Australian of the Year: Professor Alan Mackay-Sim linked nerve cells in your nose to spinal cord repairs
Updated
For thousands of years it was thought impossible to regenerate the spinal cord.
Now we know it's both possible and safe — and that's thanks to the pioneering work of Emeritus Professor Alan Mackay-Sim, the 2017 Australian of the Year.
It was a breakthrough described as the scientific equivalent of the moon landing.
It started with the nose
Back in the 1980s, Professor Mackay-Sim became incredibly curious about the nose.
Through this curiosity and a lot of hard work, he found out the nose is home to some very special and very unusual cells — they're called olfactory ensheathing cells.
Every day inside your nose the nerve cells that do the job of smelling, well, they die. And every day they get reborn.
Professor Mackay-Sim had two questions: if these cells regenerate every single day to recreate our sense of smell, could they rejuvenate damaged nerve cells in the spinal cord?
And secondly: could it be done safely in humans?
"Early on, I thought if we understand the biology we might be able to use this for some clinical purpose. I didn't know when, I didn't know how. I thought perhaps we could repair the nervous system in some way," he said.
Testing his theory
So in 2002, after many years of research, Professor Mackay-Sim took the step of being the first in the world to try this therapy.
Cells were taken from the nose, they were purified and then put back into a spinal cord to repair an injury.
He found it was indeed safe to inject the human spinal cord with olfactory ensheathing cells, and spinal repair was possible.
This was a huge moment and other research teams around the world followed his lead.
One small step for a man…
In 2012, a European team used these results on a 40-year-old Polish man who had became paralysed from the chest down after repeated stab wounds to the back.
About 100 micro-injections of olfactory ensheathing cells were made above and below the man's spinal injury.
The tiny injections acted as microscopic stepping stones for the nerves in the spinal cord to regrow.
Following three years of intensive physiotherapy, the Polish man can now walk with a frame.
A giant leap for humankind
"It's not just about getting people to walk again," said James St John, head of the Clem Jones Centre for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research.
"People who are paralysed face all sorts of difficulties. They want to be able to feel the hand of a loved one who touches them … or feel the weight of their child on their lap."
Now retired, Professor Mackay-Sim has championed the use of stem cells to understand the biological bases of brain disorders and diseases including schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.
He used his acceptance speech to discuss the importance of research on spinal cord injuries, rare brain diseases, the therapeutic futures of stem cells and cell transplantation.
Topics: science-and-technology, stem-cells, medical-research, health, research, australia, brisbane-4000, qld
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