|
| home > scientists > keirstead > Research Description |
| Dr. Keirstead's Research Description |
|
Research Description
The focus of the Keirstead laboratory is the development of strategies to limit degeneration and enhance regeneration after spinal cord injury and disease. The Keirstead Research Group utilizes a broad number of investigative techniques, including molecular and histological analyses, complex tissue culture, and in vivo experimentation. The Keirstead Research Group is also staffed to engage in FDA compliant pre-clinical work, employing a Regulatory Quality Assurance team that ensures that all research is FDA compliant. The Keirstead Research Group is investigating strategies to reduce or eliminate the post traumatic enlargement of spinal cord injury sites that normally occurs after traumatic injury. The team developed an injection-based therapy that significantly decreased tissue loss if administered soon after injury. Human reagents necessary for clinical trials have been generated, and a clinical trial using this approach began in late-2005. The Keirstead Research Group also investigates cell transplantation therapy for spinal cord injury, and was the first laboratory in North America to gain access to human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for CNS trauma research. The team is generating new hESC lines from blastocysts and using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), and developing protocols to differentiate hESCs into high purity populations of human cells. For example, the team developed high purity hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitors with the goal of treating demyelination in acute spinal cord injury, and investigating the development of this human lineage. This work is the basis of a therapy that is currently being developed for clinical trials. The laboratory is generating other cell populations that may benefit chronic spinal cord injury and other diseases of the spinal cord, and is also researching means to eliminate the glial scar that forms after spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis. |
|
|
General Information •
The Scientists •
Research Activities •
Graduate Education
Medical Education • Positions Available • Neuroscience Links Search/Site Map • Journal Club • Contact Us |
|
Copyright © 2000-2007 Regents of the University of California. Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology. All Rights Reserved. Telephone: 949-824-6050 Contact the Webmaster |
