Inside New Stem Cell Research

Feb. 16 - KGO (KGO) -- Now that the grants are being given out, there are great expectations in the field of stem cell research. But how quickly will this research turn into reality, or how long before stem cells will help people with Alzheimer's or other diseases?

The Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco received three stem cell grants totaling more than $2.3 million dollars. One of those now funded studies deals with how stem cells can potentially guard us from HIV.

Warner Greene, Gladstone Institutes: "This anti-viral protein is also an anti-retro element protein that is protecting our own cells and particularly in stem cells."

Another study focuses on how stem cells can someday develop into neurons. Neurons are electrically charged cells that process and transmit information in the brain and spinal cord.

To understand how these studies could prove to be life savers, you have to first know what a stem cell is. Take an embryonic stem cell. It has the ability to divide -- in other words, multiply. Even more important is what it does next.

Deepak Srivastava, Gladstone Institutes: "It has the capacity to turn into all different cell types of the body which there are hundreds of different cell types."

Cells that would regenerate into tissue. So, scientists know what a stem cell is capable of doing. The challenge now is to replicate that in a petri dish.

And that's not all -- then they have to figure out how to introduce the cells in the selected organ and how to keep the body from rejecting the cells.

Deepak Srivastava: "There is a very promising technology and the vast hopes that have been invested in this are warranted but it's not going to happen tomorrow."

Dr. Srivastava estimates it could happen within 20 years or even less. Researchers say today's grants will hopefully get us even closer to those end results.

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