Many scientists use animals to model human diseases. Mice can be obese or display symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Rats get Alzheimer’s and diabetes. But animal models are seldom perfect, and so scientists are looking at a relatively new type of stem cell, called the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cell), that can be grown into specialized cells that become useful models for human disease.
Neurodegenerative
After 40 years, Waisman Center still at forefront of research on the brain
The telegram from President John F. Kennedy to University of Wisconsin President Fred Harrington was both eerie and visionary. Eerie because it was delivered Nov. 20, 1963 – just two days before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas – and visionary because it seemed to anticipate the challenges confronting science in its quest to explore the human brain.
Stem cells hint at potential treatment for Huntington’s disease
GABA neurons are the brain cells whose degradation causes Huntington’s disease, a condition characterized by severely degraded motor function, among other things.
The Waisman Center: Decades later, what would Harry think?
Last fall, the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison bid successfully for the same National Institutes of Health core grant that the late Harry Waisman first won 45 years ago.
Human brain’s most ubiquitous cell cultivated in lab dish
Long considered to be little more than putty in the brain and spinal cord, the star-shaped astrocyte has found new respect among neuroscientists who have begun to recognize its many functions in the brain, not to mention its role in a range of disorders of the central nervous system.
Patient-derived induced stem cells retain disease traits
When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen’s lab dishes, he couldn’t have been more pleased.
Genetic change extends mouse life, points to possible treatment for ALS
There are many ways to die, but amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease must be one of the worst.
Spanish mother’s search leads to the Waisman Center
“Don’t give up, my love, or I’ll give up with you, because I only live to see the fulfillment of this dream: that you may continue to live. Yours is a life sentence, not a death sentence.”
Engineered stem cells carry promising ALS therapy
“The novelty is that this is a combined cell and gene therapy approach,” Suzuki explains, noting that the bone marrow stem cells on their own had a modest effect, possibly by releasing their own protective factors. “But only when we engineered the cells to release GDNF did we see a significant improvement. The cells turned out to be quite an important component. It’s this combination of cells and drug delivery that seems to be so effective.”
$7.2 million grant to aid search for ALS stem cell therapy
With the help of a $7.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers will explore the potential of stem cells and natural growth factors to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.