SYRACUSE — The Empire State Stem Cell Board has recommended that a consortium of schools including one in Syracuse receive $12.1 million for work on a new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS).
The schools are the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, the University of Rochester Medical Center, and the State University of New York Upstate Medical University in Syracuse. They are working jointly on a treatment that addresses the underlying causes of physical failure in MS patients, according to the Associated Medical Schools of New York, which announced the funding.
The money will allow the schools to bring their research to clinical trials in three to four years. The trials would aim to halt the progression of disability in MS patients and possibly provide functional improvement, according to Associated Medical Schools.
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The planned trial would implant cells that can reproduce myelin into the central nervous system of MS patients. Myelin is the fatty substance that surrounds and protects nerve fibers. In MS patients, myelin and the fibers it protects are damaged.
The damage and resulting scar tissue impairs nerve impulses traveling to and from the brain, resulting in MS symptoms, according to Associated Medical Schools.
“If successful, transplantation of cells that can repair damaged myelin may reverse some of the symptoms and slow the tendency for worsening of the condition over time,” Dr. Andrew Goodman, director of the University of Rochester Medical Center, said in a news release. “It is hoped that this will also protect the nerves and prevent further progression of disability.”
New York state provided $600 million over 11 years to the Empire State Stem Cell Program in 2007. So far, the state has awarded nearly $200 million and recommended an additional $62.2 million in funding to support stem cell research that explores cures and treatment for life-threatening and chronic illnesses.
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