Cleveland’s top medical facilities are collaborating on the nation’s first clinical trial that uses adult stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis. Four patients are now enrolled in the study by the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University, which hopes to treat AND reverse damage to the nervous system caused by MS.

In the trial, stem cells are taken from a patient’s bone marrow, cultivated and then injected back into the body. Neurologist Jeffrey Cohen is the lead investigator and director of experimental therapeutics at the Clinic. He says current treatments can slow the disease, but stem cells show a different potential.