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Marius Wernig, MD, Of Stanford University, was awarded the New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Stem Cell Prize for his breakthrough showing that human skin cells can be directly converted to brain cells.
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October 28, 2014
Marius Wernig, MD, Of Stanford University, was awarded the New York Stem Cell Foundation-Robertson Stem Cell Prize for his breakthrough showing that human skin cells can be directly converted to brain cells. He recently received a grant from the National MS Society to further test the feasibility of using converted skin cells as transplantable cells to repair the nervous system.
Read about Dr. Wernig's new Society-supported research and 53 other exciting new projects (.pdf)
Multiple sclerosis, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system, interrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis. The progress, severity and specific symptoms of MS in any one person cannot yet be predicted, but advances in research and treatment are moving us closer to a world free of MS. Most people with MS are diagnosed between the ages of 20 and 50, with at least two to three times more women than men being diagnosed with the disease. MS affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide.