Translator: Kirstie Neo Reviewer: Denise RQ
Imagine if our beloved 40th President
of the United States, Ronald Reagan,
remembered all about the lady beside him until his last breath.
Or if our beloved actor, Michael J. Fox, acted in more Back to the Future movies,
since our future seems so daunting.
Even when I become old, I want to remember all about this day.
And I want to spend time with my friends, family, and be independent.
Ronald Reagan, Michael J. Fox, and several of our beloved citizens
have brain diseases
like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.
Do you wish that those with brain diseases could go back to the past
instead of future?
To their youthful, healthy, and vibrant selves?
I wish I could cure diseases.
My desire to cure diseases being with baldness.
Yes, baldness.
Believe it or not, many young men, including Prince William,
and potentially Prince Harry, would like this cure.
(Applause)
I wanted to use stem cells for baldness.
A stem cell has the ability to transform or regenerate into different cell types.
After exploring the use of stem cells for baldness, I was curious.
How could we use these cells for other diseases?
Having realized the regenerative potential of stem cells to form other useful cells
in the body, I was curious.
How could stem cells be used for treating brain diseases?
Like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease,
where specific brain cells are damaged or dead.
I realized that neural stem cells, or stem cells residing in the adult brain,
are most capable of forming nerve cells.
Natha Sanai a group of co-workers
from the University of California, San Francisco
have shown that neural stem cells exist
in the sub-ventricular zone of the human brain.
A reason for brain diseases may be a low level of neural stem cells.
In such an event, repopulating or regenerating neural stem cells
may be helpful for the patient to stay healthy.
Use of one's own stem cells, like adult stem cells, like neural stem cells,
is less controversial than using embryonic stem cells.
Approximately 5.4 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's.
An estimated 7 to 10 million people in the world suffer from Parkinson's.
Unfortunately, there are no cures for these diseases.
Degenerative brain diseases occur
when there's a loss of nerve cells or their function.
When nerve cells go bad, the patient may not function normally.
This might be happening in Alzheimer's and Parkinson disease.
Eugene Redmond and his group of co-workers from Yale University, School of Medicine,
have shown the ability of neural stem cells
naturally present in the human brain
to delay degeneration in a monkey model with Parkinson's disease.
Neural stem cells are very useful
in potentially treating degenerative brain diseases.
Based on my research, I asked a scientific question.
My question was:
can we design a device that collects, modifies, or amplifies neural stem cells
for long-term regeneration of nerve cells in the brain?
Before I proceeded, I wanted to make sure
that it was feasible to implant a device in the body.
Indeed, yes.
The cardiac pacemaker was first introduced
and designed during 1958 to 1960.
The pacemaker is designed to maintain the electrical function of the heart.
Today, about 3 million people carry a pacemaker
and an estimated 600,000 new implants are made each year.
The average lifespan of a pacemaker varies from five to eight years,
and it's currently the size of a US quarter.
To make it more feasible, I thought it would be best
if I found out about devices in the brain.
I did come across one device, called the Activa, designed by Medtronic.
In 1997, the Activa was approved for treating tremors.
And in 2002, the Activa was approved for treating Parkinson's.
The Activa does have some side effects,
including depression and device displacement
from the application side in the brain.
Now I would like to introduce you to my idea.
Or what I would like to call,
the Neural Stem Cell Regenerator for Brain Diseases.
My device will collect, modify, and dispense neural stem cells
to the target in the brain.
It should be safe, and should stick on to the brain tissue for several years.
The first major task we must accomplish
is to find a way to attract the remaining neural stem cells in the brain.
For this, I propose to design a neural stem cell collector.
I came across an article by Richard Miller and his group of colleagues
from Northwestern University, School of Medicine,
where special proteins, known as chemokines,
were suggested to guide the migration of neural stem cells in the brain.
Based on this, I propose to implement a gradient of chemokines
inside of my device.
This can potentially be implemented in the neural stem cell collector.
First we'll design a tube
that is compatible with the device and the brain.
Then we'll coat a gradient of chemokine inside of the collector tube
from a region of low concentration of gradient at the entry point,
to a region of high concentration of gradient at the end of the tube.
The neural stem cells will then move along this chemokine gradient
inside of the collector tubes.
Our next goal is to design an approach to dispense the regenerated
neural stem cells towards the disease site.
For this, I propose to design the Neural Stem Cell Dispenser.
Like the Neural Stem Cell Collector, the Neural Stem Cell Dispenser
will also contain the chemokine gradient, allowing the neural stem cells
to exit the device towards the disease site.
Here's a picture of the Neural Stem Cell Regenerator for brain diseases,
with collector tubes, a dispenser tube, and a central engineering chamber
where special genes or chemicals are used to modify neural stem cells.
Let's review what the Neural Stem Cell Regenerator does.
First, the neural stem cells in the sub ventricular zone
of the human brain will get attracted to the chemokine gradient
inside of the collector tubes.
The neural stem cells will then move
from a region of low concentration of gradient at the entry point
to a region of high concentration of gradient at the end of the tube.
The neural stem cells will then move into the central engineering chamber
where special genes or chemicals are used to increase the potential
of neural stem cells to form the required target nerve cells.
Then the regenerated neural stem cells will exit the device
towards the disease site.
This will also happen along the chemokine gradient
from a region of low concentration of gradient inside of the tube
to a region of high concentration of gradient at the end of the tube.
Neural stem cells will be propelled through natural cell movement
or a longer dispenser tube towards the disease site.
To replace the damage and defective nerve cells with new and functional cells.
This is an enlarged picture of the Neural Stem Cell Regenerator for brain diseases.
It'll still be the size of a dime or smaller.
I hope it costs a dime too.
Not only can the Neural Stem Cell Regenerator for brain diseases be used
when pills and other approaches fail
but it may be possible for treating brain cancer.
This can happen along an anti-cancer drug
or gene-engineered into the neural stem cells
to detect the tumor cells and then kill them.
Thank you for taking the journey with me,
into my world of neural stem cell research.
(Applause)
As you all can imagine,
there are a lot of unknowns and questions along the way.
What factors and what mounts are needed to guide and regenerate neural stem cells?
Can those factors be maintained for long-term brain health?
Can the brain placement of such a device be made less invasive?
As Albert Einstein stated,
if we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research,
would it?
Thank you all for your attention.
(Applause)