Headlines

As reported by FOX Connecticut, February 13, 2011.

UConn Health Center Uses Breakthrough Stem Cell Procedure to Help Child with Rare Condition

It's a rare condition, where part of the disability is apparently not caring one bit about having a disability. Meet 4-and-a-half-year-old Jack Shippee who has Angelman Syndrome.

Researchers at the UConn Health Center are hoping to better understand his condition with a breakthrough procedure, which comes as great news to Shippee's family.

"It would be nice to have a cure for it," said Jack's mother Melissa Shippee. "If we could figure out a way to totally get rid of the seizures, that's one of the biggest problems and one of the hardest parts."

And that's just what Marc Lalande and the UConn Stem Cell Institute hope to do, improve their quality of life. Learn about the creative breakthrough procedure called Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, which researchers hope will help Jack Shippee and others with the rare neurological condition Angelman Syndrome.