The General Hospital Corporation

Viacell, Inc.

Viacord LLC

Curis, Inc.

Stryker Corporation

Seth P Finklestein

Morey Kraus

Paul T Clark

Robert H Brown, Jr

Roger L Whiting

Marc F Charette

Franklin D Collins

Michael Spedding

Michael A Moskowitz

Brian J Alps

Caroline J Emmett

Christine Mary Brown

Deborah Russell

Steven C Cramer

Methods of causing an improvement in central nervous system function are provided. The methods include administering an aliquot of stem cells to the patient, the cells being derived from blood, e.g., umbilical cord blood. In some cases a growth factor is administered with the cells.

Methods of improving central nervous system functioning

Methods for improving central nervous system functioning

The invention features methods for treating a patient suffering from muscular dystrophy by administration of umbilical cord blood cells, e.g., by IV infusion.

Treatment of muscular dystrophy with cord blood cells

The present invention provides methods and compositions for treatment of mammals afflicted with an ischemic or traumatic injury of the central nervous system. The present invention capitalizes in part upon the discovery that administration of a morphogen to such a mammal provides significant improvement in central nervous system function, even when administered after central nervous system tissue has been damaged. The methods involve the administration of dimeric proteins defined as morphogens, inducers of these morphogens, or agonists of the corresponding morphogen receptors, or implantation of cells stimulated by exposure to the morphogens. The proteins defined as morphogens comprise a structurally and functionally distinct family within the TGF-&bgr; superfamily. Osteogenic protein-1 (OP-1) is considered to be an exemplary and preferred member of this morphogen family.

Method for enhancing functional recovery following central nervous system ischemia or trauma

The present invention relates to the treatment of central nervous system injuries by intracisternal or intravenous administration of polypeptide growth factors, such as basic fibroblast growth factor. This method provides significant benefits because administration can occur a substantial amount of time following an injury.

Administration of polypeptide growth factors following central nervous system ischemia or trauma

The invention features apparatus and methods for measuring motor events of a subject, e.g., a human subject, where the motor events have a force component or both a frequency and force component. The apparatus include a transducer, adapted to generate an analog signal corresponding to frequency and/or force of the subject's motor event, e.g., a repetitive motion; an amplifier, which amplifies the analog signal; an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter, which converts the analog signal into a digital signal; and a computer. The computer is programmed to receive the digital signal as input, store the digital signal for subsequent retrieval, retrieve the stored digital signal for processing, and process the stored digital signal. The processing includes the measurement of mean force amongst the set of individual motor events over time and measurement of the mean frequency of the set of individual motor events over time.

Digital motor event recording system

Methods for the treatment of neuronal damage associated with ischemia,

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Needham, MA, United States of America

Seth P Finklestein