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For the past 12 years,

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I have been a researcher
in the field of regenerative medicine.

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As a doctor of neuroscience,

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my work investigates
whether or not we can use stem cells

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to help children who have had brain injury
or adults with spinal cord injury.

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Today, I am going to speak with you

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about how we are changing
the future with stem cells.

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I believe that stem cells
are the new Internet.

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Think about it.

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Think about how the Internet completely
changed the way that we communicate,

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the way that we do business,

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and even the way
that we gather data and information.

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Similarly, I believe that stem cells
have the power to revolutionize

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the whole concept of healthcare.

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So to start, let's have
a little audience participation.

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Put your hand up: how many of you
have heard of the term "stem cells"?

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Now leave your hand up
if you can tell me what they are.

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This illustrates a very important part
of my work in science communications.

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Most of us have heard
of the term stem cells

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either through the media
or through our friends,

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but very few of us
actually know what they are,

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what they can do,
and, importantly, what they can't do.

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So, today, we're going to speak
a little about what stem cells are,

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we're going to look
at what they're currently being used for,

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and where the future of the field lies.

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So, you can't be expected to understand
about stem cell treatments

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if you don't understand
what stem cells are to begin with.

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This is something
that I like to call "Stem Cells: 101".

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We all know that the hundreds of cells
in the human body

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all originate from one fertilized egg.

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If you think of this
as a ball rolling down a hill:

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at the top of the hill, the ball can go
to any number of destinations downhill,

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but as it rolls down guided by gravity,
it hits a series of forks in the road.

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After which it must make a decision
to go one way or the other,

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and that restricts its potential outcomes.

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Similarly, stem cells
during the process of differentiation

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face a series of fate decisions

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where they must choose
which cell type to specialize into,

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and they cannot go back.

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Near the top of the hill,
you see pluripotent stem cells:

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"pluri-" meaning "many";
"potent", "potencies".

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Embryonic pluripotent stem cells

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are the type of stem cell that people
most often associate with the word.

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However, in reality, these cells
are virtually never used

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in transplant paradigms.

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Instead, we differentiate the cell down
into multipotent progenitors

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that are very specialized for the type
of tissue that we want to get.

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It's important to note
that one type of multipotent cell

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cannot make adult cells of another type.

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For example, fat stem cells
cannot make cells of the brain or the eye,

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and vice versa.

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So, you might ask,

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if pluripotent stem cells can turn
into any cell in the body,

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why don't we just inject those?

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You know, they could go to the site,

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they could travel to the site
of whatever is injured

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and turn into the cells that we need.

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Right?

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Wrong!

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Because they could turn
into something like this.

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This is called a teratoma.

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The problem is once we put stem cells in,

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we cannot control where they go
or what cells they turn into.

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They could turn
into all of the cells in the body

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all at once, all in the same place.

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Here you can see hair,
fat, tooth, gut, bone -

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imagine if this were
in your brain or your eye.

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This is why we must differentiate cells

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into the specific progenitors
as much as possible

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before we're thinking
of transplanting them in.

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Now, all of our adult tissue has
its own multipotent cells within it,

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that's what helps us to grow
or when we're repairing injury,

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and these can be harvested
in many tissues,

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and grown in the lab
for transplanting paradigms.

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However, there are some tissues
that you can't harvest.

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Think about the brain
or the heart or the eye.

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Going in there to get cells
could kill you.

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So we have to think of other alternative
cell sources for these cells.

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And this is where
pluripotent cells come in.

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Now, up until now, embryonic drive cells
have been differentiated down the hill

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into the stem cell types that we need.

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Recently, induced pluripotent
stem cells were developed

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where you can take adult skin samples,
your own consenting adult,

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push them back up the hill
using four chemical factors,

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and then differentiate them down
to the cell type you need.

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This was discovered recently
by Shinya Yamanaka,

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who went on to win the Nobel Prize.

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The good thing about this is
it uses non embryonic sources,

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and it's your own tissue,
so your body is not likely to reject it.

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Alternatively, direct lineage
reprogramming - there we go -

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takes you from A to B

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without this intermediate
step up the hill.

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You can take adult skin samples

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and differentiate them directly
into the cell type you choose

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using different chemical triggers.

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Now, this is only
in the lab phases, it's very new,

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but it represents
a very interesting direction

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into where the field is heading.

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So, what we are we doing with stem cells?

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Here's another audience participation.

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How many of you are affected by,
or know someone who has been affected by,

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any of these diseases?

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Put up your hands.

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Stroke, burns, diabetes,
injuries to joints.

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Now look around.

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Every single one of us
is affected by diseases

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that stem cells could potentially
one day help treat.

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Just because we are putting stem cells
into the first person in the first trial

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doesn't mean these are a treatment,

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doesn't mean it's
a regular accepted treatment.

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As you can see here,

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it can take up to ten years or over

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to get through
the clinical trials pipeline.

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Science is incremental,

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but the good news is
we have a lot of treatments

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that have been in the pipeline
for many years,

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that are just now starting to come out.

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Furthermore, now more than ever before,

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scientists, clinicians,
members of the public, policymakers,

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are all working together
to streamline this process.

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That means we can get
the best stem cell treatments out

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to the people who need them the most
in the shortest amount of time.

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So here you see these diseases
are colour-coded

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based on where they are on the pipeline.

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You can see that we have
two current treatments using stem cells

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here in green.

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The first for bone and blood cancer

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you might know of
as a bone marrow transplant.

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Been used for decades.

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The next stem cell product
to come out of the pipeline

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is for burns and wound healing.

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This uses skin tissue
and helps with vision burns as well.

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Today we're going to focus
on two major areas

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that we're using stem cells in.

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The first is stroke.

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This is my work in childhood brain injury.

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Did you know that cerebral palsy
is more common

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than juvenile AIDS, childhood leukaemia,
muscular dystrophy,

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and juvenile diabetes combined.

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Cerebral palsy, which means
problems sending signals

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from the brain to the muscles
creating movement

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is the most common
neurodevelopmental disability.

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What my work does,

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is we inject stem cells into the brain

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which are able to incorporate
and turn into the types of cells

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that are lost in the most
common forms of brain injury.

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They can enhance function
and restore brain tissue.

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And what my work in particular
has been able to show

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is that we are able to functionally
double the signal speed

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in the brains of animals.

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What could this mean for a child
with cerebral palsy?

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This could mean the potential
for normal movement,

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the ability to go out and run and jump,
to play with their friends.

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Very exciting stuff.

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Right now, these cells are being used
in clinical trials only.

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There are trials in adults
looking at stroke,

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and there are adult trials
looking in spinal cord injury.

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The same cells are lost in these models.

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Importantly, the first clinical trial
using these types of cells

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has now started in children.

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Next, I want to focus
on a very interesting area

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that's combining 3D bioprinting
with stem cell regenerative medicine.

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This is in red, because it is
only in the early stages,

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but I think it represents
a very exciting avenue

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through which the field is heading.

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With improvements
in imaging software and technology,

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we are now able to make accurate 3D images

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and take scans of body structures
inside the body.

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Using AutoCAD and 3D software,

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we are able to make CAD designs
which can be printed using 3D bioprinters.

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These bioprinters are kind of like
the printers you have at home,

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only, instead of using ink,
they use special biogels

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to create the structures
that you have in the body.

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After that, you can seed them
with stem cells.

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Here you see a heart valve being printed

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which can then later be seeded,
possibly with your own stem cells.

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There's an image on the inset
of the heart valve.

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There's also an image of an ear
being seeded with stem cells

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which can be your own.

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Underneath, you see
a 3D printed image of a trachea.

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On the bottom right, you see an interview
that I recently did with CTV national news

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on the youngest ever
transplant recipient of a trachea

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seeded with her own stem cells.

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It's important to note
that while this is very exciting,

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it is still in its infancy.

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We cannot make complicated structures
with multiple cell types,

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and right now, it is just very basic.

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But think about where this can head.

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Think about whether we could
use it in the future

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to print structures in the body
and use our own cells for transplant.

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So this is a very exciting field,

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but as with every potentially
game-changing technology,

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there are challenges.

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This used to centre around the use
of embryonic drive stem cells,

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but, recently, with the advent
of the induced pluripotent stem cells

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and direct lineage reprogramming,

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which can use your own adult
consenting tissues,

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this conversation has become
less and less relevant.

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What we see,

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especially with the the increase
of treatments coming out of the pipeline,

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is misrepresentation
of stem cell strategies.

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Here, some doctors are offering
unproven treatments using stem cells

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for profit.

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Unproven - that means
a) not proven to work,

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and b) not proven to be safe.

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Recently, "Scientific American"
had an article

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about a woman who went
to a very fancy clinic in Beverly Hills

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and got the latest stem cell facelift
that they were offering.

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The doctors took advantage
of a loophole in the law,

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sucked out her fat,
and put the stem cells in her face

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to make her rejuvenated,
or healthier or something.

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And while they were under the hood,
they gave her dermal filler.

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What the doctors didn't take into account

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is that dermal filler

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differentiates fat stem cells

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into bone.

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So this woman was left
with bone fragments in her eyelids.

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This is why we need clinical trials
to make sure that treatments are safe.

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If you were to take a drug,
and you had a bad side effect,

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you could stop taking the drug,
and that side effect would go away.

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But it's not the case with stem cells.

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Once stem cells are put in,
they can never be taken back out.

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Furthermore, going
to an unregulated clinic

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can exclude you
from future legitimate trials.

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So, how do you know 
whether or not what you're looking at

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is a real stem cell treatment
or misrepresentation?

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Here are some hints that can help you,
it's a difficult field to navigate.

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The first: look at 
how many cell types per injury.

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We mentioned that cell types need to be
very specific to replace damaged tissue,

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and one stem cell type
cannot turn into cells of another.

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So it's very important if someone's saying

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they're going to suck out
one type of stem cell

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and use it for 12 different indications,

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it's likely something you should question.

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Second of all: you can check out
their preclinical track record;

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clinicaltrials. gov
is a comprehensive database

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of all of the clinical trials
if they want to get FDA approval.

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And the third and most important
thing that you can do

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is to be knowledgeable.

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Do your research and get consensus.

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Ask your doctors, all of them,
because they are here to help you.

242
00:14:36,808 --> 00:14:43,157
So, overall stem cells have the potential

243
00:14:43,171 --> 00:14:47,279
to change life as we know it.

244
00:14:48,150 --> 00:14:52,689
Every single one of us
is affected by diseases

245
00:14:52,717 --> 00:14:57,234
which stem cells could potentially
help to treat in the future.

246
00:14:58,344 --> 00:15:02,647
And now that you have the knowledge,
you have the power.

247
00:15:02,672 --> 00:15:06,560
It is up to you to spread
the word about stem cells

248
00:15:06,586 --> 00:15:09,494
and to support reputable clinical trials,

249
00:15:09,503 --> 00:15:12,718
so that we can work hard
to get the best treatments out

250
00:15:12,731 --> 00:15:17,433
to the people who need them the most
in the shortest possible amount of time.

251
00:15:18,161 --> 00:15:23,184
Right now, there are 
many - more than ever before - treatments

252
00:15:23,184 --> 00:15:25,305
in the pipeline, ready to come out.

253
00:15:25,323 --> 00:15:29,332
And the field of regenerative medicine
is at critical mass.

254
00:15:29,991 --> 00:15:33,621
So I ask you to come join me
on this journey.

255
00:15:33,888 --> 00:15:40,229
Come with me as newly minted purveyors
of stem cell knowledge

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00:15:40,609 --> 00:15:44,966
as we turn science fiction
into science fact.

257
00:15:45,160 --> 00:15:46,389
Thank you.

258
00:15:46,389 --> 00:15:47,953
(Applause)