Having already worked alongside Nobel Laureate, Dr. Harold Varmus to create a transgenic* model for breast cancer after gaining her Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology, it was not until she discovered human blood stem cells in the early 1990s that Dr Ann Tsukamoto began to receive recognition for her scientific innovation.
Most recently patenting a method for “preventing or treating a neurodegenerative disease or a neurological injury in a human subject using genetically modified human neural stem cells” in 2017, Dr Ann Tsukamoto now holds a dozen patents and is most well known for her discovery of a method to isolate stem cells in the body. This groundbreaking advance in stem cell reasearch was the breakthrough needed to take the theory that human stem cells could be used to treat blood cancers and make it possible to conduct live saving stem cell research. Paving the way for an increased scientific understanding of the circulatory systems of cancer patients, researchers also believe that the use of stem cells in regenerative medicine may also hold the key to future treatments for Alzheimer’s, Type-1 Diabetes, Spinal Cord injuries, and Rheumatoid Arthritis. A true visionary and scientific leader, Dr Tsukamoto’s dedication to stem cell research led her to uncover the existance of the central nervous system stem cell.
*Sonorous Superlative: transgenic
trɑːnzˈdʒɛnɪk
Biology | adjective: relating to or denoting an organism that contains genetic material into which DNA from an unrelated organism has been artificially introduced.