Transforming fibroblasts into multipotent neural stem cells with a single factor

A team from California has managed to produce neural stem cells from fibroblasts (found in connective tissue) in a single step using the factor Sox2. Implanted iNSCs can survive and integrate in mouse brains and, unlike iPSC-derived NSCs, do not…

Rats walking again after spinal cord injury

Neuroprosthetics and robot rehabilitation wake up the ‘spinal brain’ and restore voluntary movement This breakthrough result from the laboratory of Grégoire Courtine at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EFPL) in Switzerland was published today in Science Magazine. In this study…

FDA meeting brings promising spinal cord injury treatment closer to human trials

InVivo Therapeutics have had promising results using on bipolymer scaffolding to treat spinal cord injury in animal models (See published results). (March 2012: interview with InVivo CEO). Final FDA approval is still required. Read more

Bone marrow holds key to stem cell breakthrough

University of Western researchers are using human bone marrow stem cells to promote an endogenous host response after spinal cord injury, by isolating stromal cells found in a patient’s own bone marrow and transplanting them back into the injury site…

Career Development Fellowship awarded to Dr Marc Ruitenberg

SpinalCure Australia has awarded a prestigious Career Development Fellowship to Dr Marc Ruitenberg, a lecturer in Neuroanatomy & Neuroscience at the School of Biomedical Sciences and Affiliate Research Fellow of The Queensland Brain Institute at The University of Queensland. This…

Neuronal stem cells generated directy from skin cells

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, Germany, have broken new ground by reprogramming skin cells from mice into neurons without regressing the cells through a pluripotent stage. The skin cells were reprogrammed directly into multipotent…

New cost-effective technique for large-scale stem cell production

Canadian researchers have developed a new technique for growing stem cells that may make possible cost-effective, large-scale stem cell manufacturing and research. Although stem cells are widely used for the testing of new drugs, researchers have always faced difficulties manufacturing…