For decades, producing blood stem cells in the laboratory has been regarded as one of medicine’s ultimate goals, a scientific "Holy Grail" that could one day reduce the need for bone marrow transplants and open new avenues for treating cancer and immune system disorders.
That ambition now appears a step closer thanks to a joint research project between Andrea Ditadi’s team at the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan and Christopher Sturgeon’s laboratory at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital.
The researchers identified the crucial role played by retinoic acid, a molecule derived from vitamin A, in guiding the formation of blood stem cells under laboratory conditions.
Their work earned the 2026 Aspen Prize for scientific cooperation between Italy and the United States, recognising the value of international research partnerships in tackling some of the most complex challenges in modern medicine.
The breakthrough emerged by combining independent but complementary observations made by the two laboratories, allowing scientists to pinpoint the exact stage at which the biological signal needed to trigger the transformation of immature cells into blood stem cells.
The journey, however, was far from straightforward. Early experiments produced promising results, but the cells initially failed to behave as expected once transferred into living organisms. Later studies confirmed that the process simply required more time for the cells to complete their development.
The next challenge is scaling up production. If researchers succeed, laboratory-grown blood stem cells could become a powerful new weapon against diseases that currently depend on complex treatments and the availability of compatible bone marrow donors.