With the progress of medicine and biological sciences, translational medicine focusing on industrialization, regenerative medicine focusing on human body repair, and precision medicine focusing on changing treatment methods are becoming three major emerging fields and important components of the medical community.

These three fields are closely related to the research and industrialization of stem cells. It can be said that stem cells are the important foundation and means of realization of the three major emerging medical sciences in the future.

Translational medicine: from bench to ward

At the end of the 20th century, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent more than 20 billion U.S. dollars on research, but Americans are asking why people's health has not improved significantly after inventing so many new technologies, accumulating so much new knowledge, and publishing so many high-level papers.

Amid constant questioning, translational medicine from laboratory to clinic was born. The Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) is responsible for the establishment, funding and supervision of translational projects. NIH-CTSA invests $200-500 million annually to fund related translational research, and has established more than 60 translational centers in the United States.

In addition to the United States, countries and regions around the world have increased their support for translational medicine in recent years. As of 2012, the United Kingdom has established 20 biomedical research centers, and the European Commission plans to invest a total of 6 billion euros in this project.

The problem of difficult transformation of scientific research results also exists in my country. In December 2015, the "Beijing Municipal Hospital Science and Technology Achievement Exhibition and Transformation Project Promotion Conference" was held. At the conference, Pan Junhua, director of the Research Department of the Beijing Municipal Health Administration, admitted that the current transformation rate of scientific research results in Beijing municipal hospitals is less than 10%, and most scientific research projects are still "dormant". Beijing Anzhen Hospital previously established a medical transformation award in the hospital, but for four consecutive years, this award has not been successfully awarded.

The main problem that causes "difficulty in transformation" is that scientific research projects are not considered in terms of medical market demand. Some doctors "apply for patents for the sake of applying for patents." my country is also increasing its support for translational medicine, and plans to build six translation centers across the country. Among them, the budget for the Shanghai National Translational Medicine Center, which will be built in 2017, will reach 1 billion yuan.

Stem cells: a natural subject of translational medicine

With the strong support of various countries' policies and driven by the rapid development of genomics, proteomics and bioinformatics, translational medicine has shown great development and application potential in the identification and application of molecular markers, personalized treatment based on molecular typing, and prediction of disease treatment response and prognosis assessment. For example, the clinical applications in areas such as genetic testing and stem cell therapy, which are currently attracting much attention, are examples of this.

In fact, as early as the beginning of the 21st century, stem cells were widely believed to bring about a revolution in human medicine. Currently, more than 700 companies around the world are conducting research related to stem cells and translational medicine. Internationally, 8 stem cell drugs or technologies have been approved for marketing and clinical use.

To date, some researchers have used neural stem cell transplantation to treat diseases such as cerebral ischemic diseases, cerebral hemorrhagic diseases, central nervous system trauma, central nervous system demyelinating diseases, central nervous system chronic degenerative diseases (Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease) and central nervous system tumors.

Although these transformation results are still far from true cell replacement and repair, the number of companies engaged in midstream stem cell therapy research and stem cell drug development at home and abroad has increased dramatically in recent years, which is enough to illustrate the natural advantages and huge potential of stem cells in the field of translational medicine.

However, it is worth noting that although China leads the world in many basic research areas, it is still relatively lacking in the transformation and application of pluripotent stem cells, which represent the forefront of stem cell and regenerative medicine.

In addition, China's research on technical specifications, standards, ethics, etc. related to stem cell therapy is relatively lagging behind, especially the team engaged in stem cell quality control and standard research, with only a few individual companies.

Regenerative Medicine: Repairing Human Organs

Regenerative medicine refers to the use of biological and engineering theoretical methods to create lost or functionally damaged tissues and organs so that they have the structure and function of normal tissues and organs. In layman's terms, it means regenerating human tissues or organs.

This miraculous medical technology has a subversive significance for modern medicine. Its basic concept has changed from the limited treatment of current medicine to "cure". In theory, all tissue and organ damage caused by diseases can be cured through regenerative medicine technology.

Tissue engineering and regenerative medicine is an emerging discipline that uses modern life science and engineering principles to develop in vitro manufacturing of human tissues and organs for transplantation. Its core is to establish a three-dimensional spatial complex of cells and biomaterials, that is, living tissue with vitality, to reconstruct the morphology, structure and function of damaged tissues and achieve permanent replacement.

Its basic principle and method is to adsorb normal tissue cells cultured and expanded in vitro onto a biomaterial with good biocompatibility and absorbable by the body to form a complex. In the process of the biomaterial being gradually degraded and absorbed by the body, the cells form new tissues that are consistent with the corresponding organs and tissues in morphology and function, thereby achieving the purpose of repairing trauma and reconstructing function.

In recent years, with the progress of regenerative medicine research, tissue repair and regenerative medicine will, based on the continuous improvement of traditional treatment techniques and methods, demonstrate epoch-making medical standards of high-tech biological repair engineering at different levels of molecules, cells, tissues and organs, which will benefit a large number of patients in need.

Stem cells: the source of regenerative medicine

For tissue repair and regenerative medicine, the development of stem cells, tissue engineering and biomaterials plays a vital role in its development. With the continuous practice of these three technologies, people have seen that innovative theories, key technologies and methods of tissue repair and regeneration have begun to be applied in the field of human health.

Among the three technologies, stem cells are the most critical. Stem cells have the ability to self-renew, large-scale amplification, and multidirectional differentiation potential, and are the core component of regenerative medicine. When normal human tissue is damaged, it is through the continuous proliferation of stem cells that the tissue is reconstructed.

There are many types of stem cells. According to the developmental stage of stem cells, they can be roughly divided into embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells. According to the developmental potential of stem cells, they can be divided into three categories: totipotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cells and unipotent stem cells. Adult stem cells include stem cells from tissue sources such as bone marrow and fat, as well as hematopoietic stem cells and mesenchymal stem cells from perinatal tissues such as placenta, umbilical cord tissue and umbilical cord blood.

At present, stem cells derived from perinatal tissues, including umbilical cord, are ahead of other types of stem cells in terms of industrialization due to their easy availability and high safety. Domestic and foreign analysis data show that the application of stem cells derived from perinatal tissues will exceed that of other types of adult stem cells and become the main force of regenerative medicine.

Precision medicine: the third medical revolution

In 2015, Obama announced a new project in the field of life sciences in his State of the Union address, the Precision Medicine Initiative, which is dedicated to curing diseases such as cancer and diabetes and aims to allow everyone to obtain personalized health information. According to this plan, the United States will allocate $215 million in funding for the precision medicine project from the 2016 fiscal budget.

Since then, precision medicine has become the focus of the global medical and health industry. Medical experts who support precision medicine believe that precision medicine is the third revolution of modern medicine. The first two revolutions can be divided into the separation of medicine and witchcraft (the first revolution) and the establishment of evidence-based medicine (the second revolution).

In China, precision medicine has also received support from national leaders and has been rapidly promoted. It is expected to be included in the 13th Five-Year Plan's major scientific and technological projects in 2016. The natural close connection between stem cell therapy and precision medicine and the country's continuous increase in high-end biopharmaceuticals are expected to accelerate the implementation of relevant policies.

Stem cells: an excellent carrier for precision medicine

The precision medicine proposed by Obama has promoted the development of personalized medicine as a whole. The so-called precision medicine is essentially an individualized medicine system.

In this system, gene sequencing is an important prerequisite, and stem cells are an excellent carrier of precision medicine. Stem cells can differentiate into almost all cells such as nerve cells, pancreatic islet cells, skin cells, blood cells, bone cells, etc. With their characteristics, the purpose of treatment is achieved through autologous cell proliferation or tissue and organ regeneration. In short, it is a precise individualized autologous healing process.

On another level, because stem cell products of different parts and uses can accurately reach damaged parts or tissues and organs, they can become carriers of targeted therapeutic drugs and accurately reach the lesion site.

Compared with the action mode of traditional drugs, therapeutic drugs carried by stem cell carriers can not only avoid consumption by other body systems such as the digestive tract, but also streamline the dosage according to the severity of the disease, reduce the damage of chemical drugs to the human body, and achieve the best effect.

At present, my country has made great achievements in basic and clinical research on stem cells: the number of papers published ranks second in the world, the number of patents applied ranks third in the world, and a number of research institutions have reached the international advanced level. Although it was stopped by the policy in 2012, my country's basic research on stem cells has been progressing steadily.

I believe that with the gradual relaxation of policies in 2015, the potential of stem cells in precision medicine will soon become apparent.