Tuesday, December 07, 2010

Stem Cell Advance a Step Forward for Treatment of Brain Diseases

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center
Date: December 7, 2010

Summary:

These neurons, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes were derived from a single human neural stem cell.
Scientists have created a way to isolate neural stem cells – cells that give rise to all the cell types of the brain – from human brain tissue with unprecedented precision, an important step toward developing new treatments for conditions of the nervous system, like Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and spinal cord injury. The work by a team of neuroscientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center was published in the Nov. 3 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Neurologist Steven Goldman, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Neurology, led the team.