Stem Cells Meet AI in Quest to Mass-Produce Key Disease Fighters
- General Electric, Trudeau government have invested in mission
- Toronto’s health and tech ecosystem lures capital and brains
A half-century ago, Canadian scientists discovered transplantable stem cells, which can grow into any kind of human tissue. Now, a government-backed research facility in Toronto wants to create a partially automated factory that would mass-produce these human building blocks into disease-fighting cells -- a process that is currently slow and labor-intensive.
Toronto’s Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine aims to lead the effort, which is expected to take several years because large-scale commercialization will require new technologies and automation. CCRM and General Electric Co.’s health division have set up a lab in Toronto to develop technology and processes that could potentially be used in the factory -- although GE hasn’t yet committed to help build it.