|
|
The overall objective of the National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource
(SCR) is to drive national research in the field of neural stem cells by
providing a reliable resource for these cells to researchers nationwide.
Neural stem cells in the Resource are acquired from several central
nervous system sources and represent controls and genetic mutations. This
is of utmost importance as the field of neural stem cells has
applicability to such diverse areas as
- increasing our
understanding of the basic mechanisms involved in the development of
the nervous system from a few cells to the extremely complex final
product that is the human brain;
- increasing our
understanding of the effects of genetic disease on the structure and
function of the nervous system;
- providing tools by
which new drugs that can be used to treat diseases of the nervous
system can be designed; and
- providing a cell
population that could potentially be used to treat such nervous
system diseases as cerebral palsy, mental retardation, seizure
disorders, stroke, Parkinson's disease, and others that
traditionally have been thought to be untreatable to any significant
extent.
NHNSCR provides to the research community neural stem cells harvested
from the post-natal, post-mortem, human brain.
The specific aims of NHNSCR comprise five distinct areas:
- to continue and
expand an existing collaboration with multiple children's and
university hospitals throughout Southern California and the Western
United States to facilitate recruitment of potential tissue donors;
- to prepare, using
a novel methodology designed by the PI and his collaborators,
samples of both brain tissue and proliferative neural stem cells
derived from multiple brain areas - these samples will be
cryopreserved to provide a long-term resource;
- to improve tissue
transport, cell isolation and culture strategies for banking with an
emphasis on identifying differences in quantity or quality of stem
cells isolated from different regions of the brain; and
- to recruit
investigators as requestors of the specimens by presenting the
resource at national neuroscience, cell biology, neurology, and
genetics meetings and on a comprehensive web site as well as by
actively participating with investigators in experimental designs
aimed at utilizing the samples in the resource; and
- to train
scientists in the proper culture of stem cells.
The Resource encourages researchers to study these cells as potential
transplantable tissue for the repair of injury such as that sustained
during traumatic brain injury or stroke, for the repair of pathological
processes such as those seen in the neurogenetic diseases Hurler’s
disease or Leigh's disease, or for repair of neurodegenerative processes
such those seen in Parkinson's or Alzheimer Diseases.
In addition, the cells should be used for the detailed study of
mechanisms of neural differentiation and transdifferentiation and the
genetic and environmental signals that direct the specialization of the
cells into particular cell types.
|
|
