Archive for the ‘Cell Medicine’ Category

Duke University Health SystemDr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System

Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System and chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, has been appointed to a six-year term as the next president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), effective July 1, 2014. Dr. Dzau will take over the lead role from Dr. Harvey Fineberg, who served in the position for twelve years.

Dr. Dzau began his career in medicine as a cardiologist, having previously taught at Harvard Medical School and served as chair of the department of medicine. He also worked at Brigham and Womens Hospital as the director of research. His ongoing award-winning research has been key in the development of cardiovascular drugs, as well as techniques to repair tissue damage from heart attacks and heart disease using stem cell therapies.

Dr. Eugene Braunwald, often called the father of modern cardiology and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has known Dr. Dzau for more than 40 years and worked with him at many different stages of his career at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Partners Healthcare. In an interview Wednesday he called the upcoming IOM president a force of nature.

He is what I would call a talented, quadruple threat. A great physician, inspiring teacher, and a very creative scientist, said Dr. Braunwald, who trained Dzau when he was a resident at Brigham and Womens and continued to work with him on cardiovascular research when Dr. Dzau became chief resident, and then faculty at Harvard Medical School. The quadruple threat is that he also sees the larger picture. Hes interested in areas of medicine that most academic physicians have stayed away from. His work and ideas in global and community-based medicine have left an important heritage at each institution where hes worked.

After nearly a decade at Duke, Dr. Dzaus leadership has been credited with the launch of a number of innovative and global-focused medical institutions, including the Duke-National University of Signapore Graduate Medical School, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke Institute for Health Innovation, Duke Cancer Institute, as well as the Duke Translational Medicine Institute.

Im deeply honored to become the next president of the IOM and recognize the critically important role that the IOM will have in improving the health of the nation at a time of extraordinary evolution in biomedical research and health care delivery, Dzau said in a press release from Duke University Health System. The explosion of new data resources, novel technologies and breathtaking research advances make this the most promising time in history for driving innovations that will improve health care delivery, outcomes and quality.

As the health sciences extension of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is known for its leadership in advancing health sciences and objective medical research nationally as a nonprofit academic research organization. The outgoing IOM president, Dr. Harvey Fineberg (previously Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health) has lead the nonprofit for twelve years. His focus and research have centered around public health policy and an improvement in informed medical decision making.

This leaves the medical community wondering what Dr. Dzau will bring to the Institute.

As a former chairman of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), Dr. Dzau advocated for the innovative transition of academic medical and health centers into institutions that can survive the rapid transitions in the health care industry. In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Dzau discusses the uncertain future of academic medical centers. He argues that industry pressures and cost restraints from the Affordable Care Act limit the research and education-based missions of teaching hospitals.

Read the original here:
Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine - Boston.com

Duke University Health SystemDr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System

Dr. Victor J. Dzau, the current president and CEO of Duke University Health System and chancellor for health affairs at Duke University, has been appointed to a six-year term as the next president of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), effective July 1, 2014. Dr. Dzau will take over the lead role from Dr. Harvey Fineberg, who served in the position for twelve years.

Dr. Dzau began his career in medicine as a cardiologist, having previously taught at Harvard Medical School and served as chair of the department of medicine. He also worked at Brigham and Womens Hospital as the director of research. His ongoing award-winning research has been key in the development of cardiovascular drugs, as well as techniques to repair tissue damage from heart attacks and heart disease using stem cell therapies.

Dr. Eugene Braunwald, often called the father of modern cardiology and a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, has known Dr. Dzau for more than 40 years and worked with him at many different stages of his career at Brigham and Womens Hospital and Partners Healthcare. In an interview Wednesday he called the upcoming IOM president a force of nature.

He is what I would call a talented, quadruple threat. A great physician, inspiring teacher, and a very creative scientist, said Dr. Braunwald, who trained Dzau when he was a resident at Brigham and Womens and continued to work with him on cardiovascular research when Dr. Dzau became chief resident, and then faculty at Harvard Medical School. The quadruple threat is that he also sees the larger picture. Hes interested in areas of medicine that most academic physicians have stayed away from. His work and ideas in global and community-based medicine have left an important heritage at each institution where hes worked.

After nearly a decade at Duke, Dr. Dzaus leadership has been credited with the launch of a number of innovative and global-focused medical institutions, including the Duke-National University of Signapore Graduate Medical School, Duke Global Health Institute, Duke Institute for Health Innovation, Duke Cancer Institute, as well as the Duke Translational Medicine Institute.

Im deeply honored to become the next president of the IOM and recognize the critically important role that the IOM will have in improving the health of the nation at a time of extraordinary evolution in biomedical research and health care delivery, Dzau said in a press release from Duke University Health System. The explosion of new data resources, novel technologies and breathtaking research advances make this the most promising time in history for driving innovations that will improve health care delivery, outcomes and quality.

As the health sciences extension of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine is known for its leadership in advancing health sciences and objective medical research nationally as a nonprofit academic research organization. The outgoing IOM president, Dr. Harvey Fineberg (previously Dean of the Harvard School of Public Health) has lead the nonprofit for twelve years. His focus and research have centered around public health policy and an improvement in informed medical decision making.

This leaves the medical community wondering what Dr. Dzau will bring to the Institute.

As a former chairman of the Association of Academic Health Centers (AAHC), Dr. Dzau advocated for the innovative transition of academic medical and health centers into institutions that can survive the rapid transitions in the health care industry. In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Dzau discusses the uncertain future of academic medical centers. He argues that industry pressures and cost restraints from the Affordable Care Act limit the research and education-based missions of teaching hospitals.

Read the rest here:
Duke Health System CEO appointed to head Institute of Medicine

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX), a biotechnology company that develops and markets products in the field of regenerative medicine, today announced that Chief Executive Officer Michael D. West, PhD will present at the 9th Annual Stem Cell Summit in New York. Dr. West will speak in the session Disrupting the Pharma Model with Allogeneic Stem Cell Therapies on February 18, 2014, starting at 9:05 a.m. EST.

Dr. West will discuss the potential comparative advantages of treating disease with BioTime's PureStem-based therapeutics compared to traditional small molecule pharmaceuticals and BioTime's product development strategy. The presentation will be made available on BioTime's website at http://www.biotimeinc.com.

About BioTime, Inc.

BioTime is a biotechnology company engaged in research and product development in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine refers to therapies based on stem cell technology that are designed to rebuild cell and tissue function lost due to degenerative disease or injury. BioTimes focus is on pluripotent stem cell technology based on human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. hES and iPS cells provide a means of manufacturing every cell type in the human body and therefore show considerable promise for the development of a number of new therapeutic products. BioTimes therapeutic and research products include a wide array of proprietary PureStem progenitors, HyStem hydrogels, culture media, and differentiation kits. BioTime is developing Renevia (a HyStem product) as a biocompatible, implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based matrix for cell delivery in human clinical applications. In addition, BioTime has developed Hextend, a blood plasma volume expander for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment and other applications. Hextend is manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by Hospira, Inc. and in South Korea by CJ CheilJedang Corporation under exclusive licensing agreements.

BioTime is also developing stem cell and other products for research, therapeutic, and diagnostic use through its subsidiaries:

Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. is a new subsidiary which has acquired the stem cell assets of Geron Corporation, including patents and other intellectual property, biological materials, reagents and equipment for the development of new therapeutic products for regenerative medicine.

OncoCyte Corporation is developing products and technologies to diagnose and treat cancer.

Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. (Cell Cure Neurosciences) is an Israel-based biotechnology company focused on developing stem cell-based therapies for retinal and neurological disorders, including the development of retinal pigment epithelial cells for the treatment of macular degeneration, and treatments for multiple sclerosis.

LifeMap Sciences, Inc. (LifeMap Sciences) markets, sells and distributes GeneCards, the leading human gene database, as part of an integrated database suite that also includes the LifeMap Discovery database of embryonic development, stem cell research and regenerative medicine, and MalaCards, the human disease database.

ES Cell International Pte Ltd., a Singapore private limited company, developed clinical and research grade hES cell lines and plans to market those cell lines and other BioTime research products in over-seas markets as part of BioTimes ESI BIO Division.

Continue reading here:
BioTime CEO Dr. Michael West to Present at 9th Annual Stem Cell Summit

Washington, Feb. 17 : A new study on why skeletal muscle stem cells stop dividing and renewing muscle mass during aging points up a unique therapeutic opportunity for managing muscle-wasting conditions in humans.

According to Bradley Olwin from University of Colorado Boulder, the loss of skeletal muscle mass and function as we age can lead to sarcopenia, a debilitating muscle-wasting condition that generally hits the elderly hardest.

The new study indicates that altering two particular cell-signaling pathways independently in aged mice enhances muscle stem cell renewal and improves muscle regeneration.

One cell-signaling pathway the team identified, known as p38 MAPK, appears to be a major player in making or breaking the skeletal muscle stem cell, or satellite cell, renewal process in adult mice, Olwin said.

Hyperactivation of the p38 MAPK cell-signaling pathway inhibits the renewal of muscle stem cells in aged mice, perhaps because of cellular stress and inflammatory responses acquired during the aging process.

"We showed that the level of signaling from this cellular pathway is very important to the renewal of the satellite cells in adult mice, which was a very big surprise," Olwin said.

The results could lead to the use of low-dose inhibitors, perhaps anti-inflammatory compounds, to calm the activity in the p38 MAPK cell-signaling pathway in human muscle stem cells, the researcher said.

The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

--ANI (Posted on 17-02-2014)

The rest is here:
Cell-signaling pathway that plays key role in age-related muscle loss identified

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

16-Feb-2014

Contact: Krista Conger kristac@stanford.edu 650-725-5371 Stanford University Medical Center

STANFORD, Calif. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have pinpointed why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury: Over time, stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew.

"In the past, it's been thought that muscle stem cells themselves don't change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells' environment," said Helen Blau, PhD, the Donald and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor. "However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age. In fact, two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles."

Blau and her colleagues also identified for the first time a process by which the older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells. "Our findings identify a defect inherent to old muscle stem cells," she said. "Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect. As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage."

Blau, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanford's Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, is the senior author of a paper describing the research, which will be published online Feb. 16 in Nature Medicine. Postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Cosgrove, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Penney Gilbert, PhD, now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, are the lead authors.

The researchers found that many muscle stem cells isolated from mice that were 2 years old, equivalent to about 80 years of human life, exhibited elevated levels of activity in a biological cascade called the p38 MAP kinase pathway. This pathway impedes the proliferation of the stem cells and encourages them to instead become non-stem, muscle progenitor cells. As a result, although many of the old stem cells divide in a dish, the resulting colonies are very small and do not contain many stem cells.

Using a drug to block this p38 MAP kinase pathway in old stem cells (while also growing them on a specialized matrix called hydrogel) allowed them to divide rapidly in the laboratory and make a large number of potent new stem cells that can robustly repair muscle damage, Blau said.

"Aging is a stochastic but cumulative process," Cosgrove said. "We've now shown that muscle stem cells progressively lose their stem cell function during aging. This treatment does not turn the clock back on dysfunctional stem cells in the aged population. Rather, it stimulates stem cells from old muscle tissues that are still functional to begin dividing and self-renew."

See the original post:
Researchers rejuvenate stem cell population from elderly mice, enabling muscle recovery

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

13-Feb-2014

Contact: Joseph Caputo joseph_caputo@harvard.edu 617-496-1491 Harvard University

Harvard stem cell scientists have a new theory for how stem cells decide whether to become liver or pancreatic cells during development. A cell's fate, the researchers found, is determined by the nearby presence of prostaglandin E2, a messenger molecule best known for its role in inflammation and pain. The discovery, published in the journal Developmental Cell, could potentially make liver and pancreas cells easier to generate both in the lab and for future cell therapies.

Wolfram Goessling, MD, PhD, and Trista North, PhD, both principal faculty members of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), identified a gradient of prostaglandin E2 in the region of zebrafish embryos where stem cells differentiate into the internal organs. Experiments conducted by postdoctoral fellow Sahar Nissim, MD, PhD, in the Goessling lab showed how liver-or-pancreas-fated stem cells have specific receptors on their membranes to detect the amount of prostaglandin E2 hormone present and coerce the cell into differentiating into a specific organ type.

"Cells that see more prostaglandin become liver and the cells that see less prostaglandin become pancreas," said Goessling, a Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. "This is the first time that prostaglandin is being reported as a factor that can lead this fate switch and essentially instruct what kind of identity a cell is going to be."

The researchers next collaborated with the laboratory of HSCI Affiliated Faculty member Richard Maas, MD, PhD, Director of the Genetics Division at Brigham and Women's Hospital, to see whether prostaglandin E2 has a similar function in mammals. Richard Sherwood, PhD, a former graduate student of HSCI Co-director Doug Melton, was successfully able to instruct mouse stem cells to become either liver or pancreas cells by exposing them to different amounts of the hormone. Other experiments showed that prostaglandin E2 could also enhance liver growth and regeneration of liver cells.

Goessling and his research partner North, a Harvard Medical School Assistant Professor of Pathology at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, first became intrigued by prostaglandin E2 in 2005, as postdoctoral fellows in the lab of HSCI Executive Committee Chair Leonard Zon, MD. It caught their attention during a chemical screen exposing 2,500 known drugs to zebrafish embryos to find any that could amplify blood stem cell populations. Prostaglandin E2 was the most successful hit the first molecule discovered in any system to have such an effectand recently successfully completed Phase 1b clinical trials as a therapeutic to improve cord blood transplants.

"Prostaglandin might be a master regulator of cell growth in different organs," Goessling said. "It's used in cord blood, as we have shown, it works in the liver, and who knows what other organs might be affected by it."

With evidence of how prostaglandin E2 works in the liver, the researchers next want to calibrate how it can be used in the laboratory to instruct induced pluripotent stem cellsmature cells that have been reprogrammed into a stem-like stateto become liver or pancreas cells. The scientists predict that such a protocol could benefit patients who need liver cells for transplantation or who have had organ injury.

Visit link:
Harvard scientists find cell fate switch that decides liver, or pancreas?

Instead of being shut out of a $40 million stem cell grant awarded to Stanford University, San Diego researchers will be major partners, say the scientists who lead the project.

Joseph Ecker of the Salk Institute and Michael Snyder of Stanford say that under an informal arrangement, they will jointly allocate money granted from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine for a new center on stem cell genomics. CIRM is responsible for distributing $3 billion in state bond money to turn stem cell research into disease treatments.

Joseph Ecker, a Salk Institute researcher and co-principal investigator of the new center for stem cell genomics created with a $40 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. / Salk Institute

Genomics, the study of the complete set of genes and DNA in an organism, is necessary to help understand how stem cells function. Stem cells contain virtually the same genes as adult cells but differ in which genes are turned on and off. The signals that cause stem cells to differentiate are not well understood.

By analyzing the genomes of stem cells, researchers expect to better understand how stem cells can produce more stem cells, and which genes are involved in directing stem cells down the path to becoming adult cells of interest, such as islet cells that make insulin, bone or retinal cells.

Last months decision had been characterized as a big win for Stanford, because the university had been awarded the grant over competing applications, including one from The Scripps Research Institute and San Diego DNA sequencing giant Illumina.

Ecker and Snyder said that belief is a misunderstanding, because their proposal is a cooperative venture involving extensive participation from San Diego biomedical scientists.

Michael Snyder, a Stanford University researcher and co-principal investigator of the new center for stem cell genomics created with a $40 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. / Stanford University

The leadership issue is confusing, because CIRM requires a single institute to be listed as the lead on funding proposals, even if the institutions are sharing leadership, Ecker said by email. In fact, Mike Snyder and I, by proxy Stanford and Salk, are equal partners. Responsibility for administration of the center will fall equally to Stanford and Salk researchers, as well as strategic steering and decision-making on what projects to pursue.

Besides Salk and Stanford, partners are UC San Diego, the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the J. Craig Venter Institute, The Scripps Research Institute and UC Santa Cruz. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute also plays a role.

More:
Salk, Stanford equal partners in stem cell genomics program

15:00 EST 12 Feb 2014 | PR Web

Join Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center on an exciting educational seminar focusing on how adipose-derived stem cells have been shown to have a preferred differentiation capability, have a minimal and virtually painless ease of extraction, and have been scientifically proven to have strong immuno-modulatory effects.

Boca Raton, FL (PRWEB) February 12, 2014

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida, announces a series of free public seminars on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief, and, Dr. Nia Smyrniotis, Medical Director.

The seminars will be held on February 16th and March 2nd. On February 16th, the seminar will be held at the Marriott Boca Raton, at Boca Center, 5150 Town Center Circle, Boca Raton, Florida 33486, at 2pm; and on March 2nd at the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale Downtown, 250 N. Andrews Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, at 2pm. You can also join Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center at the Health and Wellness Experience Expo presented by WPEC Channel 12 and the Sun-Sentinel on March 1st at Mizner Park Amphitheater, Boca Raton, Florida from 10am-5pm. No reservations required.

At the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, utilizing investigational protocols, adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be deployed to improve patients quality of life with a number of degenerative conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (also called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). Adipose tissue is exceptionally abundant in ADSCs. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15 minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and important Growth Factors that facilitate the stem cell process and promote their activity.

ADSCs are the body's natural healing cells - they are recruited by chemical signals emitted by damaged tissues to repair and regenerate the bodys damaged cells. The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center only uses autologous stem cells from a person's own fat no embryonic stem cells are used. Our current areas of study include: Heart Failure, Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and orthopedic joint injections. For more information, or if someone thinks they may be a candidate for one of the stem cell protocols offered by Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, they may contact Dr. Nia or Dr. Gionis directly at (561) 331-2999, or see a complete list of the Centers study areas at: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

About Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center:

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center is an affiliate of the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center (Irvine, California) and the Cell Surgical Network (CSN). We provide care for people suffering from diseases that may be alleviated by access to adult stem cell based regenerative treatment. We utilize a fat transfer surgical technology to isolate and implant the patients own stem cells from a small quantity of fat harvested by a mini-liposuction on the same day. The investigational protocols utilized by the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Research Protections; and the study is registered with http://www.Clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information contact: Miami(at)MiamiStemCellsUSA(dot)com or visit our website: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/February/2014/prweb11578607.htm

Follow this link:
Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center Educational Seminar ...

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a well-known protein has a new function: It acts in a biological circuit to determine whether an immature neural cell remains in a stem-like state or proceeds to become a functional neuron.

The findings, published in the February 13 online issue of Cell Reports, more fully illuminate a fundamental but still poorly understood cellular act and may have significant implications for future development of new therapies for specific neurological disorders, including autism and schizophrenia.

Postdoctoral fellow Chih-Hong Lou, working with principal investigator Miles F. Wilkinson, PhD, professor in the Department of Reproductive Medicine and a member of the UC San Diego Institute for Genomic Medicine, and other colleagues, discovered that this critical biological decision is controlled by UPF1, a protein essential for the nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) pathway.

NMD was previously established to have two broad roles. First, it is a quality control mechanism used by cells to eliminate faulty messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules that help transcribe genetic information into the construction of proteins essential to life. Second, it degrades a specific group of normal mRNAs. The latter function of NMD has been hypothesized to be physiologically important, but until now it had not been clear whether this is the case.

Wilkinson and colleagues discovered that in concert with a special class of RNAs called microRNA, UPF1 acts as a molecular switch to determine when immature (non-functional) neural cells differentiate into non-dividing (functional) neurons. Specifically, UPF1 triggers the decay of a particular mRNA that encodes for a protein in the TGF- signaling pathway that promotes neural differentiation. By degrading that mRNA, the encoded protein fails to be produced and neural differentiation is prevented. Thus, Lou and colleagues identified for the first time a molecular circuit in which NMD acts to drive a normal biological response.

NMD also promotes the decay of mRNAs encoding proliferation inhibitors, which Wilkinson said may explain why NMD stimulates the proliferative state characteristic of stem cells.

There are many potential clinical ramifications for these findings, Wilkinson said. One is that by promoting the stem-like state, NMD may be useful for reprogramming differentiated cells into stem cells more efficiently.

Another implication follows from the finding that NMD is vital to the normal development of the brain in diverse species, including humans. Humans with deficiencies in NMD have intellectual disability and often also have schizophrenia and autism. Therapies to enhance NMD in affected individuals could be useful in restoring the correct balance of stem cells and differentiated neurons and thereby help restore normal brain function.

View original post here:
Protein Switch Dictates Cellular Fate: Stem Cell or Neuron

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Diabetes Week -- He is one of eight UC San Diego researchers to receive a combined total of $8.165 million in funding from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine in a new round of Basic Biology awards announced Jan. 29. Metallo's share is $1.124 million over three years. The awards were made by CIRM's Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (see also Stem Cells).

Heart cells are unique in that they must expend a tremendous amount of energy in order for the heart to function properly, generating the mechanical forces necessary to pump blood through the body, Metallo said. Therefore, it is important that heart cells generated from stem cells in the lab eat the right foods. His research is focused on understanding cell metabolism - how cells convert carbohydrates, fat, and protein into fuel - and how disruptions in these processes contribute to diseases such as cancer, diabetes and obesity.

Metallo joined the Jacobs School of Engineering in 2011 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship on the metabolism of cancer cells at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research there changed our understanding of how cells convert carbohydrates and protein (amino acids) to fat, a process which was thought to have been settled science for more than 50 years. The study, which was published January 2012, in the journal Nature, means doctors could have new targets for therapeutic drugs designed to stop cancer cell growth. In recognition of this work, Metallo was named the Rita Schaffer Young Investigator in 2012, which is awarded each year by the Biomedical Engineering Society to stimulate the research career of a young bioengineer. Last year, he was one of 15 young investigators in the United States selected to be a 2013 Searle Scholar.

The eight CIRM Basic Biology Awards for UC San Diego faculty were:

Maike Sander, School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, was awarded $1.161 million

Christian Metallo, Bioengineering, Jacobs School of Engineering, awarded $1,124 million

Cornelis Murre, Biological Sciences, awarded $1.161 million

Wei Wang, Chemistry and Biochemistry, awarded $1.161 million

David Cheresh, School of Medicine, Department of Pathology, UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, awarded $1.161 million

Miles Wilkinson, School of Medicine, Department of Reproductive Medicine, awarded $619,200

See the rest here:
Bioengineer studying stem cell diets to make better heart ...

Manchester UK (PRWEB UK) 10 February 2014

RegenX Content The content posted on RegenX is generated through Dr. Stephen Richardson and a number of other stem cell experts in a collaborative effort between Brickhouse Publications and the University of Manchester. Dr. Richardson's 10 years of experience working with adult stem cells, coupled with the expertise of top-notch scientists, provides website visitors with the most current research information. The website is designed for people of all ages to read and comprehend, making it truly accessible to all.

In order to break down the complex concepts about stem cells and regenerative medicine, the website was designed with many visuals to aid in understanding. For those who learn best through reading text, there are many articles and informational bits. In addition, there are also many short animations, including a spoof news video, to help the general public understand the science behind research.

As far as the different topics are concerned, RegenX presents visitors with a wide range of information, building up from the simple to the complex. Some information simply shares the basics around stem cell and regenerative medicine research, while other pieces delve into more technical details. There are even informational pieces available that discuss the ethics around stem cell research, specifically. There is even a stem cell quiz on the website so readers can take to see where they stand on their understanding of the research and use.

Out in the general public, there is not very much accurate information shared about stem cell and regenerative medicine research. The media does not help as it often mis-portrays the benefits. Most often, the mis-portrayals lie in the legality and morality of the issue. Unfortunately, the misunderstood issues surrounding stem cell research can be huge roadblocks for those trying to advance the science around it.

Educational Outreach In order to address some of the misunderstandings about stem cell research, RegenX provides teacher packs that complement the site. These packets can be used in schools, colleges, and universities, to help educate the public. The classroom activities presented are usually animated or in video format, making it more engaging and easy to understand. In addition to helping students learn, the videos also help classroom teachers who are lacking the information to build some background knowledge. The teacher packets also include debate and discussion topics for students to process the information.

Included in the teacher packets from RegenX are interviews with stem cell research experts. Their information is research-based as they all work at the University of Manchester. In addition to discussing stem cell and regenerative medicine, the experts also share information about the jobs and the research currently conducted at the University. They even talk about their careers and what they needed to do in order to earn the privilege of conducting such research.

Funding The RegenX website is funded with monies from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and the University of Manchester. Their reason for funding the project was to offer unbiased, scientifically accurate information for people from a variety of backgrounds. Their intended audience is not purely scientists, but also children and adults of all ages from all walks of life.

Staying Updated In order to keep people updated in a fast-changing field, the website has Facebook and Twitter pages to complement it. These social media networks allow RegenX to relay a great deal of updated information in a quick way. They are also able to reach a larger population of readers at any time of the day to keep them posted as well.

Making sure that people are getting the most updated information as quickly as possible is one way to build a community, which was the initial goal of Dr. Stephen Richardson. He wanted to make sure that there was a community of individuals who have slight or intense interest in stem cell and regenerative medicine research. It is also healthy to generate debate around the latest information in the field.

Follow this link:
Ground Breaking New Website REGENX, provides credible and up to date information on Stem Cell research straight from ...

Already, scientists in laboratories across the world have begun dipping mature cells in acid, hoping to see whether this simple intervention really can trigger a transformation into stem cells, as reported by a team of Boston and Japanese researchers last week.

At the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, a number of scientists have already embarked on the experiment, which theyre informally calling stem cell ceviche, comparing it to the Latin American method of cooking seafood in lime and lemon juice. At meetings with other experts and even in casual conversation, stem cell scientists say they are exchanging surprise, doubt, and wonder about the discovery, reported in two papers in the journal Nature.

The range of responses varies widely. But most scientists seem to be surprised and skeptical about the technique, though also impressed by the rigorous testing that experts in the field did on the cells. It appears that no one knows quite what to think.

Paul Knoepfler, an associate professor in the department of cell biology and human anatomy at the University of California, Davis, has been blogging extensively about the discovery and polled his readers about what they think. In an unscientific poll that has drawn about 400 responses, hes found that scientists are pretty evenly split on whether they are leaning toward believing in the technique or not. Interestingly, he found people responding to the poll from Japan are far more likely to be convinced it is true.

On Thursday, Knoepfler made his own opinion known. Its a harsh critique, starting with his view that the method is illogical and defies common sense. It ends with questions about why the researchers would only now be trying the technique on human cells, since they seemed to have proved it to themselves for several years now. The biggest mystery may be why, if simple stress can trigger cells to return to a stem cell-like state, it doesnt happen more often in the body. Why dont people just have lots of cancers and tumors in the acidic environment of their stomach, for example?

There are also basic questions about whether these truly are the same as spore-like cells that Dr. Charles Vacanti, an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Womens Hospital who led the new work, described in a highly controversial 2001 paper. Many scientists doubted the existence of those cells, and Vacanti has said he thinks the new stem cells, which are called STAP cells, are the same.

Obviously, it has to be reproduced. Thats the caveat, said Dr. Kenneth Chien, a professor in the department of cell and molecular biology and medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. I still think its shocking. And it makes me wonder if its true or not, its so shocking.

Right now, we seem to have arrived at an unusual spot in scienceno one knows quite what to believe. People have quite informed gut reactions, but still seem to lack solid evidence to show the technique does or doesnt hold up. Its exciting and nerve wracking, but even those with doubts dont seem ready to dismiss it outright. This is how science works: people turn to the experiments to smash or solidify their doubts. Many are scurrying to recreate those in their laboratories, which should bring some clarity to the situation.

One reason the finding is so unusual is that it pretty much blind-sided the scientific community. Often, researchers are aware of discoveries that will be published in their fields through informal channels. They attend the same meetings, they present early versions of their results, or they know who is generally working on what area of research. In this case, people were surprised. Thats in part because one of the scientists pushing the work was far from an insider. Vacanti is an anesthesiologist, not a stem cell scientist.

Notably, even though the team of researchers was partially based in Boston, where there are many leaders in the stem cell field, they turned to world experts in Japan to vet the cells.

See the original post:
The debate over new stem cell technique begins - Boston.com

Miami (PRWEB) February 05, 2014

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. and BioHeart, Inc. announce the launch of a clinical trial for the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) using adipose-derived stem cell technology. The clinical trials will be held at the Global Stem Cells treatment center in Cozumel, Mexico, as well as in several U.S. states. Global Stem Cells Group affiliate Regenestem in collaboration with CMC Hospital of Cozumel offer cutting-edge cellular medicine treatments to patients from around the world

The study titled "An Open-label, Non-Randomized, Multi-Center Study to Assess the Safety and Effects of Autologous Adipose-Derived Stromal Cells Delivered intravenously in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease" is lead by principal investigator Armando Pineda Velez, Global Stem Cells Group Medical Director. Global Stem Cells Group has represented that it offers the most advanced protocols and techniques in cellular medicine from around the world.

The Cozumel clinical trials will be lead by Rafael Moguel, M.D., an advocate and pioneer in the use of stem cell therapies to treat a wide variety of conditions.

COPD is one of more than 150 chronic conditions that are treatable with adult stem cells, eliminating the potential risk of surgery, transplants, and toxic drugs

Details of the protocol and eligibility criteria can be found on the government clinical trial website at: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov.

For more information on Global Stems Cell Group, visit the Global Stem Cells Group website, email bnovas(at)regenestem(dot)com, or call 305-224-1858.

About Global Stem Cells Group:

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions.

With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.

Go here to see the original:
Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. and BioHeart, Inc. Launch Clinical Trial for COPD Stem Cell Therapies

Las Vegas, NV (PRWEB) February 05, 2014

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. and affiliate Stem Cell Training, Inc. were represented by Josepth Purita, M.D. at the 21st Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Aesthetic Medicine in Las Vegas, Dec. 15, 2013. Purita, a lead trainer for Stem Cell Training, Inc. and a pioneer in the use of stem cell therapies in orthopedics, addressed more than 5,000 conference attendees with his presentation titled, Cutting Edge Concepts for the Regenerative Medicine Physician in the Use of Stem Cell & PRP Injections.

The record number of attendees gathered from around the world at the Venetian/Palazzo Resort in Las Vegas for three days to attend the prestigious conference hosted by the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine. The conference featured physicians and medical personnel who practice and manage stem cell technology, certification, and pellet therapy to discuss brain health and offer case studies. Workshops on personalized lifestyle medicine and aesthetic medicine were also held.

Purita was joined by an illustrious group of speakers including: Author Judith Reichman, M.D., womens health care expert and specialist in gynecology, infertility and menopause; Travis Stork, M.D., ER physician and host of the Emmy Award-winning talk show, The Doctors; and Actress and Author Suzanne Somers, a dedicated health advocate and proponent of alternative and integrative medicine.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger accepted the 2013 A4M Infinity Award at Saturday afternoons general session for his progressive leadership role in early funding and support of stem cell research and healthcare reform. Somers presentation Our Time Has Come, discussing the medical needs of the rapidly aging baby-boom population. Stork, host of the Emmy-Award-winning medical talk show The Doctors, discussed long-term health in a speech called Your Best Life. Reichmans presentation titled Slow Your Clock Down: On- Label, Off- Label, Gray- Label, discussed the importance on maintain balance and living a healthy lifestyle.

For more information on the World Congress on Anti-Aging, Regenerative and Aesthetic Medicine, plus upcoming conferences and training programs around the world, visit the A4M website, email, bnovas(at)regenestem(dot)com or call 849.943.2988.

About the Global Stem Cell Group:

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions. With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.

Global Stem Cells Groups corporate mission is to make the promise of stem cell medicine a reality for patients around the world. With each of GSCGs six operating companies focused on a separate research-based mission, the result is a global network of state-of-the-art stem cell treatments.

The Global Stem Cell Foundation was formed as a nonprofit charitable organization that aims to fund research on the expanding need for stem cell solutions for patients, and identify best practices between physicians engaged in stem cell treatments in the U.S. and around the world.

Link:
Joseph Purita, M.D. of Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. Featured Speaker at 21st Annual World Congress on Anti-Aging ...

Editors note: What follows is a guest post. Michael Zhang is an MD-PhD student studying at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is one of my go-to experts on matters of cell biology and stem cells. (His bio is below.)

As you may have heard, this week brought striking news in the field of stem cell biology. Researchers from Boston and Japan published two papers in the prestigious journal Nature in which they describe new and easy ways to transform mouse cells back into stem cells. (NPR coverage here.) Make no mistake, this is not mundane science news. This is big.

I follow cell biology because I believe it is the branch of science that will bring the next major advance in modern medicine. Rather than implant a pacemaker, future doctors may inject a solution of sinus node stem cells, and voila, the heart beats normally. Rather than watch a patient with a scarred heart die of heart failure or suffer from medication side effects, future doctors may inject stem cells that replace the non-contracting scar. And the same could happen for kidneys, pancreas, spinal nerves, etc.

When I heard the news, I emailed Michael the link with the following subject line: This is pretty cool, right? He wrote back. What he taught me is worth sharing.

***

Michael Zhang MD-PhD candidate Univ of Louisville

By Michael Zhang:

Japanese and American cell biologists have recently reported dramatic new findings that are likely to upend biological dogma.

For much of the past century, the prevailing consensus held that once animal cells move past the earliest embryonic stages, they are irreversibly committed to specialized roles in the adult brain cells, heart cells, lung cells etc. In the past decade, two Nobel-winning biologists each separately demonstrated that committed specialist cells (aka differentiated cells) could be reprogrammed back to a primordial, embryonic state (aka pluripotent stem cell) that could then morph into any new type of specialized cell.

Now, Professor Obokata and her colleagues describe new methods to induce this reprogramming of specialized cells to (pluripotent) stem cells. Whereas previous methods involved draconian procedures the transfer of entire nuclei between cells, or the transfer of multiple genes Obokatas group found that simply squeezing a terminally differentiated cell, or immersing it in an acidic solution, could induce reprogramming to an embryonic stem cell state.

Read this article:
Progress in stem cell biology: This could change everything about the practice of medicine

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise LA JOLLAThe Salk Institute for Biological Studies will join Stanford University in leading a new Center of Excellence in Stem Cell Genomics, created through a $40 million award by California's stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The center will bring together experts and investigators from seven different major California institutions to focus on bridging the fields of genomics the study of the complete genetic make-up of a cell or organism with cutting-edge stem cell research.

The goal is to use these tools to gain a deeper understanding of the disease processes in cancer, diabetes, endocrine disorders, heart disease and mental health, and ultimately to find safer and more effective ways of using stem cells in medical research and therapy.

"The center will provide a platform for collaboration, allowing California's stem cell scientists and genomics researchers to bridge these two fields," says Joseph Ecker, a Salk professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator. "The Center will generate critical genomics data that will be shared with scientists throughout California and the rest of the world."

Ecker, holder of the Salk International Council Chair in Genetics, is co-director of the new center along with Michael Snyder, a professor and chair of genetics at Stanford.

Salk and Stanford will lead the center, and U.C. San Diego, Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, the Scripps Research Institute, the J. Craig Venter Institute and Illumina Inc., all in San Diego, will collaborate on the project, in addition to U.C. Santa Cruz, which will also run the data coordination and management component.

"This Center of Excellence in Stem Cell Genomics shows why we are considered one of the global leaders in stem cell research," says Alan Trounson, president of the stem cell agency. "Bringing together this team to do this kind of work means we will be better able to understand how stem cells change as they grow and become different kinds of cells. That deeper knowledge, that you can only get through a genomic analysis of the cells, will help us develop better ways of using these cells to come up with new treatments for deadly diseases."

In addition to outside collaborations, the center will pursue some fundamental questions and goals of its own, including collecting and characterizing induced pluripotent stem cell lines from patients with familial cardiomyopathy; applying single-cell genomic techniques to better understand cellular subpopulations within diseased and healthy brain and pancreatic tissues; and developing novel computational tools to analyze networks underlying stem cell genome function.

The rest is here:
Salk Institute and Stanford University to Lead New $40 Million Stem Cell Genomics Center

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 03, 2014

Previous studies have shown that multiple stem cell implantations might assist adults suffering from complete spinal cord injuries (SCI). Now a groundbreaking study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows for the first time that children with SCI might benefit, too.

Marcin Majka, Ph.D., and Danuta Jarocha, Ph.D., led the study at Jagiellonian University College of Medicine in Krakow, Poland. "Although it was conducted on a small number of patients carrying a different injury level and type, preliminary results demonstrate the possibility of attaining neurological, motor and sensation and quality-of-life improvement in children with a chronic complete spinal cord injury through multiple bone marrow derived cell (BMNC) implantations. Intravenous implantations of these cells seem to prevent and/or help the healing of pressure ulcers," Dr. Majka said.

The study involved five children, ranging in age from 3 to 7, all of whom were patients at University Childrens Hospital in Krakow. Each had suffered a spinal cord injury at least six months prior to the start of the stem cell program and was showing no signs of improvement from standard treatments. The patients collectively underwent 19 implantation procedures with BM-derived cells, with every treatment cycle followed by an intensive four weeks of rehabilitation.

The children were evaluated over a one to six year period for sensation and motor improvement, muscle stiffness and bladder function. Any improvement in their quality of life was also noted, based on estimated functional recovery. Additionally, the development of neuropathic pain, secondary infections, urinary tract infections or pressure ulcers was tracked.

"Two of the five children receiving the highest number of transplantations demonstrated neurological and quality-of-life improvements," Dr. Jarocha said. "They included a girl who, before the stem cell implantations, had to be tube fed and needed a ventilator to breathe. She is now able to eat and breathe on her own."

The study also demonstrated no long-term side effects from the BMNCs, leading the researchers to conclude that single and multiple BMNCs implantations were safe for pediatric patients as well as adults.

Interestingly, when the scientists compared their study with those done on adults, the results did not suggest an advantage of the younger age. "This is somehow unexpected since the younger age should provide better ability to regenerate. Since the present study was done on a small number of patients, a larger study using the same methodology for pediatric and adult patients allowing a direct comparison should be performed to confirm or contradict the observation. Larger studies with patients segregated according to the type and level of the injury with the same infusion intervals should be performed to obtain more consistent data, too," Dr. Majka added.

"While this studys sample is small, it is the first to report the safety and feasibility of using bone marrow derived cells to treat pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury," said Anthony Atala, M.D., editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. "The treatment resulted in a degree of neurological and quality-of-life improvement in the study participants."

The full article, "Preliminary study of autologous bone marrow nucleated cells transplantation in children with spinal cord injury," can be accessed at http://www.stemcellstm.com.

See the article here:
First Study Tracking Stem Cell Treatments For Children With Spinal Cord Injuries Shows Potential Benefit

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have identified a protein critical to hematopoietic stem cell function and blood formation. The finding has potential as a new target for treating leukemia because cancer stem cells rely upon the same protein to regulate and sustain their growth.

Hematopoietic stem cells give rise to all other blood cells. Writing in the February 2, 2014 advance online issue of Nature Genetics, principal investigator Tannishtha Reya, PhD, professor in the Department of Pharmacology, and colleagues found that a protein called Lis1 fundamentally regulates asymmetric division of hematopoietic stem cells, assuring that the stem cells correctly differentiate to provide an adequate, sustained supply of new blood cells.

Asymmetric division occurs when a stem cell divides into two daughter cells of unequal inheritance: One daughter differentiates into a permanently specialized cell type while the other remains undifferentiated and capable of further divisions.

This process is very important for the proper generation of all the cells needed for the development and function of many normal tissues, said Reya. When cells divide, Lis1 controls orientation of the mitotic spindle, an apparatus of subcellular fibers that segregates chromosomes during cell division.

During division, the spindle is attached to a particular point on the cell membrane, which also determines the axis along which the cell will divide, Reya said. Because proteins are not evenly distributed throughout the cell, the axis of division, in turn, determines the types and amounts of proteins that get distributed to each daughter cell. By analogy, imagine the difference between cutting the Earth along the equator versus halving it longitudinally. In each case, the countries that wind up in the two halves are different.

When researchers deleted Lis1 from mouse hematopoietic stem cells, differentiation was radically altered. Asymmetric division increased and accelerated differentiation, resulting in an oversupply of specialized cells and an ever-diminishing reserve of undifferentiated stem cells, which eventually resulted in a bloodless mouse.

What we found was that a large part of the defect in blood formation was due to a failure of stem cells to expand, said Reya. Instead of undergoing symmetric divisions to generate two stem cell daughters, they predominantly underwent asymmetric division to generate more specialized cells. As a result, the mice were unable to generate enough stem cells to sustain blood cell production.

The scientists next looked at how cancer stem cells in mice behaved when the Lis1 signaling pathway was blocked, discovering that they too lost the ability to renew and propagate. In this sense, the effect Lis1 has on leukemic self-renewal parallels its role in normal stem cell self-renewal, Reya said.

Continue reading here:
Split Decision: Stem Cell Signal Linked with Cancer Growth

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

30-Jan-2014

Contact: Bill Hathaway william.hathaway@yale.edu 203-432-1322 Yale University

A fundamental axiom of biology used to be that cell fate is a one-way street once a cell commits to becoming muscle, skin, or blood it always remains muscle, skin, or blood cell. That belief was upended in the past decade when a Japanese scientist introduced four simple factors into skin cells and returned them to an embryonic-like state, capable of becoming almost any cell type in the body.

Hopeful of revolutionary medical therapies using a patient's own cells, scientists rushed to capitalize on the discovery by 2012 Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka. However, the process has remained slow and inefficient, and scientists have had a difficult time discovering a genetic explanation of why this should be.

In the Jan. 30 issue of the journal Cell, Yale School of Medicine researchers identified a major obstacle to converting cells back to their youthful state the speed of the cell cycle, or the time required for a cell to divide.

When the cell cycle accelerates to a certain speed, the barriers that keep a cell's fate on one path diminish. In such a state, cells are easily persuaded to change their identity and become pluripotent, or capable of becoming multiple cell types

"One analogy may be that when temperature increases to sufficient degrees, even a very hard piece of steel can be malleable so that you can give it a new shape easily," said Shangqin Guo, assistant professor of cell biology at the Yale Stem Cell Center and lead author of the paper. "Once cells are cycling extremely fast, they do not seem to face the same barriers to becoming pluripotent."

Guo's team studied blood-forming cells, which when dividing undergo specific changes in their cell cycle to produce new blood cells. Blood-forming progenitor cells normally produce only new blood cells. However, the introduction of Yamanaka factors sometimes but not always help these blood-forming cells become other types of cells. The new report finds that after this treatment blood-forming cells tend to become pluripotent when the cell cycle is completed in eight hours or less, an unusual speed for adult cells. Cells that cycle more slowly remain blood cells.

"This discovery changes the way people think about how to change cell fate and reveals that a basic 'house-keeping' function of a cell, such as its cell cycle length, can actually have a major impact on switching the fate of a cell," said Haifan Lin, director of the Yale Stem Cell Center.

View original post here:
Cell cycle speed is key to making aging cells young again

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

29-Jan-2014

Contact: Shaun Mason smason@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles

Scientists from UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research were today awarded grants totaling more than $3.5 million by California's stem cell agency for their ongoing efforts to advance revolutionary stem cell science in medicine.

Recipients of the awards from the California Institute of Renerative Medicine (CIRM) included Lili Yang ($614,400), who researches how stem cells become rare immune cells; Denis Evseenko ($1,146,468), who is studying the biological niche in which stem cells grow into cartilage; Thomas Otis and Bennet Novitch ($1,148,758), who are using new techniques to study communication between nerve and muscle cells in spinal muscular atrophy; and Samantha Butler ($598,367), who is investigating the molecular elements that drive stem cells to become the neurons in charge of our sense of touch.

"These basic biology grants form the foundation of the revolutionary advances we are seeing in stem cell science," said Dr. Owen Witte, professor and director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. "Every cellular therapy that reaches patients must begin in the laboratory with ideas and experiments that will lead us to revolutionize medicine and ultimately improve human life. That makes these awards invaluable to our research effort."

The awards are part of CIRM's Basic Biology V grant program, which fosters cutting-edge research on significant unresolved issues in human stem cell biology, with a focus on unravelling the key mechanisms that determine how stem cells decide which cells they will become. By learning how such mechanisms work, scientists can develop therapies that drive stem cells to regenerate or replace damaged or diseased tissue.

Lili Yang: Tracking special immune cells

The various cells that make up human blood all arise from hematopoietic stem cells. These include special white blood cells called T cells, the "foot soldiers" of the immune system that attack bacteria, viruses and other disease-causing invaders. Among these T cells is a smaller group, a kind of "special forces" unit known as invariant natural killer T cells, or iNKT cells, which have a remarkable capacity to mount immediate and powerful responses to disease when activated and are believed to be important to the immune system's regulation of infections, allergies, cancer and autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

The iNKT cells develop in small numbers in the blood generally accounting for less than 1 percent of blood cells but can differ greatly in numbers among individuals. Very little is known about how blood stem cells produce iNKT cells.

Read more:
Stem cell agency's grants to UCLA help set stage for revolutionary medicine

Nicolo' Minerbi / LUZphoto / eyevine

Mauro Ferrari, who heads the Institute for Academic Medicine at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, is the Italian government's nominee to chair a committee on the controversial Stamina Foundation.

Top scientists in Italy have called on the health minister Beatrice Lorenzin to reconsider the composition of the new scientific advisory committee she has proposed to assess a controversial stem-cell therapy offered by the Stamina Foundation.

Their move follows a renewed media frenzy around the affair, prompted by statements made to the press and television by the committees proposed president, Mauro Ferrari, shortly after he was nominated on 28 December.

The Stamina therapy, which has not been scientifically proven to be effective in a clinical trial, involves extracting mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow of a patient, manipulating them and then reinjecting them into the same patients blood or spinal fluid. Stamina, based in Brescia, has already treated more than 80 patients for a wide range of serious diseases.

Stamina's practices have been widely criticized by experts both in Italy and outside, and the first government-appointed scientific committee to rule on Stamina prepared a detailed report describing the Stamina protocol as without a scientific basis, ineffective and dangerous. However, a regional court declared that committee unlawfully biased on 4 December. But after that committee's report was leaked to the press on 20 December (see 'Leaked files slam stem-cell therapy'), many families of patients who claim to have been damaged by the therapy announced that they had brought charges for damages against Stamina and its president Davide Vannoni. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

In response to the court findings, minister Lorenzin nominated Ferrari to chair a new committee. Ferrari, who heads the Institute for Academic Medicine at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas, told journalists that he was neither for nor against the Stamina method.

However on the 22 January episode of a widely viewed television show, Le iene, Ferrari said he thought Stamina offered Italy the opportunity to take a world lead in bringing experimental therapies into the clinic. He also referred to Stamina as the first important case for regenerative medicine here in Italy, a statement that has incensed some Italian researchers.

Michele de Luca, a stem-cell biologist from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia says that Ferrari's assertions were an insult to the many scientists in Italy working on translating stem-cell research into new clinical applications. In particular, De Luca's own group was the first in the world to cure a form of blindness with a stem-cell therapy they developed, he points out.

In a letter dated 26 January, which was seen by Nature, four influential clinical scientists say that they were extremely worried by Ferrari's televised statements. The signatories were Silvio Garattini, head of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Milan; Giuseppe Remuzzi, head of the Mario Negri Institute in Bergamo; Gianluca Vago, rector of the University of Milan; and Alberto Zangrillo, vice-rector for clinical activities at the University Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan.

Read the original here:
Row over controversial stem-cell procedure flares up again

(CNN) We run too hard, we fall down, we're sick - all of this puts stress on the cells in our bodies. But in what's being called a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, researchers have found a way to make stem cells by purposely putting mature cells under stress.

Two new studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature describe a method of taking mature cells from mice and turning them into embryonic-like stem cells, which can be coaxed into becoming any other kind of cell possible. One method effectively boils down to this: Put the cells in an acidic environment.

"I think the process we've described mimics Mother Nature," said Dr. Charles Vacanti, director of the laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston and senior author on one of the studies. "It's a natural process that cells normally respond to."

Both studies represent a new step in the thriving science of stem cell research, which seeks to develop therapies to repair bodily damage and cure disease by being able to insert cells that can grow into whatever tissues or organs are needed. If you take an organ that's functioning at 10 percent of normal and bring it up to 25 percent functionality, that could greatly reduce the likelihood of fatality in that particular disease, Vacanti said.

This method by Vacanti and his colleagues "is truly the simplest, cheapest, fastest method ever achieved for reprogramming [cells]," said Jeff Karp, associate professor of medicine at the Brigham & Women's Hospital and principal faculty member at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. He was not involved in the study.

Before the technique described in Nature, the leading candidates for creating stem cells artificially were those derived from embryos and stem cells from adult cells that require the insertion of DNA to become reprogrammable.

Stem cells are created the natural way every time an egg that is fertilized begins to divide. During the first four to five days of cell division, so-called pluripotent stem cells develop. They have the ability to turn into any cell in the body. Removing stem cells from the embryo destroys it, which is why this type of research is controversial.

Researchers have also developed a method of producing embryonic-like stem cells by taking a skin cell from a patient, for example, and adding a few bits of foreign DNA to reprogram the skin cell to become like an embryo and produce pluripotent cells, too. However, these cells are usually used for research because researchers do not want to give patients cells with extra DNA.

The new method does not involve the destruction of embryos or inserting new genetic material into cells, Vacanti said. It also avoids the problem of rejection: The body may reject stem cells that came from other people, but this method uses an individual's own mature cells.

"It was really surprising to see that such a remarkable transformation could be triggered simply by stimuli from outside of the cell," said Haruko Obokata of the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Japan in a news conference this week.

See the original post here:
New breakthrough in stem cell research

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise Scientists from UCLAs Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have received new awards from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell research agency, that will forward revolutionary stem cell science in medicine.

Recipients included Dr. Lili Yang, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics who received $614,400 for her project to develop a novel system for studying how stem cells become rare immune cells; Dr. Denis Evseenko, assistant professor of orthopedic surgery, who received $1,146,468 for his project to identify the elements of the biological niche in which stem cells grow most efficiently into articular cartilage cells; Dr. Thomas Otis, professor and chair of neurobiology and Dr. Ben Novitch, assistant professor of neurobiology, who received $1,148,758 for their project using new light-based optigenetic techniques to study the communication between nerve and muscle cells in spinal muscular atrophy, an inherited degenerative neuromuscular disease in children; and Dr. Samantha Butler, assistant professor of neurobiology, received $598,367 for her project on discovering which molecular elements drive stem cells to become the neurons, or nerve cells, in charge of our sense of touch.

These basic biology grants form the foundation of the revolutionary advances we are seeing in stem cell science, said Dr. Owen Witte, professor and director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center, and every cellular therapy that reaches patients must begin in the laboratory with ideas and experiments that will lead us to revolutionize medicine and ultimately improve human life. That makes these awards invaluable to our research effort.

The awards were part of CIRMs Basic Biology V grant program, carrying on the initiative to foster cutting-edge research on significant unresolved issues in human stem cell biology. The emphasis of this research is on unravelling the secrets of key mechanisms that determine how stem cells, which can become any cell in the body, differentiate, or decide which cell they become. By learning how these mechanisms work, scientists can then create therapies that drive the stem cells to regenerate or replace damaged or diseased tissue.

Using A New Method to Track Special Immune Cells All the different cells that make up the blood come from hematopoietic or blood stem cells. These include special white blood cells called T cells, which serve as the foot soldiers of the immune system, attacking bacteria, viruses and other invaders that cause diseases.

Among the T cells is a smaller group of cells called invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cells, which have a remarkable capacity to mount immediate and powerful responses to disease when activated, a small special forces unit among the foot soldiers, and are believed to be important to immune system regulation of infections, allergies, cancer and autoimmune diseases such as Type I diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

The iNKT cells develop in small numbers in the blood, usually less than 1 percent of all the blood cells, and can differ greatly in numbers between individuals. Very little is known about how the blood stem cells produce iNKT cells.

Dr. Lili Yangs project will develop a novel model system to genetically program human blood stem cells to become iNKT cells. Dr. Yang and her colleagues will track the differentiation of human blood stem cells into iNKT cells providing a pathway to answer many critical questions about iNKT cell development.

Read the original post:
Stem Cell Agency Helps Set the Stage for Revolutionary Medicine

Current ratings for: Scientists make pure precursor liver and pancreas cells from stem cells

Public / Patient:

0 (0 votes)

Health Professionals:

5 (1 vote)

A new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, describes how scientists have developed a way of producing highly sought populations of a pure tissue-specific cell from human pluripotent stem cells.

Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are precursor cells than can produce over 200 distinct cell types in the human body. They hold great promise for regenerative medicine and drug screening. The idea is to be able to generate a range of pure tissue types by manipulating these precursor cells.

However, it is proving very challenging to obtain large numbers of pure, untainted, tissue-specific cells from hPSCs. Part of the problem is how to ensure they receive highly specific signals, that do not coax them down paths that lead to a range of other tissue types.

Now, a team led by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has developed a new way of coaxing hPSCs to produce highly pure populations of endoderm, a valuable cell type that gives rise to organs like the liver and pancreas, bringing closer the day when stem cells can be used in clinical settings.

One of the study leaders is Dr. Bing Lim, senior group leader and associate director of Cancer Stem Cell Biology at the GIS. He and his colleagues developed a highly systematic and novel screening method.

Originally posted here:
Scientists make pure precursor liver and pancreas cells from stem cells

Continue reading page |1|2 |3

The revolutionary discovery that any cell can be rewound to a pre-embryonic state remarkably easily could usher in new therapies and cloning techniques

A LITTLE stress is all it took to make new life from old. Adult cells have been given the potential to turn into any type of body tissue just by tweaking their environment. This simple change alone promises to revolutionise stem cell medicine.

Yet New Scientist has also learned that this technique may have already been used to make a clone. "The implication is that you can very easily, from a drop of blood and simple techniques, create a perfect identical twin," says Charles Vacanti at Harvard Medical School, co-leader of the team involved.

Details were still emerging as New Scientist went to press, but the principles of the new technique were outlined in mice in work published this week. The implications are huge, and have far-reaching applications in regenerative medicine, cancer treatment and human cloning.

In the first few days after conception, an embryo consists of a bundle of cells that are pluripotent, which means they can develop into all cell types in the body. These embryonic stem cells have great potential for replacing tissue that is damaged or diseased but, as their use involves destroying an embryo, they have sparked much controversy.

To avoid this, in 2006 Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, Japan, and colleagues worked out how to reprogram adult human cells into what they called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). They did this by introducing four genes that are normally found in pluripotent cells, using a harmless virus.

The breakthrough was hailed as a milestone of regenerative medicine the ability to produce any cell type without destroying a human embryo. It won Yamanaka and his colleague John Gurdon at the University of Cambridge a Nobel prize in 2012. But turning these stem cells into therapies has been slow because there is a risk that the new genes can switch on others that cause cancer.

Now, Vacanti, along with Haruko Obokata at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and colleagues have discovered a different way to rewind adult cells without touching the DNA. The method is striking for its simplicity: all you need to do is place the cells in a stressful situation, such as an acidic environment.

The idea that this might work comes from a phenomenon seen in the plant kingdom, whereby drastic environmental stress can change an ordinary cell into an immature one from which a whole new plant can arise. For example, the presence of a specific hormone has been shown to transform a single adult carrot cell into a new plant. Some adult cells in reptiles and birds are also known to have the ability to do this.

Go here to see the original:
Stem cell power unleashed after 30 minute dip in acid