Embryonic stem cells can do miracles: Dr Geetha Shroff

Chennai: Embryonic stem cells hold the key to treating several “incurable” diseases \ disorders, often reversing the signs. Cerebral Palsy (CP) - a non-progressive disorder occurring due to damage to the brain of a foetus and newborns, for instance, is possible to be reversed and cured through embryonic stem cells, claims Dr Geetha Shroff, founder and medical director, Nutech Mediworld, who has successfully treated over 1,300 persons from India and abroad.

“Stem cells can help to permanently cure the static conditions of CP and in the case of those with progressive conditions, Stem Cell therapy should be repeated,” she says in an interview to DC. Nearly 33 per cent of her patients are doctors or their families and patients from about 50 countries seek this treatment at the hospital. “My youngest patient is one month-old Cerebral Palsy affected and the oldest is a 91-year-old with stroke. Those with spinal cord injures in their twenties and others with neuro degenerative disorders too, find miraculous recovery,” she says.

“Ours’ is universal (donor blood group O) stem cells, which can be donated to anyone. We have cultured an endless line of stem cells from a single embryo donated by a fertility patient. Our stem cells are derived from spare throw away surplus fertilised eggs,” Dr Geetha who runs the world’s first and only human embryonic stem cell research centre and hospital in the national capital, says.

All of them have shown improvement. Some of the conditions include spinal cord injury, Multiple Sclerosis, ALS and cerebral palsy. Over, 1,300 persons have undergone this life-changing therapy since the last 13 years, claims Dr. Geeta Shroff, an infertility expert located in Delhi, and the first individual in the world to develop an infinite number of pure human embryonic stem cell lines from using just one donated embryo.

Her unique therapy has been patented in about 50 countries with the World Intellectual Property Organisation, which covers about 126 countries including India and the United States while a patent request before the Government of India is still pending. She is assisted by about ten doctors and 100 staff. Though the stem cell is administered for free, the treatment package costs about '25,000 to 30,000 per week.