NEWS

Stem Cell Transplants in Action

Reporting By: Denise Thornton

Videography By: Chelsea Prochnow

The recent stem cell breakthrough by UW researcher James Thomson has made headlines worldwide…but stem cell technology is already changing lives right here in Madison.

Connie Sue Prochnow was not sure she would be decorating her Christmas tree this holiday season.  Last fall she was diagnosed with Acute Mylogenesous Leukemia…her doctors told her the disease could be fatal.  With new stem cell technology now offers the prospect for a cure.  Connie Sue received a stem cell transplant from her brother this past February and is now cancer-free.  She is making progress and looks forward to sharing the holiday with her family.  “After going through chemotherapy a couple of times and going into remission, to know that you can have something concrete like a cure through stem cell transplant gives a person so much greater hope for their future,” Connie Sue said.

Connie Sue is able to celebrate with her family this year thanks to the skills of Doctor Walter Longo, Director of the Stem Cell Transplant Program.  “The hope of stem cells is that you can take these human cells and using certain techniques with growth factors and culture techniques, otherwise drive them to make viable tissue replacing damaged parts of the human body,” said Dr. Longo.

Although it may be years before this breakthrough makes its way from the lab bench to the doctors office…Doctor William Burlingham, Professor of Transplant Research believes these non-committed skin cells hold a lot of promise.  “How much impact it is going to have nobody knows right now, but it’s exciting just because of the possibilities,” said Dr. Burlingham.

Doctor Burlingham highlighted the advantages of this new skin cell research, “it takes away a lot of the debate that people have, the ethical debate is virtually eliminated by this.”

This holiday Connie Sue is grateful that researchers have given her a second chance and are working to provide hope for people like her, “every day I get out of bed and I think ‘yippee’.  It’s a gift.  Nothing is ever taken for granted, and I know those all sound like cliché things, but that’s truly how I feel in my heart.

Thanks to Thompson’s discovery, we can look forward to cures for many of today’s toughest diseases like Parkinsons and Diabetes.