Professor’s research to be featured in international journal

Marshall University's research on stem cells will soon be recognized all over the world. The "Journal of Cellular Physiology" published by John Wiley and sons, is set to publish the research online in the upcoming days and be available in print a month after. The author of the article, Dr. Nadja Spitzer, Marshall University professor of biology, along with Dr. Elmer, Price Marshall University professor of biology, and Dr. Larry Grover began their research in 2007.

Their research found that adult stem cells, which are extracted from the blood, could be turned into neurons and then sent back into the body to fight diseases and injuries.

Neurons are specialized cells that transmit information throughout the body. There are different types of neurons that are responsible for multiple tasks in the body.

"This is very unique because it's patient specific stem cells," Price said. "We can take stem cells directly from that patient, turn them into neurons- and send it right back into that patient."

Price said that patients would not have to wait for a donor because they will be able to take blood directly from the patient who is diagnosed.

"We are very far from human trials," Price said. "The fact that we can take blood from a patient and eventually turn their stem cells into neurons is a tremendous advancement." The research was done on pigs because pigs closely resemble the human body.

Price said we wouldn't have to worry about moral or ethical reasons because they are not embryonic stem cells and adult stem cells may be much safer.

Price said hopefully other scientists across the world will see what we did and take the next step and advance the research.

"Neurons are normally from the blood," Price said. "Based on the conditions we have chosen to grow these type of cells, we have generated a very unique type of cells that we can turn into neurons."

Heather Butts from Grafton, W.Va., graduated in 2008 with a biomedical science degree and starting working on the project in 2007 as an undergraduate.

Greg Sammons from Matewan, W.Va., graduated in 2009 with a biology degree also worked with Butts on the research.

"I started working with research as a freshman," Butts said. "I applied for the SURE (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) program and received a offer from Dr. Price to work on the project."

"We extracted stem cells from the blood and injected them with proteins and enzymes to get them to be like brain cells," Butts said. "With the right conditions, we could turn those stem cells into neurons." Butts said Sammons and her collected a lot of data and Spitzer wrote the report.

Price said in most neurological disorders, like a spinal cord injury or Parkinson's disease, the neurons just die. He said stem cell therapy will allow us to replace those dead neurons.

 Butts said working with stem cells was interesting to her and that's why she chose to work with Price. She said it was a lot of hard work but she learned more than she ever dreamed about.

 "I had a really good time doing research," Butts said. "The research project taught me how to think critically and really understand what I am doing."

 Butts said Price and Spitzer were very approachable and easy to work with. She said they gave her the opportunity to do a lot of hands-on research in the lab.

 "Spitzer emailed me a few months ago about our research being publicized and I was really surprised," Butts said. "It made me realize how fortunate I was to work on such a great project."

 Corey Oxley can be contacted at oxley24@marshall.edu.