http://www.reuters.com/article/scienceNews/idUSN3141568520080731
Reuters has an article about stem cells and ALS.
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ordinary skin cells taken from patients with a fatal and incurable nerve disease have been transformed into nerve cells in a first step toward treating them, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday.
They transformed the cells from two patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, into motor neurons — the cells that waste away and die in ALS.
There is no immediate medical use for the cells, taken from two sisters aged 82 and 89, the researchers reported in the journal Science.
“Now we can make limitless supplies of the cells that die in this awful disease. This will allow us to study these neurons, and ALS, in a lab dish, and figure out what’s happening in the disease process,” said Dr. Kevin Eggan of Harvard Medical School in Boston, who helped lead the study.
“We can generate hundreds of millions of motor neurons that are genetically identical to a patient’s own neurons,” added Chris Henderson of Columbia University in New York, who also worked on the study.
“This will be an immense help as we try to uncover the mechanisms behind this disease and screen for drugs that can prolong life.” [much more...]
August 4th, 2008 at 7:35 am
With the years of research and money generated from the Lewis telethon’s one can only with they were a bit closer.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Thanks Bonnie, I am glad ALS has a huge division under the MDA!! It may be too late to cure me, but no one should get this crappy disease..