News From the Web

• Stem Cell Trail for Children with Brain Injury - Univ. of Texas
  A unique clinical trial will gauge the safety and potential of treating children suffering traumatic brain injury with stem cells derived from their own bone marrow starting early next year at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston and Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital.

    

• Man's Brain Rewires Itself - www.AP.com

  Doctors have their first proof that a man who was barely conscious for nearly 20 years regained speech and movement because his brain spontaneously rewired itself by growing tiny new nerve connections to replace the ones sheared apart in a car crash.

   

• Researchers Delve Into Concussions; Better Tests Needed For Fuller View Of Head Injuries, Study Says - www.ScienceDaily.com

  Concussion patients with a normal head CT scan may believe they are free of brain injury, but CT scans often miss damage at the molecular level, warns a University of Rochester Medical Center study. In fact, when doctors examine the nerve cells of concussion patients the pattern of brain injury is identical for mild and severe concussions, said lead author Jeffrey J. Bazarian, M.D.,

   

• New Way To Protect Brain From Stroke Damage - www.ScienceDaily.com

  Researchers have uncovered a new culprit behind the brain injury suffered by stroke victims. Their new study, published in the Sept. 17 issue of Cell, links brain cell damage to a rise in brain acidity following the oxygen depletion, or ischemia, characteristic of stroke. 

   

• Northwestern Widens 'Treatment Window' For Brain Injury & Stroke- www.ScienceDaily.com

In the treatment of stroke, there is currently only a three-hour "window of therapeutic opportunity" to prevent additional brain cell damage and only one medication approved to improve blood flow to oxygen-deprived neurons near the injury, thereby minimizing potentially debilitating side effects.

• Stem Cell Research Targets Cerebral Palsy - www.ScienceDaily.com

Natural chemicals that assist healing may one day help transplanted adult stem cells integrate into an injured brain, helping children with cerebral palsy recover lost function, according to researchers at the Medical College of Georgia.

• Answers to Your Brain Injury Questions   ABC News – USA

  Scientists and doctors have only just begun to unravel the mysteries of brain injury. Here, some of the country's leading experts answer your questions about brain trauma.

   

• New Imaging Technique Stands Brain Injury Research On Its Head

  
  
  WUSTL mechanical engineers and a neurosurgeon resident at Barnes-Jewish Hospital have devised a technique on humans that for the first time shows just what the brain does when the skull accelerates.

   

• Why Doctors Tread Carefully When It Comes To Concussions

   When doctors took a few days to conclude this week that Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander had recovered enough from a concussion to play in this Sunday's NFC championship game, they weren't being overly cautious.

    

• Funds Sought for Brain Injury Survivors

  Twenty years ago, no one talked about options for people who suffered severe brain injuries. They rarely lived. Today, those who sustain a brain injury, whether at birth, in a car crash or while serving in the military, have futures.

   

• Ethical Stem Cell Study May Pave Way for Brain Injury Cure

  A Texas children's hospital is working with the University of Texas' Medical School in a unique clinical trial using bone marrow stem cells to treat children's brain trauma. This trial, which does not involve ethically problematic and controversial embryonic stem cells, is the first to use stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injury, for which there is currently no reparative therapy.

   

• NovaVision VRT to Treat Vision Loss Caused by Stroke & TBI

  NovaVision VRT(TM) Now Available at Intercoastal Neurology to Rehabilitate Vision Deficits Once Considered Untreatable.

   

• Site In The Brain That Controls Language In Right-Handed People Shifts With Aging

  Scientists have found that the site in the brain that controls language in right-handed people shifts with aging--a discovery that might offer hope in the treatment of speech problems resulting from traumatic brain injury or stroke.

   

• Adult Stem Cells Aid Recovery In Animal Model Of Cerebral Palsy

  Adult stem cell therapy quickly and significantly improves recovery of motor function in an animal model for the ischemic brain injury that occurs in about 10% of babies with cerebral palsy, researchers report.

   

• Scientists Study Ways The Mind Can Heal Itself

  One day in March, Erin Smith, age 25, was learning how to walk.  She stood in a small, windowless room at the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital. Nine gauze pads stuck to her shin and calf, and spaghetti-like cables connected the pads to a computer called the "Neuroeducator."

    

• Brain Remapping May Be Key To Recovery From Stroke

  People suffering from paralysis due to stroke or traumatic brain injury may be able to reprogram their brains to improve motor skills and to control artificial limbs, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

   

• Ancient Brain Surgery Revived

  ARCHAEOLOGISTS believe removing part of a patient's skull is the oldest form of brain surgery, with evidence dating back to the ancient Greeks, Egyptians and Romans.

   

• Simple 'Hi' from brain-injured man gives parents joy - Grand Forks Herald, ND  
  It was the first word he had spoken since July 17, 2004, when an all-terrain vehicle accident left him with a traumatic brain injury.  - Nov 29, 2005  

• Cyberkinetics' Collaborator and Inventor of Andara(TM) OFS Device Honored  
  Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc. , a neurotechnology company focused on neurostimulation and neural sensing, today announced that Richard Ben Borgens, Ph.D., the inventor of Cyberkinetics' Andara(TM) Oscillating Field Stimulator Device, is to receive the Indiana Health Industry Forum's 2006 "Outstanding Contribution to Scientific Commercialization Award".