A preview of the emerging health care companies profiled in the current issue of Start-Up. This month's profile groups: Small Steps Forward in Treating Ischemic Stroke and Spine-Bending Market. Plus these Start-Ups across Health Care: Alveolus Inc. and BioCare Systems Inc.

Stroke remains a devastating disease that isn't adequately addressed, but the pharmaceutical industry remains wary of the field, having been stung in the past by extremely expensive clinical disappointments. Nevertheless, the opportunity is too enticing for the industry to ignore completely. Two pharma-sponsored major clinical trials are underway for treatment of acute ischemic stroke, foro example. The emerging companies with stroke therapies profiled here, however, are cautiously pushing forward on several fronts, of which the stroke market may or not be the first and foremost application of core technology.

While there, he found that when human bone marrow cells were treated in a unique way and implanted into an animal brain, the treated cells migrated throughout the brain and differentiated into human neurons. He also found that when these treated cells were implanted into a rodent eye with a damaged retina, the cells migrated to the area of damage and differentiated into new photoreceptor cells. Another discovery by Sugaya identified a small molecule that significantly increased the number of stem cells in the hippocampus and cortex of aged rats.