Czech woman Lucie Pinova’s father was only 60 when he suffered a serious stroke in 2018.  His life was saved but he was left with paralysis of the right side of his body and lost his ability to speak.

After rehab, his condition improved but he had continuing major cognitive impairment.

Lucie found out about the use of stem cells, in particular umbilical cord blood stem cells, for the treatment of ischemic stroke patients.

Her dad underwent successful treatment with cells from an unknown donor. But Lucie took it further.

She became pregnant with a baby girl born in 2019 and decided to store the newborn’s cord blood, some of which has been used for a second treatment of the wee girl’s grandfather who has had further improvement.

Read more about the special bonds within this family here

With a growing body of evidence that dogs can assist children, especially with issues like anxiety, scientists at Oregon State University have found that dogs do synchronise their behaviour with children in their familes, but not as much as they do with adults.

The findings in the paper published in the journal Animal Cognition are important because very little research has focused on how dogs perceive and socially engage with children.

“The great news is that this study suggests dogs are paying a lot of attention to the kids they live with,” said Oregon State animal behaviorist Monique Udell, the lead author of the study.

“One interesting thing we have observed,”she says, “is that dogs are matching their child’s behaviour less frequently than what we have seen between dogs and adult caretakers, which suggests that while they may view children as social companions, there are also some differences that we need to understand better.”

You can read more about this study here

Medical professionals are now using stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disease which causes the body’s immune system to attack different parts of the patient’s central nervous system such as the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerve.

Currently there is no cure for MS but stem cell therapy is being used to help improve patient  symptoms and slow the progression of the disease. Stem cell therapy is an experimental treatment that people can access through clinical trials.

You can find out more about these treatments here

A PhD student at Monash University in Melbourne has been awarded the 2021 European Society for Paediatric Research Young Investigator Start Up Grant of 10,000 Euro for research on cord blood stem cell treatment for newborns with brain injury.

Dr Lindsay Zhou is investigating the use of the stem cells as a treatment for preterm brain injury. This includes a world-first clinical trial of autologous cord blood-derived stem cells in extremely preterm infants.

The long-term goals of Dr Zhou’s work are to develop a potential cell therapy for the injured neonatal brain, and to reduce neuro-disability in survivors of extreme prematurity.

Read more about the project here