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August 26, 2013

Helping the body regrow nerves


Combat, cancer and accidents--all can cause devastating nerve injuries. Sometimes, the body heals on its own. "Your peripheral nerves, the ones in the arms and the face, have an inherent ability to regenerate, but only under ideal circumstances," says University of Florida biomedical engineer Christine Schmidt. With support from NSF, Schmidt and her team are working to restore nerve function when injuries are more complicated. Surgeons can sometimes move a nerve from one part of a patient's body to another. Schmidt has developed a method that grafts cadaver tissue onto the damaged area to act as a scaffold for nerves to re-grow themselves.

Credit: National Science Foundation


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