An instant voice-synthesis
A new brain implant enables a man with Parkinson’s disease to speak, sing and make facial expressions in real time using a speech signal. The implant has been implanted into the left side of the man’s brain, which contains the part of the substantia nigra responsible for vocalisation. The implant can be attached to a headband to allow it to be placed in the brain.
Stem-cell therapies might be a hit in Japan
A group of US scientists has injected induced pluripotent stem cells, which are capable of becoming any cell in the body, into patients with Parkinson’s disease. The stem cells were injected to 18 sites across the putamen in both hemispheres, “to roughly fill up that region of the brain”. The stem cells have survived and are safe one year after surgery.
Stem-cell therapies may soon pay off for Japan
A study found that autologous transplantation of iPS-cell-derived DA progenitors is a safe andeffective regenerative therapy for patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Researchers used iPS-cell-derived progenitors, which are made from cells of the person in need of treatment, in a single case study. The results were seen in four individuals for whom those natural cornea-building stem cells had been depleted.