Regenerating muscle
Dr. Michael Rudnicki has made exciting progress in understanding muscle stem cells and developing regenerative therapies for diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Over the last 15 years, several research groups around the world have attempted to treat muscular dystrophy through muscle stem cell transplantation, but the therapy hasn’t worked well yet because the stem cells die quickly after transplant. Dr. Rudnicki’s group recently showed that a modified type of stem cell that lacks the “MyoD” gene survives longer and gives rise to more muscle cells after transplantation in mice compared to unmodified cells. Further research is needed before a therapy will be ready for testing in people, but the results have generated great hope and excitement. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutes of Health and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.