Treena Livingston Arinzeh

"I think they don’t see enough of us that look like them so they can identify with that career as something they can actually do."

"Regenerated neurons need to make all the right connections to restore function."

"You have to coax stem cells to sit on it [the nano-scaffold] and grow into mature cells and new tissue."

"This is a very exciting time to be doing stem cell research," Arinzeh said. "The field is wide open and has the potential to influence how physicians treat patients with severely damaged or diseased tissues."

"The problem with spinal cord injuries is that nerve cells do not regenerate."

"Axons – the fibers that transmit messages – can potentially travel long distances if given the right cues to regrow. We knew that an electrical charge could direct this growth, Some tissues in the body are naturally piezoelectric."