Stem cells and their applications are making news these days. Cardiac lesions, neurological upsets, spinal injuries, ocular surface problems... everywhere there is a potential scope.
A stem cell typically retains its ability to differentiate along any cell line as happens during normal course of development.
I just wonder if we could generate a designer cell with mostly evolutionarily conserved and housekeeping genes, along with those meant to be active in different cell lines. We could have the same cell applicable to most humans or at best few hundred cell types that would at best have few matching human leucocyte antigens (HLAs). People will receive a designer cell that would match their own HLA make up and thereby evade the immune system to s considerable extent!
These best matched "non autologous" cell lines can be commercially available and ordered ... as per need.
Scientists are any way using cells that are indeed different from host cells yet continue to function for the assigned task. For instance, we have cells that produce insulin in diabetics. These cells are "cushioned" in a suitable biomaterial with "holes" that can allow the exit of the hormone but prevent the entry of cells that carry out immunological functions of recognizing an outsider!
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