An internationally known pioneer in using umbilical cord stem cells will research novel cerebral palsy treatments thanks to a $10.2 million gift to Duke University.
Kurtzberg has used umbilical cord cells to treat cancer and genetic disorders in children. In many cases, infusions of cord blood have reversed and even cured otherwise fatal disorders. Kurtzberg has recently begun using the once-discarded material in hopes it can also mend brain damage in children diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
“I don’t think we’d be able to do this research without this grant,” Kurtzberg said. “When you are doing work at that cutting edge, you don’t have enough preliminary data to get funding in traditional ways.”
Dr. Victor Dzau, chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke, said the Robertson Foundation gift will speed new cell therapies to patients
“It’s a significant gift,” Dzau said, “creating a place where we are doing state-of-the-art work.”
In a prepared statement, Robertson said Kurtzberg’s work “has the potential to change the lives of thousands of children throughout the country and around the world.”
Proving the treatment
Marla Dunlap, a mother of three from Arlington, Texas, arrived at Duke this week seeking an infusion of cord blood for her 7-year-old son, Cayden. The youngster, who wears braces but can walk and run, has cerebral palsy after suffering a stroke before he was born.
A registered nurse, Dunlap said she and her husband decided to bank Cayden’s cord blood when he was born, hoping stem cell science would one day provide a treatment to help their son.
Then one morning last summer, she saw a network television program featuring a family of a child with cerebral palsy who had been treated by Kurtzberg at Duke.
“For me, it was the theory that the cells will go to where the damaged parts are in the body, hoping to regenerate parts of the brain that were injured,” Dunlap said.
She said Cayden qualified for a small trial Kurtzberg has been running to test whether cord blood infusions are safe for children with cerebral palsy. He underwent the 30-minute infusion Tuesday as an outpatient. Dunlap said she will monitor his progress at home in Texas and report to Kurtzberg periodically.
Kurtzberg said that trial, which is continuing, has had tantalizing results in the first 188 patients, showing little danger and possible improvements. But it’s ultimately inconclusive.
“We couldn’t say one way or another if it was beneficial,” she said, “because children with cerebral palsy naturally will improve to some degree. What we have to show is that they improve more than they would have anyway.”
And that’s where the Robertson Foundation funding will help, Kurtzberg said. With some of the money, she will begin a new cerebral palsy study in which children who are infused with cord blood are compared to children who have received a placebo infusion. Only that kind of comparison can prove the intervention is a success.