And as we learn, so follow new treatments and new ways of tackling illness. Some involve drugs, others involve replacing missing or damaged proteins with working copies. Dr Cliona O'Farrelly, research director of the Education and Research Centre at St Vincent's Hospital in Dublin, is enthusiastic about where we are going. One startling new area is the use of progenitor cells, called stem cells, to provide replacement tissues. Scientists are studying what makes them change in the hope of controlling the differentiation process and so dictating what a stem cell will become.
Embryos are a rich but controversial source of stem cells.
Researchers have shown that harvested stem cells can be converted into brain tissue, which might help patients with Parkinson's Disease. Dr O'Farrelly's team is searching for adult stem cells, which are being found in many organs. The first treatment is likely to be for diabetes, a disease where the body loses insulin-producing cells. A replacement pancreas would have these cells. Next will come replacement brain tissues for Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases.