known as als. als disrupts the connections between the brain and the muscles. it leads to weakness in the arms and legs and often the mouth and the throat causing issues with speech and swallowing. currently there is no cure for als. doctors can only try to manage the symptoms for their patients. the average life expectancy, only two to five years. that s why doctors and a team at emery began looking into stem cells more than seven years ago. we re back today to revisit and see how far the research has come. why was there this idea injecting stem cells into the spinal cord could even help? let me ask you something. what was the thinking that this could work? if you go way back, why was there this idea that injecting stem cells into the spinal cord could even help? yeah. so actually that s a great question, because the answer is counter intuitive. what most people think when they re talking about stem cell social security that we re going to create a cell and replace a cell in the n