Siemens Boosts Its Stake in Tidal Power

Under the hood: Marine Current Turbine's tidal power generators can be lifted out of the water for maintenance.
Marine Current Turbines

ENERGY

Siemens Boosts Its Stake in Tidal Power

The engineering giant likes the predictability of marine power—which can be "calculated for centuries in advance."

• BY PETER FAIRLEY

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Marine energy has long looked to be a niche area, capable of meeting just a few percent of global power demand. But this seemingly limited energy source is drawing some big players, the latest being Siemens. The German engineering giant boosted its stake this month in Bristol, U.K.-based tidal energy developerMarine Current Turbines from under 10 percent to 45 percent. The attraction, according to Michael Axmann, chief financial officer for Siemens's solar and hydro division, is the predictability of marine power.

Solar and wind farm operators struggle to predict tomorrow's output, and bad forecasts can wreak havoc with power transmission planning and market prices. In contrast, the gravitational pull of the moon and sun that controls tidal cycles provides a sure means of anticipating the output from tidal generating stations. "Power output of the systems could be calculated for centuries in advance," says Axmann.

The result could be higher revenues. Axmann notes that tidal power is "not subject to volatility. This increases the value of the energy produced, and hence makes the business case more reliable for the investor and operator."

Axmann declined to say how much value would be added by that predictability. But he anticipates that by 2020, marine turbines will deliver power at a cost that's competitive with today's offshore wind farms—in spite of the greater challenge involved in engineering for subsea operation.

Marine Current Turbines CEO Andrew Tyler says a combination of cost reductions and government incentives will ensure the profitability of his firm's tidal power parks. He expects a return on investment for the company's first two offshore power parks: a proposed four-turbine array off of Scotland's Isle of Skye and a five-turbine array off the northwest coast of Wales.

Cost reductions will come in part from scaling up its dual-rotor units to two megawatts from the 1.2 megawatts generated by its demonstration turbine, which has been producing power in Northern Ireland's Strangford Lough since 2008. Future cost reductions, Tyler says, will come primarily from efficiency in equipment assembly and logistics, drawing on Siemens's expertise in these areas.

Scaling up: Scaling up: This dual-rotor tidal turbine has been feeding up to 1.2 megawatts of power to the Irish grid since 2008. Commercial versions will generate two megawatts.
Marine Current Turbines

The company also anticipates incentives in the form of U.K. and Scottish installation grants. The tidal power parks will also provide the company with renewable generation credits, which utilities need to acquire to comply with the U.K.'s renewable power standard. Last month, the U.K. announced plans to boost the credits for wave and tidal energy plants from two to five for every megawatt-hour of electricity generated. In comparison, offshore wind farms will earn two credits, and power stations burning biomass will earn one.

Tyler estimates that his first power parks will produce 15,000 to 20,000 megawatt-hours per year, meaning the tidal turbine arrays could earn £3.75 million ($6 million) in incentive payments annually.

Tyler says Siemens's backing will be crucial to raising the £100 million in private investment needed to finance the projects: "It completely changes their perception about our credibility," he says.

Paris-based Alstom Group, which competes against Siemens in power equipment and high-speed trains, also expects to make a splash in tidal power next year. Alstom is building a one-megawatt demonstration turbine using technology licensed from Canada's Clean Current Power Systems. At a meeting in Bali last month, Phillippe Gilson, Alstom's ocean energy manager, affirmed that Alstom plans to install the 20-meter-tall, fully submersible turbine in Nova Scotia's Bay of Fundy in 2012.

Meet Toyota's Robotic Nurses

Toyota's robots could help rehabilitate or transport the injured or ill.

DAVID ZAX

And you thought Toyota was just a car company. In fact, the Japanese corporation has dabbled innon-automotive activities of various stripes for years. Among its most intriguing off-roading jaunts is Toyota's interest in robotics, something it's been exploring for about five years now. Recently, it unveiled four healthcare robots that it hopes to commercialize in the next two years, according to Mashable. Toyota teamed up with Fujita Health University on all the projects.

Most of the robots were essentially mechanized physical therapeutic devices. The Walk Training Assist Robot, for instance, could mount on a paralyzed leg, detect when a patient wants to move, and then help the knee and leg swing forward. (It puts me in mind of this robotic exoskeleton that recently helped a paralyzed student walk.) A second, related, product, the Independent Walk Assist, can support the patient's full weight at first, gradually bearing less and less of the load as the patient improves and can support himself.

A third concept, the Balance Training Assist, resembles a pared-down Segway crossed with a Wii. You play virtual tennis, soccer, or basketball on the machine, shifting your weight to maintain your balance.

The fourth robot is different in kind from the others. The Patient Transfer Assist is like a robotic assistant nurse that helps a patient move from one place to another--from the toilet to the bed, for instance. From the looks of this video, it wouldn't be intended to replace a nurse entirely, but to help add a bit of muscle power if a patient's weight is too much for the nursing staff at hand to handle. (Thanks to Automaton for spotting these videos on YouTube.)

Toyota's just one of several companies that has been dabbling in medical robotics of late. Robotic surgery, "telerounding" robots, and a sponge-bath-giving robotic nurse are a few of the other robo-medical innovations spotted recently. We don't seem to be at a tipping point yet, though, where robotic healthcare workers become ubiquitous. Might it be because, as Steve Ditlea wroteover a decade ago, "The bedside manner is a tad impersonal"?

A Monkey’s Mind

 

“It is certainly the mind that is instrumental in causing the senses to act in ways that lead to either auspicious or inauspicious conditions. And my mind right now is positively situated.” (Hanuman, Valmiki Ramayana, Sundara Kand, 11.41)

mano hi hetuḥ sarveṣām indriyāṇām pravartate ||
śubha aśubhāsv avasthāsu tac ca me suvyavasthitam |

“So, you’re telling me that a monkey can talk? He and his other monkey friends travelled around the earth looking for a princess who was taken away by a guy with ten heads? Then eventually they talked to a bird who told them where she was? After that the lead monkey expanded his size and jumped from a mountain peak and crossed over the ocean? This same monkey then changed to a small size to search through the streets and inner palaces of the city for the princess? Obviously these are just mythological stories meant to enliven the spirit, to keep those desperate for an escape from the doldrums of everyday life hopeful of a brighter future. We see such amazing things portrayed in film all the time, so the events from the Ramayana sound like they are an ancient time’s version of fables and stories.”

Such a line of thinking seems plausible enough, except for the fact that nowhere do the authors of the famous Vedic texts say that any of the important events they document and discuss are made up or exaggerated. Every verse is presented in carefully composed Sanskrit, a language reserved for the highest class of men. While the feats of strength bordering on the amazing seem easy to dismiss as mythology, the high philosophical points presented by the relevant characters are not. Rather, their words of wisdom are unparalleled in their brilliance, as they cannot be found in any other scriptural tradition. The thoughts ofHanuman

 

 referenced above serve as a reminder of this fact.

The same monkey who expanded his size and leaped across the ocean is herein providing the real meaning to piety and sin, auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. The basic sins are easy to identify. Don’t covet your neighbor’s wife, don’t kill innocent people, and don’t steal. Piety is the opposite of sin – respect other people, tell the truth, and believe in God. But what is the purpose to piety and sin? Moreover, isn’t it sometimes a good thing to tell a lie? If someone attacks us or our family, should we not use violence to protect ourselves and our loved ones? If we don’t, aren’t we committing sin by shirking our duties?

Piety and sin are certainly more complex than their surfaces reveal. The living entity is himself complex, for he lives in a form that is like a bubble. This comparison to the bubble is also provided by that same amazing monkey, who is famed throughout the world as Hanuman, the eternal servant of Lord Rama

 

. The monkey-god, as he’s known to those unfamiliar with his true superior standing, not only performs amazing feats in his quest to please his beloved Rama, but he also provides pearls of wisdom that can be appreciated by the highest class of scholars. A mythological character could never be so wise, nor could he have such a profound influence on people’s lives many millions of years into the future.

The knowledge of the spirit soul, its constitutional position, its travels through various body types, and what it needs to find the most auspicious condition is found only in the Vedic tradition, of which the Ramayana is part. Sublime wisdom is available to you should you decide it is worth your time to try to learn. You can even take your pick when deciding how you want to absorb the information. You can go for the Vedanta-sutras and Upanishads to learn about the high concepts of spirituality through short and concise verses which can be contemplated upon for years on end. Or, you can follow the pastimes of the Supreme Personality of Godhead described in texts like the Ramayana, Mahabharata

 

 and Puranas to learn the same information through stories describing historical incidents.

If God decides to act, His actions won’t be ordinary. The behavior of His dearest associates will not resemble anything normal either. Add to the mix that the events of the Ramayana took place so long ago, when man and every other species were more pure in their existence, and you have descriptions that are difficult to accept as fact. Nevertheless, just from hearing them with an open mind, not only can you associate with exciting adventure stories, but you can also get sublime wisdom that uncovers the meaning of life and how to fulfill it.

"Whom are you lamenting for when you yourself are pitiable? Why do you pity the poor when you yourself have now been made poor? While in this body that is like a bubble, how can anyone look at anyone else as being worthy of lamentation?" (Hanuman speaking to Tara, Valmiki Ramayana

 

, Kishkindha Kand, 21.3)

The spirit soul is the essence of identity, and the body types it occupies can be likened to bubbles that don’t remain in existence for very long. When we see bubbles in the air, we know that they can dissipate pretty quickly. The term “quickly” references a relative measurement of time. For instance, to a human being that can live upwards of one hundred years, one second is very quick, as it is insignificant compared to the large timeline representing their lifetime. On the other hand, for a living being that doesn’t live very long, say for maybe a day, one second is very significant. It is not quick at all, but rather represents a significant portion of their duration of existence.

The bodies of living beings are likened to bubbles because, in the grand scheme of things, even someone who lives for one hundred years only occupies but a blip on the complete timeline of the creation. And living for one hundred years is a rare occurrence today, as the body can perish at any moment, even if we make the best attempt to protect it. The spirit soul is thus given more importance in the Vedic tradition, as it exists beyond the temporary manifestations. If we don’t want to believe in reincarnation

 

, which is just a fact of spiritual science, we can understand the same effects by studying the changes of our own body. Do we mourn over the fact that our childhood body is now dead? Take a look at old pictures of yourself if you have them. Perhaps as a child your parents took you to a photo session in a store, where you were dressed up nicely and placed in front of fake scenery to have pictures taken. Perhaps you were even seated next to your brother and sister, thus giving your parents a nice memory of your childhood forms.

When you get older, you realize that you’ll never get that moment back. You will never be in a child’s body again, no matter how hard you try and how strongly you want it. Is it wise to lament this loss? Since you still have your identity, as you are able to consciously contemplate the fact that your body has changed, there is little reason to lament. You still exist, even though you’re now occupying a completely different form. Therefore that childhood form was like a bubble, as it was gradually destroyed over the course of time.

From the sober man’s realization of the changing body comes a pursuit for a higher end. Instead of worrying about a form that constantly changes, why not take the time to understand the essence of identity and what can be done to find a permanent auspicious condition? This is where piety and sin come into play. Pious acts are those which gradually bring one closer to their constitutional position, whereas sin brings temporary negative conditions that keep one further immersed in the consciousness tied to the body.

We can understand these facts from explicit Vedic instruction presented by a spiritual master

 

 and also from the above referenced verse from the Ramayana, which invites us into Hanuman’s thought processes during a difficult moment in his journey in Lanka. Lord Rama, the Supreme Soul, the one person whose body and soul are always identical, descended to earth to enact sweet pastimes and give the sincere souls a chance to glance at Him, to see what their constitutional position could bring them. Hanuman played an integral role in helping Rama, for the Lord enjoys associating with those eager to offer service. If you’re the Supreme Lord, what can anyone offer you anyway? If you have everything, what can people do beyond offering respect from afar? As there is not much pleasure derived from this type of association, Shri Rama creates circumstances that allow for the devotional spirit to bloom in full, keeping the spirit soul occupied in its constitutional engagement.

Hanuman was in Lanka to find Sita Devi

 

, Rama’s wife who was taken away from His side through backhanded means by the King of Lanka, Ravana. Since Hanuman was looking for a woman, he obviously had to place his glance upon as many women as he could, for how else would he properly identify Rama’s wife? The downside to this was that Hanuman risked looking at women that were married to someone else. Indeed, he would have to gaze upon them while they were enjoying in various ways inside of their bedrooms. Hence the chance of sin increased, something with which Hanuman was not comfortable.

In the above referenced verse, Hanuman is mulling the serious matter over. He has just looked at many of Ravana’s queens while they were in their apartment, but he notices that his mind has not been altered. From this moment of contemplation the famous monkey-god reveals the true meaning behind piety and sin, which lead to auspicious and inauspicious conditions. It is the mind which influences the senses to act in ways that lead to the various conditions. For instance, the person sentenced to prison for many years for having killed an innocent person was instigated to act based on the desires of the mind. If the mind had been properly situated, he would not have found the inauspicious future condition of prison life.

Since Hanuman’s mind was properly situated even after having seen Ravana’s wives, it meant that he had not committed sin. Does this mean that as long as we don’t feel bad afterwards, we can do horrible things like kill people and steal? The conditioning of the consciousness is what matters most, not necessarily if we feel remorse or not. By remarking that his mind was still in an auspicious condition, Hanuman was saying that he was still committed to the righteous path of trying to find Sita. Work done for God is known as bhakti, or divine love. Bhakti is above the temporary conditions brought about by mundane piety and sin, for loving devotion to the Lord is the soul’s constitutional business. Bhakti-yoga can continue uninterrupted and unmotivated for life after life; thereby making it the most unique occupation.

A person who commits sins like killing and stealing without discrimination shows that their mind is tied to the body, which is temporary. A properly situated mind understands the temporary nature of material affairs and thus does not unnecessarily impede the evolutionary progression of other living entities. And neither do they take property that belongs to others, for only a miser operates under the mentality of enjoying as much as they can within their short lifetime. Someone who knows that everything belongs to God is happy with their allotment in life, taking others’ property to be off limits, for they are rewards given by God for others to enjoy.

Though outwardly what Hanuman did was considered a sin, since he was not tied to bodily consciousness at all, since he was properly situated in mind, he was not tainted. The so-called sin had no effect on him. The reaction from his act was like a bite coming from a snake with no fangs. It was like a pin prick that the body couldn’t feel. Indeed, just the fact that Hanuman knew about the source of piety and sin and how the mind is the real determining factor shows that he could not possibly be tainted by his actions. One who knows the position of the spirit soul and how it is transcendental to matter can never kill anyone or cause harm, for they act under the direction of the highest authority figure.

“O Partha, how can a person who knows that the soul is indestructible, unborn, eternal and immutable, kill anyone or cause anyone to kill?” (Lord Krishna

 

, Bhagavad-gita

 

, 2.21)

Hanuman would also later on engage in violence in Lanka, killing many of Ravana’s soldiers. He was not interested in violence, but since he was in an enemy territory belonging to a ruler who had perpetrated the worst crime, Hanuman was not attached to a bogus system of blanket nonviolence either. When searching out the most auspicious condition of pleasing the Supreme Lord, trying to remain connected with Him in consciousness, sometimes outwardly sinful acts even turn out to be pious. While Hanuman’s looking at other women shouldn’t be imitated, his dedication in his search for Sita shows that everything he did in Lanka was pious.

While he resembles a mythological character to those who don’t know any better, to the sincere soul looking to rekindle their constitutional engagement, Hanuman and his actions are a delight, creating an ocean of nectar that can be enjoyed repeatedly. Though he knows that he is above sin and piety, Hanuman is still conscious of the righteous path, keeping it always in mind. For his dedication, Sita and Rama would be extremely pleased, and they would reward him with their presence in his heart for all of time. Hanuman is so glorious that an entire section of the Ramayana, the Sundara-kanda, is dedicated to his exploits. Since he works for Rama and always thinks of Him, there is no difference between the effectiveness of hearing the Sundara-kanda and hearing any of the other sections. That hero among monkeys continues to save countless souls by the example he set many thousands of years ago, when he displayed both physical and mental excellence. While for the less informed his feats of strength may be too amazing to accept as real, what’s even more unreal is his undying devotion to Sita and Rama. Through his example, Hanuman proves that both God and the reward that comes to those who love the Lord through bhakti-yoga are real.

In Closing:

Thinking Hanuman is a myth is a mistake,

None of his thoughts, words, or deeds are fake.

That his forms and feats are amazing we don't deny,

Bounds of logic and experience they defy.

Even though in the form of a monkey,

Travelled to Lanka to look for Sita did he.

Can try to dismiss his form but words you cannot,

Unmatched wisdom of the Vedas he has got.

Do you think fake monkey could know about piety and sin,

And how to practice devotion, love of God to win?

From Hanuman take proof of God’s existence,

Trust in his example, give up your resistance.

Parkinsonian worms may hold the key to identifying drugs for Parkinson’s disease

 by Biomechanism 

Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have devised a simple test, using dopamine-deficient worms, for identifying drugs that may help people with Parkinson’s disease.

The worms are able to evaluate as many as 1,000 potential drugs a year. The researchers have received federal funding that could increase that to one million drug tests a year.

Caption: Using a method called optogenetics, Jon Pierce-Shimomura can turn targeted genes on and off using light. Credit: Marsha Miller

The test is based on the difficulty that these “parkinsonian” C. elegans worms have in switching from swimming to crawling when they’re taken out of water.

“They can crawl fine,” says Jon Pierce-Shimomura, assistant professor of neurobiology. “They go into a puddle and can swim fine. But as soon as the puddle goes away they crash. In some cases an individual will remain rigid for about a half hour.”

Pierce-Shimomura led a team of researchers, including Andres Vidal-Gadea, Stephen Topper and Layla Young, to identify this “motor switching” problem. Their findings were published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

“We take these motor transitions for granted,” says Pierce-Shimomura, “like getting up out of a chair or walking through a doorway from one surface to another. But people with Parkinson’s have a terrible time with this. They freeze at the threshold. It looks like we have a very simple worm model for this now.”

To identify potential therapeutics, Pierce-Shimomura begins with worms that have been mutated to be deficient in producing dopamine. It’s the loss of dopamine-producing cells in the brain that causes Parkinson’s disease in humans.

The dopamine-deficient worms are put through the same paces that lead to the immobility, but in the presence of a drug.

If they become immobile as they normally would when water is removed, the researchers move on to the next drug. But if somehow a drug helps the worms’ brains overcome the dopamine deficiency and they transition to crawling, the lab has a potential therapeutic.

Pierce-Shimomura says that although humans have a vastly more complex nervous system than the worms, the two species share an “ancient and conserved” genetic structure to their dopaminergic systems. What works to overcome a dopamine deficiency in the worms may do something similar in humans, and it can be tested in worms with extraordinary speed.

Pierce-Shimomura has already begun testing potential drugs for Parkinson’s. So far he’s found one compound that shows promising effects in the worms. The particular compound has already been approved for use in humans for treatment of another condition.

Working with the university’s Office of Technology Commercialization, he’s filed a patent application for the worm model for testing of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

About half a million Americans suffer from Parkinson’s disease, a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. Early symptoms of the disease include shaking, rigidity, and slowness of movement. As it progresses, the physical symptoms can advance to the point of incapacity, and cognitive impairments, including early dementia, can arise as well.

A huge barrier to preventing or treating diseases such as Parkinson’s is the amount of time it takes to identify drugs that work effectively. Typically, drugs are tested on mice — a process that is expensive and requires one to two years for mice to age while testing just a few dozen drugs at a time.

With the help of a few undergraduates Pierce-Shimomura believes that he can test about 1,000 drugs a year. The number could rise to one million a year if the process can be automated.

He recently received a competitive $3 million Transformative Research Projects Award from the National Institutes of Health with mechanical engineering professor Adela Ben-Yakar, to develop just such an automation process for parkinsonian worms as well as worms mutated to have other neurodegenerative diseases, including a C. elegansversion of Alzheimer’s.

“These worms are so simple to work with, we can do these drug screens at massive scale,” says Pierce-Shimomura. “Right now the more hands we have, the more targets we can test.”

VIDEO

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Courtesy University of Texas at Austin

How Staph fights antibiotics

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

"When the bacteria mutate, they are reprogramming themselves, changing their cell walls to resist the action of our antibiotics." Image: zmeel/iStockphoto Infectious diseases specialists from Austin Health are working closely with Microbiologists from the University of Melbourne to understand how Staph is becoming resistant to all antibiotic therapies. The treatment of serious infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (Golden Staph) is complicated by the development of antibiotic resistance. Seriously ill patients, vulnerable to infections can be at additional risk if antimicrobial agents become less effective in fighting infections. Published in the journal “PLoS Pathogens”, a new piece has been added to the puzzle, making the picture clearer. By using whole genome DNA sequencing of strains obtained from patients during persistent blood stream infections, Dr Timothy Stinear and Associate Professor Ben Howden, senior research fellows from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology have discovered how Staph can make one small change to its DNA and then develop resistance to the last-line antibiotic, vancomycin. “We have applied the latest genome sequencing technology to show that Staph can readily become vancomycin (antibiotic) resistant by acquiring a single mutation in its DNA.  When the bacteria mutate, they are reprogramming themselves, changing their cell walls to resist the action of our antibiotics” said Dr Stinear. Associate Professor Howden, who is also the head of Microbiology at Austin Health, is concerned by the implications of this discovery for patients. “Worryingly, this mutation also makes Staph more resistant to another last-line antibiotic, daptomycin, even though this drug had never been used for treatment. These last-line therapies are more toxic and cause additional side-effects in already compromised patients.” Associate Professor Howden said. “This study highlights the high adaptability of Staph in the face of antimicrobial treatment and suggests we need to improve the way in which we use antibiotics to treat serious bacterial infections.” he said. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

New way to treat Parkinson’s

THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE

The technique uses stem cells to replace the dopamine-producing brain cells that are missing in Parkinson's disease. Image: JPStrickler/iStockphoto Australian scientists have developed a new technique using stem cells, in the hope to replace damaged cells in Parkinson’s disease. The technique could be developed for application in other degenerative conditions. Drs Clare Parish and Lachlan Thompson lead the research from the Florey Neuroscience Institutes and the University of Melbourne. They are members of the newly established Stem Cells Australia collaboration launched at the University of Melbourne. Stem Cells Australia is a new $21m Australian Research Council Special Research Initiative bringing together Australia’s leading stem cell scientists. Led by internationally renowned stem cell expert Professor Martin Pera and administered by the  University of Melbourne, the Initiative links Australia’s leading experts in bioengineering, nanotechnology, stem cell biology, advanced molecular analysis and clinical research to solve some of the our biggest health challenges. “Stem Cells Australia will not only play a major role in leading Australian research into stem cell science, it will help the Australian community to understand the impact of scientific breakthroughs in this fast-paced and fascinating field,” he said. Opening Stem Cells Australia on behalf of Innovation Minister Senator Kim Carr, ARC Chief Executive Officer Professor Margaret Sheil said the Initiative would make an important contribution to life-changing research.   “It will enable the delivery of stem cell research breakthroughs that will help ease suffering and save lives,” Professor Sheil said. Key areas of research include investigating the use of stem cells to rejuvenate and repair damaged and diseased cells in organs such as the heart, brain and blood that are affected in conditions such as heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke and Leukemia. In regards to Parkinson’s disease there is a progressive and permanent loss of a group of dopamine-producing brain cells that form an essential pathway in the brain circuitry controlling movement. Drs Parish and Thompson’s respective research groups have developed a novel technique using stem cells to replace the dopamine-producing brain cells. The first step of the technique is led by Dr Parish’s team which has expertise in generating the dopamine brain cells that are missing in Parkinson's disease. “By following what we know about brain development we have been able to re-create an environment in the culture dish that allows us to generate specific cell types that may be therapeutic,” she said. "A limitation of the procedure, however, is that it is inefficient. This means that only around 30 per cent of the cells become dopamine brain cells while the others may remain as stem cells. This poses significant risks in a transplantation setting because the stem cells may continue to grow and form tumours,” she said.   Dr Lachlan Thompson's team is working on an innovative approach using a state of the art cell-sorting technology to solve this problem. "Overall we have identified some interesting findings that help us to isolate the dopamine brain cells and discard the stem cells prior to transplantation,” he said. “It's a strategy that we hope will bring us a step closer to clinical trials for a stem cell based treatment for Parkinson's. The broader significance is that this novel approach will likely be applicable to the development of stem cell-based treatments for other neurological conditions such as stroke, motor neuron disease and Huntington’s disease,” he said. “There is still a lot of basic research to do to develop this technology to a point where it would be safe to proceed with trials in patients, however, there’s no reason to think that it couldn’t happen within the next 5-10 years with the proper funding.” Stem Cells Australia is a collaboration with eight Australian research partners: The University of Melbourne, Monash University, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, The University of Queensland, University of NSW, Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, CSIRO and Florey Neuroscience Institutes.  Former Governor of Victoria Professor David de Kretser is the Chair of the Governance Committee. Professor Martin Pera said one of the major assets of the unique multidisciplinary approach of Stem Cells Australia is that it will foster and train the next generation of Australian stem cell scientists, cementing Australia’s position in the field. “This collaboration will not only support excellence in stem cell research to address diseases that are hardest to treat, but will also guide public debate about the important ethical, legal and societal issues associated with stem cell science,” he said. Editor's Note: Original news release can be found here.

Om Namo Satchidananda Sai Nathaya Namaha Shirdi SaiBaba Chant Very Nice