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Joan asked that I post this this for your thoughts and comments: Ray I spoke with Dr. Craig Cady several weeks ago and he, for once, sounded a bit disappointed. "Things have been pretty quiet on the stem-cell front," he said. "We seem to be stuck." However, when I met him on Friday, July 18th, 2008, he was in fine spirits and an expansive mood. "You certainly picked the right day to visit the lab," he said, nearly bursting with excitement or as excited as the serious research ever gets. "We have really had two incredible things happen in our lah and I cannot wait to show you." That very morning they had received an order that they had been expecting for the last several months. It was a container of very rare, very primitive CD-34+ stem cells. These cells cost about $1,000 per milliliter and come bone marrow and then from a company called Stem Cell Technology. The more primitive the stem cell the greater chance that it can be changed into another cell-in this case a dopamine producing neuron. This morning, Lauren was able to able to make slides and take pictures which meant that she had to isolate the voltage gaited sodium channel which is specific to certain types of neurons. The channels are very well defined and well lit up with the color she uses. There is no comparison with the process they had to work with until now. This is really exciting news they assured me and the excitement was contagious. The other major development was the 'matrix' that they had also just received this morning from Georgia Tech and had assembled. A matrix is made up of peptides, proteins and polimars. It is delivered to the brain or the heart (wherever the stem cells are to be injected) and allows the stem cells a strong base on which to attach themselves and to grow. When an injection of stem cells is introduced to dishes of cells now, nearly 70% are lost because they don't have anything on which to adhere. Before I left, I was given the opportunity to watch Lauren make up plates (under the hood that keeps out contamination of the new CD34+ cells and to look at them under a microscope. They were unlike any other stem cells that I have ever seen and unlike any seen by the scientists in the lab. They were in 3 dimensions and it was really great to see them suspended in the solution, bouncing ever so slightly. I really think that Dr. Cady is onto something big here! Rayilyn Brown Director AZNPF Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn