Category: SCI News

November 12, 2009 Source:  Nanotechnology Now Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries using nano-spheres that could be injected into the blood shortly after an accident. The synthetic "copolymer micelles" are drug-delivery spheres about 60 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 100 times smaller than […]

October 7, 2009 Source:  Portland News – Fox 12 As many as 250,000 people are living with the consequences of a spinal cord injury.  Many times, it leads to permanent paralysis of the arms, legs or both.  For many, treatment options are limited, but a controversial therapy program gets patients out of wheelchairs and standing […]

October 4, 2009 Source:  The Boston Globe Author:  Cynthia Graber The idea sounds like science fiction.  But it might someday come true.  A group of Boston scientists is pushing the bounds of regenerative medicine. According to Greek mythology, the god Prometheus granted human beings the gift of fire.  As punishment, an angry Zeus condemned Prometheus […]

September 26, 2009 Source:  swissinfo.ch Researchers at Zurich University have developed a new therapy combining drugs, electrical stimuli and treadmill workouts that helps paralysed rats walk again. The treatment, which targets the neural circuits in the spinal cord that control the muscles used for walking, could lead to clinical trials in humans in five years […]

September 17, 2009 Source:  ScienceDaily Research led by a scientist at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center has shown injecting biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site provides significantly improved healing.  The project that also included researchers from Purdue University and Arizona State University indicates that a "practical path" […]

September 11, 2009 Source: Reno Gazette-Journal Author: Guy Clifton Michael Glen took his first hot-air balloon flight when he was 2 weeks old. Growing up in a ballooning family, he never had any doubts that he would one day become a pilot himself. His life changed when, at age 21, he suffered a spinal cord […]

September 4, 2009 Source:  The Flint Journal Author:  Elizabeth Shaw VIENNA TWP., Michigan — Racing at speeds upwards of 120 mph, nothing holds Michael Johnson back. Paralyzed from the waist down in a 2005 motorcycle crash, the Vienna Township teen, 16, uses his hands to propel himself around the track in his specially equipped go-kart […]

August 28, 2009 Source: Discover Magazine Author: Allison Bond A week-and-a-half after the first-ever human clinical embryonic stem cell trial was put on hold, Geron Corp. announced why:  microscopic cysts that arose in laboratory animals but did not spread to other locations in the animals’ bodies. In January, the FDA granted the company permission to […]

August 18, 2009 Source: MercuryNews.com Author: Steve Johnson In a setback for Menlo Park-based Geron, the company announced Tuesday that federal authorities have put on hold its groundbreaking test on people of a spinal-cord injury treatment it developed from human embryonic stem cells. Officials at Geron, which has yet to give its treatment to humans, […]

August 13, 2009 Source:  Central Florida News 13 ORLANDO — A local hospital is studying new technology developed at the University of Central Florida that could help patients with spinal cord injuries. Therapists at Orlando Health Rehabilitation Institute are evaluating technology used to operate a robotic arm that could help patients with spinal cord injuries. […]