What we’ve accomplished.

1. Identified and transplanted adult stem cells for spinal cord injuries
2. Established the role of stem cells within childhood brain disorders like autism
3. Successfully transplanted human retinal stem cells within animal models to restore vision

What we’re doing now.

We’re using regenerative medicine to restore vision loss.

Whether due to age-related macular degeneration, diabetes or inherited retinitis pigmentosa, vision loss can’t be reversed and there is currently no cure for blindness. Here at the McEwen Centre, our goal is to overcome blindness through innovative regenerative medicine strategies.

While current treatment strategies strive to treat the symptoms of blindness, our researchers will attempt to reverse it with stem cell therapy.

We’re improving methods for repairing spinal cord injuries using nerve stem cells.

Chronic spinal cord injury is difficult to treat using stem cells due to inflammation and the formation of a “glial scar” surrounding the site of the injury.

Our Neuroscience team is generating and transplanting neural stem cells into animal models with chronic spinal cord injury, while using a new bio-engineered solution that can inhibit inflammation and deliver factors that promote the successful addition of nerve stem cells.

For patients, this research has the potential to unearth a solution that reverses spinal cord injury, and could one day result in a treatment that helps the severely injured walk again.

What we hope to achieve.

The goal of our Neuroscience team is to eliminate all neurodegenerative diseases. Here is a quick overview of the research challenges we’re hoping to crack in the near future:

• Improved methods for treating chronic spinal cord injury with stem cells
• A cure for uveitis – a condition that’s characterized by inflammation within the middle layer of the eye - that could prevent 10% of all cases of blindness
• New therapeutic strategies for treating disorders ranging from autism to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease
• A model for human drug addiction in a petridish that will allow us to better understand the “switch” in humans, and lead to the discovery of new treatments