MSU Alumnus takes part in Stem Cell Research

Michael Howard, a 1991 Murray State University biology alumnus, is actively involved with stem cell research at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis .

Howard, a native of Madisonville , Ky. , received his master’s degree in physiology and biophysics at the University of Miami School of Medicine. His interest has always been in spinal cord injury, and after receiving his degree from Miami he came to Washington as a post-doctoral fellow in the neurology department in 1998 to work on spinal cord injury and stem cell transplantation. He was later promoted to instructor in 2003.

Howard’s work at Washington has focused on how transplanted stem cells can improve the quality of life for people with spinal cord injuries. “Stem cells have the potential to be the most significant advance in biomedicine and human health since Avery and his colleagues in the 40’s demonstrated that DNA is the carrier of inherited information and Watson and Crick described the double helix in the 50’s,” says Howard.

Currently, Howard is looking onto some of the basic mechanisms by which transplanted stem cells might improve function in the injured nervous system. He is also preparing a new project in collaboration with a small biotechnology company in Boston to test the ability of one of the company’s proprietary compounds on the acute phase of spinal cord injury.