Archive for the ‘Bone Marrow Stem Cells’ Category
The Go-To Gene Sequencing Machine With Very Strange Results – WIRED
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The Go-To Gene Sequencing Machine With Very Strange Results - WIRED
David Steenblock, D.O., Uses Stem Cells and Other Therapies for Stroke Patients – GlobeNewswire (press release)
April 20, 2017 07:00 ET | Source: David Steenblock, D.O. Inc.
SAN CLEMENTE, Calif., April 20, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- David Steenblock, an osteopathic physician based in San Clemente, CA, uses stem cells and other therapies to achieve significant and improved lifestyle outcomes for many stroke patients.
Many of our cases have demonstrated improved mobility for stroke victims who received stem cell therapy, along with other therapies, including chelation and hyperbaric oxygen, says Dr. Steenblock.
One patient who suffered a stroke several years ago, came to Dr. Steenblocks clinic to undergo the full stroke program. This included EDTA chelation, a procedure that removes heavy metals from the blood, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, along with stem cells from his bone marrow to effect healing and restoration.
After having the bone marrow stem cells, the patients eyesight improved, and both of his knees, which hadnt been working well, were back to functioning almost normally. In addition, his hip joint went back to normal function and he believes his balance when walking has improved tremendously.
The EDTA Chelation Therapy, a treatment used to remove heavy metals from the blood, was used with hyperbaric oxygen, which can lead to significant neurologic improvements for stroke patients.
Dr. David Steenblock is a leading-edge physician in many fields of medicine, from stroke care, to acute brain trauma, to generative and cell-based medicine in the treatment of ALS, Cerebral Palsy and other chronic and degenerative diseases. For more information about Dr. Steenblocks work in stem cell therapies, visit http://www.stemcellmd.org
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David Steenblock, D.O., Uses Stem Cells and Other Therapies for Stroke Patients - GlobeNewswire (press release)
8-year-old patient surprises her bone marrow donor at their first … – The Straits Times
SINGAPORE - It was a bone marrow match that defied the odds of one in 20,000 - not once, but twice.
Just months after his first match fell through when the patient withdrew from treatment, Mr Phil Tan, 27, was again identified as a suitable bone marrow donor for another patient.
His donation saved the life of eight-year-old Ryssa, who was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called Myelodysplastic Syndrome about three years ago. Both met for the first time on Wednesday (April 19). Ryssa received the transplant just before her seventh birthday.
Mr Tan was one of 22 Singaporeans who were honoured by Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam for saving the life of a patient through the donation of their bone marrow.
"We celebrate those who have come forward without expecting a benefit, other than making a huge difference in someone else's life. It is the real spirit of giving," said Mr Shanmugam, who is a patron of the Bone Marrow Donor Programme (BMDP).
Bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant is the best treatment option for patients diagnosed with blood diseases such as leukaemia and lymphoma.
At any one time, there are at least 50 patients waiting to find a matching donor.
Siblings of the patient are the first options for a donation, as they have a one in four chance of DNA compatibility for a transplant.
When that fails, the next option would be a match with a volunteer donor registered in the BMDP.
To date, more than 75,000 volunteers have joined the BMDP register, which records the genetic type of each person.
Since 2015, more than 50 Singaporeans have donated their bone marrow to patients in Singapore and overseas, including in the United States, Britain, Canada and France.
The BMDP, which was set up in 1993, aims to increase the size of the local donor register by another 50,000 by next year.
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8-year-old patient surprises her bone marrow donor at their first ... - The Straits Times
Husaini trust plans to perform bone marrow transplants, stem cell therapy – The News International
The Husaini Haematology and Oncology Trust will soon provide facilities of bone marrow transplant and stem cell therapies at its newly established Blood Transfusion Centre and Thalassaemia Centre that was inaugurated by the city director health on Tuesday.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Karachi director health Dr Muhammad Toufique urged the trust officials to share the data of patients undergoing blood transfusions, stem cell therapies and bone marrow transplant.
He said the data would help the Sindh government formulate a plan to establish more such facilities in the future. In addition to the blood screening and storage facilities, the centre is providing blood transfusion service to children suffering from genetic blood disorders as well as diagnostic services related to blood disorders.
This is a state-of-the-art blood transfusion and thalassaemia centre where bone marrow transplant and stem cell therapies would be started very soon, said a renowned haematologist associated with the Husaini Blood Bank, Dr Sarfraz Jaffery, at the inaugural ceremony of the blood transfusion and thalassaemia centre located at Qalandaria Chowk, North Nazimabad.
The head office of the Husaini Haematology and Oncology Trust is equipped with a diagnostic lab, blood bank having storage capacity of around 3,000 blood bags and blood transfusion centre for thalassaemic patients while its management is also planning to introduce bone marrow transplant and stem cell therapy services at the same facility in the near future.
Felicitating the trust officials, the city director health vowed to support them in their services. He said the government was also striving hard for provision of safe blood to thalassaemic children and other patients.
Dr Toufique hoped that institutions like Hussaini would come forward to support the government in establishing such centres in the province. Talking to journalists, the director health said steps were being taken to control the outbreak of Chikungunya in the city.
He said the health department was in contact with the municipal authorities to start fumigation in various areas of Karachi to eliminate the mosquitoes and prevent people from mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue and Malaria.
The Sindh government was planning to merge the Malaria and Dengue Prevention and Control Cells under one project director, who would be utilizing all the resources to eliminate the mosquitoes that were responsible for the deadly infectious diseases in the province, he added.
I would also urge people to take precautionary measures, prevent themselves and their children from mosquitoes by using repellents, improving sanitation conditions in their residential areas and adopt other preventive measures to protect themselves against the mosquitoes, he advised.
Earlier, speaking at a workshop on thalassaemia management held at the same place, noted haematologists of the country stressed the need for promoting the culture of prevention from diseases in the country.
They called for the implementation of laws regarding thalassaemia screening, saying that both the government and private sector could not treat the increasing number of thalassaemic patients.
Senior haematologist from Lahore, Prof Dr Jovaria Mannan, urged the doctors and researchers to use latest research methods in the field of haematology.
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Husaini trust plans to perform bone marrow transplants, stem cell therapy - The News International
Jonathan Pitre has unexpected surgery to control a blood infection – Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen | Jonathan Pitre has unexpected surgery to control a blood infection Ottawa Citizen Last year, after his first stem-cell transplant, Pitre and his mother were thrilled when doctors discovered new white cells in his bloodstream. But their hopes were crushed when tests showed Pitre's own stem cells had recolonized his bone marrow, and ... |
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Jonathan Pitre has unexpected surgery to control a blood infection - Ottawa Citizen
Andrews Institute to study stem cells’ impact on knee – Pensacola News Journal
Joseph Baucum , jbaucum@pnj.com Published 4:06 p.m. CT April 16, 2017 | Updated 24 hours ago
Andrews Institute is conducting new stem cell research that could impact the FDA approval of certain treatments. Joseph Baucumjbaucum@pnj.com
Dr. Andrew Anz, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze is working on cutting-edge stem cell research for cartilage therapy.(Photo: Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)Buy Photo
By the time most reach age 55, Adam Anz estimatesas much as 30 percent of the population will incur some form of knee degeneration, a problem that equals pain and in many cases, surgery.
Its a problem that were all going to face at some point in our lives, said Anz, orthopaedic surgeon at Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine.
But in May, a new study will begin at Andrews Institute in Gulf Breeze that could play a game-changing role in evolving the range of medicine available for treating knee injuries. In the process, the research may also help drive down patients costs.
Anz will help spearhead a study next month into increasing the amount of stem cells doctors are able to harvest from bone marrow transplants with the goal of utilizing those cells to regrow cartilage in knees. Cartilage, a tough and flexible material, is essential to the knee, because it acts as a cushion between the bones in the joint. Damaged cartilage can often necessitate knee replacement.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT:Andrews Institute expands prep athletics care in region
In the study, Anz said researchers will attempt to increase the amount of stem cells in participants bone marrow, which would then empty from the marrow into their bloodstream. Researchers would collect the blood, separate the stem cells from it and inject the cells into patients knees. Doctors would then monitor if the marrow cells transform into cartilage cells and spark regeneration.
Its about determining how can we obtain those cells in efficient quantities and put those cells in the right place at the right time to help with healing patients injuries, Anz said.
Because the Food & Drug Administration has not approved the vast majority of stem cell-based remedies, not all treatments involving the cells are available for patients, including the cartilage procedure. For the treatments that are offered, health insurance providers do not cover them without the FDAs consent. Patients who choose to undergo them must pay out-of-pocket prices.
The study at Andrews Institute could push a stem cell cartilage treatment closer to FDA approval and by extension, availability and affordability. The research is an official FDA study. It is led by Khay Yong Saw, a Malaysian physicianwho has already demonstrated conceptual proof of the treatment in an animal study in 2006. He completed a randomized control trial in 2012. This study is the next step in proving the safety and efficacy of the procedure to gain federal endorsement.
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ADDITIONAL CONTENT:Elite athletes just piece of Andrews Institute
Anz, optimistic about the studys potential, emphasized more research must be conducted into the effectiveness of stem cell treatments those already available and those still in the testing phase.
Its important to be excited about technologies, but its also important to be honest with the patients that more must be done to show these treatments are effective, said Anz, who estimated the cartilage study to require two years for participant enrollment and another two years before researchers can observe outcomes.
But some who have undergone stem cell treatments advocate for the procedures federal approval. Jody Falvey, a retired Pensacola resident, had a stem cell procedure conducted at Andrews Institute on her knee in the fall of 2012.
Falvey, 67, tore the medial and lateral meniscus in her knee during a family visit to South Florida while brewing coffee in the morning. The sensation, she said, felt like a knife slicing through her joint.
Following a consultation with Anz, who described an available stem cell treatment known as bone marrow aspirate concentrate, Falvey chose to have the procedure done. The treatment utilized cells from her own body to repair the knee. The process, from procedure to recovery, spanned about two years.
Falvey said her knee does not feel like it ever underwent surgery. The fact that it helped prevent her from having to undergo a knee replacement made the operation even better.
I did not want metal in my body, she said. This was just one of the greatest alternatives I had heard of. I would do it again in a heartbeat.
PENSACOLA NEWS JOURNAL
Andrews Institute expands prep athletics care in region
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Andrews Institute to study stem cells' impact on knee - Pensacola News Journal
Bone Marrow Drive & Fundraiser To Support Sarina Vito, 18, Battling Leukemia – Long Island Press
On March 13th, Sarina Vito, an 18-year-old from Elwood, was preparing to spend a weekend away with her mother ather very first orientation as an incoming fall freshman at High Point University in North Carolina.
Instead, the John Glenn High School seniors entire world was flipped upside down bya devastating phone call: Sarina was diagnosed with acute myeloid (AML) leukemiaa cancer characterized by the production of a large number of abnormal white blood cells inthe bone marrow.
Sarina was immediately admitted into the Cohen Childrens Medical Center, where shewill require a lifesaving bone marrow/stem cell transplant after her third round of chemotherapy. She will also have to undergo fertility treatments in order to be able to have children of her own.
To help Sarina find her donor match as well as raise awareness and much-needed funds for not just her and her familys battle with this disease, but also for childhood cancer foundations, her family, friends and the Elwood community are holding a bone marrow drive and fundraiser at John Glenn High School on Tuesday, April 25, from 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Scroll down for official flier.)
This Bone Marrow Registry Drive & Sarinas Strands of Strength Ponytail Drive will include bone-marrow test swabbing provided by Be The Match Foundation, a bake sale, a raffle with prizes, vendor tables, music by Tony Bruno, and hair extensions by Cactus Salons. Among its proud supporters: Be The Match Foundation, Mondays at Racine, Hair We Share and Cactus Salon.
The Sarina Strong Fund also has a GoFundMe Page collecting donations.
Although Sarina will be missing many things that she worked very hard for, this event will help her and her family in many other ways. As the organizers of this benefit understand, no family should have to suffer the devastating emotional, mental and financial strains a disease such as AML leukemia causes them, especially not alone.
Consider this post an open invitation for local businesses and members of the Long Island community to contribute and lend support by donating baskets, gift certificates, services, raffle prizes, food and/or refreshments, become a sponsor with monetary donations, or simply help spread the wordthats why a special hashtag #SarinaStrong has been created to help raise awareness across social media; spread it far and wide!
Sarina and her family thank you in advance: Together, we can do this!
Featured Photo: The Elwood Community is hosting the #SarinaStrong Bone Marrow Registry Drive & Fundraiser for Sarina Vito, 18, who is battling AML leukemia, at John Glenn High School in Elwood, on April 25, 2017. (Photo: #SarinaStrong GoFundMe page)
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Bone Marrow Drive & Fundraiser To Support Sarina Vito, 18, Battling Leukemia - Long Island Press
Billings Clinic accredited for using stem cell method to ‘successfully treat’ a rare cancer – Billings Gazette
The prognosis was dire when Cheryl Grantham learned she had multiple myeloma, a rare form of cancer, in March 1999.
"I thought I'd be dead by Christmas," she said.
The best treatment to extend her life was a round of specialty high-dose chemotherapy, a course more potent than the normal chemotherapy prescribed to combat more common cancers.
Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells and the high-dose chemotherapy treatments fight it by destroying the cancerous cells in the bone marrow, where plasma originates. The treatments are intense enough that it can kill a patient. But it's one of the most effective ways to treat the cancer.
So doctors a few decades ago created a workaround using stem cells, extracting them from the patient's blood before administering the high-dose chemotherapy and then transplanting them back in to repair the damaged bone marrow after the chemo has been given.
Stem cells are given back to the patient like a blood transfusion, saidBrock Whittenberger, Grantham's doctor at Billings Clinic.
Billings Clinic has been using this stem cell approach with its myeloma cancer treatments for years, and Whittenberger has been the one performing procedure.
"What it's allowed us to do is successfully treat the cancer," he said. "There's a fairly rapid recovery."
Billings Clinic was recently accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy for its stem cell treatment.With the FACT accreditation, those treatments will be more accessible.
The accreditation also will make it easier for insurance companies to approve the procedure and will allow Billings Clinic to conduct trials on the stem cell treatment.
Billings Clinic is currently the only FACT-accredited center in Montana.
Grantham, who was an infusion nurse at the time of her diganosis, elected to have the treatment and has outlived her initial prognosis by almost two decades.
"I've been fine," she said. "I've been alive for 18 years."
Unexpectedly, the treatments helped her become a better nurse.
"It made me more empathetic," she said.
The stem cell treatment eradicates certain forms of lymphoma but it won't cure Grantham's cancer. At some point themultiple myeloma will return.
Until then, she visits with her doctor every three months for blood work and works to keep her focus on the now.
"With a diagnosis like that you have short-term goals," she said.
Her youngest son was in high school in 1999, and she was still working full time as a nurse. As much as she wanted to crawl under her covers and not face the reality of her cancer diagnosis, she had no choice but to move forward.
"It made me be normal," she said.
And it helped her focus on what was important in the moment. The Christmas before she began her treatments, she took her three sons to the Cayman Islands for the holidays.
"Because everything was going to change," she said."You just do it."
And it's an attitude she still carries. Her youngest son, long graduated from high school, is now married. These days, she's hopeful he'll give her a grandchild.
"That's my goal now," she said, smiling.
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Billings Clinic accredited for using stem cell method to 'successfully treat' a rare cancer - Billings Gazette
UW Treats First Participant in Trial of Stem-Cell Therapy for Heart Failure – University of Wisconsin-Madison
A research team at University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health has treated its first patient in an innovative clinical trial using stem cells for the treatment of heart failure that develops after a heart attack.
The trial is taking place at University Hospital, one of three sites nationwide currently enrolling participants. The investigational CardiAMP therapy is designed to deliver a high dose of a patients own bone-marrow cells directly to the point of cardiac injury to potentially stimulate the bodys natural healing response.
The patient experience with the trial begins with a cell-potency screening test. Patients who qualify for therapy are scheduled for a bone-marrow aspiration. The bone marrow is then processed on-site and subsequently delivered directly to the damaged regions in a patients heart in a minimally invasive procedure.
Patients living with heart failure experience a variety of negative symptoms that can greatly impact their day-to-day life, said UW Health cardiologist Dr. Amish Raval, associate professor of medicine and one of the principal investigators for the trial. By being at the forefront of research for this debilitating condition, we look forward to studying the potential of this cell therapy to impact a patients exercise capacity and quality of life.
The primary outcome to be measured is the change in distance during a six-minute walk 12 months after the initial baseline measurement.
Heart failure commonly occurs after a heart attack, when the heart muscle is weakened and cannot pump enough blood to meet the body's needs for blood and oxygen. About 790,000 people in the U.S. have heart attacks each year. The number of adults living with heart failure increased from about 5.7 million (2009-2012) to about 6.5 million (2011-2014), and the number of adults diagnosed with heart failure is expected to dramatically rise by 46 percent by the year 2030, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
The CardiAMP Heart Failure Trial is a phase III study of up to 260 patients at up to 40 centers nationwide. Phase III trials are conducted to measure effectiveness of the intervention, monitor side effects and gather information for future use of the procedure. Study subjects must be diagnosed with New York Heart Association (NYHA) Class II or III heart failure as a result of a previous heart attack.
Information about eligibility or enrollment in the trial is available at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, or through a cardiologist.
The trial is funded by Biocardia, Inc., which developed the potential therapy.
Date Published: 04/17/2017
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UW Treats First Participant in Trial of Stem-Cell Therapy for Heart Failure - University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ensure Medicare Access to Blood and Marrow Transplants for Seniors with Cancer – Morning Consult
Last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services enacted a significant policy change improving access to blood and marrow transplants for Medicare patients diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancers. The change came in the form of a Medicare rule on how outpatient blood and marrow transplants are reimbursed by the federal health care program beginning on Jan. 1, 2017.
While this move a step in the right direction, this rule does not address the vast majority of transplants (97 percent) that are performed in the inpatient setting. Sadly, Medicare continues to provide inadequate reimbursement to hospitals performing inpatient transplants and this limitation threatens to limit access to seniors needing this lifesaving therapy.
It is estimated that a new patient is diagnosed with a blood cancer every three minutes. More than 170,000 Americans will receive a blood cancer diagnosis like leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma this year alone; approximately 1.2 million Americans currently live with these diseases.
Blood and marrow transplants using a donor (allogeneic transplants) remain the only curative treatment for many blood cancers. The process of transplantation typically involves treating the patient with chemotherapy and then restoring healthy cells in the recipient by an infusion of blood or bone marrow stem cells, obtained from a matched related or unrelated donor or from umbilical cord blood. These donor cells also help to eliminate any cancer cells that survive chemotherapy.
The fatal blood diseases that require transplants occur most commonly in older individuals, who are also most likely to be covered by Medicare. Historically, the risks of transplant were too great to allow us to safely transplant many seniors. However, rapid clinical advances have resulted in dramatically improved outcomes in older adults. In fact, patients over the age of 65 are now the most rapidly growing population in U.S. transplant centers.
Despite the overwhelming clinical evidence demonstrating the curative potential of transplants in older patients, transplant access for seniors is threatened by Medicares chronic underfunding for both the transplant itself and the costs required to obtain matched bone marrow or cord blood. Medicare, for the most part, adequately reimburses transplants of solid organs such as hearts and lungs, appropriately covering the costs of acquiring those organs.
Surprisingly, Medicare treats the cost of acquiring bone marrow differently. Currently, Medicare pays for the cost of acquiring bone marrow and the transplant procedure and hospitalization in a single payment. Unfortunately, the amount currently reimbursed falls well short of the costs of providing the complex care required for blood and marrow transplant recipients, who are vulnerable to complications including infections in the post-transplant period. Unlike solid organ transplants, the cost of obtaining unrelated donor blood, bone marrow or cord blood is not directly and completely reimbursed.
This inadequate reimbursement threatens the ability of transplant centers to continue to take on the complex care of seniors with blood cancers. Unless reimbursement policies change, some seniors may face limited access to their only curative treatment option.
Thanks to national investment in research and continued innovation, seniors diagnosed with cancer today have more treatment options than they had in the past. Poor federal reimbursement policies must be updated to provide patients with access to the treatments that offer them the best possible outcomes, including transplantation.
While last years policy change was a marked improvement in reimbursement for those three percent of transplants occurring in the outpatient setting, it is important that similar payment reforms now address themajority of blood and marrowtransplants that are performed as inpatient procedures.
I urge Medicare to revise its payment policies for blood and marrow transplants to strengthen reimbursement in the inpatient hospital setting to ensure American seniors the full range of life-saving treatment options for cancer that they deserve.
Krishna Komanduri is president of the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the Kalish Family Chair in Stem Cell Transplantation, Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.
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Ensure Medicare Access to Blood and Marrow Transplants for Seniors with Cancer - Morning Consult
DKMS Creates Celebrity Driven #Castingforahero Campaign – Yahoo Finance
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
DKMS, the international non-profit leading the fight against blood cancer, teamed with the film industry and launched #CastingforaHero, a campaign designed to raise awareness about diversity in bone marrow donation and to urge more people to swab their cheeks and register as potential lifesaving bone marrow/blood stem cell donors. The campaign was first launched by actor/producer Vin Diesel, has been supported on social media by Fast franchise players Tyrese Gibson, Cris Bridges (Ludacris), Don Omar and the brother of late actor Paul Walker, Cody Walker, and will be joined by other cast members to support the campaign this month. It has also garnered support by a number of celebrities including Guardians of the Galaxy actress, Zoe Saldana and Larenz Tate. Tate appeared on the television show POWER, alongside Charlie Murphy, who passed away earlier this month from complications related to blood cancer.
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Diesel launched the campaign on his Instagram (@vindiesel) posting, Today, premiere day (April 8), I am proud to launch#CastingforaHero- a campaign to save lives by increasing the multicultural community's presence in the worldwide bone marrow registries.
The campaign was conceived by DKMS through a partnership with Samantha Vincent, (Executive Producer, the Fate of the Furious) and Frank E. Flowers (Director, Haven) after they lost a family member to leukemia and became aware of the overwhelming odds faced by minorities and those of mixed race backgrounds of finding an unrelated match due to being underrepresented on the registry. Of all donors registered only 6% are African American, 9% are Hispanic/Latino, 6% are Asians, and 4% are Mixed Race.
In partnership with the community, one of the nations premier cross cultural creative advertising agencies, the #castingforahero concept was developed and executed through social and experiential channels leveraging key influencers with the goal of raising awareness and activating younger donors. The campaign was launched with the support of Universal Pictures, Saturday, April 8 during the Fate of the Furious #F8 premiere at Radio City Music Hall in NYC, with #castingforahero photo booths present at the F8premiere after party which gave VIP guests an opportunity to register.
In the companion video, written and directed by Flowers and produced by Andrew Molina, Anne McCarthy (Casting Director, Furious 7) and her associates audition real-life unknown actors for a hero role where they are asked to cold-read scripts about the lack of diversity on the bone marrow registry. The actors become emotional upon learning the scripts are in fact about themselves and their own chances to beat a disease like leukemia if there are not enough potential donors registered who share the same ancestry. The video calls for more trueheroes potential bone marrow/blood stem cell donors to join the effort to fight blood cancer and help find more matches for people of all ethnic backgrounds.
The newly launched website, castingforahero.com, allows people to create their own casting photo with custom skins representing unique identities and share on their social media platforms, while directing them to register with DKMS as a potential lifesaving donor.
Each year thousands of people lose the fight against blood cancer because they are unable to find their hero: a lifesaving bone marrow match, said Katharina Harf, co-founder of DKMS US. #CastingforaHero will help bring attention to the need for more diversity among potential bone marrow donors. By registering to become a DKMS donor, you can change the odds and become a life-saving hero yourself.
For more information about #CastingforaHero, visit http://www.castingforahero.com. To learn more about DKMS or register as a potential lifesaving donor, please visit http://www.dkms.org/register or @dkms.us.
About DKMS
DKMS is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to eradicating blood cancers like Leukemia and other blood-related illnesses inspiring both men and women around the world to register as bone marrow and blood stem cell donors. DKMS is providing patients with a second chance at life, working closely with families from diagnosis to transplant and beyond. The donor journey begins with a swab of the cheek that takes less than 60 seconds and can be the action that leads to a lifesaving transplant. DKMS, originally founded in Germany in 1991 by Dr. Peter Harf, has organizations in Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. The U.S. office was started in 2004. Globally, DKMS has registered more than 7.2 million people. To join the fight against blood cancer or for more information, please go to dkms.org or @DKMS.us.
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DKMS Creates Celebrity Driven #Castingforahero Campaign - Yahoo Finance
N.Y. bowler rolls on following bone marrow transplant – USA TODAY High School Sports
When you think of tough athletes, football and hockey players quickly come to mind.
But a bowler?
Someone who learned that with determination and the love of family, friends, teammates and one anonymous bone marrow donor living 1,500 miles away striking down a rare and deadly blood disease is indeed possible?
Cameron Hurwitz stands 4-foot-11 and weighs 84 pounds with Skittles in his pockets.
But the Brighton (Rochester, N.Y.) High School freshman is a big man on the lanes, leading the Barons this season with a 216.5 average, making the coveted six-man state tournament composite team, where he led Section V to a third-place finish, and being named All-Greater Rochester for the second time in three seasons.
He has rolled three 300-games (two sanctioned) and just recently recorded a personal-best 799 series in competition.
There was a time when opponents sized up Hurwitz and took him for an easy mark. No more.
Hes pretty well-known now, Brighton coach Jason Wasserman said. What they cant believe is thathes only in ninth grade and doing as well as he is. He reads lane conditions as good as anyone out there. Hes able to make adjustments on the fly, he knows what equipment to use at what time and then hes just so consistent with his shots.
Thats what happens when you bowl nearly every day from the time youre eye level to a ball rack. When you have parents, Caryn and Scott Hurwitz, who nurture your gifts with unconditional love. When a big brother, Reese, a senior on the Brighton team with a fine 210 average of his own and is headed to Purdue to bowl, is always there to cheer the strikes and help you handle the splits and open frames of life.
Cameron, 14, a hard-throwing right-hander, throws a ball that takes a sharp, last-second right-to-left hook into the pocket that makes pins explode like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
He has had many mentors but in large part he is a self-taught prodigy.
As a big PBA fan who would like to compete on tour someday, he has long watched bowling on television and the internet. He reads bowling magazines, studies the history of the gameand can recite the career statistics of PBA stars. His favorite player is a kindred spirit, 5-foot-5 Norm Duke, a family friend whose autograph he wears proudly on his green Storm bowling shirt.
For good measure, Cameron drills his own balls, customizes his own bowling shoes (blue and fluorescent green on this day), and has ideas for other bowling products that his dad, who owns a motorcycle parts manufacturing business, helps bring to life. Some have already caught the attention of people in the industry.
I think it came from watching the pros on television all the time and picking it up, Cameron said when asked where his style and passion for all things bowling comes from. I love all the physics behind bowling and just the fact you have to use your mind to be able to perform. Anybody of any size can be great at bowling as long as you know the right way to do it and as long as you know what each piece of equipment does for a particular oil pattern.
Bowling alone during off-hours, wearing a mask to prevent against infection, Cameron Hurwitz never gave up on dream of normal life and returning to Brighton High School team.(Photo: CARYN HURWITZ)
Understanding bowling science helped Cameron enjoy his best season so far, but it was medical science that got him back on the lanes.
A little more than two years ago while in the seventh grade, Cameron was getting ready to leave for the Section V tournament when his mother spotted black-and-blue marks on his arms and legs. A phone call to their family doctor led to blood work, which led to instructions to take her son to the emergency room immediately.
He had extremely low platelets, which clot your blood, and they told us to pack a bag, youll be there for many days, Caryn Hurwitz said.
It was six days to be exact, during which Cameron was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, a rare and serious blood disorder in which the body stops making enoughnew white and red cells and platelets.
His bone marrow had just shut down and with so few platelets he was at great risk, and with no immunity he couldnt be around people, Caryn Hurwitz said.
While undergoing treatments at Golisano Childrens Hospital, Cameron was unable to attend school and was quarantined at home for over five months. When given the OK by doctors, his lone escape was making trips to area bowling centers where generous owners allowed him to practice during off-hours to the public.
Encouraged by upticks in his white cell counts, Camerons caregivers couldnt say no when he begged to compete in the prestigious United States Bowling Congress Junior Gold national championships in the Chicago area in July 2015. While wearing an antiviral mask and in between receiving seven-hour blood transfusions at a Chicago hospital, Cameron made the televised final, placing second in the U12 division.
The boy behind the mask became a media celebrity and inspiration in the bowling community. He made the cover of Bowlers Journal and PBA stars became his fans. Hall of Famer Pete Weber posted a good luck video message on Facebook to Cameron.
Hed bowl without hardly any oxygen (in his bloodstream), Caryn Hurwitz said. I dont think people really understood how hard it was for him, but as long as he could go, even with the low blood counts, he kept bowling. When I think about, Im amazed.
Unfortunately for Cameron, the treatments he received didnt produce the desired results and as his eighth-grade school year began, he was placed on the national Be the Matchbone marrow registry.
Waiting times for a match can vary, but in Camerons case one was found in just a few months. And on Dec. 29, 2015 he underwent a transplant at Boston Childrens Hospital, a painstaking procedure where a patients body is re-started with new stem cells that need time to grow and take hold.
Six weeks in the hospital were followed by six more months of isolation, school tutoring, the entire Hurwitz family living in the germ-free lane, and the family bonding like an alleys glued wooden strips.
Throughout his recovery, Cameron kept bowling after hours, determined to be ready for his freshman season. Bowling had become his medicine.
For the full story, visit the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle
Link:
N.Y. bowler rolls on following bone marrow transplant - USA TODAY High School Sports
Cheyenne’s Day of Giving provides an opportunity to save a life – Wyoming Business Report
CHEYENNE Had it not been for a single bone marrow transplant, the Day of Giving would never have started.
Its a bone marrow transplant that saved founder Greta Morrows life, and what inspired her to launch a community charity event that encourages, among other things, the importance of donating blood, tissue, bone marrow and organs.
Greta is a prime example of somebody who is a survivor because of someone being on the bone marrow donation registry, said Caroline Veit, a longtime Day of Giving volunteer and a past president for the event. Its life saving. When somebody is at the end of their treatment options for blood cancer, a bone marrow transplant can be the key for their survival.
One of the most compelling reasons to sign up as a bone marrow donor at the Day of Giving now in its 12th year is not only is it capable of saving a life, but the process of actually donating is fairly straightforward, no different than giving blood something the Day of Giving also offers onsite.
Jamie Spradlin, a 22-year-old teacher at Hobbs Elementary School in Cheyenne, learned that fact firsthand late last year, when she was called on to donate bone marrow.
It was at a Relay for Life event about four years ago, they had a booth and they were explaining, Would you like to save a life; do you want to know how? And I was with a group and all of us signed up, Spradlin said. It had to have been October or November of last year when they called me and said Hey, youre actually a match for someone.
Many people who register as potential bone marrow donors never get such a call. Thats because unlike blood, which falls into one of four types plus a positive or negative Rh factor, a bone marrow can be much harder to find. Only about 30 percent of patients looking for a bone marrow match can even find one in their own family the rest have to hope a stranger in the national donor registry happens to match them, according to the nonprofit Institute for Justice.
Only about 2 percent of Americans belong to the national bone marrow registry, and at least 3,000 people die each year because they cannot find a matching donor. The odds are worse for minorities, since bone marrow type is based partly on ethnic background while Caucasians can find an unrelated donor 75 percent of the time, the percentage drops to the 40s for Hispanic and Asian patients, and 25 percent for African Americans.
What happens if you do turn out to be a match for someone?
First they asked if I was still interested in donating, and I said yes, so then they had to wait on the person I was donating to to make sure it would all work out, Spradlin said.
In December 2016, she had to take a physical to ensure she was healthy enough to donate. Be The Match, the national bone marrow registry, paid all the expenses of her testing as well as travel.
They let me choose where I went for the physical, and my sister lives in Florida, so I went to do it there, Spradlin said. A few days after that they called and said everything was great, so then I went back down to Florida for the actual donation.
The donation process takes nearly a week of preparation. Twice a day, for five days, Spradlin said she went to a clinic to receive shots that caused her bones to produce more marrow stem cells.
The first day wasnt bad, but as I continued to get them every day thats when I started noticing my back and knees getting sore, she said. You know when you go to the gym and the next day your muscles are sore? Its just like that, but with your bones.
But that was the only real discomfort, she said, and given the stakes, it wasnt a tough call to keep going. For the donation itself, Spradlin underwent a process known as apheresis, where blood is removed from the body, the marrow stem cells are separated out, and blood is then returned.
Its kind of like donating blood. They had a needle in each of my arms, she said. One needle takes out the blood, a machine separates the stem cells from the blood and then the other needle puts the blood back in your arm.
Two months after the donation, Spradlin got an email from Be The Match informing her the recipient of her bone marrow was doing well Spradlins bone marrow had taken root, and the recipients body was regaining its ability to produce healthy blood cells.
Due to confidentiality concerns, Spradlin still doesnt know whose life she saved. It wont be until a year has passed that Be The Match offers to introduce donors to recipients.
All they told me was that she was a female, 41 years old and had some type of blood cancer, Spradlin said. But even knowing just that much, she added, I would absolutely do it again. It was an easy process to save someones life, and I think its crazy not many people sign up to become donors because its not a hard process.
I mean, I got to see my sister twice in Florida and they paid for everything, she added. Frankly, I felt lucky I got to be this persons donor.
How to help
This years community-wide Day of Giving will be from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, May 12, at the Kiwanis Community House in Lions Park. A youth event will take place there the day before, May 11, from 3:30-6:30 p.m.
There are seven ways to help on the Day of Giving:
Day of Giving sorts and delivers all donations to local agencies.
For more information, visitCheyenneDayofGiving.org.
James Chilton is the Wyoming Tribune Eagles local government reporter. He can be reached atjchilton@wyomingnews.comor 307-633-3182. Follow him on Twitter at @JournoJChilton.
To go directly to the Wyoming Tribune Eagle's website, click here.
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Cheyenne's Day of Giving provides an opportunity to save a life - Wyoming Business Report
Stem Cell Research Advancing Rapidly – Healthline
Stem cells have been touted as treatments for everything from hair loss to heart disease.
But are those claims scientifically sound?
Research on the technology continues to look promising, but many of its human applications are still preliminary and their effectiveness anecdotal.
Samumed, a $12 billion biotech start-up based in San Diego, profiled this month in Business Insider, exemplifies both sides of the coin.
The company has promised a bevy of age-reversing cures, including regrowing hair, treating wrinkles, and regenerating cartilage in people with osteoarthritis
However, their research isnt conclusive.
None of their treatments have received government approval yet.
Read more: Rheumatoid arthritis and stem cell treatments
Its easy to get excited about all this research.
Samumed Is Trying to Create the Fountain of Youth, says one headline.
Samumed Aims to Reverse Aging with Eternal Youth Treatments, says another.
Combined with $300 million in investment funding, the company has more than just buzz going for it in the biotech industry.
Their treatment for androgenetic alopecia (hair loss) is currently in phase II trials.
Its program to help people with osteoarthritis regrow cartilage in their knees is in phase III.
In total, the company has seven drugs in phase II trials, with plans to expand into more areas of disease research this year.
However, Samumed has raised some eyebrows in the industry with its secrecy. Some skeptics have likened the company to Theranos, a biotech start-up that was valued at $9 billion before an investigation by the Wall Street Journal led to a shutdown of the companys labs.
Samumed has been more open about presenting their data to the public but not about the actual treatments.
We're basically telling everyone, here's proof that it works, Samumed Chief Executive Officer, Osman Kibar, told Business Insider. How it works you just need to wait a little longer because we want to build as much of a head start as we can.
Read more: Stem cell treatments for multiple sclerosis
Beyond the applications of stem cells at Samumed, the technology is also being used to treat some of the United States most widespread health issues.
New research from the American Heart Association this month demonstrated the effectiveness of implanted stem cells into the hearts of people with cardiomyopathy.
Although the sample size was small (only 27 people), scientists noted function and symptomatic improvements of heart functioning as well as less frequency of hospitalization and lower medical costs. They conclude that the stem cell procedure is a feasible treatment for cardiomyopathy, but they note that a larger clinical follow-up is needed for more conclusive results.
In the past week, Newsweek reported on miracle stem cell treatments for burn victims that will promote healing without scars.
Stat News wrote about research on stem cells in mice that could potentially help cure Parkinsons disease.
Read more: Unproved stem cell treatments offer hope and risk
Some researchers in the industry are somewhat measured in their optimism of the technologys human applications.
I want to make sure that we provide a real cautionary note, especially to those individuals and those institutions that tout stem cells as the panacea for any ill, Dr. Cato Laurencin, director of the Institute for Regenerative Engineering at the University of Connecticut, told Healthline.
Laurencin, a medical practitioner at the forefront of stem cell technology, is a firm believer in the benefits of the treatment, but also remains skeptical of some of the claims associated with it.
Much of the evidence is still preliminary or anecdotal, and when people operate on information that is preliminary or anecdotal, there is the possibility for harm, he said.
His work in regenerative engineering a term he coined several years ago looks at the healing properties of implanted stem cells in the human body.
In research published this month, Laurencin and his team concluded that stem cells effectively improved healing to torn rotator cuff tendons in rats.
Rotator cuff tendon tears are a relatively common injury in humans and can be difficult to treat.
Unlike other tendons in the body, the rotator cuff tendon is unable to heal itself, said Laurencin.
Once it is torn, it is liable to be reinjured again and again.
However, the research released this month is about more than just applying stem cells to a certain kind of injury, its about how the stem cells are applied.
Read more: Scientists use 3-D environment to speed up growth of stem cells
Laurencin describes his field as an evolution of earlier work from 30 years ago in tissue engineering: a convergence of bringing together new technologies to create new science and new possibilities.
In this case, nanotechnology is at the heart of this stem cell operation.
Currently there are a variety of ways that stem cells can be implanted into a subject, including injections and bone marrow transplants.
For his research, Laurencin and his team used biomaterial based fiber matrices a nanomaterial conducive to growing and attaching stem cells to implant into the wounded area.
The results are promising, but Laurencin and his team will have to continue working with animals for some time before the process can be applied to humans.
The key is in understanding that stem cells have the potential for more than just regrowing damaged parts of the body.
The way we commonly think about a stem cell is it becoming a new tissue. But were also understanding that the stem cell itself can secrete biological factors that help regeneration occur. Thats what we think is happening here, said Laurencin.
His research into stem cells as a medicinal element in the body could have far reaching implications for all kinds of wound therapy.
Despite his measured approach, Laurencin is still willing to hypothesize about the excitement that the future of the field undoubtedly holds with proper time, funding, and research.
There are newts and salamanders that can regenerate a limb, he told Healthline.
How do we harness the cues that are taking place in these types of animals, and can we utilize what weve learned from these types of animals in humans?
Read more from the original source:
Stem Cell Research Advancing Rapidly - Healthline
New hope with haplo-identical bone marrow transplant – Star2.com
Having worked at University Malaya Medical Centres (UMMC) Paediatrics Department for 20 years, senior consultant paediatric oncologist Prof Dr Hany Mohd Ariffin has had to tell her fair share of parents that there is nothing more that can be done for their terminally ill child.
As head of the Paediatric Haematology-Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, this is usually because there is no suitable donor available for a life-saving bone marrow transplant for the child.
Bone marrow transplants, also called stem cell transplants, are used in conditions where the patients bone marrow is damaged or destroyed by disease or intensive cancer treatment, and is unable to carry out its job of producing healthy red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.
Because white blood cells or leukocytes are part of the immune system that protects our body against foreign invaders, it is critical in such a procedure to match the so-called immunological fingerprints of the patient and the donor.
As Prof Hany explains, these fingerprints are known as human leukocyte antigens (HLAs).
HLAs help the immune system distinguish between the bodys own cells and foreign cells, usually bacteria and viruses that infect us, so that our white blood cells can find and destroy them.
It is crucial that a bone marrow donor and the patient have the same HLAs in order to minimise the chances of the donated bone marrows white blood cells considering its new host body as foreign and attacking it.
Perfect match needed
Standard bone marrow transplantations require that all 10 HLAs in both patient and donor are a match.
As HLAs are inherited half from each parent, this means that only a patients siblings are a possible perfect match.
Explains Prof Hany: If you look at statistics, out of four, one sibling will be completely matched, one sibling will be completely not matched, and two siblings would be half-matched.
So, the chances of finding a match is 25%, but that is statistical randomisation.
In the real world, you can have 10 siblings and all of them might not be matched with you.
If a patient does not have a sibling that matches perfectly with them, or does not have a sibling at all, their only other option is to check for an unrelated match in international stem cell registries or blood banks.
However, Prof Hany notes that this usually requires a sum of RM100,000 for a unit of bone marrow and at least three to four months of waiting two luxuries not all patients have.
She adds: But it is not easy to get a good match for Asians as these registries are usually Caucasian.
And its even worse if you are an Indian patient, as you cant even go to a Taiwanese blood bank.
In the case of Muhammad Yusuff Iskandar Mohd Hambali, time was a critical factor.
The firstborn of two teachers had been referred to UMMC at 10 months of age for recurrent pneumonia.
His mother, secondary school physical education teacher, Aduratun Nasyihin Mokhtar shares: He started falling sick at the age of seven months he had a persistent cough.
Initially, the doctor thought it was pertussis, but it didnt get better after three months as pertussis should, so he was admitted to the hospital.
However, none of the antibiotics they tried worked, so he was referred to UMMC to check his lungs.
This filepic shows a thalassaemia patient with his infusion pump machine for iron-chelating therapy. Thalassaemia is one of the conditions curable by a bone marrow transplant.
It was in UMMC that Yusuff, as he is called, was discovered to have X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID).
This rare genetic condition, also known as bubble boy disease, results in the malfunction or lack of two specialised white blood cells called T and B cell lymphocytes.
This means that Yusuff effectively had a non-existent immune system.
This was the reason he could not fight off the pneumonia. In fact, his lungs had deteriorated so badly that he was on oxygen therapy from the age of eight months.
In addition, the Mycobacterium bovis in his BCG vaccination had spread to his back, he had chronic diarrhoea and he was very much underweight.
Yusuff needed a bone marrow transplant, and he needed it fast.
Having reached out to her international colleagues at that time, Prof Hany says: One thing constant in all their advice was that if we delayed the procedure, he would never get better from his disseminated BCG, his pneumonia would just worsen, and once you reach a critical point, there would be no turning back.
He would have been dead by six months.
The problem was that Yusuff was then an only child.
Although his mother was pregnant with his younger sister at that time, she would not have been born in time to help him, assuming that she was a match for him in the first place.
With no time to waste, Prof Hany and her team decided to try a procedure called haplo-identical bone marrow transplantation.
On whether she and her team were ready to carry out the new procedure, Prof Hany says that you will never be ready until a life is dangling precariously in front of you. Photo: The Star/Samuel Ong
In this procedure, only five out of 10 HLAs need to be matched in order for the donor to be able to give bone marrow to the patient.
The beauty of this procedure is that you always have two parents (to donate), says Prof Hany.
So, Yusuffs father, sports science and physical education teacher Mohd Hambali Din @ Ismail, could now donate his bone marrow cells to his son.
First though, Yusuff needed to be fattened up via nutritional fluids infused into his veins, his pneumonia brought under control and his M. bovis infection treated with anti-tuberculosis therapy.
This was so that he would be in a decent enough condition to withstand the procedure.
Following the protocol established by Johns Hopkins University in the United States, but modified to suit Yusuffs condition, Prof Hany and her team first killed off Yusuffs remaining bone marrow cells through chemothera-py, before infusing 30ml of his fathers donated bone marrow into him.
Prof Hany explains that it takes two to three weeks for the new bone marrow cells to grow, during which time the patient is completely vulnerable to any infection.
This is why they remain in a completely sealed room where the air is hepa-filtered, they receive no visitors, and their food and linen are completely sterile, she says.
He was also treated with high-dose cyclophosphamide, a chemotherapy drug that targets T cell lymphocytes.
This was in order to destroy the half-matched mature T cells that came with his fathers donated bone marrow.
T cells are your soldier cells. His fathers T cells would recognise Yusuff as foreign and destroy everything in their wake.
And that is what has precluded mismatched transplants all this while, explains Prof Hany.
After the mature T cells are destroyed, she says: What you then get are T cells from stem cell origin, which learn to tolerate the environment of being in Yusuffs body, and therefore, they will be less aggressive and more friendly to these cells that they consider foreign.
Despite that, Yusuff still experienced graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) where his new white blood cells attacked the cells of his skin, gut and lungs.
In between, he also had two episodes of sepsis and he had to go to the ICU once.
He also had to go on the ventilator at one point, says Prof Hany.
She explains that GvHD, which is due to aggressive donor white blood cells, and infections, which are due to the still incomplete immune system, can co-exist, creating a dilemma for the medical team.
On the one hand, to ameliorate GvHD, you have to give steroids (in addition to standard immunosuppresants) to dampen down the immune system.
You dampen down the immune system, then you allow bacteria and fungi to grow.
And that is why it is very challenging, she says.
She admits: For the first 20 days, it was all very smooth and you think, Wah, Im a hero, but then the challenges came.
There were certain moments when I thought, Thats it, were going to lose him.
It took 149 days after the transplant before Yusuff was deemed well enough to be sent home.
And it was one year before Prof Hany and her team felt confident enough to declare him cured.
We estimate anything between six months to a year for the new bone marrow cells to grow and propagate.
So usually, after a year, if the GvHD doesnt appear anymore, it is very unlikely to suddenly appear, she explains.
This first anniversary of Yusuffs transplant, celebrated at UMMC on April 6, was not just sweet because of Yusuffs survival, it was also the opening of a new path for Prof Hany and her team.
On a personal note, there were many times when you have this period of self-doubt.
So, you think that we are just a bunch of stupid, gung-ho people, who are unrealistic; this is not America, this cannot be done that sort of feeling.
There were some moments when you think, have I done a disservice to this child? Would if it have been better to just let go, for the parents to just let go? Is God just testing me? shares Prof Hany.
However, a few months after Yusuffs transplant, she received the case of a baby boy with myelodysplastic syndrome.
Myelodysplastic children will progress to develop acute myeloid leukaemia within a year, and it is only curable with transplant, or not it is certain death by two years, she explains.
And this patient had two siblings, both of whom were only half-matched.
But we were able to offer a transplant to this child, because we knew that from the experience of Yusuff, if he has very bad GvHD of the gut, skin, lung, we would be able to handle it been there, done that.
We were already scarred for life, she says with a laugh. And in fact, due to their prior experience, Prof Hany and her team were able to more precisely determine the amount of donated bone marrow cells needed for transplant.
As a result, she says: The second patient sailed through and was discharged after only five weeks, as opposed to five months for Yusuff.
Explaining the potential impact of having this treatment option available, Prof Hany shares that bone marrow transplantation is a cure for conditions like leukaemia, blood disorders like thalassaemia, congenital defective immune systems and certain rare congenital metabolic conditions.
The major reason why transplants are not being done is because of the lack of an available donor, she says.
But haplo-identical bone marrow transplantation now opens the way for many more potential donors to help the patient.
The learning curve is steep, Prof Hany admits, but adds that after Yusuff, they were able to apply what they learnt to their second patient with great effect.
Im not saying it is easy, but I think it is worth developing further, because it can solve one of the greatest health problems in our country, which is inherited blood disorders.
Giving the example of thalassaemia, she estimates that it costs some RM3.5mil to treat a patient with regular blood transfusions and iron-chelating therapy for 30 years.
A haplo-identical bone marrow transplant costs approximately RM45,000 and will cure the patient.
The risk of dying from this procedure usually because of infections and GvHD during the period when the patient has no working immune system is estimated to be about 10%.
This is at the upper limit for standard bone marrow transplants, where the risk ranges from 5% to 10%.
She adds that studies have shown that the risk of severe GvHD is similar for haplo-identical transplants and sibling-matched transplants, which are both lower than transplants from an unrelated donor.
Although Yusuff is the first successful haplo-identical bone marrow transplant patient in the country, to the best of Prof Hanys knowledge, she believes that the procedure can be easily done in other major hospitals around the country.
The facilities are already there and specialists trained in bone marrow transplants need only learn the procedure once before they should be able to conduct it, she says.
So its not just having a big celebration to tell the world that we saved one boy with SCID, its having the ability to tell parents that there is always hope, as we can now do haplo-identical transplants in our centre, says Prof Hany.
It is about no longer having to tell parents that nothing more can be done for their terminally ill child.
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New hope with haplo-identical bone marrow transplant - Star2.com
Brighton bowler Cameron Hurwitz rolls on after bone marrow transplant – Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
AGR bowler Cameron Hurwitz overcomes rare disease and keeps on bowling. Shawn Dowd
Cameron Hurwitz, freshman at Brighton High School, practices bowling Monday, April 10, 2017. Hurwitz is a two-time AGR bowler. (Photo: SHAWN DOWD/@sdowdphoto/, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)Buy Photo
When you think of tough athletes, football and hockey players quickly come to mind.
But a bowler?
Someone who learned that with determination and the love of family, friends, teammates and one anonymous bone marrow donor living 1,500 miles away striking down a rare and deadly blood disease is indeed possible?
Cameron Hurwitz stands 4-foot-11 and weighs 84 pounds with Skittles in his pockets.
But the Brighton High School freshman is a big man on the lanes, leading the Barons this season with a 216.5 average, making the coveted six-man state tournament composite team, where he led Section V to a third-place finish, and being named All-Greater Rochester for the second time in three seasons.
He has rolled three 300-games (two sanctioned) and just recently recorded a personal-best 799 series in competition.
There was a time when opponents sized up Hurwitz and took him for an easy mark. No more.
MEET:The 2016-17 AGR Boys Bowling Team
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Hes pretty well-known now, Brighton coach Jason Wasserman said. What they cant believe is thathes only in ninth grade and doing as well as he is. He reads lane conditions as good as anyone out there. Hes able to make adjustments on the fly, he knows what equipment to use at what time and then hes just so consistent with his shots.
Thats what happens when you bowl nearly every day from the time youre eye level to a ball rack. When you have parents, Caryn and Scott Hurwitz, who nurture your gifts with unconditional love. When a big brother, Reese, a senior on the Brighton team with a fine 210 average of his own and is headed to Purdue to bowl, is always there to cheer the strikes and help you handle the splits and open frames of life.
Cameron, 14, a hard-throwing right-hander, throws a ball that takes a sharp, last-second right-to-left hook into the pocket that makes pins explode like fireworks on the Fourth of July.
He has had many mentors but in large part he is a self-taught prodigy.
As a big PBA fan who would like to compete on tour someday, he has long watched bowling on television and the internet. He reads bowling magazines, studies the history of the gameand can recite the career statistics of PBA stars. His favorite player is a kindred spirit, 5-foot-5 Norm Duke, a family friend whose autograph he wears proudly on his green Storm bowling shirt.
For good measure, Cameron drills his own balls, customizes his own bowling shoes (blue and fluorescent green on this day), and has ideas for other bowling products that his dad, who owns a motorcycle parts manufacturing business, helps bring to life. Some have already caught the attention of people in the industry.
I think it came from watching the pros on television all the time and picking it up, Cameron said when asked where his style and passion for all things bowling comes from. I love all the physics behind bowling and just the fact you have to use your mind to be able to perform. Anybody of any size can be great at bowling as long as you know the right way to do it and as long as you know what each piece of equipment does for a particular oil pattern.
Bowling alone during off-hours, wearing a mask to prevent against infection, Cameron Hurwitz never gave up on dream of normal life and returning to Brighton High School team.(Photo: CARYN HURWITZ)
Understanding bowling science helped Cameron enjoy his best season so far, but it was medical science that got him back on the lanes.
A little more than two years ago while in the seventh grade, Cameron was getting ready to leave for the Section V tournament when his mother spotted black-and-blue marks on his arms and legs. A phone call to their family doctor led to blood work, which led to instructions to take her son to the emergency room immediately.
He had extremely low platelets, which clot your blood, and they told us to pack a bag, youll be there for many days, Caryn Hurwitz said.
It was six days to be exact, during which Cameron was diagnosed with Aplastic Anemia, a rare and serious blood disorder in which the body stops making enoughnew white and red cells and platelets.
His bone marrow had just shut down and with so few platelets he was at great risk, and with no immunity he couldnt be around people, Caryn Hurwitz said.
While undergoing treatments at Golisano Childrens Hospital, Cameron was unable to attend school and was quarantined at home for over five months. When given the OK by doctors, his lone escape was making trips to area bowling centers where generous owners allowed him to practice during off-hours to the public.
Encouraged by upticks in his white cell counts, Camerons caregivers couldnt say no when he begged to compete in the prestigious United States Bowling Congress Junior Gold national championships in the Chicago area in July 2015. While wearing an antiviral mask and in between receiving seven-hour blood transfusions at a Chicago hospital, Cameron made the televised final, placing second in the U12 division.
The boy behind the mask became a media celebrity and inspiration in the bowling community. He made the cover of Bowlers Journal and PBA stars became his fans. Hall of Famer Pete Weber posted a good luck video message on Facebook to Cameron.
Hed bowl without hardly any oxygen (in his bloodstream), Caryn Hurwitz said. I dont think people really understood how hard it was for him, but as long as he could go, even with the low blood counts, he kept bowling. When I think about, Im amazed.
Unfortunately for Cameron, the treatments he received didnt produce the desired results and as his eighth-grade school year began, he was placed on the national Be the Matchbone marrow registry.
Waiting times for a match can vary, but in Camerons case one was found in just a few months. And on Dec. 29, 2015 he underwent a transplant at Boston Childrens Hospital, a painstaking procedure where a patients body is re-started with new stem cells that need time to grow and take hold.
Six weeks in the hospital were followed by six more months of isolation, school tutoring, the entire Hurwitz family living in the germ-free lane, and the family bonding like an alleys glued wooden strips.
Throughout his recovery, Cameron kept bowling after hours, determined to be ready for his freshman season. Bowling had become his medicine.
So many gracious people had followed his story and said, When were closed come in and you just bowl, "Caryn Hurwitz said. He went in there and said Im just going to get stronger and do this. And he did.
Four months ago, on Camerons one-year checkup, the Hurwitzes received the news they prayed for: His blood counts were all near normal and he could resume living a normal life.
The mask went into the trash like an old pair of bowling shoes.
The feeling of freedom that you can go someplace and not have to wear a mask, it was awesome, Cameron said. For six months, I couldnt do anything. I could be anywhere outside but the only place inside I could be was at my home or the hospital.
He knew he was back the day he saw his hero, Norm Duke, in Columbus, Ohio, and returned to him a title ring that the 38-time tour winner had given him in the hospital in Boston. Cameron used it as inspiration during his recovery, then knew what he had to do.
I know how tough it is to win a PBA tournament and I didnt want to just accept something from him like that, he said. It was his hard work, not mine.
Put an X down in the character frame.
While the high school season started slowly for Cameron, he came on strong and raised his average 10 pins in the final fourmatches.
His 1,298 series (six games), including 244 and 257 games, led all Class B bowlers at sectionals and paced Brighton to third place. At the state tournament, he led the Section V team with a 1,288 series with high games of 215, 220 and 255.
At first I think I put too much pressure on myself, wanting to do well so badly, said Cameron, whose 95 average in the classroom rivals his performanceon the lanes. Once I just relaxed a little bit, I was bowling a lot better and I ended up bowling four amazing series the last four matches to make the composite team.
In his 19 seasons as Brightons coach, Wasserman has never met anyone with Camerons level of interest in every aspect of the game.
Bowling is his No. 1 thing, Wasserman said. Funny, but Id visit him in the hospital and there he was watching bowling on TV. What kept him going was his goal of getting back this year, and sure enough he was out there at the start.
All thanks to another hero hes never met a 30-year-old father of five sons from Rowlett, Texas, near Dallas who became his bone marrow donor.
Bryan Eddy, 30, of Rowlett, Texas and his 1 1/2-year-old son Leo. Eddy, Cameron Hurwitz's bone marrow donor, was moved to give back after his own son needed blood transfusions during 15-hour surgery to save his life after being born with a defect.(Photo: BRYAN EDDY)
Bryan Eddy, who manages a Texas Roadhouse restaurant, signed up for Be the Match while spending many hours walking the halls of Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston where his son, Leo, was born prematurely with a birth defect.
Thankful for the blood donations that helped save his son who needed surgery and spent three months in the hospital Leo is a healthy 1-year-old today Eddy was moved to give back. In just one month, he was contacted and told he was an O-negative match for a young boy in Rochester, N.Y.
Doctors extracted Eddys liquid marrow from both sides of his back near his pelvic bone under anesthesia and it was shipped to Boston.
After one year, patient and donor have the option of learning each others identity. Eddy and the Hurwitzes have spokenby phone and plan to meet this summer.
Hes a great kid and Im so happy it all worked out and he came through. Its pretty exciting, Eddy said. I was just doing anything I could to help someone else. It was my first time under anesthesia so I was nervous about that but it was really no worries on my end. I did the procedure on Monday, I recovered on a Tuesday and I was back to work on Wednesday. Cameron did all the work, my deal was easy-peasy.
After learning of Camerons bowling prowess, Eddy, a big sports fan, has watched his YouTube videos.
Hes good and I can tell what a great family they are, he said. So much love. To talk to Caryn and hear the joy in her voice and Cameron, to know I helped him out, there are no words to describe that.
As there are no words to properly say Thank you for the gift of life.
He sounds really cool, Cameronsaid. I cant wait to meet him.
Caryn Hurwitz, who put her home hairdressing business on hold to take care of her son, never hesitates these days to encourage people to give blood or join the bone marrow registry.
Were so grateful, she said. Every days a blessing. I feel its my calling now to get people to sign up and to be an advocate. Something like this, it changes you. What you set out to do and what youre here for now.
Soft-spoken and modest, Cameron isnt comfortable telling his story, but he knows it might help other kids battling an illness or facing some other challenge.
Inside his personal pro shop at his dads business, Magnum Shielding on Monroe Avenue, there is a ball drill press twice his size that was a gift from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. A poster from his hospital stay hangs on a wall: Happy Transplant Day Cameron, AKA Lil Duke.
At first it was kind of interesting to tell people but right now I dont like thinking about the past, he said. But Id tell them (other children who are ill) to stay strong and see the bright side of things and eventually everything will just be a memory.
As usual, the kid hit the pocket.
Jonathan Pitre ‘anxious’ as he readies for his second transplant Thursday – Ottawa Sun
Ottawa Sun | Jonathan Pitre 'anxious' as he readies for his second transplant Thursday Ottawa Sun Boileau goes into surgery at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children's Hospital at 5:30 a.m. Thursday to have bone marrow drawn from her hip. Surgeons will bore two holes into her pelvis and withdraw the bone marrow, a material rich in stem cells; ... |
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Jonathan Pitre 'anxious' as he readies for his second transplant Thursday - Ottawa Sun
How inkjet printers help transform stem cells – Futurity: Research News
Inkjet printers and lasers are parts of a new wayto produce cells important to research on nerve regeneration.
Schwann cells, for example, form sheaths around axons, the tail-like parts of nerve cells that carry electrical impulses. They promote regeneration of those axonsand secrete substances that promote the health of nerve cells. But theyre hard to come by in useful numbers.
This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells.
So researchers have been taking readily available mesenchymal stem cells (also called bone marrow stromal stem cells that can form bone, cartilage, and fat cells) and using a chemical process to differentiate them into Schwann cells. But its an arduous and expensive process.
Researchers at Iowa State University have developed a nanotechnology that uses inkjet printers to print multi-layer graphene circuits and also uses lasers to treat and improve the surface structure and conductivity of those circuits.
It turns out mesenchymal stem cells adhere and grow well on the treated circuits raised, rough, and 3D nanostructures. Add small doses of electricity100 millivolts for 10 minutes per day over 15 daysand the stem cells become Schwann-like cells.
This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells, says co-first author Metin Uz, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical and biological engineering. There is huge potential here.
The electrical stimulation is very effective, differentiating 85 percent of the stem cells into Schwann-like cells compared to 75 percent by the standard chemical process, according to the paper. The electrically differentiated cells also produced 80 nanograms per milliliter of nerve growth factor compared to 55 nanograms per milliliter for the chemically treated cells.
The researchers report the results could lead to changes in how nerve injuries are treated inside the body.
These results help pave the way for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration where the flexible graphene electrodes could conform to the injury site and provide intimate electrical stimulation for nerve cell regrowth, the researchers write in a summary of their findings.
The paper reports several advantages to using electrical stimulation to differentiate stem cells into Schwann-like cells:
A key to making it all work is a graphene inkjet printing process that takes advantages of graphenes wonder-material propertiesits a great conductor of electricity and heat, its strong, stable, and biocompatibleto produce low-cost, flexible, and even wearable electronics.
But there was a problem: once graphene electronic circuits were printed, they had to be treated to improve electrical conductivity. That usually meant high temperatures or chemicals. Either could damage flexible printing surfaces including plastic films or paper.
The research group of lead author Jonathan Claussen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and an associate of the US Department of Energys Ames Laboratory, solved the problem by developing computer-controlled laser technology that selectively irradiates inkjet-printed graphene oxide.
The treatment removes ink binders and reduces graphene oxide to graphenephysically stitching together millions of tiny graphene flakes. The process makes electrical conductivity more than a thousand times better.
That led to experimental attempts to grow stem cells on printed graphene and then to electrical stimulation experiments.
We knew this would be a really good platform for electrical stimulation, says Suprem Das, a postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the Ames Laboratory. But we didnt know it would differentiate these cells.
But now that it has, the researchers say there are new possibilities to think about. The technology, for example, could one day be used to create dissolvable or absorbable nerve regeneration materials that could be surgically placed in a persons body and wouldnt require a second surgery to remove.
The findings appear in Advanced Healthcare Materials. Funding came from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and Iowa State.
Source: Iowa State University
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How inkjet printers help transform stem cells - Futurity: Research News
VWCC to host bone marrow donor drive April 19 – Roanoke Times
Virginia Western Community College will host a student-led Be the Match donor drive on April 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the courtyward between the Fralin Center and Business Science Building and the Pedestrian bridge. Through the drive, potential donors will learn if they could provide life-saving bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplants.
At the drive, potential donors will complete a registration form with contact information, health information and a signed agreement to join the Be The Match Registry. To help you complete the form, bring along:
Personal identification (such as a driver's license or passport)
Contact information for two family members or friends who would know how to reach you in the future if your contact information changes
You will provide a swab of cheek cells to be tissue-typed. We will use the results to match you to patients
During the drive, an individual who has battled leukemia and received a stem cell transplant will speak to perspective donors on the importance of donation. Please join us to learn how you could help those in need.
For more information on Be the Match, visit http://www.bethematch.org.
Submitted by Josh Meyer
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VWCC to host bone marrow donor drive April 19 - Roanoke Times
Cells Essential for ‘Birth’ of Blood Stem Cells Revealed – Technology Networks
Credit: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
Like private investigators on a stake out, St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital scientists used patience and video surveillance-like tools to identify cells that trigger blood cell development. The findings offer clues for making blood-forming stem cells in the laboratory that may ultimately help improve access to bone marrow transplantation.
The research will likely open new avenues of investigation in stem cell biology and blood development and provide insight to aid efforts to make transplantable hematopoietic stem cells in the lab, said corresponding author Wilson Clements, Ph.D., an assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Hematology.
Blood-forming stem cells are capable of making any type of blood cell in the body. They are also used in transplant therapies for cancers like leukemia or other blood diseases like sickle cell. They are starting to be used to deliver gene therapy. However, a shortage of suitable donors limits access to treatment, and efforts to produce blood from pluripotent stem cells in the laboratory have been unsuccessful. Pluripotent stem cells are the master cells capable of making any cell in the body.
All blood-forming stem cells normally arise before birth from certain endothelial cells found in the interior blood vessel lining of the developing aorta. This processincluding how endothelial cells are set on the path to becoming blood stem cellsis not completely understood.
Clements and first author Erich Damm, Ph.D., a St. Jude postdoctoral fellow, have identified trunk neural crest cells as key orchestrators of the conversion of endothelial cells to blood stem cells. Trunk neural crest cells are made in the developing spinal cord and migrate throughout the embryo. They eventually give rise to a variety of adult cells, including neurons and glial cells in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, which control feeding, fighting, fleeing and procreating.
Using time-lapse video, the researchers tracked the migration of neural crest cells in the transparent embryos of zebrafish. Zebrafish and humans share nearly identical blood systems, as well as the programming that makes them during development. After about 20 hours, the neural crest cells had reached the developing aorta. After hour 24, the migrating cells had cozied up to the endothelial cells in the aorta, which then turned on genes, such as runx1, indicating their conversion to blood stem cells.
The investigators used a variety of methods to show that disrupting the normal migration of neural crest cells or otherwise blocking their contact with the aorta endothelial cells prevented the birth of blood stem cells. Meanwhile, other aspects of zebrafish development were unaffected.
Researchers have speculated that the endothelial cells that give rise to blood-forming stem cells are surrounded by a support niche of other cells whose identity and origins were unknown, Damm said. Our results support the existence of a niche, and identify trunk neural crest cells as an occupant.
Adult bone marrow includes niches that support normal function and notably feature cells derived from trunk neural crest cells.
The findings also suggest that trunk neural crest cells use a signal or signals to launch blood stem cell production during development. The researchers have eliminated adrenaline and noradrenaline as the signaling molecules, but work continues to identify the signaling proteins or small molecules involved.
The research was supported in part by a grant (R00HL097) from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health; the March of Dimes; and ALSAC, the fundraising arm of St. Jude.
Reference:
Damm, E. W., & Clements, W. K. (2017). Pdgf signalling guides neural crest contribution to the haematopoietic stem cell specification niche. Nature Cell Biology. doi:10.1038/ncb3508
This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.
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Cells Essential for 'Birth' of Blood Stem Cells Revealed - Technology Networks
First bone marrow stem cell transplantations performed in Armenia – Armenpress.am
First bone marrow stem cell transplantations performed in Armenia
YEREVAN, APRIL 10, ARMENPRESS. The first two stem cell transplantations of bone marrow in Armenia were performed in the Yolyan Hematology Center by Professor Dr. NicolausKrger, head of the transplantation department of Hamburgs Eppendorf Clinic and the Yolyan Hematology Clinics team.
Professor Smbat Daghbashyan, head of the Armenian transplantation doctors team, told reporters the transplantation passed successfully.
The patients, who trusted her health to the doctors, is a woman from Artsakh, who had to travel abroad for undergoing the same surgery. The second patient is a man, who had a repetition of the disease after chemotherapy, he said, adding that 60 patients annually need stem cell transplantation in Armenia.
We will continue cooperation with our colleagues from Hamburg. The patient who had to receive the transplantation in Hamburg, can get it here the same way. We will perform transplantations in 7-10 patients during this year, since this a gradual process, he said.
Dr. NicolausKrger congratulated the Armenian doctors in introducing the new treatment method in Armenia.
This method is considered to be innovative in the world and is used for treating cancerous diseases, he said.
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First bone marrow stem cell transplantations performed in Armenia - Armenpress.am
Innovative Process for Differentiating Stem Cells into Schwann-Like Cells – AZoNano
Written by AZoNanoApr 11 2017
Iowa State University researchers, left to right, Metin Uz, Suprem Das, Surya Mallapragada and Jonathan Claussen are developing technologies to promote nerve regrowth. The monitor shows mesenchymal stem cells (the white) aligned along graphene circuits (the black). CREDIT: Photo by Christopher Gannon.
Scientists searching for the means to regenerate nerves might find it difficult to acquire the important tools needed for research. One such example is Schwann cells that form sheaths enclosing axons, which are tail-like portions of nerve cells that convey electrical impulses. In addition to promoting regeneration of the axons, the Schwann cells discharge substances, boosting the health of nerve cells.
To put it differently, the Schwann cells prove to be helpful to researchers working towards the regeneration of nerve cells, particularly peripheral nerve cells located outside the spinal cord and brain. However, the count of Schwann cells is too low to be of any use.
Scientists have been using noncontroversial, readily available mesenchymal stem cells that is, bone marrow stromal stem cells with the ability to form cartilage, bone, and fat cells by differentiating them into Schwann cells by means of a chemical process. Unfortunately, this process is costly and laborious.
The Iowa State University research team have been looking for a better way to transform the stem cells into Schwann-like cells, and have created a nanotechnology that employs inkjet printers for printing multi-layer graphene circuits. It also employs lasers to treat and enhance conductivity and the surface structure of the circuits.
The mesenchymal stem cells have been found to adhere and grow in a better manner on the rough, raised, and 3-D nanostructures of the treated circuit. When small doses of electricity of about 100 mV were applied for 10 minutes per day, for a time period of 15 days, the stem cells transformed into Schwann-like cells.
This discovery has made it to the front cover of Advanced Healthcare Materials, a scientific journal. The lead author of the study is Jonathan Claussen, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energys Ames Laboratory. The first authors of the study are Suprem Das, a postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the Ames Laboratory, and Metin Uz, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical and biological engineering.
The research has been funded by the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, and Iowa States College of Engineering, including the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The research has also been supported by The Carol Vohs Johnson Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Surya Mallapragada. She is a co-author of the study, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, as well as an associate of the Ames Laboratory.
This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells. There is huge potential here.
Metin Uz
When compared to the standard chemical process with the ability of differentiating only 75% of the stem cells into Schwann-like cells, the highly effective electrical stimulation carried out in the new technique can differentiate 85%. In addition, the electrically differentiated cells generated a nerve growth factor of 80 ng/mm when compared with 55 ng/mm in the case of the chemically treated cells.
The research team believes the outcome might result in changes in the ways nerve injuries are cured inside the body.
These results help pave the way for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration, where the flexible graphene electrodes could conform to the injury site and provide intimate electrical stimulation for nerve cell regrowth.
The research team
Various benefits of using electrical stimulation for transforming stem cells into Schwann-like cells are reported in the paper:
A graphene inkjet printing process, created in Claussens research lab, is an important part of making the process work. Flexible, inexpensive, and wearable electronics can be produced through the process by making appropriate use of the benefits of wonder-material graphene, namely high stability, high strength, biocompatibility, and higher electrical and heat conductivity.
The research team confronted one major challenge after printing the graphene electronic circuits, the circuits mandated further treatment to enhance the electrical conductivity, normally done using chemicals or high temperatures. Both of these methods can damage the flexible printing surfaces which include paper or plastic films.
Claussen and his colleagues overcame the challenge by developing a computer-controlled laser technology with the ability to selectively irradiate inkjet-printed graphene oxide. This step eliminates ink binders and converts the graphene oxide to graphene by physically connecting millions of tiny graphene flakes together. This improves the electrical conductivity by over a thousand times.
The cooperation between Claussens team of nanoengineers (who developed printed graphene technologies), and Mallapragadas team of chemical engineers (who investigated nerve regeneration), started as a consequence of informal conversations on campus.
This resulted in experimental efforts to grow stem cells on printed graphene and then to perform electrical stimulation experiments.
We knew this would be a really good platform for electrical stimulation. But we didnt know it would differentiate these cells.
Suprem Das
Since the process has been successful in differentiating the stem cells, the scientists believe that there may be further prospective applications to consider. For instance, in future, the technology could be applied to develop absorbable or dissolvable nerve regeneration materials. These could be surgically positioned inside a patients body without the need for subsequent surgery to remove the materials.
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Innovative Process for Differentiating Stem Cells into Schwann-Like Cells - AZoNano
Graphene, electricity used to change stem cells for nerve regrowth – Science Daily
Researchers looking for ways to regenerate nerves can have a hard time obtaining key tools of their trade.
Schwann cells are an example. They form sheaths around axons, the tail-like parts of nerve cells that carry electrical impulses. They promote regeneration of those axons. And they secrete substances that promote the health of nerve cells.
In other words, they're very useful to researchers hoping to regenerate nerve cells, specifically peripheral nerve cells, those cells outside the brain and spinal cord.
But Schwann cells are hard to come by in useful numbers.
So researchers have been taking readily available and noncontroversial mesenchymal stem cells (also called bone marrow stromal stem cells that can form bone, cartilage and fat cells) and using a chemical process to turn them, or as researchers say, differentiate them into Schwann cells. But it's an arduous, step-by-step and expensive process.
Researchers at Iowa State University are exploring what they hope will be a better way to transform those stem cells into Schwann-like cells. They've developed a nanotechnology that uses inkjet printers to print multi-layer graphene circuits and also uses lasers to treat and improve the surface structure and conductivity of those circuits.
It turns out mesenchymal stem cells adhere and grow well on the treated circuit's raised, rough and 3-D nanostructures. Add small doses of electricity -- 100 millivolts for 10 minutes per day over 15 days -- and the stem cells become Schwann-like cells.
The researchers' findings are featured on the front cover of the scientific journal Advanced Healthcare Materials. Jonathan Claussen, an Iowa State assistant professor of mechanical engineering and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory, is lead author. Suprem Das, a postdoctoral research associate in mechanical engineering and an associate of the Ames Laboratory; and Metin Uz, a postdoctoral research associate in chemical and biological engineering, are first authors.
The project is supported by funds from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Iowa State's College of Engineering, the department of mechanical engineering and the Carol Vohs Johnson Chair in Chemical and Biological Engineering held by Surya Mallapragada, an Anson Marston Distinguished Professor in Engineering, an associate of the Ames Laboratory and a paper co-author.
"This technology could lead to a better way to differentiate stem cells," Uz said. "There is huge potential here."
The electrical stimulation is very effective, differentiating 85 percent of the stem cells into Schwann-like cells compared to 75 percent by the standard chemical process, according to the research paper. The electrically differentiated cells also produced 80 nanograms per milliliter of nerve growth factor compared to 55 nanograms per milliliter for the chemically treated cells.
The researchers report the results could lead to changes in how nerve injuries are treated inside the body.
"These results help pave the way for in vivo peripheral nerve regeneration where the flexible graphene electrodes could conform to the injury site and provide intimate electrical stimulation for nerve cell regrowth," the researchers wrote in a summary of their findings.
The paper reports several advantages to using electrical stimulation to differentiate stem cells into Schwann-like cells:
A key to making it all work is a graphene inkjet printing process developed in Claussen's research lab. The process takes advantages of graphene's wonder-material properties -- it's a great conductor of electricity and heat, it's strong, stable and biocompatible -- to produce low-cost, flexible and even wearable electronics.
But there was a problem: once graphene electronic circuits were printed, they had to be treated to improve electrical conductivity. That usually meant high temperatures or chemicals. Either could damage flexible printing surfaces including plastic films or paper.
Claussen and his research group solved the problem by developing computer-controlled laser technology that selectively irradiates inkjet-printed graphene oxide. The treatment removes ink binders and reduces graphene oxide to graphene -- physically stitching together millions of tiny graphene flakes. The process makes electrical conductivity more than a thousand times better.
The collaboration of Claussen's group of nanoengineers developing printed graphene technologies and Mallapragada's group of chemical engineers working on nerve regeneration began with some informal conversations on campus.
That led to experimental attempts to grow stem cells on printed graphene and then to electrical stimulation experiments.
"We knew this would be a really good platform for electrical stimulation," Das said. "But we didn't know it would differentiate these cells."
But now that it has, the researchers say there are new possibilities to think about. The technology, for example, could one day be used to create dissolvable or absorbable nerve regeneration materials that could be surgically placed in a person's body and wouldn't require a second surgery to remove.
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Graphene, electricity used to change stem cells for nerve regrowth - Science Daily
Understanding Multiple Myeloma – Caswell Messenger
(NAPSI)You may be surprised to learn that multiple myeloma is the second most common cancer of the blood, after leukemia. It starts in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell. In time, myeloma cells collect in the bone marrow and may damage the solid part of the bone and eventually harm other tissues and organs, such as the skeleton and the kidneys.
In fact, there are approximately 114,000 new cases diagnosed every year. If you or a loved one is among the 230,000 people living with multiple myeloma worldwide there are a few facts you should know.
What Can Be Done
For many people with the disease, an autologous stem cell transplant may be an answer for eligible patients. This involves collecting the patient's own blood-forming stem cells and storing them. He or she is then treated with high doses of chemotherapy or a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. This kills cancer cells but also eliminates the remaining blood-producing stem cells in the bone marrow. Afterward, the collected stem cells are transplanted back into the patient, so the bone marrow can produce new blood cells.
To help people learn more about the disease and its treatments, the Multiple Myeloma Journey Partners Program was created.
This peer-to-peer education program for patients, caregivers and health care providers leverages storytelling as a tool to improve the patient experience. Journey Partners are multiple myeloma patients who have experienced similar emotions, faced the same challenges and asked the same questions about living with the disease. A Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner will come to any community in which 10 or more people would like to attend the free one-hour educational seminar. The main benefit is that multiple myeloma patients know they're not alone, and the program provides educational resources and services that help patients and families navigate their journey to achieve the best possible outcomes.
As John Killip, a Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner, puts it, "It was conversations with my support group, family and health care providers that influenced my decision to have a stem cell transplant in 2008, when I was first diagnosed with multiple myeloma, at the age of 65. Mentoring other multiple myeloma patients is one of the highlights of my life. I became a Journey Partner to share my story and help others with the disease make sense of the diagnosis and overcome the fear of the unknown."
Learn More
For more information or to request a program, you can visit http://www.mmjourneypartners.com. Anyone interested in becoming a Multiple Myeloma Journey Partner can contact the program coordinator listed on the website. The program is sponsored by Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi focused on rare diseases, multiple sclerosis, immunology, and oncology.
On the Net:North American Precis Syndicate, Inc.(NAPSI)
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Understanding Multiple Myeloma - Caswell Messenger
OHSU stem cell study shows promise in treating strokes – KATU
by Stuart Tomlinson, KATU News
Steven Donovan suffered a stroke on Father's Day, 2014. (KATU)
Steven Donovan just knew something wasnt right.
It was the morning of Fathers Day, 2014. Donovan's daughter made him strawberry shortcake and as he rose from his easy chair that morning, his field of vision changed he likened it to having the multi-faceted vision of a fly.
There was a sound like a jet engine in his head, and the images began spinning.
I remember asking, calling out to my wife for help saying, Help me, I think I'm having a stroke, Donovan said.
He was rushed to a Bay Area hospital where he was assigned a doctor from OHSU, who interviewed him via a remote hookup.
Doctors in the Bay Area administered clot-busting drugs, which Donovan said was (a) critical first step toward treating the stroke.
Donovan was airlifted to Portland and admitted to OHSU, and in less than 24 hours became part of a clinical trial at OHSU, where doctors were testing the efficacy of stem cell treatments for strokes.
They go to the brain and they make the brain act more like it's a very young brain, said Dr. Wayne Clark, a professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine and director of the Oregon Stroke Center at OHSU. We know that when children have strokes, they can have a full recovery, even with a major stroke. People in their 90s who have a stroke show very little recovery.
Donovan became part of a global study involving 129 patients. Sixty-five of them were given stem cells grown in bone marrow; 61 patients received a placebo.
The study, recently published in The Lancet medical journal, found that not only was the treatment safe with no side effects, after one year stroke victims showed improvement over those who received the placebo.
Dr. Clark says once approved by the FDA, stem cell treatment could make a big difference in recovery from strokes.
If these results are confirmed, this would really open up the number of patients who would be able to receive treatment for their strokes, Clark told OHSU news.
Two years after his stroke, as part of his recovery, Donovan enrolled in a 10-day mountaineering class on Mount Baker and plans to climb Mount Hood as soon as possible.
"This is truly amazing,'' he said of his recovery. "I was paralyzed and couldn't even move, and even though the mountaineering training was hard, I was able to do it."
Dr. Clark says OHSU will be a part of a second round of trials this summer.
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OHSU stem cell study shows promise in treating strokes - KATU