60 SECONDS

摘要

Doctors hoping to perform a faecal transplant - replenishing a gut with healthy bacteria to treat infection and even Parkinson's - must apply to the US Food and Drug Administration for an "investigational new drug application". This will improve safety, but some are grumbling over the 30-day lag this imposes on treatment. A man blinded by the degeneration of his retinal cells has had his sight restored in one eye after receiving a stem cell treatment. Human embryonic stem cells were turned into retinal pigment epithelial cells and then transplanted into his retina, as part of a trial by Advanced Cell Technology in Marlborough, Massachusetts.