There are no existing therapies that are capable of repairing the myelin and nerve damage that exist in MS. Dr. Harris and her team focused on adult stem cells from the bone marrow, called mesenchymal stem cell-derived neural progenitors (MSC-NPs), which have the potential to stop or reverse progression in MS. These cells have the advantage that they can be taken from the patient’s own bone marrow, expanded in number in the laboratory, and reinjected back into the spinal fluid. Over the past year, our work has made significant strides and we have now unequivocal data in experimental MS models of disease amelioration and decreased demyelination associated with this stem cell therapy. In addition, we have shown that the mechanisms involved include induction of a tolerant CNS milieu as well as induction of resident host stem cell progenitors to differentiate. Ongoing studies in the laboratory are aimed at optimizing repair strategies with stem cells. These include studies looking at creating a growth environment in which infused stem cells will flourish and also looking at optimal ways to deliver cells to injured tissue and enable cell migration, growth, and differentiation. In parallel studies, Dr. Cristofanilli and associates are also working on animal models of tissue repair with other stem cell populations, such as embryonic stem cell-derived oligodendroglial progenitors.