Today, almost 30 years after Prof. Geoffrey Raisman first identified their potential to repair nerve damage in mice, the BBC reports that olfactory ensheathing cell transplantation has been successfully used to enable Darek Fidyka, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a knife attack in 2010, to walk again. The paper reporting the transplant, … Continue reading Paralyzed man walks again after olfactory cell transplant, thanks to animal research
Tag: spinal injury
Paralysis breakthrough – electrical stimulation enables four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs
This weeks issue of the neuroscience journal Brain carries an unusual image; against a background of nerve activity traces a man lies on the ground, and as you scan down the images he lifts his right leg off the ground. For most people this might just be a simple warm-up exercise, but for Kent Stephenson it … Continue reading Paralysis breakthrough – electrical stimulation enables four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs
Moving from rats to patients: swift progress for electrical simulation in treating paralysis
Sometimes the pace of medical progress takes even us by surprise. Last month a paper was published in the Lancet by a team of clinicians and scientists at the University of Louisville that we certainly were not expecting to see so soon, reporting that electrical stimulation of the lower spinal cord had restored voluntary movement … Continue reading Moving from rats to patients: swift progress for electrical simulation in treating paralysis
Swiss scientists restore voluntary locomotion in paralysed rats.
A study published yesterday in the journal Science, in which a team of scientists led by Professor Gregoire Courtine at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology used a combination of electrical stimulation, drug treatment and a training regime that encouraged active participation to restore voluntary control of movement in paralysed rats, has received widespread media … Continue reading Swiss scientists restore voluntary locomotion in paralysed rats.
Not Difficult To Grasp
Paralysis can have tremendous negative consequences for a person's quality of life. In the US alone, there are more than 200 thousand people living with chronic spinal cord injury, which is a cause of immense suffering to them and their families. The disease generates economic burden for society as well. Thus, there has been … Continue reading Not Difficult To Grasp
Animal research unleashes the power of human embryonic stem cells
For more than a decade now embryonic stem cell research has been one of the most high profile – and indeed controversial - areas of medical science, and it is an emerging field that owes a lot to animal studies performed by pioneers like Gail Martin of UCSF. Recently the field has begun to live … Continue reading Animal research unleashes the power of human embryonic stem cells
A paralyzed man stands again…thanks to animal research!
Yesterday an article appeared in the New York Times describing how scientists, supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, have used electrical stimulation of the lower spinal cord to enable a man who had been completely paralyzed below chest level to stand again, and even to take steps … Continue reading A paralyzed man stands again…thanks to animal research!
Speaking of Research 