Making Paralyzed Rats Walk Again
The State reports on the state of progress towards using embryonic stem cells to heal paralysis. "Hans Keirstead is making paralyzed rats walk again by injecting them with healthy brain cells sussed from a reddish soup of human embryonic stem cells he and his colleagues have created. Keirstead hopes to apply his therapy to humans by 2006. If his ambitious timetable keeps to schedule, Keirstead's work will be the first human embryonic stem cell treatment given to humans. ... And he has an answer for those who say he's moving too fast and that his experiments with rats are dangling false hope before the 15,000 people paralyzed in the United States each year. 'This is extremely promising. Why the hell would we wait?'"
Link: http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/business/10441265.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp