Moving stem cell technologies from the lab to the marketplace will take time. But once commercialized, regenerative medicine could lead to curing everything from heart disease to neurodegenerative illnesses.

“What we all hope is that there will be new curative treatments for debilitating diseases,” said Professor Peter Zandstra (IBBME), a Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering. “It’s not clear right now if our approaches will be successful, but I think there’s a lot of hope and promise.”

Professor Zandstra is the Chief Scientific Officer of the new Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM). The Toronto-based centre takes early-stage technologies from Ontario institutions and adds value to help commercialize them, he explains.

“One of the problems that we face in regenerative medicine – and there are many – is that numerous technologies that come out are too early for real commercialization, and we need this extra step of turning them into products,” he said.

The Globe and Mail will hold a live discussion with Professor Zandstra on stem cell research and commercialization on December 1 at noon. For more information and the full article, visit The Globe and Mail.