New Technology Could Lead to Alzheimer’s Cure

New technology for mass-producing nerve stem cells, which can grow into all kinds of nerve cells, has been developed.

According to a research report published in the recent issue of PLoS-Biology, a U.S. science journal, a joint research team at the universities of Edinburgh and Milan succeeded in experimenting with the divisional proliferation of nerve stem cells in test tubes without differentiating them into nerve cells, the BBC reported on August 16.

Until now, stopping nerve stem cells from differentiating into nerve cells in test tubes has been a major obstacle for scientists.

Since it is now possible to make nerve stem cells from human embryo stem cells and mass produce them in the test tube, the solutions for curing degenerative nerve diseases such as Alzheimer`s and Parkinson`s will be available earlier than expected because new drugs can be tested without limit using the mass produced cells.

"Mass producing pure nerve stem cells is an important progress in developing a treatment based on transplanting stem cells for damaged organs," said Professor Austin Smith of the University of Edinburgh Stem Cell Research Institute.

Ho-Gab Lee gdt@donga.com