Progress In Nerve Regeneration
As noted at EurekAlert, "for the first time, scientists have regenerated a damaged optic nerve - from the eye to the brain" in mice. Regeneration of large amounts of nerve fibre is still a hurdle - and vital to any effective future therapy for many injuries and conditions relating to nerve damage - but this is a promising stem forward. "Chen and her research team have dedicated themselves to learning the reasons why [central nervous system] tissue stops regenerating and to finding ways to reverse that process, using the optic nerve as their research model. ... [new techniques] caused the optic nerves to return to an embryonic state and stimulated rapid, robust regeneration of the optic nerve - again, as with the younger mice - within only a few days."
Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/seri-ssr022305.php