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Hans Keirstead is making paralyzed rats walk again by injecting them with healthy brain cells sussed from a reddish soup of human embryonic stem cells he and his colleagues have created. Keirstead hopes to apply his therapy to humans by 2006. If his ambitious timetable keeps to schedule, Keirstead's work will be the first human embryonic stem cell treatment given to humans. ``I have been shocked, thrilled and humbled at the progress that I have made,'' Keirstead, 37, said in an interview in his University of California-Irvine office, which is dominated by a 4- by 8-foot collage of famous rock stars created by his artist brother. ``I just want to see one person who is bettered by something that I created.'' Keirstead has been turning stem cells into specialized cells that help the brain's signals traverse the spinal cord. Those new cells have repaired damaged rat spines several weeks after they were injured. For the last two years, he has shown dramatic video footage of walking healed rats to scientific gatherings and during campaign events to promote California's $3 billion bond measure to fund stem cell work, which passed in November. Keirstead and his colleagues ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn