy to deter me or the journal's editorial board from following the course we have set. It is our belief that the innovative technologies we are fostering will allow people worldwide to live more active, healthier and longer lives. ### William A. Haseltine Ph.D. Chairman and CEO, Human Genome Sciences, Inc. Editor-in-Chief, e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine e-biomed: The Journal of Regenerative Medicine is available at: http://www.liebertpub.com/EBI/default1.asp ### << Previous Next >> [ View All Perspectives ] |
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