Neural Stem Cells

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded a $4.96 million grant to Sanford Burnham Prebys Professor Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D. The funding will allow Snyder to complete pre-investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies, a step toward securing U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approval of a human trial for neural stem cells as a potential treatment for newborns who experience oxygen and blood-flow deprivation during birth. Called perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HII), the lack of oxygen and blood flow to the brain can cause cerebral palsy and other permanent neurological disorders.