Caption: The nerves that control muscles, known as motor neurons (shown here in red), are lost in the devastating genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy, causing weakness, paralysis, and early death. A team of UW-Madison stem cell biologists recreated the hallmarks of this disease in the lab using genetically reprogrammed stem cells created from a young SMA patient’s skin. The work gives scientists the opportunity to study the full progression of a disease in the lab and should improve understanding and treatment of genetic disorders. The motor neurons shown here were grown from cells from the patient’s healthy mother.
Photo: provided by Clive Svendsen
Date: November 2008
Full-size JPEG

Caption: The nerves that control muscles, known as motor neurons (shown here in red), are lost in the devastating genetic disease called spinal muscular atrophy, causing weakness, paralysis, and early death. A team of UW-Madison stem cell biologists recreated the hallmarks of this disease in the lab using genetically reprogrammed stem cells created from a young SMA patient’s skin. The work gives scientists the opportunity to study the full progression of a disease in the lab and should improve understanding and treatment of genetic disorders. The motor neurons shown here were grown from cells from the patient’s healthy mother.
Photo: provided by Clive Svendsen
Date: November 2008
Full-size JPEG