TED Talk Thursday – Can the Damaged Brain Repair Itself? by Siddharthan Chandran

by | Apr 12, 2018 | Brain science, Inspiration, Science, TED, TED Talks

According to TED.com: “After a traumatic brain injury, it sometimes happens that the brain can repair itself, building new brain cells to replace damaged ones. But the repair doesn’t happen quickly enough to allow recovery from degenerative conditions like motor neuron disease (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS). Siddharthan Chandran walks through some new techniques using special stem cells that could allow the damaged brain to rebuild faster.”

“Siddharthan Chandran explores how to heal damage from degenerative disorders such as MS and motor neuron disease (ALS).”

“Multiple sclerosis (MS) affects the nervous system by chewing up the axons that connect neurons to one another, which slows, stops or simply randomizes the transmission of nerve impulses. At the Centre for clinical brain sciences at the University of Edinburgh, Siddharthan Chandran works in the emerging discipline of regenerative neurology — exploring how injured or damaged neurons in the brain might actually be repaired.”

“His research strategy uses MS and motor neuron disease (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s diesease) as primary disease models, combining laboratory and clinical activity to study  brain injury, neurodegeneration and repair, using stem cells to model and test. His work, he says, “reflects the complexity of the brain. You can replace a kidney, but not a brain. One must remain careful and humble in the face of current knowledge.” He is also director of the Anne Rowling Regenerative Neurology Clinic.”

Can the Damaged Brain Repair Itself? by Siddharthan Chandran

 

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery from www.ted.com: “TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

——————————————————————————————————–

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

 

TED Talk Thursday – Susan Lim: Transplant cells, not organs

by | Apr 25, 2013 | Science, TED Talks, Video

According to www.ted.com: “Pioneering surgeon Susan Lim performed the first liver transplant in Asia. But a moral concern with transplants (where do donor livers come from …) led her to look further, and to ask: Could we be transplanting cells, not whole organs? At the INK Conference, she talks through her new research, discovering healing cells in some surprising places.”

“Susan Lim established her reputation as a surgeon in 1990 after performing Singapore’s (and southeast Asia’s) first successful liver transplant. She has gone on to further pioneer in the field of general surgery, two new surgical technologies for Singapore, the mammotome minimally invasive breast biopsy and robotic surgery for the private sector. She founded and is chair and CEO of Centre for Robotic Surgery and spearheaded the Robotic General Surgery Program for Singapore.”

“In 2003, Dr. Lim launched Stem Cell Technologies (i), a biotech company to research the use of adult stem cells for application in cell therapy and regenerative medicine. In 2004, SCT(i) entered into research collaboration with National University of Singapore to specifically research the use of adult stem cells as a treatment for diabetes.”

Enjoy this interesting talk.

For those of you not familiar with TED Talks here is a brief summery from www.ted.com:

“TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences — the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK each summer — TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and Open TV Project, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize”

——————————————————————————————————–

I look forward to your thoughts and comments!

Be sure to Subscribe to this blog either by RSS or Email via the forms on the top right column of the page.