Israeli Scientists Prepare First Human Trial of Lab-Grown Spinal Cord Implant

by Emmitt Barry, with reporting from Worthy News Jerusalem Bureau Staff

JERUSALEM (Worthy News) – A groundbreaking medical experiment in Israel may soon give paralyzed patients the ability to walk again. Researchers at Tel Aviv University, working through biotech company Matricelf, are preparing to perform the world’s first human transplant of a lab-grown spinal cord segment, following years of pioneering laboratory and animal studies.

The project is spearheaded by Professor Tal Dvir, director of the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology and the Nanotechnology Center at Tel Aviv University, and Matricelf’s chief scientist. In 2022, his team became the first in the world to engineer a human spinal cord in the lab. Since then, animal trials have shown stunning results–over 80 percent of paralyzed mice regained their ability to walk.

Now, Israel’s Health Ministry has granted approval for the first human trials. Eight patients are expected to participate under compassionate-use approval, with the first surgery to be performed in Israel.

“The goal is to build a small piece of spinal cord that behaves like the real thing,” Dvir explained. “We can remove the scar tissue, implant the engineered tissue in its place, and fuse it with the patient’s existing cord. Think of it as inserting a conductor between two cut cable ends–restoring communication.”

Personalized Medicine

Unlike traditional implants, which risk rejection by the immune system, the spinal cord tissue is grown from the patient’s own cells. Scientists take blood cells and reprogram them into stem cells capable of becoming any cell type. Fat tissue from the patient provides the raw materials–collagens and sugars–for a personalized gel scaffold. Within a month, the gel hosts a fully formed 3D tissue containing motor neurons that transmit electrical signals.

“This is personalized, living tissue,” Dvir noted. “That’s what prevents the immune system from rejecting it, and what makes the electrical communication possible.”

From Animals to Humans

In animal studies, the implants were even effective in cases of chronic paralysis over a year old. Still, the first human patients will be limited to those with relatively recent injuries, less than a year old.

“We won’t start with the most severe cases,” Dvir said, “but once we prove it works, I believe this will help all patients with paralysis.”

A Global Race for Solutions

Matricelf is not alone in the quest to restore mobility to paralyzed patients. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is developing brain-computer interfaces that allow paralyzed individuals to control devices with their thoughts, while a Swiss team of neuroscientists restored limited walking ability to a paralyzed man in 2023 using similar technology.

But unlike those approaches, Tel Aviv University’s innovation directly repairs the broken spinal cord.

Matricelf says its mission is to “restore independence, reduce the economic burden, and redefine the future for spinal cord injury patients worldwide.”

If successful, the first patient could stand and walk again within a year–turning what was once the realm of science fiction into medical reality.

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