A Showcase of Bench-to-Bedside Regenerative Medicine at the 2010 ASNTR

Abstract EN

Insight into the expanding themes of regenerative medicine isprovided by the American Society for Neural Therapy and Repair'sannual meeting.

The 17th meeting covered a wide range ofneurodegenerative disorders, exploring methods to elucidate thecurrently unknown mechanisms behind the disorders, as well aspossible treatments ranging from the use of growth factors, genetherapy to cell transplantation.

The importance of growth factors,both as a contributing factor to a disease and as a possibletreatment either solo, or as a consequence of, or in conjunctionwith, stem cell therapy, was highlighted.

The potential for viralvectors was also explored either for cells prior totransplantation or as a direct treatment regime into the brainitself.

Identification of biomarkers that would allow earlydetection of a disease is an important factor in our fight againstdisease.

The ability to now perform whole genome analysis andbiomolecular profiling provides hope that such markers could beidentified which not only could identify this likely to sufferfrom a disorder but also could allow its progress to be monitored.

A few preclinical and clinical cell transplantation trials werealso introduced as potential areas of followup in the years tocome.