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Organoids developed from human stem cells modeled spinal cord injuries, providing a powerful in vitro tool to evaluate regenerative therapies for CNS injuries. Original written by Sneha Khedkar and published on The Nutshell section of The Scientist on Feb 13, 2026 Despite being the most common cause of permanent disability, there are few effective treatments for spinal cord injuries. A new organoid model now offers a platform to test regenerative therapies, potentially accelerating the development of new therapies.  Image credit:© iStock.com, Charday Penn Injuries in the central nervous system (CNS) —such as those in the spinal cord—trigger glial scar formation, which inhibits nerve regeneration from healthy neurons surrounding the damage. This results in impaired motor, sensory, or autonomic functions . Despite such spinal cord injuries being the l eading cause of death and permanent disability and affecting up to 500,000 people globally each year , effective therapies ...

Originally published by Case Western Reserve University in medicalexpress.com, on August 12, 2025 Edited by Gaby Clark , reviewed by Robert Egan   ChAT+ INs are activated under a hypercapnic gas challenge. Credit: Cell Reports (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116078 Late actor Christopher Reeve , best known for his role as Superman in the 1970s and '80s, became an activist for spinal cord injury research after being paralyzed in a horseback-riding accident —making him a lifelong wheelchair user and on a ventilator. Reeve, who died in 2004, was among about 300,000 people nationally living with a spinal cord injury , with respiratory complications being the most common cause of illness and death, according to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, which he and his late wife created to support the research. But the results of a new study, led by researchers at  Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine , show promise that a group of nerve cells in...

Originally published by Polytechnic University of Milan, on February 14, 2024 Nanogel—Scheme of selective drug treatment in the central nervous system. Credit: Politecnico di Milano—Istituto Mario Negri In a study published in Advanced Materials , researchers have demonstrated that an innovative nano-vector (nanogel) , which they developed, is able to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs in a targeted manner into glial cells actively involved in the evolution of spinal cord injury , a condition that leads to paraplegia or quadriplegia . Treatments currently available to modulate the inflammatory response mediated by the component that controls the brain's internal environment after acute spinal cord injury showed limited efficacy. This is also due to the lack of a therapeutic approach that can selectively act on microglial and astrocytic cells. The nanovectors developed by Politecnico di Milano , called nanogels, consist of polymers that can bind to specific target molecules ....