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Toward ‘SMART’ stem cells

Gene Therapy volume 15, pages 67–73 (2008)Cite this article

A Corrigendum to this article was published on 19 February 2008

Abstract

Stem cell research is at the heart of regenerative medicine, which holds great promise for the treatment of many devastating disorders. However, in addition to hurdles posed by well-publicized ethical issues, this emerging field presents many biological challenges. What is a stem cell? How are embryonic stem cells different from adult stem cells? What are the physiological bases for therapeutically acceptable stem cells? In this editorial review, I will briefly discuss these superficially simple but actually rather complex issues that surround this fascinating cell type. The goal of this special issue on stem cells in Gene Therapy is to review some fundamental and critical aspects of current stem cell research that have translational potential.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Drs Byeong-Chel Lee and Nicholas Lemoine for their critical reading of this manuscript, Paulina Huang and Matthew Boyer for their art work of Figure 1, and greatefully acknowledge the support from NIH (HL70561) and Chinese Agencies (Chang Jiang Scholarship and Tianjin Technology Funds).

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  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    T Cheng

  2. Institute of Hematology and Blood Diseases Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Tianjin, China

    T Cheng

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Correspondence to T Cheng.

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Cheng, T. Toward ‘SMART’ stem cells. Gene Ther 15, 67–73 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3303066

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