Dec. 10, 2008

MDA Finding Makes Harvard Top 10 List

A stem-cell research advance published in July 2008 that resulted in part from MDA support is among the top 10 health stories of the year compiled by the editors of the Harvard Health Letter.

The advance, the ability to create nerve cells from the skin cells of a woman with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease), was the work of a team of scientists from Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., and Columbia University in New York. It was published July 31 in Science Express, an online publication of the journal Science.

MDA supported Hiroshi Mitsumoto, director of the Eleanor and Lou Gehrig MDA/ALS Center at Columbia, for this work.

The study team collected cells from an 82-year-old woman with a genetic form of ALS and then "turned back the clock" in these cells, inducing them to become like the cells of embryos but without the capability of actually forming embryos. After the cells were reprogrammed back to an embryo-like state, the researchers coaxed them to develop into nerve cells.

The study demonstrates the feasibility of producing cells with a patient's exact genetic makeup, which might one day allow for transplantation of cells unlikely to provoke an unwanted response from the immune system. Significant barriers to transplanting cells into the nervous system remain, however, making this application a long-term goal.

In the short term, the development allows researchers the opportunity to study the development of a cell with an ALS-causing genetic flaw, which may provide significant insights into the disease.