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Lab assistant Dave Ferguson holds up stem cell cultures in a lab at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California, Irvine.

California has granted a University of California, Irvine researcher nearly $5 million for stem cell research into multiple sclerosis.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine issued the grant for the development of a new line of neural stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis, or MS, as its also known.

The disease causes inflammation and loss of fatty tissue that insulates and protects cells in the bodys central nervous system. Researchers at UC Irvine will use the $4.8 million grant to target stem cell treatments designed to both stop the loss of fatty tissue that causes the diseases progression and to encourage new growth of the tissue in order to heal damaged nerves.

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society reports that 400,000 people in the United States suffer from MS, with about 200 new cases diagnosed every week.

Continued here:
UC Irvine stem cell research to receive $4.8 million in state funding

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