A local research team says it has found a way to treat Huntington’s disease using stem cells.

The team led by Professor Song Ji-hwan of Cha Hospital’s stem cell research institute said Thursday that it had successfully realized neuronal differentiation using stem cells taken from the skin tissues of a woman with Huntington’s disease.

Huntington’s disease is a type of neurodegenerative genetic disorder that affects up to ten out of 100-thousand people. A treatment for the disease has yet to be developed.

Song’s team said that immune rejection response can be avoided in the transplantation process as somatic cells created with stem cells from patients are used for treatment.

The team’s recent study was published on the Web site of the leading biological journal, Stem Cells.