Hematopoietic Transplantation: Gene Therapy

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are adult (somatic) stem cells able to create all the different cells found in the blood and the immune system. This ability makes them good therapeutic candidates for disorders of these systems, such as diseases of the blood, certain cancers, and immune disorders. HSC transplantation in the form of bone marrow transplants have been around since the 1960s and have become a routine treatment for cancer, and a majority of HSC transplants are for cancer. Research in the stem cell field has made strides over the past couple of decades, especially with the introduction of gene therapy and thanks to the unveiling of the entire human genome by the Human Genome Project in 2003. Pairing HSC transplantation with gene therapy allows ...