Question: Can a Stem cell cure some of the brain disease?

Dawn Lau answered on 22 Jun 2016:

That’s a great question! Not yet. But some scientists are hoping that we can use stem cells in the future to cure brain diseases. You can manipulate stem cells to become any cell type you want, so in theory, you could make them become a specific type of neuron to replace the dead brain cells in neurodegenerative disease, such as Alzheimer’s.

In practise it’s a lot more difficult than that. Such as growing enough cells in the first place, or making sure that the stem cells don’t become tumours, or ensuring that the patient doesn’t have a bad reaction to new cells in their brain.