Pioneering research brings potential Parkinson’s disease treatment one step closer

Over two decades of fundamental research in Parkinson’s disease led by Su-Chun Zhang, MD, PhD, professor of neuroscience and neurology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Waisman investigator, has culminated in the development of a promising stem cell-based treatment for the disease.

A science trailblazer retires: Stem cell researcher James Thomson’s legacy changed the future of biology

James Thomson helped the scientific world turn its attention to the shape-shifting stem cells that give rise to all of the building blocks of complex living organisms, from skin and bone, to hearts and blood, to neurons and brains.

David Gamm, MD, PhD – Slide of the Week

Polymeric scaffolds are revolutionizing therapeutics for blinding disorders affecting the outer retina, a region anatomically and functionally defined by light-sensitive photoreceptors. Recent engineering advances have produced planar scaffolds optimized for retinal pigment epithelium monolayer delivery, which are being tested in early stage clinical trials.

Stem cells can repair Parkinson’s-damaged circuits in mouse brains

The mature brain is infamously bad at repairing itself following damage like that caused by trauma or strokes, or from degenerative diseases like Parkinson’s. Stem cells, which are endlessly adaptable, have offered the promise of better neural repair. But the brain’s precisely tuned complexity has stymied the development of clinical treatments.