Source: The Harvard Crimson
Posted: April 16, 2007 1:48 AM
Summary:
Researchers from Harvard and Columbia have moved one step closer to discovering the cause of the fatal neurodegenerative Lou Gehrig’s disease through a novel use of embryonic stem cells from mice. The researchers have harnessed stem cells from mice embryos, which can develop into any kind of tissue, to create mutant nerve cells for studying the early stages of disease. The scientists announced they discovered that a toxic molecule produced by non-neuron support cells causes the patterns of nerve cell death found in sufferers of Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
