URMC scientists make breakthrough in stem cell research

By NATE DOUGHERTY • December 8, 2010

Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have created a way to isolate neural stem cells from human brain tissue with unprecedented precision, an important step toward developing new treatments for conditions of the nervous system, such as Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases and spinal cord injury.

The work by a team of neuroscientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center was published in the Nov. 3 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Neurologist Steven Goldman, chair of the department of neurology, led the team.

The latest paper marks a six-year effort by Goldman’s team to develop a better way to isolate pure preparations of neural stem cells directly from the human brain. These stem cells can renew themselves and have the potential to become a number of brain cell types, like those that might help people with multiple sclerosis, or neurons to help people with Parkinson’s disease.

Goldman said using human tissue for research as an important distinction in the work the URMC team did.

“While research in mice and other animals serves as a guide, ultimately you have to study human tissue and humans to really understand disease in people,” said Goldman, who is also co-director of Rochester’s Center for Translational Neuromedicine. “While the general signaling pathways active in mice and people are very similar, the individual genes are quite different. This is not something we would have predicted. It’s a good demonstration that you can’t use mouse studies to fully dictate what kinds of therapeutics should be used in people.”