Serious and fatal diseases such as pancreatic cancer, Parkinson's disease and diabetes may eventually be treated using stem cells from breast milk following a remarkable discovery at the University of Western Australia.

UWA PhD student Foteini Hassiotou has potentially broken through the greatest hurdle in stem cell research - the ability to ethically obtain stem cells in a non-invasive manner.

UWA PhD student Foteini Hassiotou has discovered stem cells can be obtained from breast milk.

Her finding that stem cells from breast milk can be directed to become other body cell types such as bone, fat, liver and brain cells, could reduce the need to use embryonic stem cells and therefore fast-track future therapies.

Dr Hassiotou's research follows the 2008 discovery by a team of UWA scientists that breast milk contained embryonic-like stem cells.