A Novel Human Stem Cell-based Model of Lou Gehrig's Disease Opens Doors for Rapid Drug Screening

Newswise — Long thought of as mere bystanders, astrocytes are crucial for the survival and well-being of motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movements. In fact, defective astrocytes can lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Stem Cell Research Heads for a Renaissance

Ten years to the month after James Thomson at the University of Wisconsin announced in the journal Science his discovery of human embryonic stem cells, scientists and officials from the Food and Drug Administration gathered in Washington last week to talk about the prospects of starting the first human clinical trials of the high-profile cells.

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