Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists have taken the first steps toward developing a treatment that would make bone marrow blood stem cell transplantation safer, and as a result, more widely available to the millions of people living with blood disorders such as sickle cell anemia, thalassemia, and AIDS.
Bone marrow transplantation is the only curative therapy for these blood diseases. But for the new, transplanted stem cells to do their work, faulty stem cells must first be “evicted” or killed. Accomplishing that requires patients to endure chemotherapy and radiation, a vicious assault on the…
