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Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (http://www.csmc.edu/) Date: Posted 8/27/1998 The full text can be found at: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1998/08/980827074627.htm Deep Brain Stimulator Placement And Brain Cell Harvesting Offer Relief And Hope For Parkinson's Disease Patients LOS ANGELES (August 23, 1998) - A new type of brain surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Neurofunctional Surgery Center, done while the patient is awake, is helping to control tremors in Parkinson's Disease patients like Dennis Turner, 56, a former engineer at Southern California Edison's San Onofre Nuclear Generating System. Stereotactic-Guided Placement of a Deep Brain Stimulator has been available in Europe for several years, but only received FDA approval last year for use in the United States.In addition to implanting a deep brain stimulator during the Aug. 11 surgery, physicians harvested some of Turner's brain cells, which will be genetically engineered and implanted at a future date. Researchers hope that the genetically engineered cells will replace defective cells, thereby offering the possibility of a cure for this disease which presently has none. <SNIP>