About progress

Here are some recent findings from the Consortium (October 2010)

University of Lund: We are finding out how to perform safe transplantation of stem cell-derived nerve cells to the brain, by eliminating the risk that the transplants grow in an uncontrolled fashion into stem cell tumors. We investigate substances that can improve the growth and survival of nerve cells that contain dopamine, a chemical known to be lacking in Parkinson’s disease

Institute of Experimental Medicine, Prague:We are working on use of stem cells and biomaterials to treat brain and spinal cord injury. Further we are analyzing changes in glia morphology in Alzheimer´s disease and study the pretreatment with stem cells on time course of this disease.

Miltenyi GmbH:Neurodegenerative diseases might be cured if the damaged cells can be substituted by new cells. Limitations are amongst others the availability of appropriate cells for cellular therapies and the functional integration of these cells into the damaged tissue. The AXREGEN Project will help us to understand how we can improve and standardize the generation of specialized cells of the central nervous system out of pluripotent stem cells. To this end we are optimizing magnetic cell sorting protocols to get well defined and purified neural cell populations.

University of Cambridge: We are investigating integrins, which are molecules that form the bond between nerve cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix. We are also working to improve the transport of  integrins into nerve fibres, so that they can regenerate better after they are cut. We are also asking whether integrins get turned off when synapses are changed in response to new nerve fibres contacting neurons.

National Institute for Neuroscience, Turin: We have developed a model of the  serious movement incoordination that occurs in some people. We have found that this is associated with the impairment of a specific type of connection in the brain due a single gene deficiency. We have been able to repair this abnormality using a type of gene therapy. We have also identified a molecule that signals damage to the brain, and found that it is present on cells that make myelin (a substance that insulates nerve fibres) , thus helping us understand illnesses (such a multiple sclerosis) that involve abnormal myelin.

Institute for Developmental Biology, Marseille:  For over a century the mature brain of higher vertebrates has been considered as a stable structure, in which neurons can die but not be replaced. Research of many laboratories over the past decade has demonstrated that this static view of the brain is wrong and that the formation of new neurons persists in certain regions of the adult brain. The interest of the two PhD students in the AXREGEN is focused on the regulation of this adult neurogenesis and its potential use for therapeutic approaches in Parkinson’s disease.  They have  identified a new regulatory mechanism that controls the proliferation of adult stem cells and their differentiation in the adult brain. They will be using adult generated neurons for therapy in Parkinson’s disease,thereby particularly focusing of the survival of these cells when they are not in their normal environment.

University of Zurich: After a severe injury to the spinal cord or brain patients suffer from life-long paraplegia because injured nerve fibers cannot regrow or
regenerate in the adult central nervous system. We have identified chemicals in the spinal cord that encourage re-growth of damaged nerve fibres.  Currently,  there are under clinical trial.  We hope that such methods will improve the repair of damage spinal cords, and help recovery of function.