Spinal Cord Injury News
A collection of posts on news, information and resources for those with spinal cord injuries.
Spinal Implants Let Three People Who Were Paralysed Walk with Support
A system developed by Grégoire Courtine and Jocelyne Bloch now enables patients with a complete spinal cord injury to stand, walk and even perform recreational activities like swimming, cycling and canoeing.
The images made headlines around the world in late 2018. David Mzee, who had been left paralyzed by a partial spinal cord injury suffered in a sports accident, got up from his wheelchair and began to walk with the help of a walker. This was the first proof that Courtine and Bloch’s system – which uses electrical stimulation to reactivate spinal neurons – could work effectively in patients.
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Posted in Research for a Cure on February 8th, 2022.
Breakthrough Offers New Hope to Help People With Paralysis Walk Again
Researchers successfully engineer world’s first 3D human spinal cord tissue transplant
Paralysis from spinal injury has long remained untreatable. Could scientific developments get people affected on their feet again sooner than imagined? In a worldwide first, Tel Aviv University researchers have engineered 3D human spinal cord tissues and implanted them in a lab model with long-term chronic paralysis, demonstrating high rates of success in restoring walking abilities. Now, the researchers are preparing for the next stage of the study, clinical trials in human patients. They hope that within a few years the engineered tissues will be implanted in paralyzed individuals enabling them to stand up and walk again.
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Posted in Research for a Cure on February 5th, 2022.
Keio University Uses iPS Cells in First Treatment of Spinal Cord Injury
Keio University in Tokyo said Friday it has started the world’s first clinical test using induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to treat patients with spinal cord injuries.
In the study commenced in December, the university will eventually transplant cells derived from iPS cells to four patients who between two to four weeks earlier lost motor and sensory function after sustaining injuries when playing sport or in traffic accidents.
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Posted in Clinical Trials and Studies, Research for a Cure on January 15th, 2022.
Israeli Biotech Company, Matricelf, Paves a New Way in Healing Injured Spinal Cords
The company successfully used human implants for replacing the injured spinal cord of a living pig, thereby simulating the anticipated surgical procedure in humans.
Spinal cord injuries are notoriously difficult to operate on, but an Israeli biotech company has entered a new road on the way to a cure using pigs.
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Posted in Clinical Trials and Studies, Research for a Cure on January 12th, 2022.
Elon Musk Targets 2022 for Neuralink Implants That Could Cure Paralysis in Humans
‘Don’t want to raise hopes unreasonably, but I’m increasingly convinced that this could be done’
Elon Musk has said he does not want to “raise hopes unreasonably” but is “increasingly confident” his brain-machine interface startup Neuralink will have its first implant devices in humans by 2022.
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Posted in Assistive Technology, Research for a Cure, Therapies and Procedures on December 7th, 2021.