MS No Match for NU

By Prescott Carlson in News on Jan 30, 2009 10:05PM

Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine has excellent timing. Just as stem cell research is back on the fast track, the medical school appears to have made a breakthrough in that area. A recent series of tests performed on early-stage multiple sclerosis patients showed that when they were injected with their own adult stem cells, the "disabling symptoms" of MS seemed to reverse.

"All therapies to date ... have focused on slowing the progression of disease," said Dr. Richard Burt, Northwestern's chief of immunotherapy for autoimmune diseases. "What this actually did is that it reversed disability. This is the first time we have turned the tide on this disease."

The results of the study still need to be duplicated in a randomized trial to be proven, but it's certainly a ray of hope to find a cure for this crippling disease that affects 1 in 1,000 Americans.