Fifty years after the discovery of stem cells, international researchers are meeting to take stock of the potential to harness the cells to regenerate tissues such as blood, skin, nerves and bone.

More than 3,500 stem cell researchers from around the world gathered Wednesday in Toronto — the birthplace of the discovery of the cells — to discuss emerging science in the field.

James Till and the late Ernest McCulloch of the University of Toronto discovered stem cells 50 years ago. The cells have the unique property of being able to become any type of cell in the body.

Freda Miller, a senior scientist at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, is testing existing drugs and other molecules to wake up stem cells in adult skin and recruit them to repair wounds that can't be healed normally.

In the last few years, researchers have discovered that stem cells aren't just used to build humans during development, but also help to maintain us into old age.

"This whole concept that if you do have stem cells in every tissue then why can't you just recruit them to help or teach those tissues to repair themselves is really an idea that has come to the front in the last three years," said Miller.

Miller said the drugs "wake up" stem cells that live at the ends of lowly hair follicles to kick-start them into self-repair mode — findings she is presenting at the conference.

By using drugs that are already approved for other uses in humans, Miller hopes to short-circuit the years of testing and regulatory approval that research normally takes.

The advances are exciting for both senior and young investigators, said Dr. Leonard Zon, a hematologist at Children's Hospital Boston, who is attending the conference.

"In terms of taking the cells and actually making organs or tissues for fixing a diseased organ, that is probably five to 10 years in the future," Zon said. "But I do think this is going to be very successful and will really change the way we do biomedicine instead of taking pills for a disease, we will actually replace cells."

Researchers in the field still face other obstacles, such as preventing rejection and controlling the growth of stem cells so they don't cause DNA changes that could lead to cancer.

"We're even learning that normal development is not so normal as we what we would like to think," Connie Eaves, of the Terry Fox Laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency, told reporters.

"This is not going to be straightforward, but that's no surprise, that's been true of any human advance that I'm aware of."

The International Society for Stem Cell Research conference runs until June 18.

With files from CBC's Kelly Crowe