Scientists find way to grow new hearts

A scientist at the centre of a breakthrough in medical research today said he had begun experiments aimed at growing replacement human hearts and brain cells.

Dr Stephen Minger and his team of researchers at King's College, London, have grown human stem cells taken from embryos left over from IVF treatment at Guy's and St Thomas' Assisted Conception Unit.

The cells can grow into any part of the human body to replace damaged or diseased organs.

Dr Minger's team produced three stem-cell populations from 58 embryos. Two were lost at an early stage but the third has been growing for many months and consists of hundreds of thousands of cells.

Today Dr Minger told the Standard his research team was working on the production of hearts and brain cells which one day could be transplanted into patients to cure illnesses such as cancer, Parkinson's disease and diabetes.

He said: "When we take these embryos, they are between 50 and 100 cells. They haven't even decided what kind of organ they will be. We can now grow them, but to give an idea of the scale, we estimate a pancreatic implant would require about a billion cells.

"We've got a long way to go but we are working hard to control their growth more effectively. We need to be able to mass-produce them before any serious therapeutic use is even talked about."

The breakthrough was today hailed by one of Cancer Research UK's most senior scientists. Professor Nick Wright said: "This will make life much easier in the quest to beat cancer. With easier access to stem cells, we should be able to begin researching in earnest."

The stem cells will form the basis of a "cell bank" that other scientific establishments will be able to use for their own research.

A supply of stem cells could also help research into Parkinson's disease as damaged parts of the brain could be regenerated.

Damaged hearts could also be regrown, and research has already begun in both these areas at King's College and other centres in the UK.

Professor Wright also claims the breakthrough could lead to the UK establishing a clear lead over the rest of the world in stem-cell research.

He said: "We have probably the most forward-thinking legislation in the world and now we have a stem cell bank, we should begin seeing some real research begin in earnest."

But pro-life organisations today bitterly criticised the research as " inhuman", claiming it was part of the quest for human clones.

Professor Jack Scarisbrick, chairman of Life, said: "It's an assault on the dignity of embryos. We should be looking at adult stem-cell research, but scientists are fascinated with with trying to create asexual clones."

Dr Minger said: "Adult stem cells aren't as flexible as embryonic ones. That's not to say we wouldn't use them in the future, but at the moment we know more about embryonic cells, so it makes sense to focus research on them."