Scientists who use embryonic stem cells for research can continue to receive U.S. taxpayer funding while the government challenges a lower-court order that barred federal support, an appeals court said.

The ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington yesterday puts on hold an order cutting off funding by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, which the government argued would cause irreparable harm to researchers, taxpayers, and scientific progress while the case is appealed. Continue Reading »

Paralyzed on Oct. 30, 1970, from spinal cord injury during Cornell football game, 60-year-old Long Island man speaks about re-inventing his life after tragic sports injury, starting a career, marrying the woman of this dreams, making the decision to start a family, and, thanks to ground-breaking medical advances…having triplet sons!!

(PRWEB) September 27, 2010 — With football season upon us, and with the upcoming commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the traumatic sports injury that left him paralyzed from the shoulders down, Ken Kunken, a successful attorney from Long Island, is ready to tell his story of loss, inspiration, determination and love. Continue Reading »

Unlike nerves of the spinal cord, the peripheral nerves that connect our limbs and organs to the central nervous system have an astonishing ability to regenerate themselves after injury. Now, a new report in the October 1st issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers new insight into how that healing process works.

“We know a lot about how various cell types differentiate during development, but after a serious injury like an amputation, nerves must re-grow,” said Allison Lloyd of University College London. “They need a new mechanism to do that because the developmental signals aren’t there.” Continue Reading »

Northwestern Medicine is the first site open for enrollment in a national clinical research trial of a human embryonic stem cell-based therapy for participants with a subacute thoracic spinal cord injury. Following the procedure, participants will receive rehabilitation treatment at The Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC).

Northwestern also is the lead site of the trial, sponsored by Geron Corporation (Nasdaq: GERN). The trial eventually will include up to six other sites and enroll up to 10 participants nationally. Continue Reading »

CLEVELAND – It’s hard enough trying to navigate through a crowded airport, but imagine having to do it from a wheelchair. Continue Reading »

A woman who is wheelchair-bound after a horrific car crash is to leap from an aeroplane to help others with similar spinal injuries.

Tanya Hawes, 35, was paralysed from the neck down after being involved in a car accident 10 years ago.

But Tanya, from Red Lodge, near Newmarket, has always been determined not to let her disabilities stop her achieving her goals. Continue Reading »

The world’s first human embryonic stem cell-based clinical trial has been approved for the treatment of spinal cord injury. Continue Reading »

It was the song that encouraged Rick Hansen and inspired a nation as Rick wheeled 40,075 km around the world to show the potential of people with disabilities when barriers are removed and to raise funds for spinal cord injury.

St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion) was written by composer David Foster and British musician John Parr as the theme song for the film of the same name but it was Rick’s journey that really became the basis for the song. Continue Reading »

The federal government will be allowed to keep funding stem cell research — for now.

An Aug. 23 ruling by a U.S. District Court judge barred federal funding of such research until an appeals court granted a stay Thursday that will allow the government to provide money until the case is heard before a federal appeals court, a process that could take several months.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth cited the Dickey-Webber amendment, a federal law that prohibits the use of federal funding for any research in which human embryos may be destroyed.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins said in a statement after the initial ruling that the freezing of federal funding greatly threatens current research. Continue Reading »

In a surprising and unexpected discovery, scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have found that a single type of gene acts as a master organizer of motor neurons in the spinal cord. The finding, published in the September 9, 2010 issue of Neuron, could help scientists develop new treatments for diseases such as Lou Gehrig’s disease or spinal cord injury.

The “master organizer” is a member of the Hox family of genes, best known for controlling the overall pattern of body development. Continue Reading »