14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists announced today that they are now able to take brain tissue from patients suffering from neurological issues such as Alzheimer’s Disease, and use it to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) cell lines. The latter can then be differentiated into a variety of other tissues.
The work was carried out by investigators with the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute, with colleagues and scientists at the Columbia University Medical Center, Science Blog reports.
The reason why this is so important is that neurologists can now return damaged neural cells back into their clean state, and then watch as Alzheimer's – a neurodegenerative form of dementia – takes over.
By understanding this complex process, scientists may soon be able to develop a host of new treatments against this devastating condition. The root causes of Alzheimer's have yet to be identified.
The research group published details of its achievement in the January 7 issue of the journal Acta Neuropathologica Communications. “For the first time we will now be able to compare cells from living people to cells of patients with definitive diagnoses generated from their banked brain tissue,” the team says.