Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Clinic Notes: Stem Cell Transplants for Batten Disease

StemCells, Inc. will soon begin clinical trials to evaluate their line of stem cells in the treatment of Batten disease, a rare fatal disorder in children. Children with Batten disease have seizures, loss of motor skills, vision, cognitive function, and speech. This is the first trial of stem cells as a potential therapy in children.
I hope the clinical trials are successful and I wonder if stem cell technology will ever have application with other neurodevelopment disorders in children such as autism.