Sending Genes into the Brain
More-invasive therapies show promise for treating Parkinson's.

MIT/Technology Review, By Emily Singer, Wednesday, May 20, 2009
http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22675/

The brain has long presented a special challenge to drug developers: tightly enclosed by the blood brain barrier, it remains locked to many therapies delivered orally or intravenously.

However, thanks to more-precise methods of targeting the brain, advances in brain imaging, and the growing popularity of implanted stimulators for treating neurological diseases, the brain is no longer off limits. This is highlighted by a number of new clinical trials involving Parkinson's patients, in which a therapeutic gene or another treatment is delivered directly to a specific part of the brain.


Budget negotiators remove stem cell research ban

The Associated Press, May 19, 2009, 2:27PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/6431458.html

AUSTIN, Texas — A measure to prohibit state money from being spent on stem cell research has been removed from the state budget.


What Obama's Support for Stem Cell Research Means for California

Scientific American, By Joe Mathews, May 20, 2009
http://www.scientificamerican.com/ar...-in-california

The president has lifted the Bush restrictions on embryonic stem cell on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research mean for the funding. What does that mean for an oft-criticized state agency with $3 billion in grants to give out?

BURLINGAME, Calif.—California provides more funding for stem cell research than the other 49 states combined. So what does President Obama's executive order lifting the restrictions financing and structure of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's cash-strapped stem cell agency?

Not much.