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"I had a dead leg one Sunday morning and it progressed to full paralysis within two hours," says Dr Denise Fitzgerald, from Queen's University Belfast.
She was only 21 at the time, but the event helped to inspire the fledgling scientist to crack how the brain is repaired.
The discovery reported today could potentially help millions of people with multiple sclerosis who have the opposite problem, a rogue immune system attacking part of the brain.
Dr Fitzgerald's paralysis was caused by a similar condition to multiple sclerosis called transverse myelitis.
Her spinal cord had been stripped of a fatty substance called myelin - a protective coating that allows electrical signals to travel down nerves.
It serves the same function as insulation on an electrical cable. Without myelin, her brain could no longer control her body.
Read more here. (BBC)
She was only 21 at the time, but the event helped to inspire the fledgling scientist to crack how the brain is repaired.
The discovery reported today could potentially help millions of people with multiple sclerosis who have the opposite problem, a rogue immune system attacking part of the brain.
Dr Fitzgerald's paralysis was caused by a similar condition to multiple sclerosis called transverse myelitis.
Her spinal cord had been stripped of a fatty substance called myelin - a protective coating that allows electrical signals to travel down nerves.
It serves the same function as insulation on an electrical cable. Without myelin, her brain could no longer control her body.
Read more here. (BBC)