Recreating A Nerve Disease In Order To Study It - Patient-derived Induced Stem Cells Retain Disease Traits

Clive Svendsen, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, could not have been happier when neurons started dying in his lab dishes. Clive and team had created the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the laboratory using stem cells derived from a patient. The dying cells were the same type lost in patients with spinal muscular atrophy, a devastating neurological disorder. In other words, a gene disease had been recreated in the lab by scientists.

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Filed under: Stem Cell Research on January 3rd, 2009