(October 23, 2008, New York, NY) The Parkinson's Disease Foundation (PDF) is pleased to announce an award of $150,000 toward investigations studying the potential of individualized stem cell therapy to treat Parkinson's disease (PD).
The grant will support the research of Marina Emborg, M.D., Ph.D., and Su-Chun Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., both of the University of Wisconsin, Madison. This award was chosen as part of PDF's mission to fund scientific research that has great potential to increase our understanding of Parkinson's and to find treatments and a cure.
Dr. Emborg and Dr. Zhang will be conducting a pilot study that examines the use of transformed adult skin cells in the treatment of Parkinson's. Scientists can now direct the skin cells of a person with Parkinson's to become pluripotent stem cells (iPS), which appear to have similar potential to embryonic stem cells. This means that iPS cells can change into any other type of cell in the body, including dopamine neurons the very cells that are damaged in the brains of people with Parkinson's. Scientists theorize that transplanting replacement cells in the brains of people with Parkinson's could ease symptoms of the disease. Though technical challenges lay ahead with the iPS method, its discovery has allowed researchers to sidestep ethical and political debates associated with using embryonic stem cells.
Dr. Zhang's laboratory will examine the potential of iPS cells by reverting skin cells of Rhesus monkeys into iPS cells and directing the cells to become dopamine neurons. Next, Dr. Emborg and her colleagues will insert the dopamine neurons produced by Dr. Zhang's team into the brains of the same animals that donated the skin cells animals who, through use of a compound called MPTP, have a condition much like Parkinson's disease. Dr. Emborg will observe how well these cells survive and integrate in the brain and she will measure the cells' effect on the health of the monkeys. F
'/>"/>
| Contact: Melissa Barry mbarry@pdf.org 212-923-4700 Parkinson's Disease Foundation Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. Antioxidant overload may underlie a heritable human disease
2. Gender, coupled with diabetes, affects vascular disease development
3. Study links cat disease to flame retardants in furniture and to pet food
4. Humans fostering forest-destroying disease
5. Emerging (disease) markets
6. University of Pennsylvania researchers develop formula to gauge risk of disease clusters
7. Clemson chemists discover new way antioxidants fight debilitating diseases
8. Finding that 1-in-a-billion that could lead to disease
9. Study shows link between alcohol consumption and hiv disease progression
10. Natural chemical found in broccoli helps combat skin blistering disease
11. 60 second test could help early diagnosis of common brain diseases
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |