{"id":507982,"date":"2026-03-06T21:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/507982\/"},"modified":"2026-03-06T21:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T21:34:10","slug":"what-went-right-this-week-the-good-news-that-matters-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/507982\/","title":{"rendered":"What went right this week: the good news that matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                                    Pioneering spina bifida treatment \u2018very exciting\u2019 <\/p>\n<p>A new treatment has shown huge potential for treating spina bifida in the womb, after a trial showed that it improved children\u2019s mobility and quality of life. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Spina bifida, a condition in which a baby\u2019s spinal cord is not properly enclosed during gestation, can lead to a range of lifelong disabilities. However, scientists claimed this week to have a promising new treatment, which involves applying stem cells from the mother\u2019s placenta to her baby\u2019s spine while surgeons repair it in the womb.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Diana Farmer, chair of the University of California\u2019s Davis Department of Surgery, which led the US trial, said the procedure \u201cpaves the way for new treatment options for children with birth defects\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Six mothers took part in the phase one trial, the results of which were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thelancet.com\/journals\/lancet\/article\/PIIS0140-6736(25)02466-3\/fulltext\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">published in the Lancet health journal<\/a> this week. Michelle Johnson was among them. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur family couldn\u2019t feel more blessed,\u201d said Johnson, whose son Tobi (pictured) was born in 2022. \u201cTobi\u2019s physical and mental abilities are nothing short of a miracle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While further research is needed, Aijun Wang, co-inventor of the treatment, said it was a \u201cmajor step toward a new kind of fetal therapy\u201d. Shine, a UK-based spina bifida charity, described the results as \u201cvery exciting\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Image: University of California<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pioneering spina bifida treatment \u2018very exciting\u2019 A new treatment has shown huge potential for treating spina bifida in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[19232,2975,52804,97,230790],"class_list":{"0":"post-507982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-conservation","9":"tag-good-news","10":"tag-green-energy","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-spina-bifida"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}