An international team of researchers that included scientists at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, CA say they've hit a landmark achievement in embryonic stem cell research, using stem cells from both embryos and fetuses to slow a fatal brain and nerve disease in mice. In a study for Nature Medicine, the group said that the same approach could prove promising in developing therapies for Parkinson's [1], Alzheimer's [2] and ALS. The researchers' target was Sandhoff disease, in which inflammation kills brain cells, causing severe mental retardation and death in infancy.

The researchers noted that the blend of stem cells transplanted into the brains of the animals did not appear to be rejected and seemed to reduce the inflammation in mice, which lived an average of 70 percent longer than untreated mice. Dr. Evan Snyder said that the key to understanding stem cell therapy could lie in their ability to restore the balance in a patient and repair damaged cells.

- read the India Times report [3]

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