I was thinking about the first time
I was given two frozen vials of embryonic stem cells.
Each vial cost $5,000.
And my boss said, "Now you grow them."
That was ten years ago.
And now look at my lab.
We grow the cells routinely.
For me, it's such a good thing
to see how the science has progressed in this field.
Hi, I'm Amy Adams with California's Stem Cell Agency.
We asked you to submit questions
about Parkinson's disease and stem cell research
through our blog, Facebook, and Twitter.
Today we're at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging,
where Dr. Xianmin Zeng
is going to answer those questions
and also talk about her own Parkinson's disease research.
Let's go in.
Can you start by telling us
a little bit about Parkinson's disease,
what it is and what the symptoms are?
Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder
which leads to progressive deterioration
of motor function,
and the cause is the loss of dopamine-producing nerve cells
in part of the midbrain called Substantia Nigra.
The primary symptoms for Parkinson's disease
is tremor, slowness in movement,
impaired balance, and stiffness.
It was ten years ago when you first started working with...
embryonic stem cells and Parkinson's disease.
Now you're getting close to clinical trials.
It is a long, slow path to get in to people.
What keeps you motivated?
I would say... to keep me motivated is...
My goal is to make a difference.
My hope is that what I'm working now today
will someday benefit the patient.
And at this moment,
we have decided on an embryonic stem cell line
which we know can be used for clinical purpose,
and we have generated two lots of dopaminergic neurons
suitable for direct transplantation into the brain
to hope those cells
will replace the lost cells and function in the brain.
So we are now in a position to go to the FDA
to file for a phase 1 clinical trial
in the next two years, that's my estimation,
so, in hoping that we would be able to run a clinical trial
in the next three to five years.
Why do we need a cure for the disease?
Because it's a terrible disease,
and there are about one million Americans suffer the disease,
and with the aging population now,
the number is expected to increase,
and about 40% of the people
affected by Parkinson's disease are under the age of 60.
So there is a clear impact of society
in terms of losing productivity.
One of the people who wrote in and asked us a question
said that the person's grandfather had Parkinson's disease,
"so what is the likelihood that I will also get it?"
Parkinson's disease, first of all,
is a disease described as a sporadic disease,
which means, actually, you don't know the cause.
85% of the Parkinson's disease cases are sporadic,
so the chance that one person's grandfather has the disease,
it may increase the person's chance of having the disease,
but keep in mind that the disease is more sporadic.
So, you began working with embryonic stem cells
right at the very beginning,
and then since that time,
people have learned how to reprogram adult cells
like skin cells, into an embryonic-like state,
so they are more or less equivalent to embryonic stem cells,
and these are the iPS cells that we hear about a lot.
And you're now working with embryonic cells
and iPS cells.
Why do you work with both cell types?
Because iPS cells provided additional cell source
for producing the right type of dopaminergic neurons,
also because you now have a cell source
coming from both normal and patient subjects,
and you can use the cells to test different drugs
to be better predictor of the potential clinical benefit.
So a person wrote in asking about the different types of stem cells.
The person asked, "What types of stem cells
are best suited for treating Parkinson's disease?"
I think this is a question nobody can now provide an answer,
and that's why people need to work
with different types of the stem cells
in order to find out exactly this question:
What type of the stem cells is the best?
So that's why I'm working on both ES cells and iPS cells.
There are a lot of people working in the field,
and with the funding, with the right timing,
and the right training,
we're ready to make new discoveries.