Pioneering stem cell research could help spinal injury patientsRSS Feed

A major breakthrough in human embryonic stem cell research has been made by a team of scientists in Singapore.

The scientists studied the 21,000 genes in the human body to find the two characteristics important to treat spinal injury: the ability to transform into any type of cell in the human body (a pluripotent cell) and the ability to remain that way.

An important gene known as PRDM14, which makes it easier to change a human cell into a pluripotent stem cell, was discovered by the team of scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) and the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB).

The research, which is published in the journal Nature, could potentially pave the way for conditions such as traumatic spinal injury to be treated more successfully.

Senior scientist at the Developmental & Stem Cell Biology Program, the Hospital for Sick Children, Dr Janet Rossant added: "The unprecedented scale of this screen has added considerable new information to our understanding of pluripotency and will help efforts to improve reprogramming of adult cells."

This comes shortly after the news that a spinal injury patient has become the first person to be treated using human embryonic stem cells, in a groundbreaking trial conducted by conducted by the Geron Corporation in Atlanta.

Posted by Matthew Dixon

Serious Law, leading spinal cord injury lawyers
 

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