Regenerating organs and curing terminal diseases is not a dream!

When it comes to organ rejuvenation, curing incurable diseases and other medical technology issues, do you first think of futuristic Hollywood medical movies or western or even Japanese laboratory technology? In fact, you may have been underestimating Taiwan's stem cell capabilities. In fact, Taiwan's stem cell industry has been recognized as one of the world's most promising industries due to its strong medical and R&D capabilities, as well as its patents and regulations.

The first person in the world to publish a paper and patent on the successful isolation and identification of amniotic fluid stem cells, the "Godfather of Taiwan's Amniotic Fluid Stem Cells," Dr. Hwang Hsiao-Min, an authority on stem cell research and preservation, and an expert in microbiology and molecular genetics at Rutgers University, is the key person who has shown the world that Taiwan's stem cell technology is the key to the world. He invented the amniotic fluid stem cell collection technique, which is still the guideline for laboratories around the world.

What are "stem cells"? This question starts with regenerative medicine. The development of medical technology has been difficult to break through the challenge of "organ regeneration", but Huang pointed out that "stem cells" are the body's first undifferentiated primitive cells, which can divide and proliferate themselves, as well as differentiate into a variety of cells with different specific functions. If the technology is in place, these primitive cells with "regeneration" and "differentiation" will be able to be used to regenerate human tissues, such as specific cell types, or even human organs.

In the past, the term "embryonic stem cells" was more commonly heard, but embryonic stem cells are derived from fetuses, which has ethical and moral concerns. As a result, the international research community has shifted its focus to the more conservative and safe use of umbilical cord blood stem cells, and there are a number of domestic manufacturers that are committed to extracting and storing the stem cells from babies' umbilical cord blood.

However, from the "embryonic stem cells" to the umbilical cord blood stem cells, the middle of the whole 10 months of pregnancy, this period of time stem cell technology was once a major blind spot in the field of research, until the Huang Hao Min using special technology, extracted the scope of application of the umbilical cord blood stem cells than the broader. The new technology has been used to extract amniotic fluid stem cells, which have a wider application than umbilical cord blood stem cells.

Amniotic fluid stem cells are very close to embryonic stem cells in terms of development and function, and have the ability to differentiate into a variety of tissue cells, which is one of the most scientifically recognized sources of cells with the greatest potential for clinical application and tissue engineering.

Huang Xiaomin analyzed that amniotic fluid stem cells have a differentiation potential between embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells, and integrated the advantages of the two, at present in the international, amniotic fluid stem cell research applications, including stroke, Parkinson's disease, myocardial infarction, pulmonary fibrosis, acute renal failure, urinary incontinence, bone repair, and so on. The range of applications is considered very broad among stem cells.

"Amniotic fluid stem cells are early fetal cells, and the telomere length of the chromosomes is very long, which means that the cells have a better ability to proliferate and grow than cells after birth, and age more slowly," Huang said.

He also pointed out that pumping a little more amniotic fluid during labor and delivery to preserve it is not just about taking care of the child, it's about taking care of the family, because amniotic fluid stem cells have very low immune antigenicity, and there is a chance that family members who are close to each other by blood will be able to provide a different kind of medical care in the future.