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3. REPAIRING THE NERVOUS SYSTEM WITH STEM CELLS by David M. Panchision* iseases of the nervous system, including focused on limiting damage once it had occurred, in Dcongenital disorders, cancers, and degenerative recent years researchers have been working hard to diseases, affect millions of people of all ages. find out if the cells that can give rise to new neurons Congenital disorders occur when the brain or spinal can be coaxed to restore brain function. New neurons cord does not form correctly during development. in the adult brain arise from slowly-dividing cells that Cancers of the nervous system result from the appear to be the remnants of stem cells that existed uncontrolled spread of aberrant cells. Degenerative during fetal brain development. Since some of these diseases occur when the nervous system loses adult cells still retain the ability to generate both functioning of nerve cells. Most of the advances in stem neurons and glia, they are referred to as adult neural cell research have been directed at treating stem cells. degenerative diseases. While many treatments aim to limit the damage of these diseases, in some cases These findings are exciting because they suggest that scientists believe that damage can be reversed by the brain may contain a built-in mechanism to repair replacing lost cells with new ones derived from cells itself. Unfortunately, these new neurons are only that can mature into nerve cells, called neural stem generated in a few sites in the brain and turn into only cel