Our goal is to develop a cellular strategy for repairing the damage seen in children's myelin disease, Multiple Sclerosis and other neurological diseases.

 
Dr. Evan Y. Snyder leaves Harvard to head the 'Manhattan Project' of Stem Cells

Now, the Burnham Institute, an independent research center in La Jolla (San Diego County), is jumping into the mix, beginning a new stem cell initiative under the direction of Dr. Evan Snyder, a top stem cell expert at Harvard University.

Question. Why is it so important to work out all the fundamental biology before you can get to testing something in the clinic?

Dr. Snyder's Answer. It's the most productive way to do it.

It's complicated. Even the dumbest stem cell is smarter than the smartest biologist.

In the nervous system, we are starting to find that stem cells have a way of homing in on areas that seem to be damaged, and once they are there, certain cues seem to direct some of the cells to become cells that have been lost.

Now, very new insights suggest other members of the stem cell group become support cells. We are learning these cells are just as important as the cells we thought we wanted, and in some ways even more important. They seem to exert an effect on the animal's own cells that may be threatened or degenerating or dysfunctional.

The repair is a matter of recapitulating development. It's a whole fabric of many different cells interacting with one another. We may be naive to think we can just replace one little aspect of that. We probably need to re-create the fabric.

The timing is the aspect that frustrates the public, and sometimes the press, and definitely investors. The time frame is very frustrating for somebody who's a capital investor and has a short attention span. You come out with a finding in January, and everybody wants to know why their uncle isn't walking by December.

posted by Canadian Myelin Research Initiative at 12:20 AM