Word: huang
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...Huang's novel procedure involves injecting cells from a fetal olfactory bulb, the part of the brain where nose cells terminate, into the damaged area of the spinal cord. Huang says the transplanted olfactory cells help repair damaged nerve cells in the spine. Although he hasn't yet published his findings, the results so far seem compelling. "I'm pretty convinced of definite sensory improvement and modest motor improvement" in Huang's patients, says Dr. Wise Young, a prominent expert in spinal injuries and chairman of cell biology and neuroscience at Rutgers University (where Huang studied under Young...
...rare to see a Chinese doctor blazing such a trail in the surgical field, but Huang has a distinct advantage over American counterparts. China's comparatively lax medical rules mean the safety trials he ran were more cursory than those required in the U.S., where they would typically take up to two years. And the olfactory cells he uses are taken from aborted fetuses, which America's antiabortion lobby would furiously oppose. His follow-up information about former patients remains spotty, and Huang says his bosses have refused to let him share cell samples with other researchers so that they...
...Huang, in turn, considers Western research standards too strict. He says some Americans insist his results will remain inconclusive until he conducts a double-blind study, which would mean operating on some patients but not injecting them with the fetal cells that could help them. "Even if it were legal, it's unethical," he says. And he rejects the idea that a lack of experimental controls undermines his claim to having developed a successful technique. "We can compare what happens to people before and after the procedure, and that is enough," Huang says. "The operation is safe, doable and effective...
...single-mindedness stems from personal experience. Huang, who grew up in the remote desert province of Xinjiang, first entered a hospital at age 17 after his father was partially paralyzed by a stroke. The doctors treated the teen with scorn when he asked for information. Says Huang: "I decided then that I would become a different kind of physician." Still, the chance seemed slim. This was during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, when universities had been closed; Chairman Mao ordered students into the countryside to learn from the peasantry, so Huang spent years planting wheat on a farm. When...
...That's just what Huang does, injecting fetal OEG cells into the damaged spinal cord. What's odd is that they appear to have such a rapid effect. Axons regenerate only as fast as a hair grows, so it should take months for an axon to extend from the point of injury to a paralyzed area. Yet Huang's patients seem to improve within hours of surgery. "Something is happening that we can't understand, but can't ignore," Huang says...