Unlike most other kinds of cells, the neurons that make up the adult central nervous system do not divide and multiply. Once they die, they cannot be replaced -- a fact that makes brain and spinal damage so devastating. But, in an unprecedented experiment, scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine chanced upon a kind of human brain cell that could be nourished and cultivated. The researchers have kept a laboratory culture of the neurons alive -- and multiplying -- for nearly two years. The new technique, reported last week in Science, should make it easier for scientists to study...
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