When Michelle Johnson's son Tobi was born in 2022, he was already carrying the evidence of a medical breakthrough inside him.
"Our family couldn't feel more blessed," Johnson said this week. "Tobi's physical and mental abilities are nothing short of a miracle."
Tobi was one of six babies born following a pioneering new treatment for spina bifida — a serious birth defect affecting the spinal cord — in which surgeons applied stem cells from each mother's own placenta directly to the baby's spine while still in the womb. The results, published in *The Lancet* in March 2026, are being described by specialists as "very exciting" and a potential turning point for fetal medicine.
**What Is Spina Bifida?**
Spina bifida is a neural tube defect in which the baby's spinal cord fails to close completely during gestation. It affects approximately 1 in every 2,500 births worldwide. Depending on severity, it can cause lifelong paralysis of the lower body, loss of bladder and bowel control, hydrocephalus (fluid on the brain), and a range of associated complications.
Fetal surgery to repair the open spinal defect in the womb — closing the exposed spinal cord before birth — has been possible since the 1990s, and it is significantly better than post-birth repair. But even with fetal surgery, the spinal cord is typically already damaged before surgeons can get to it. Nerve tissue is delicate. Exposure to amniotic fluid causes progressive deterioration. The repair can stop further damage, but it cannot undo what has already been lost.
The stem cell approach is designed to address exactly that gap.
**The New Treatment**
The procedure was developed by a team at the University of California, Davis, led by Professor Diana Farmer, chair of the UC Davis Department of Surgery, and co-inventor Professor Aijun Wang. Rather than simply closing the open spinal defect during fetal surgery, the team added a step: applying a patch of stem cells derived from the mother's own placenta — a tissue-matched, readily available source — directly to the baby's exposed spinal cord.
The hypothesis was that the placental stem cells, which are known to have anti-inflammatory and tissue-regenerating properties, could protect and even partially repair damaged nerve tissue during the critical window before birth. The womb environment, with its warmth and amniotic fluid, provides an ideal setting for that regeneration to occur.
In a Phase 1 safety trial, six mothers voluntarily enrolled. Their babies all received the procedure. All six were born safely.
**The Results**
The children — now aged between two and four at the time of publication — were assessed against a control group of spina bifida children who had received standard fetal surgery alone. The differences were meaningful.
Children from the stem cell group showed significantly better motor function — the ability to move their legs and walk — compared to what their underlying injury level would typically predict. Two of the six children walk independently. Others show stronger leg function than expected. Quality of life assessments, completed by the families, showed consistently positive outcomes.
No serious safety concerns were identified. The stem cells, being derived from the mother's own tissue, did not trigger immune rejection. There were no signs of tumour formation or unexpected cell behaviour.
"The results pave the way for new treatment options for children with birth defects," said Professor Farmer. Her co-investigator Professor Wang described it as "a major step toward a new kind of fetal therapy."
Shine, a UK-based spina bifida and hydrocephalus charity, reviewed the findings and called them "very exciting."
**What Comes Next**
This was a Phase 1 trial — its primary purpose was to establish safety, not efficacy. Six participants is a small number. The results are meaningful but not yet definitive.
A larger Phase 2 trial is being planned, which will include a randomised controlled design and a larger cohort of participants. That trial will generate the statistical power needed to confirm — or refine — what the Phase 1 results suggest.
Full clinical availability is still years away. But the pipeline is open, the safety has been demonstrated, and the early signals are exactly what the research team hoped to see.
For families facing a spina bifida diagnosis, the current options remain fetal surgery or post-birth surgery. But for families who come after — who will be diagnosed during pregnancies that haven't happened yet — there is now a more hopeful horizon than there was before.
Tobi Johnson, age three, can walk. His mother believes it's a miracle. His doctors believe it's science. Both things can be true. 💙
*Sources: The Lancet (March 2026) · University of California, Davis Department of Surgery · Professor Diana Farmer · Professor Aijun Wang · Shine charity · Positive.News, Week 10 2026*
