Stem Cell Articles

[manouli]

Stem cell research wins New Mexico Senate nod
By Associated Press
Wednesday, January 30, 2008

SANTA FE — For the second year in a row, a bill authorizing stem cell research on embryos in New Mexico was approved by the state Senate 20-18.

The legislation, supported by Gov. Bill Richardson, would allow research only on embryos slated to be destroyed at fertility clinics.

more:

http://www.abqtrib.com/news/2008/jan...co-senate-nod/

[manouli]

CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank Announces the Addition of Dr. John Wagner, a Pioneer in the Use of Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells, to Its Scientific Advisory Board



ORLANDO, Fla., January 30, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- John Wagner, M.D., recognized as a leader in the field of cord blood stem cell transplantation, has joined the team at CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank. Dr. Wagner's extensive experience and knowledge in transplant medicine and stem cell biology will provide a significant contribution to CORD:USE.

more:

http://www.pharmalive.com/News/Index...ticleid=510140

[manouli]

Stem Cell Coporation CEO Jeff Krstich Dies of Sudden Heart Attack; Chairman Kenneth C. Aldrich assumes CEO Role

1/22/2008 @ 7:33 AM print this article - email to a friend - join our eNewsletter

International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCBB:ISCO) (www.internationalstemcell.com), a California-based stem cell therapeutics company, announced today with great regret the untimely death of its CEO, Mr. Jeff Krstich. The Chairman of the Board, Kenneth C. Aldrich has assumed the additional responsibilities of Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Mr. Aldrich was one of the original founders of the Company and had been CEO until Mr. Krstich joined the Company as CEO in 2006.

Mr. Krstich died of an apparent heart attack on January 20, 2008. He was 60 years old.


more:

http://www.freshnews.com/news/biotec...le_41704.html?

[manouli]

CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank Announces the Addition of Dr. John Wagner, a Pioneer in the Use of Umbilical Cord Blood Stem Cells, to Its Scientific Advisory Board

Wed Jan 30 15:09:23 2008


ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- John Wagner, M.D., recognized as a leader in the field of cord blood stem cell transplantation, has joined the team at CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank. Dr. Wagner's extensive experience and knowledge in transplant medicine and stem cell biology will provide a significant contribution to CORD:USE.

"We're honored and fortunate to have him as a member of our distinguished team," says Edward Guindi, M.D., President and CEO of CORD:USE Cord Blood Bank.

Dr. Wagner is internationally recognized as an expert in the field of stem cells and use of unrelated hematopoietic stem cell transplant. He is a professor of Pediatrics and the Director of the Division of Hematology- Oncology and Blood and Marrow Transplantation at the University of Minnesota. He is also the Scientific Director of Clinical Research of the Stem Cell Institute and Director of the Center of Molecular and Cellular Therapeutics.

more:

http://www.omniomix.com/inthenews.php?id=89876

[manouli]

January 30, 2008

A Visionary Approach Using Stem Cells to Repair Eye Damage
New eye research center in India aims to fix visual impairments with the help of stem cells

By Larry Greenemeier

A new vision research center opening in India today becomes the latest in a handful of facilities dedicated to exploring the potential of adult eye stem cells to repair vision damage. The Champalimaud Center for Translation Eye Research (C-TRACER), part of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, will continue research begun by LV Prasad scientists, who use eye stem cells from living adults to grow new cells that are then implanted into damaged

The center's goal is to restore vision to some portion of the 65 million people worldwide—about 1 percent of the world population—considered to be legally blind, which the National Federation of the Blind defines as a central visual acuity of 20 / 200 or less in the stronger eye, even when aided by a corrective lens. Especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia, "most of these people are needlessly blind," says D. Balasubramanian, research director for both LV Prasad and the new facility.

Some of these people have vision problems caused by currently untreatable diseases, he notes, but others simply because they cannot afford or do not have access to relatively simple fixes such as surgery to remove cataracts (clouding of eye lenses).

more:

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ell-eye-repair

[manouli]

Indian origin researcher highlights stem cell activation's role in bone repair

Washington | January 28, 2008 5:21:59 PM IST

A new study authored by an Indian origin researcher suggests that a medication, which is used to activate stem cells to treat bone marrow cancer, may also offer a potential therapy for osteoporosis.

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) writes that the medicine called bortezamib (Bzb) has been found to improve bone density in a mouse model of osteoporosis during experiments.

The author says that the improvement might be attributable to the medicine's effect on the mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which differentiate into several types of tissues.

more:

http://www.netindia123.com/showdetai...in+bone+repair

[Bhaskar]

Trials begin for fat StemCells / regen. heart attack study

First Patients Treated in Cytori's Stem & Regenerative Cell Heart Attack Study
SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cytori Therapeutics (NASDAQ:CYTX) enrolled the first two patients in a clinical trial using adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells in the treatment of heart attack. In this trial, patients' cells are made available using Cytori's Celution™ System, a real-time cell processing device. One patient has been enrolled in each trial center, Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon in Madrid, Spain, and Thoraxcenter, Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Fat, known medically as adipose tissue, is one of the body's richest known sources of regenerative cells. Adipose-derived regenerative cells include adult stem cells in addition to other important cell types that have been shown to increase blood flow in and around damaged and oxygen deprived tissues. As a result, these cells hold exciting potential to revolutionize the treatment of heart disease, which affects millions of patients worldwide each year.

More : http://www.businesswire.com/portal/s...42&newsLang=en

[manouli]

January 31, 2008

BRCA1 mutation linked to breast cancer stem cells

U-M research sheds light on why women with this gene mutation have higher risk of breast cancer

Ann Arbor, MI – A new study may explain why women with a mutation in the BRCA1 gene face up to an 85 percent lifetime risk of breast cancer.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center found that BRCA1 plays a role in regulating breast stem cells, the small number of cells that might develop into cancers.

The study, in mice and in human breast cancer cells, found that BRCA1 is involved in the stem cells differentiating into other breast tissue cells. When BRCA1 is missing, the stem cells accumulate unregulated and develop into cancer.

“Our data suggest that an important reason women with BRCA1 mutations get breast cancer is that BRCA1 is directly involved in the regulation of normal breast stem cells. In these women, loss of BRCA1 function results in the proliferation of breast stem cells. Since we believe that breast cancer may originate in these cells, this explains why these women have such a high incidence of breast cancer,” said senior study author Max S. Wicha, M.D., Distinguished Professor of Oncology and director of the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The study, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides strong support for the hypothesis that a small number of cells, called cancer stem cells, are responsible for fueling a tumor’s growth. Wicha’s lab was part of the team that first identified stem cells in human breast cancer in 2003.

more:

http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2008/brca1.htm

[Bhaskar]

Impregnating Titanium Implants w/StemCell homing factors

Porous structures help boost integration of host tissue with implants, study finds
NEW YORK – Results published today in FASEB (the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) by researchers at Columbia University, including Jeremy Mao of the Columbia College of Dental Medicine, demonstrate a novel way of using porous structures as a drug-delivery vehicle that can help boost the integration of host tissue with surgically implanted titanium.

Instead of being acted upon by the body as an impenetrable foreign object, the synthetic bone replacement – currently being tested in rabbits – features a porous material that allows for the delivery of "microencapsulated bioactive cues" that speed up the growth of host tissue at the site and allow for the growth of new bone.

A critical finding is that the drug dose needed for host tissue integration by this controlled-release approach is about 1/10 of that by the traditional technique of simple adsorption of the growth factor.

More : http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-psh013008.php

[Bhaskar]

Adult StemCells for eye repair (Scientific American)

A Visionary Approach Using Stem Cells to Repair Eye Damage
New eye research center in India aims to fix visual impairments with the help of stem cells

STEM CELL RESEARCH at the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, involves the generation of reparative tissue in the laboratory, which is used to replace damaged or diseased tissue. Courtesy of the LV Prasad Eye Institute A new vision research center opening in India today becomes the
latest in a handful of facilities dedicated to exploring the potential of adult eye stem cells to repair vision damage. The Champalimaud Center for Translation Eye Research (C-TRACER), part of the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India, will continue research begun by LV Prasad scientists, who use eye stem cells from living adults to grow new cells that are then implanted into damaged

The center's goal is to restore vision to some portion of the 65 million people worldwide—about 1 percent of the world population—considered to be legally blind, which the National Federation of the Blind defines as a central visual acuity of 20 / 200 or less in the stronger eye, even when aided by a corrective lens. Especially in developing countries in Africa and Asia, "most of these people are needlessly blind," says D. Balasubramanian, research director for both LV Prasad and the new facility.

More : http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=...ell-eye-repair

[Bhaskar]

Trials: Stroke & CP

Stem Cell Therapy Studies For Stroke, Cerebral Palsy Prepare For Clinical Trials
ScienceDaily (Jan. 30, 2008) — Finding answers about optimal dosage and timing for stem cell therapy in adults with strokes and newborns with ischemic injuries is a goal of two new federally funded studies.

The answers are critical before clinical trials can begin, says Dr. Cesario V. Borlongan, neuroscientist at the Medical College of Georgia and Charlie Norwood Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He is principal investigator on the National Institutes of Health grants totaling $6 million that also will explore long-term benefits of cell therapy.

If these additional laboratory studies replicate the promising results of the pilot studies, which indicate about a 25 percent improvement in recovery over controls, MCG and VA researchers hope to begin clinical trials in new ischemic injuries in adults and children within two years.

"We are looking at different procedures that we can adopt from the laboratory for the clinic," Dr. Borlongan says. "We have at least 10 years of basic research that clearly shows that stem cells have the potential to be a new therapy for adult stroke."

More : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0129160714.htm

[Bhaskar]

Kidney Cancer Drug for AML

Kidney Cancer Drug Attacks A Major Type Of Acute Myeloid Leukemia

ScienceDaily (Jan. 29, 2008) — A drug used to treat kidney cancer also targets a genetic mutation active in about one third of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the most common and lethal form of adult leukemia, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the Jan. 29 edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In a Phase I clinical trial, the drug sorafenib reduced the median percentage of leukemia cells circulating in the blood from 81 percent to 7.5 percent and in the bone marrow from 75.5 percent to 34 percent among AML patients whose leukemia includes the FLT3-ITD mutation. Two patients had circulating leukemia cells, or blasts, drop to zero.

"AML patients with this mutation have a particularly poor prognosis, so this highly targeted drug appears to be a significant step forward in leukemia therapy," says senior author Michael Andreeff, M.D., Ph.D., professor in M. D. Anderson's Department of Stem Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and Department of Leukemia.

The JNCI paper reports the drug's effect in lab experiments, a mouse model of the disease, and in a Phase I study of 16 patients with relapsed or resistant AML known to have the FLT3-ITD mutation.

More : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0129160739.htm

[manouli]

Sales of Stem Cell Products Expected to Reach $87 Million in 2008, Leading Medical Industry Analyst Says


Robin R. Young to Provide 10-Year Forecast at 3rd Annual Stem Cell Summit on Feb. 26

PHILADELPHIA, February 01, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Stem cell product sales in the United States totaled $36 million in 2007, a 119 percent increase from the previous year, and are expected to reach $87 million, a 144 percent increase, in 2008, according to Robin R. Young, CFA, a medical industry analyst ranked as one of The Wall Street Journal's "Best on the Street" and among Institutional Investor's top-10.

more:

http://www.pharmalive.com/News/index...&categoryid=15

[manouli]

Scientists create stem cells from skin tissue
Date: February 01, 2008

The two research teams of Cheju National University and Konkuk University succeded in producing stem cells out of skin tissue and applied for patents as announced on Friday (Feb. 1).Korean scientists said Friday (Feb. 1) that they have successfully produced stem cells from the skin tissue of laboratory animals without relying on the use of ovum.

The move, which may skirt ethical controversy surrounding the use of ovum in laboratories, is the third of its kind after scientists in Japan and the United States announced similar breakthroughs in 2006 and 2007.

The use of eggs has drawn fire become some pro-life and religious groups claim that using the cells is the equivalent of taking a life.

The team led by Park Se-pill, a life engineering professor at Cheju National University, said it created the stem cell from somatic cell samples of mice, possibly opening new opportunities for the creation of patient-specific stem cells.

Theoretically, patient-specific cells could be designed to grow into replacement organs, nerves and muscle that are not rejected by the body’s immune system. They could also be used to treat such diseases as Alzheimer’s and diabetes and help people suffering from paralysis of limbs caused by damaged vertebrae.



more:

http://www.kois.go.kr/news/news/news...rchDay=&page=1

[manouli]

Patients to go for stem cell therapy annually in India

2 Feb, 2008, 0051 hrs IST,Writankar Mukherjee, TNN



KOLKATA: The day may not be too far when India may become a global hub for cure to deadly diseases such as diabetes, cancer, neurology and cardiac problems.

Courtesy, the huge corporate interest to invest in the relatively nascent field of regenerative medicine, comprising stem cell therapies and tissue engineering. Estimates suggest about 15-20 million people will go for stem cell therapies every year in India.

Little wonder, players like the Reliance Group, Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, LifeCell and Cryobanks are venturing big time into development of stem cell therapies. Manipal Group has invested close to Rs 50 crore for research into stem cell therapy, the project’s chief scientific officer Satish Totey said.

“Stem cell therapy has become a mainstream practice in eye care with huge research in for other areas. We are trying to develop new heart muscles and even a new heart out of stem cell which will help a country like India where burden of lifestyle diseases is very high,” noted cardiac surgeon and Asia Heart Foundation chairman Devi Shetty told ET. Reliance Life Science (RLS), which runs a cord blood repository in Navi Mumbai, is developing therapies to meet patient needs which have not been met.


more:

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/2749782.cms