The Pentagon is investing a quarter-billion dollars into adult stem-cell research to help servicemembers injured on the battlefield.
“These young men and young women give a very important part of their lives," said Col. Bob Vandre of the Army's Medical Research & Materiel Command. "They give their bodies, essentially, and are wounded protecting our country.”
Vandre launched the five-year initiative, which will use patients’ stem cells to stop scarring, rebuild tendons and grow bones. Vandre said that’s only the beginning.
“I think regenerative medicine is going to change the world," he said. "I can see (it) increasing quality of lives, and becoming a huge technology that’ll completely change the way we do medicine throughout the country.”
Dr. David Prentice, senior fellow for life sciences at the Family Research Council, said adult stem-cell research has a proven track record, unlike embryonic research.
“There’s such an obsession in the U.S. with embryonic stem cells," he said. "About all embryonic stem cells have done is make tumors in rats.”
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What the media won't tell you about stem-cell research.
