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484,633 views | Andrew Pelling • TED2020

Could we treat spinal cord injuries with asparagus?

Take a mind-blowing trip to the lab as TED Senior Fellow Andrew Pelling shares his research on how we could use fruits, vegetables and plants to regenerate damaged human tissues -- and develop a potentially groundbreaking way to repair complex spinal cord injuries with asparagus.

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This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Take a mind-blowing trip to the lab as TED Senior Fellow Andrew Pelling shares his research on how we could use fruits, vegetables and plants to regenerate damaged human tissues -- and develop a potentially groundbreaking way to repair complex spinal cord injuries with asparagus.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

About the speaker

Biomedical researcher

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TED Senior Fellow Andrew Pelling uses novel materials for next-generation medical innovations and speculative living technologies of the future.

Andrew E. Pelling, et al. | bioRxiv, 2020 | Article

"Plant Scaffolds Support Motor Recovery and Regeneration in Rat Spinal Cord Injury"

This is the scientific study that's the basis of the talk.

Spiderwort, 2020 | Article

"FDA grants a Breakthrough Device Designation for Spiderwort Spinal Cord Technology"