Jack Price

"The Ultimate Therapy addresses the question: will stem cells bring about new, effective therapies for brain disorders? Stem cell therapies are the subject of enormous hype. The International Society for Stem Cell Research notes the 'near magical hold' that stem cell therapies have over patients' imaginations. This is not healthy. The intention with this book is to try to introduce some realism into this discussion. Certainly, stem cell therapies have real therapeutic promise, but it is important that patients, doctors, ethicists, regulators, and the public at large understand their potential and their limitations. Stem cell therapies have failed in the past. We need to understand why, and learn for the future. The therapies offered by unlicensed clinics are not the same as those going forward into proper regulated trials. We all need to understand the difference, and why it matters. Regenerative medicine for the brain-were it to emerge-would be the ultimate therapy. Brain diseases are more than just killers. Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and stroke steal our capacity for thought, emotion, and social interaction. They destroy human faculties to a far greater degree even than disorders such as cancer. Further, repairing brain tissue is the ultimate biomedical challenge. The human brain is the most complex structure in the known universe, a structure we still barely understand. To be able to rebuild it once damaged is surely the ultimate prize for biomedical science. It is also the ultimate ethical challenge. We can rebuild joints, reconstitute blood, and regenerate liver with barely a thought for ethical concerns. But the prospect for brain repair stirs atavistic fears. Will I be the same person with new brain cells in my head? Stem cells offer the prospect for bringing this ultimate therapy to life, in a way that could be envisaged for no other therapeutic vehicle. Repairing brain with stem cells: truly the Ultimate Therapy"--

The Future of Brain Repair - a Realist`s Guide to Stem Cell Therapy

Making tedious wood carving techniques more approachable, Carving Small Characters in Wood offers simple methods in a smaller format to carve compact caricatures with personality. With step-by-step directions and photography, you’ll be able to learn and appreciate this form of miniature character wood carving. Starting off with basic lessons on carving the body and face then progressing into greater challenges like creating ears, hairstyles, and grimaces, author and renowned caricature woodcarver Jack Price is the leading voice to learn from on how to carve small statuettes! A well-respected carver, Price is also the author of the popular books Carving Compact Characters and 50 Character Patterns for Woodcarvers. Beginning his career in 1975, he has been specializing in compact figures since 1978, with most of his work ranging from 2-3 inches in height.

Instructions & Patterns for Compact Projects with Personality

Carving Small Characters in Wood

A scientist assesses the potential of stem cell therapies for treating such brain disorders as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease. Stem cell therapies are the subject of enormous hype, endowed by the media with almost magical qualities and imagined by the public to bring about miracle cures. Stem cells have the potential to generate new cells of different types, and have been shown to do so in certain cases. Could stem cell transplants repair the damaged brain? In this book, neurobiologist Jack Price assesses the potential of stem cell therapies to treat such brain disorders as stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injuries. Certainly brain disorders are in need of effective treatments. These disorders don't just kill, they disable, and conventional drug therapies have not had much success in treating them. Price explains that repairing the human brain is difficult, largely because of its structural, functional, and developmental complexity. He examines the self-repairing capacity of blood and gut cells—and the lack of such capacity in the brain; describes the limitations of early brain stem cell therapies for neurodegenerative disorders; and discusses current clinical trials that may lead to the first licensed stem cell therapies for stroke, Parkinson's and macular degeneration. And he describes the real promise of pluripotential stem cells, which can make all the cell types that constitute the body. New technologies, Price reports, challenge the very notion of cell transplantation, instead seeking to convince the brain itself to manufacture the new cells it needs. Could this be the true future of brain repair?

Jack Price

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