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Thanks to Peter Jackson, for your post and the important work you and your colleagues are doing at NIH. The discovery of Sonic Hedgehog (SHH) is one more piece of evidence that dopamine systems science is developing at a rapid pace and deserves more funding than it currently receives. Cultivating a source for immature dopamine neurons is an important goal. There are about 1 million dopamine cells in the substantia nigra out of the roughly 10 billion neurons that make up the brain. That's 1/10,000th of the total number of neurons in the brain. For such a tiny fraction of the brain, dopamine cells certainly have wide-ranging effects on areas of cognitive and motor function. The bad news is that the loss of such a small quantity of specific cells has dramatic consequences. The good news: The projections of these cells have a localized impact; They release dopamine tonically (they do not have to be connected to other cells to release dopamine regularly); It is quite possible that these new cells can "rewire" and "relearn" function lost due to the death of the original dopamine cells. PD symptoms do not occur until about 80% of dopamine cells have died. With PD as few as 100,000 or so dopamine cells are still working. Eventually they will all be lost. Wouldn't it be nice to get a few hundred thousand back? Cells that could sprout new connections and release dopamine in a fashion similar to those that have been lost? Cells that might someday restore the system to an approximation of normal function? It is possible that successful implantation of about 200,000 cells, perhaps a milliliter or two of material, could mean the difference between progressive PD and a turnaround in deterioration along with an amelioration of symptoms. In a few short years from now we should have a pure supply of "ethically neutral", undeveloped dopamine cells for implantation. Unfortunately, we have been given a mandate to prove that the procedure will work NOW using "ethically charged" methods and experimental techniques. If results prove encouraging funding for new dopamine cell lines will flow. So far dramatically positive results have been elusive. Patients do not jump off operating tables and run down hospital corridors after transplantation surgery. It takes time for these cells to mature and grow in the brain. It may take a long time for neuroscientists, cell biologists, neurologists and neurosurgeons to refine the procedure(s) to the point where it makes sense for more than a handful of severely debilitated patients. We are in the pre-Model 'T' era of brain repair technology. Hopefully, we will have the patience, and dollars, to see this process through to its ultimate conclusion. Ken Aidekman Fund the research. Find the cure.