Everyday is a step closer to a cure

Sounds good for spinal cord injuries. Maybe they'll start working on ALS next. They are using this treatment for certain kinds of cancers as well.

AL.

Yeah, this particular company (DaVinci Biosciences) plans on focusing specifically on ALS next, so that's encouraging news.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_he_me/med_stem_cells_analysis

if this ain't enough to crush the soul, I don't know what is.

Journalists are cynical by nature! Commercially, cells might not be proven to help thousands of people and thousands of diseases -- but keep the faith with our own companies (e.g.Neuralstem) fighting the ALS battle for us all.

and take heart from this story! how many newspaper people thought it would never happen!

1967: The first human-to-human heart transplant is performed. The operation is a success, but the patient dies after complications set in. (Immunosuppressive drugs weakened his immune system, and he contracted double pneumonia, which killed him 18 days after the transplant.)

Over the next several years he (South African surgeon Christiaan Barnard) performed additional heart transplants, with the survival times for his patients gradually improving. One patient, Dorothy Fisher, survived for 24 years after receiving a new heart in 1969.

Other surgeons, however, weren't as bullish on transplant surgery, because of the high risk of organ rejection by the recipient. It wasn't until cyclosporine came into widespread use in the early 1980s that an effective means of reducing that risk was found. After that, organ-transplant surgery took off.

HEAR HEAR, think back to lots of medical break throughs...all sorts of transplants, test tube babies, there must be thousands if not millions of ivf babies around now it is so common...It WILL happen one day for us, just hope all those doctors win the battle for us SOON. I think the medical profession are running a race now to see who can get there first.

Well, like you said, there's still NeuralStem with their neural stem technology. There's also adult stem cells. And also, embryonic stem cells are directly practical in their use for studying the formation and progression of disease itself, discovering new genes, etc. Also helpful for drug screening. With all of this combined, there's lotsa hope.
So I shouldn't get caught up in media blab. Things are progressing. However slow, they are still progressing. It's all encouraging.

Jennifer51 said:

I think the medical profession are running a race now to see who can get there first.

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I had the same thought... nothing like a bit of healthy competition to get things moving quicker!

I read somewhere that this decade has seen more therapeutics developed for ALS than ever before. MS and HIV are now considered chronic illnesses by many health professionals, and most of the scientific developments for those diseases have been within the last 20 years.

It does also look like a meeting of great minds to find a cure...As I write there is a conference going on in Milan Italy March 16-18 09, where the number of pharmacutical companies and research people are all getting together. I only looked at as sample of companies taking part, and it was VERY encouraging to see how many are in the stem cell race. Here is a link to the conference...just look at all the companies taking part, Neuralstem are there as are several other big US and european companies

VERY encouraging

http://www.ebdgroup.com/bes/

Hi Jennifer, look at this this link: http://www.californiastemcell.com/cgi-bin/pressrel?123008

I know my entire family would sell everything if we thought the money would speed things along for this research and help find a cure for ALS. perhaps I should proposition some of those biotech companies...

Thanks for the link, that company is in Milan....I think all this is just the tip of the iceberg..the things we are all finding are only what they want out in the public domain, there must be loads of stuff going on which is not published yet. rock on..get together and FIND the answer...quickly..dont let too many of us miss out on what will be earthshattering news

http://www.dana.org/news/publications/detail.aspx?id=19764

interesting read

Even though an outright cure may be a ways off, I think there is a good chance that Neuralstem's cells could prove to be very beneficial in slowing the disease down. The only way to know for sure is to try the treatment in clinical trials and that should start later this year.

It continues to be a source of distress for me to alway have to hear that ALS is typically fatal in 3-5 years. It doesn't have to be that way yet researchers and media alike continue to beat that drum.

Big Mike said:

Even though an outright cure may be a ways off, I think there is a good chance that Neuralstem's cells could prove to be very beneficial in slowing the disease down. The only way to know for sure is to try the treatment in clinical trials and that should start later this year.

Click to expand...

I received my second response from Richard Garr. He said that he hopes clinical trials will start by this summer, and that if it all works out well, Neuralstem's treatments will be available to the public within 3-4 years.
But obviously there are other things going on behind the scenes, so there's a lot to be hopeful for.
:smile:

Hi Big Mike. Problem is, that statistic is true. Hasn't changed much in 50 years. It will change eventually but will probably take some time yet. If they got the average up to 18-20 years it would be good for the patients, sort of, but would there be the sense of urgency in research that we are seeing now?

AL.