Regenerative Medicine Organization Executive Director John Laub sees Las Vegas becoming a center of medical tourism, where patients can get checkups and treatments while their families are entertained. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

Sometimes, the future is stranger than science fiction.

In the 1970s television series "The Six Million Dollar Man," Lee Majors played a test pilot who crashed but has his body reconstructed using "bionic," or electronic, parts that gave him superhuman strength.

Thirty years later, a new medical trade group based in Summerlin sees a future in helping people regenerate their own damaged skin, bones, organs, tissue and even fingers.

At the center of this medical revolution sits John Laub, a certified public accountant and former chief financial officer of several companies.

Laub, executive director of the Regenerative Medicine Organization, is excited not only about the prospects of regenerative medicine but what the field may do for Las Vegas' economy. He sees Las Vegas becoming a center of medical tourism, where patients can get checkups and treatments while their families are entertained on the Strip. He sees synergy between casino resorts and his trade organization as well as the Nevada Cancer Institute and Lou Ruvo Alzheimer's Center.

Laub's family roots run deep in Las Vegas. He came to Las Vegas from Pasadena, Calif., when he was a baby. His grandfather Harold "Hal" Laub was co-founder of Southwest Gas Corp. His father, William, also spent his career at Southwest Gas, reaching the pinnacle as the utility's chairman.

After college, Laub worked as a certified public accountant at several firms, including the one now called Deloitte Touche. He worked for seven years as chief financial officer at American 3-D, a Henderson company that sold and developed film for 3-D cameras using lenticular plastic. It went out of business.

Laub also worked as chief financial officer for several startup companies, including a high-end computer case maker and a software company. Those businesses collapsed, too.

Question: How did you get your current job?

Answer: I was recruited. I was founder and president of the CEO/CFO Group and also the Turnaround Managers Association and, through those two organizations, met Dan Montano (chairman and CEO of CardioVascular BioTherapeutics). The (Regenerative Medicine) Organization was formalized in March 2006 although it was holding conferences previously. Medical doctors make presentations on research in the regenerative medicine field. We're educating the general public, the medical community and the health care industry.

Question: What is regenerative medicine?

Answer: Regenerative medicine is using science and medicine to help the body heal itself -- to grow blood vessels, to grow nerves. Eventually, we'll be growing new organs in the body. That is the promise of regenerative medicine.

Question: Is stem cell research an area of regenerative medicine?

Answer: There are two general types of stem cells. There are embryonic, which are politically controversial, and there are also adult stem cells. As an organization, we're apolitical. We want to give a level playing field for all treatments.

Question: What are some already-available regenerative medicine treatments?

Answer: CardioVascular is here in Las Vegas. It is using a protein to grow blood vessels around blocked arteries. The company has gone through a clinical trial. It was first done in Germany by Dr. Thomas Stegmann, one of the co-founders.

CardioVascular is researching back disease, degenerative discs. The discs die and flatten. Then, when you bend over to pick up a sock, you get this great pain.

The company is doing two trials right now, a study in Irvine, (Calif.), and in Russia to get blood flow around the discs so that those nutrients go to the discs and keep those discs healthy. Vance Gardner, who grew up in Las Vegas and works in Irvine, made presentations on the subject to our conference in Las Vegas.

Question: Can regenerative medicine help people with cancer?

Answer: We're focusing on helping the body build up its immune system so it can repair itself, so it can fight off cells that have gone cancerous. Already you have cancer in your body, but your body fights it off and kills it daily. At some point, it may stop doing that and something gets growing.

Question: What's your long-term strategy?

Answer: We will continue to have our conferences here in Las Vegas. Next, we're going to put a newsletter together that will let me contact more institutions about becoming members. As a trade association, we want to coordinate all the existing regenerative medicine (research) institutes back East. We'll be kind of a clearinghouse of information.

Question: Could Las Vegas hospitals become specialty centers for regenerative medicine?

Answer: I think Las Vegas will become a medical tourist destination.

Question: What do you mean?

Answer: A family could stay here and could enjoy themselves while a member gets operated on.

There are a couple of groups that want to set up clinics here in the hotels to make it a combination vacation and a health checkup.

Question: How will Las Vegas benefit from your organization.

Answer: We want to be the center for regenerative medicine. We will start to bring (regenerative medicine) companies here for low taxes, for the business environment.

Question: You said regenerative medicine will save the country money. How?

Answer: You can do a nonmedical bypass surgery. Doctors don't have to go in and cut you up. It will cut costs if you can regenerate kidneys instead of going on dialysis.