Neuralstem CEO Blog
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"The only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it...I can resist everything but temptation."
Oscar Wilde
Posted October 12, 2012
For those of you, who like me are perhaps too quick to agree with Mr. Wilde, there is good news this week reported by the New England Journal of Medicine. In a "note" (as opposed to a peer reviewed article, I must admit) a researcher has studied the correlation between a nation's per capita chocolate consumption and the number of Nobel Science Prizes awarded to its citizens. Using data from 23 major chocolate suppliers, he finds a "surprisingly high" correlation.
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"Not all those who wander are lost."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Posted October 4, 2012
Neuralstem recently announced that it has received approval to begin a trial to treat stroke patients in China. The trial will be conducted at the Ba Yi Brain Hospital in Beijing. It will be the world's first trial where our neural stem cells will be injected directly into the brain to treat patients with chronic motor disorders from stroke.
But the story of how we can treat stroke will wait for another column. After the announcement, many of you have asked what a small Company like Neuralstem is doing developing a product in China? I would like to assure all of the stakeholders in Neuralstem, that while our steps may indeed take us far from home, we are not lost.
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“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”
Posted September 11, 2012
“It is often in the darkest skies that we see the brightest stars.”
- Richard Evans
I have written from time to time about some of the people I have met in the ALS community. There are few diseases that take so much from patients and their caregivers. It is indeed in these darkest skies that we see remarkably bright stars. I am writing today to introduce you to one such bright star and her journey. Her name is Constance Griffith and she has founded and runs Gator Ron’s Zesty Sauces and Mixes.
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“Let a thousand flowers bloom”
Posted May 23, 2012
“Let a thousand flowers bloom”
- Chairman Mao
This now-famous quote is actually a misinterpretation of what Mao really said, which apparently was “let a hundred blossoms flower.” He made this statement in a speech in 1957 welcoming the Chinese intelligentsia to a conference in which he invited open criticism of the regime. Such diversity of thought, he said, was the only way to further art, politics and science. After the conference he summarily executed all of the dissidents who showed up. There is more than one lesson to be learned here, perhaps.
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“To be or not to be”
Posted May 1, 2012
“To be or not to be”
- Hamlet
In this most famous of soliloquies, Hamlet broaches the dark subject of suicide. Just last month, yet another retired NFL player, former Atlanta Falcons’ Ray Easterling, ended his own life; a life that seemed blessed with all the success and happiness our society bequeaths to our sports heroes. There are now more than 1,000 ex-football players who have become plaintiffs in various lawsuits alleging irreparable damage from the constant battering of their brains. The worst of these cases have led to depression, cognitive losses and, ultimately, suicide. In 2011 Dave Duerson, an ex-Chicago Bear All Pro Safety, famously shot himself in the chest presumably to preserve his brain, which he asked be donated to the NFL’s brain bank for study. His condition was known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. Common sense, of course, tells us that repeated head collisions are bad for you. But just how bad is something we are only now discovering.
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