Latest News - Research

Researchers believe that umbilical cord blood may serve as a universal source of available stem cells for patients who need a stem cell transplant. However, the number of stem cells in cord blood is limited, so there they must develop a method to increase the amount of cord blood stem cells for transplantation purposes. John Chute, M.D., a stem cell transplant specialist and cell biologist at says that unfortunately, no soluble growth factors have yet been identified that have been proven to expand human stem cells for therapeutic uses.

To create stem cell from body cells, they must be reprogrammed. However, the small RNA that are contained in those body cells had prevented their reprogramming - until now.

Czech and American scientists have uncovered certain regularities in the genesis of mammalian embryos that may simplify the production of stem cells taken from body cells.

The FDA has recently approved the trial use of stem cells on human subjects suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease). The study will be carried out by Neuralstem Inc. and will examine the safety of Neuralstem’s cells as well as the surgical procedures and the devices required for injections directly into the spinal cord’s grey matter. Initially, 12 patients will receive five to ten injections of stem cells into the lumbar area of the spinal cord. After the procedure, the patients will be examined at regular intervals.