An article posted today on NewScientist discusses preliminary data from StemCells Inc. presented at the International Spinal Cord Society annual meeting in London, also today. Excitingly, it seems that in a clinical trial aimed at restoring feeling to subjects with severe spinal cord injuries (broken spines) three out of an eventual 12 subjects have restored feeling. What is even more shocking is that all of the subjects report not having any feeling below their nipples prior to the treatment, which includes an injection of 20 millions cells donated from fetal brian tissue.
I highly recommend reading Andy Coghlan’s short article at NewScientist and then head over to StemCells Inc’s official release and publications page. They have an excellent publication record and I get the feeling that we are going to be hearing some wonderful things from this corner of the research community in the very near future.
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