The first pre-clinical trials in the Republic for spinal cord injury using stems cells will be announced today.
The trials are to take place in Galway as part of a collaboration between the Regenerative Medicine Institute at the National University of Ireland, Galway, and global biotechnology company Stem Cell Sciences (SCS) plc, based in Edinburgh.
The venture will be announced by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin. The initial study will examine the ability of neural stem cells from mice to provide functional improvements in spinal cord injury in rats. Spinal cord injury affects more than 25 million people worldwide, with 130,000 new cases reported each year. However, Dr Tim Allsop, SCS's chief scientific officer, said that treatment in humans was likely to be some time off.
A new, distinct type of neural stem cell would be used in the Galway trial, he added. "We will examine how the cells remain viable, engraft and support natural repair processes."