Word: corded
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...another small biotech firm has stepped up to the plate with a possible use for barnyard-animal DNA. But Alexion Pharmaceuticals' research, backed up by Yale's School of Medicine, is just a little more credible -- if no less fantastic. Cells from genetically altered pigs have helped heal spinal cord injuries in lab rats, and may do the same for humans -- offering a tiny ray of hope to millions of paralyzed people around the world...
...Specially enhanced to resist rejection by the host body, the nerve cells -- taken from the pig's snout, no less -- not only restored the spine's protective sheath, but actually caused the spinal cord to regenerate itself. Researchers have already started testing the technique on monkeys; early results have been positive. Soon, they expect to move on to humans. But Alexion CEO Dr. Leonard Bell sounded a note of caution: "The best-case scenario is that patients may expect to become somewhat more independent in their everyday living but maybe not entirely independent," he said. Realistic expectations in cell technology...
...umbilical cord between international law and its mother, idealism, has never been severed," he said...
...like to treat everybody," says Joanne Kurtzberg, the cord-blood-program director. "But Duke is not going to let me practice here if all I do is lose money...
...find the money to save these young lives, Kurtzberg is always searching for ways to cut treatment costs. She and her staff spend long hours on the phone each day trying to wring money out of insurance companies. But the bottom line for the cord program is not healthy, which means constant battles with Duke's bureaucracy as well. "I'm not fighting for me to take a vacation to China," says Kurtzberg, who puts in 100-hour workweeks. "I'm fighting for the patient. But this administration has gotten much more business oriented...