Background
Curt R. Freed was born on January 14, 1943, in Seattle, Washington, United States.
Cambridge, MA, United States
In 1965 Curt R. Freed received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. In 1969 he obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from this university.
Cambridge, MA, United States
In 1965 Curt R. Freed received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. In 1969 he obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from this university.
(In May 1995, neurologist Curt Freed began one of the most...)
In May 1995, neurologist Curt Freed began one of the most dramatic experiments in the history of medicine: the attempt to treat sufferers of Parkinson's disease by grafting human stem cells into their brains. Of the forty patients who volunteered for Freed's new treatment, half underwent authentic surgery. The other half, who had received placebo surgery, felt their last hope dissolve into bitter frustration. But the hardest road lay ahead for those who had been given the highly experimental procedure. Healing the Brain captures the emotional events that unfolded in the months afterward as Freed, his researchers, and their courageous, desperate patients awaited the outcome and witnessed a moral debate unfolding across the nation over embryonic stem-cell medicine. Would the brain regenerate itself or reject the new cells? This pioneering team was willing to take perilous risks to find out. Healing the Brain is a moving, fascinating narrative about discovery and disillusionment, conflict and compassion, suffering and - for some - amazing success.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Healing-Brain-Doctors-Controversial-Parkinsons/dp/0805070915
2002
educator physician author neuroscientist
Curt R. Freed was born on January 14, 1943, in Seattle, Washington, United States.
In 1965 Curt R. Freed received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. In 1969 he obtained a Doctor of Medicine degree from this university.
Curt R. Feed began as an intern at Los Angeles County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrence, California, and then became resident from 1969 to 1971. From 1971 to 1972 he was a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. From 1972 to 1975 Feed worked as a research fellow in clinical pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco.
In 1975 he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (now University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus). He began as an assistant professor, and then became a professor of medicine and pharmacology in 1987 there. In 1993 he was appointed as head of Division of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology and became a director of Neural Transplantation Program for Parkinson’s Disease in 1988 and Parkinson's Center without Walls in 1997 in this university.
Freed collaborated with Simon LeVay in writing his account of his work, titled Healing the Brain: A Doctor’s Controversial Quest for a Cell Therapy to Cure Parkinson’s Disease. He provides a history of the research, and the biology of Parkinson’s disease, and comments on the political roadblocks he encountered, but most of the book is dedicated to Freed’s own work and findings.
(In May 1995, neurologist Curt Freed began one of the most...)
2002Curt R. Feed has focused on improving treatments for Parkinson's disease. In 1988, he with colleague Robert Breeze performed the first transplant of dopamine-producing brain cells into an American patient with Parkinson's. His team has done more brain cell transplants than any other group. While the transplanted cells can replace the need to take drugs like L-DOPA, they do not stop the relentless progression of the underlying disease. In 2006, he began the search for a drug to stop Parkinson’s and have found phenylbutyrate. In animal testing, phenylbutyrate can prevent Parkinson’s from advancing. He is now testing phenylbutyrate in patients and should know in the next few years if it is able to stop the progression of Parkinson's disease in people.
Curt R. Freed is a member of the International Society for the Development of Neuroscience, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Society of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, the American Society of Neural Transplantation, the International Peptide Society, the Western Association of Physicians, the American Federation for Clinical Research, the Society for Neuroscience, Sigma Xi.
Curt R. Freed is married to Nancy F. Freed.
