Nerve Cells Made From Blood Cells

BarbaraHudson writes: CBC reports that Canadian scientists are turning blood into nerve cells. They do so by manipulating stem cells that have been taken from a patient's blood, eventually switching them into neural stem cells (abstract). These can then give rise to multiple different nerve cells suitable for use in the rest of the body. Team leader Mick Bhatia said, "We can actually take a patient's blood sample, as routinely performed in a doctor's office, and with it we can produce one million sensory neurons. We can also make central nervous system cells." They're working on turning the neural stem cells into motor neurons for treatment of diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Comments

Re:Wouldn't the new cells have the same diseases?

[durrr]

Parkinsons and alzheimers are neurodegenerative diseases, it takes time for the degeneration to happen.

It's like replacing a rust eaten component with a new shiny steel one. Yes it will also rust eventually but it will keep things working until then.