Back to Local News

Eye On Health: Project ALS




It's not often you see an apparently healthy young woman using a scooter to get around. Laura McWhorter doesn't need it all the time, but she finds herself using it more often lately.

Laura's problems are due to A-L-S, better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, a degenerative neurologic disease that's invariably fatal.

A-L-S is what took the life of Jennifer Estess, kid sister of Valerie and Meredith. their frustration over how little was known about A-L-S led them to found "Project A-L-S", which has led to this -- a privately funded lab that works with those most controversial of all biologic materials, human embryonic stem cells.

The Bush administration prohibition against federal funding for virtually all human embryonic stem cell research has led to these kinds of private efforts which have already shown that mouse stem cells can be transformed into nerve cells. They can connect with muscles and when transplanted into rats, they recover neurologic function. Some of this has been replicated with human stem cells which could help.



Play video

http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=3359