Through a deeper understanding of the structures and processes within living cells, scientists are learning how to reprogram human cells. ⁷ Cellular reprogramming can be used to reverse age-related changes in cells.⁸ This enables the mechanisms of human ageing to be studied in vitro.⁹ It may also shed light on developmental disorders.¹⁰ By partially rejuvenating cells while retaining their identity,¹¹ it may be possible to restore lost immune function¹² and other ageing-related health conditions.¹³ There is also potential to use viral vectors to reprogram specific cells: for instance, reprogramming cancer cells in such a way that the immune system attacks and destroys them.¹⁴

Future Horizons:

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5-yearhorizon

Practical engineering solutions emerge

Researchers identify sets of rules that determine cell-fate decisions. Improved substrates for tissue culture lead to more realistic cultured tissues. AI-based models of epigenetic gene regulation enable rational engineering of the epigenome.

10-yearhorizon

Reprogramming comes of age

Cellular and tissue reprogramming are achieved at high efficiency with larger groups of cells. Adult tissues are reprogrammed to become another tissue type, enabling organ repair. Research enables control of cell division.

25-yearhorizon

Complex circuits and organs are created

Researchers learn how to engineer cells into highly complex circuits and organs. The human genome becomes editable in a systematic, large-scale fashion, enabling the creation of human cells that perform wholly novel functions.

On a larger scale, these and other techniques can be used to grow tissues and organs to order. To achieve this, it is necessary to first understand how those tissues develop naturally, and research is under way on a host of body parts, including the immune system, heart,¹⁵ muscle,¹⁶ breasts¹⁷ and skin.¹⁸ Replicating the three-dimensional structures of organs and how they change over time will be difficult, but bioprinting will enable this,¹⁹ and AI is also likely to help optimise tissue engineering.²⁰

Tissue engineers have worked for decades to develop “scaffolds” on which tissues can be grown.²¹ Originally made from synthetics, these are increasingly made from biological materials such as human collagen,²² biological films²³ and decellularised matrices.²⁴ It is vital to understand how the developing tissues interact with these scaffolds.²⁵

A key challenge is to ensure that implanted cells and tissues do not cause harm. It is becoming possible to “cloak” the cells by adding and then overexpressing a set of immune genes, enabling the introduced cells to survive long-term.²⁶ Another promising precaution is a “safety switch”²⁷ that enables the cells to be quickly killed if they prove harmful²⁸ — or, preferably, multiple safety switches for redundancy.²⁹

Cellular (re-)programming and tissue development - Anticipation Scores

The Anticipation Potential of a research field is determined by the capacity for impactful action in the present, considering possible future transformative breakthroughs in a field over a 25-year outlook. A field with a high Anticipation Potential, therefore, combines the potential range of future transformative possibilities engendered by a research area with a wide field of opportunities for action in the present. We asked researchers in the field to anticipate:

The uncertainty related to future science breakthroughs in the field
The transformative effect anticipated breakthroughs may have on research and society
The scope for action in the present in relation to anticipated breakthroughs.

This chart represents a summary of their responses to each of these elements, which when combined, provide the Anticipation Potential for the topic. See methodology for more information.