Advances in stem cell research have raised the prospect of a breakthrough in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Nobel laureate Randy Schekman told the Central News Agency in an interview during a visit to Taipei last month.
“We still have to know a lot about the pathology of Parkinson’s disease,” Schekman said on April 26, adding that he believes embryonic stem cell research would likely lead to the next big clinical breakthrough for the disease.
Schekman, who shared the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with fellow American James Rothman, a biochemist, and German-American biochemist Thomas Sudhof, for solving the mystery of how a cell organizes its transport system, is now leading a major effort to study Parkinson’s.
The study is funded by Google cofounder Sergey Brin, who has donated heavily to Parkinson’s research ever since he was found in 2008 to have a gene mutation that leaves him with a higher possibility of contracting the disease.
There are a number of investigators in Asia and around the world exploring the use of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) — a discovery made by Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka in 2006 — to devise treatment for Parkinson’s, Schekman said.
Parkinson’s disease is primarily caused by deficiency in dopamine produced by dopaminergic neurons in the brain.
It is possible to turn adult cells taken from a Parkinson’s patient into an embryonic-like state in the laboratory and convert them into, for instance, dopaminergic neurons to be implanted back into the brain of the patient to restore the dead dopaminergic neurons, Schekman said.
The use of iPS technology in the disease “is still being actively researched, but there is some promise,” he said. “This is something I think deserves more support.”
A new technology to grow iPS cells into three-dimension mini organs, instead of flat surface, in a laboratory also allows investigators to further explore the nature of the disease, he added.
Schekman, a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, had a personal connection with the disease because his wife, Nancy Walls, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s when she was 48.
She died on Sept. 7 last year, about seven weeks shy of her 69th birthday.
After decades of work on yeast to identify the pathway of protein export and showing that it is similar to the pathway in human cells, Schekman said he has moved on to working on human cultured cells, focusing on extracellular vesicles.
Extracellular vesicles are tiny membrane-enclosed particles released from cells that transport molecules such as ribonucleic acid (RNA) outside of the cells as a form of intercellular communication.
The study of extracellular vesicles that carry RNAs secreted by cells and circulate in bodily fluids could help early diagnosis of cancer, Schekman said.
“It has been discovered that the RNAs you can find in human serum change during metastatic cancer, so the biotechnology industry is very interested in using these RNAs as a diagnostic tool, maybe even for very early diagnosis of cancer,” he said.
Schekman visited Taiwan at the invitation of the Tang Prize Foundation. He is a member of the foundation’s international advisory board.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by