The First Human Spinal Cord Repair Using the Patient Own Cells
22nd August 2025
The surgery is expected to soon take place in Israel, in which a personalized engineered human spinal cord will be implanted in a paralyzed patient, with the goal of enabling the patient to rise from a wheelchair and walk again. Behind this medical advance stands Prof. Tal Dvir, Head of the Sagol Center for Regenerative Biotechnology, Head of the Nanotechnology Center at Tel Aviv University, and Chief Scientist of the biotech company Matricelf.
A few months ago, Prof. Dvir and his research team at Matricelf received preliminary approval from Israel’s Ministry of Health to begin “compassionate use” trials in eight patients, which means that the first patient in the world to undergo this innovative procedure would be Israeli. Prof. Dvir commented: “This is undoubtedly a matter of national pride. The technology was developed here in Israel, at Tel Aviv University and at Matricelf, and from the very beginning it was clear to us that the first-ever surgery would be performed in Israel, with an Israeli patient.”
The upcoming spinal cord implant surgery marks the next stage in a process that began about three years ago, when Prof. Dvir’s lab at Tel Aviv University succeeded in engineering a personalized three-dimensional human spinal cord in the laboratory. The groundbreaking findings were published in the prestigious journal Advanced Science and demonstrated that mice suffering from chronic paralysis and treated with the engineered implants started walking once again.