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Can the damaged brain repair itself?

1,608,204 views | Siddharthan Chandran • TEDGlobal 2013

After a traumatic brain injury, it sometimes happens that the brain can repair itself, building new brain cells to replace damaged ones. But the repair doesn't happen quickly enough to allow recovery from degenerative conditions like motor neuron disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS). Siddharthan Chandran walks through some new techniques using special stem cells that could allow the damaged brain to rebuild faster.

After a traumatic brain injury, it sometimes happens that the brain can repair itself, building new brain cells to replace damaged ones. But the repair doesn't happen quickly enough to allow recovery from degenerative conditions like motor neuron disease (also known as Lou Gehrig's disease or ALS). Siddharthan Chandran walks through some new techniques using special stem cells that could allow the damaged brain to rebuild faster.

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

About the speaker

Siddharthan Chandran

Siddharthan Chandran

Regenerative neurologist

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Siddharthan Chandran explores how to heal damage from degenerative disorders such as MS and motor neuron disease (ALS).

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