As we look at stem cell research and its potential to produce new cures and therapies for disease, it is important to remember that though there are many challenges ahead, there are already many stem cell success stories. For example, countless leukemia patients have undergone successful and lifesaving stem cell (bone marrow) transplants that have forced their disease into remission.

In 2008 the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) began working with Amy and E.W. Steptoe, local sibling filmmakers, who were in search of the next interesting topic for a documentary. Together we decided to tell the story of the effect that stem cell research is having now on the lives of leukemia patients and the challenges that lie ahead, both in fighting leukemia and in advancing stem cell research. This documentary was produced with the valuable input of HSCI Faculty members Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, George Daley, MD, PhD, and Corey Cutler, MD; Toni Dubeau, RN, and Harvard graduate student, Sean Buchanan; and with the generous cooperation of Children’s Hospital Boston and the Joslin Diabetes Center. And our heartfelt thanks go to Sandra Crowe, a leukemia patient at the Joslin Diabetes Center and stem cell transplant recipient, who participated enthusiastically in this project and allowed us to tell her story.