This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

The Iranians have already done stem cell testing on human MS patients, and continue to forge ahead with stem cell research. Politics aside, kudos to them in this regard.

I also found it interesting that the article notes that Muslim clerics declare that life begins three months after conception. Thus, they don't have the moral dilemma that most Western countries do...

http://www.payvand.com/news/08/nov/1059.html

TOKYO (AFP) – Japanese researchers said Thursday they had created functioning human brain tissues from stem cells, a world first that has raised new hopes for the treatment of disease.

Stem cells taken from human embryos have been used to form tissues of the cerebral cortex, the supreme control tower of the brain, according to researchers at the government-backed research institute Riken.

The tissues self-organised into four distinct zones very similar to the structure seen ...

I think this is old news but it is today's date!


Neurons Can Regrow! 27 October 2008

There’s evidence that the adult human brain has the ability to grow new neurons, say researchers at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute.

The study included nine people with multiple sclerosis (MS) and a control group of four healthy people. In MS, the immune system destroys the myelin sheaths that surround and protect nerves. When the myelin ...

Stem Cells May Offer Stroke-Damaged Brain Protection Against Itself
By Aalok Mehta
October 13, 2008

Stem cells can drastically reduce the amount of damage following a stroke by limiting the body’s natural “overreaction” to the trauma, a new animal study has found.

Scientists have long known that stem cells seem to offer some protection against stroke damage, but how they did it was not clear. Perhaps the stem cells replace the dying neurons and replicate ...

http://www.physorg.com/news142862310.html

--Frank

Sounds like good progress...


Unlocking Stem Cell, DNA Secrets To Speed Therapies

ScienceDaily - October 11, 2008 - In a groundbreaking study led by a molecular biologist at Florida State University, researchers have discovered that as embryonic stem cells turn into different cell types, there are dramatic corresponding changes to the order in which DNA is replicated and reorganized.

The findings bridge a critical knowledge gap for stem cell biologists, enabling them to better understand ...

One of the winners of a Macarthur grant is doing some interesting work with neural stem cells.

http://www.macfound.org/site/c.lkLXJ8MQKrH/b.4537291/

Sally Temple is a developmental neuroscientist who traces the mechanisms by which embryonic progenitor cells divide into highly specialized neurons and support cells.

...

Recently, Temple has shown that progenitor cells gradually lose their capacity to divide into cell types that normally form the earliest cortical layers; this effect can be ...

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/120874.php

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi ... ne.0003145

Hadassah University Hospital and Hadasit, the technology transfer company of Hadassah Medical Organization, announced that scientists at Hadassah University Hospital have discovered a new application for human embryonic stem cells. They have demonstrated for the first time that transplanted neural cells derived from human embryonic stem cells can reduce the clinical symptoms in animals with a form of multiple ...

Stem Cell Drug Hopes
Posted on: Wednesday, 3 September 2008, 18:00 CDT

SCIENTISTS have designed stem cell tools to aid the development of drugs to fight brain disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

The breakthrough was announced today by a team of scientists from Durham University and the North East England Stem Cell Institute (NESCI).

They have developed and tested two synthetic molecules which can be used to coax stem cells into transforming into other forms ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/scien ... ref=slogin

--Frank