"The meaning of a person's life cannot be measured by the length of life, but by the quality and thickness of life. Having this disease, living is a kind of torture and pain for me. I want to leave with dignity, Dad and Mom, you have to live strong, smiling, and don't feel sorry for me.
After I leave, the head can be left for medicine to do research. I hope that medicine can overcome this problem as soon as possible, so that those who are suffering from 'frostbite' can get rid of their pain as soon as possible..."
At the beginning of this year, lou Tao, a female doctor of Peking University who died due to "frostbite", made this will, which made countless netizens cry.
Due to Lou Tao's poor physical condition, her organs do not meet the requirements for donation, which is somewhat regrettable. However, the Anhui Stem Cell Society and the Joint Laboratory of Zhongsheng Traceability Cell Medicine of the Chinese University of Science and Technology have used her cells in the study of "frostbite" in accordance with Lou Tao's wishes before his death.
Alzheimer's disease, known as the world's first of the five most terminal diseases, is a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease in which patients manifest as atrophy, weakness, and even complete paralysis of skeletal muscles.
It is understood that the laboratory has "reprogrammed" Lou Tao's cells into induced pluripotent stem cells similar to embryonic stem cells. Although the "Frozen Angel" is gone, her induced pluripotent stem cells have unlimited expansion ability, can survive forever, and have the potential to differentiate into various functional cells of the human body.
Dr. Yu Junying, chief scientist of Zhongsheng Traceability, said that due to the scarcity of living cells in patients, the development and testing of drugs worldwide mainly rely on animal experiments and cancer cell lines, and the difference between these research tools and human cells under physiological conditions has led to a high failure rate of new drug development in the clinical trial stage. Using patient cells carrying various rare genetic disease genes, reprogramming in vitro for various disease-specific induced pluripotent stem cell lines, Chinese group of disease-inducing pluripotent stem cell banks can be built, thereby establishing disease cell models, more intuitively and accurately reflecting the pathological mechanism of diseases, and providing powerful tools for the development of new therapeutic drugs and effective treatment protocols.
In the next step, Zhongsheng traceability will cooperate with domestic stem cell and regenerative medicine research institutions to differentiate Lou Tao's induced pluripotent stem cells into motor neurons, and use them in pathological research and drug screening to promote the early diagnosis and precise treatment of "frostbite".
References for this article:
(1) Xinhua Net2018-04-11 "'Frozen Angel' Peking University Female Doctor Lou Tao Stays in the World forever with another attitude"
(2) China Youth Daily2017-10-14 "Peking University Beauty Dr. Terminal illness: The last wish makes people cry"
Edit: Bu Wen
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