Neurons Grown And Used For Therapy

The Times Online reports on the work of a Chinese researcher using live neural tissue obtained while treating accident victims, such as "a patient who had been stabbed in the eye with a chopstick. When the stick was removed it was covered in brain material, which Zhu was able to grow in a culture medium. ... Two months later he had grown several million cells that he transplanted into a patient with a serious head injury. ... The report, written by Minger on Zhu's behalf, said subsequent brain scans showed the cells had grown further and integrated with the patient's surviving brain cells to help them recover abilities lost through the injury." Now the technique is known, researchers must establish a better source of living neural cells - perhaps through culturing of a patient's own cells.

Link: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1442445,00.html

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