Stem cells to promote nerve regeneration

Mark Tuszynski is a professor of neurosciences and founding director of the Translational Neuroscience Institute at the University of California – San Diego. We caught up with him to learn about his background and research into the use of stem cells to treat spinal cord injury.

Did you always want to be a scientist?

I don’t know if I consciously decided to pursue it, but I was always interested in medicine.

I read a lot of science fiction as a child. The book ‘Flowers for Algernon’ had a considerable impact on me – it is a story of a mentally disabled man who has his intellect restored through the use of science. In a way, some of the work we’re doing was probably somewhat inspired by that.

When I was in high school I wondered why there’s not an effort to repair the injured spinal cord using cell transplantation (placing healthy cells in the injured area). During a rotation in medical school, I worked on spinal cord injury (SCI) research and found research was already taking place in this field.

How did you progress into your current position?

Following medical training as a neurologist, I went full time into the lab where I obtained my position after completing my PhD in neuroscience at UCSD in 1991. I’ve been here since then.

Can you tell us simply about your area of research?

Our lab is focused on spinal cord injury and neurodegeneration (when nerve cells in the brain or spinal cord stop working or die).

Cells in the spinal cord fail to regenerate for a few reasons: 1) following an injury, a cavity remains filled with fluid and fibrous tissue which is inhospitable for a nerve to attach and grow through; 2) a lack of ‘growth factors’ (growth promoting chemicals); 3) presence of chemicals inhibiting growth.

For many years it was believed that an injured adult nerve cell couldn’t regrow. However research has shown these cells revert to an early regenerative state for 2 weeks following the injury. This can be amplified to make them regenerate even more.