Thailand succeeds in stem-cell research despite lack of funding

Bangkok (The Nation/ANN) - Thailand is fascinated with "roadmaps", but when it comes to life-or-death matters like regenerative science, the country has none.

Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon cheered regenerative scientists around the world, including those working on stem-cell body rebuilding in private and public hospitals here, when they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine on October 8.

But looking back at the environment at home, Thai scientists sighed. Local development of the technique has been direction-less and under-funded.

Stem-cell research has drawn attention from scientists around the world, including Thai scientists, ever since South Korea's Dr Hwang Woo-suk and his team reported that they had successfully created human embryonic stem cells by cloning in 2005.

Even though much of this "breakthrough" research was later found to have been faked, many researchers and scientists in Thailand continued to follow their curiosity to discover how to effectively use stem cells for treatment.

Over the past decade, stem cell-related research centres have mushroomed at public and private educational institutions and hospitals across the country, such as centres for heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, thalassemia and leukaemia.

Already this year, at least three universities have reported success in stem-cell research.

Chulalongkorn University early this year proclaimed that it was the first in Thailand to produce human embryonic stem cells and established the country's first embryonic stem-cell bank.

Police General Hospital has developed adult stem cells to treat arthritis sufferers. The hospital is now conducting a clinical trial on 60 arthritis patients aged 45-60. The human trial is expected to be completed next year.

Last week, a team of researchers at Mahidol University's Siriraj Hospital said they had discovered a method to extract pure stem cells from human amniotic fluid, which they say could be potentially used to treat several severe conditions such as arthritis.

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Thailand succeeds in stem-cell research despite lack of funding