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Protein primes mouse stem cells to quickly repair injury, study finds ... Science Daily Like drag car racers revving their engines at the starting line, stem cells respond more quickly to injury when they've been previously primed with one dose of a ... Alerting stem cells to hurry up and heal - Medical XpressMedical Xpress all 3 news articles »

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Protein primes mouse stem cells to quickly repair injury, study finds ... - Science Daily

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Third in an occasional series on how Harvard researchers are tackling the problematic issues of aging.

If only, wrote an ancient Japanese poet, when one heard that Old Age was coming one could bolt the door.

Science is working on it.

Aging is as much about the physical processes of repair and regeneration and their slow-motion failure as it is the passage of time. And scientists studying stem cell and regenerative biology are making progress understanding those processes, developing treatments for the many diseases whose risks increase as we get older, while at times seeming to draw close to a broader anti-aging breakthrough.

If stem cells offer potential solutions, theyre also part of the problem. Stem cells, which can differentiate into many cell types, are important parts of the bodys repair system, but lose regenerative potency as we age. In addition, their self-renewing ability allows the mutations that affect every cell to accumulate across cellular generations, and some of those mutations lead to disease.

We do think that stem cells are a key player in at least some of the manifestations of age, said Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology David Scadden, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute. The hypothesis is that stem cell function deteriorates with age, driving events we know occur with aging, like our limited ability to fully repair or regenerate healthy tissue following injury.

When it comes to aging, certain tissue types seem to lead the charge, according to Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Lee Rubin, who directs the Harvard Stem Cell Institutes Therapeutic Screening Center. Particular tissues nerve cells appear to be one somehow signal to others that its time to age. This raises the prospect, Rubin said, that aging might be reversed by treating these key tissue categories, rather than designing individual treatments for the myriad tissue types that make up the body.

The process of aging involves all tissues in your body and, while different things go wrong in each tissue, they go wrong at basically the same rate, Rubin said. We can think of it as a process that is somehow coordinated, or there are fundamental processes in each tissue that play out.

In addition to key tissues, certain chemical pathways like insulin signaling seem to be able to control aging, said Rubin, whose work has received backing from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, as well as private foundations. The insulin signaling pathway is a chemical chain reaction in which the hormone insulin helps the body metabolize glucose. Reducing it has been shown to greatly extend life span in flies and worms, Rubin said. Also, signaling doesnt have to be reduced in all tissues.

If you just reduce it in neurons, the whole fly or worm lives longer, Rubin said. Certain key tissues in those organisms, if you selectively manipulate those tissues, have a positive effect on a number of processes in other tissues.

Because it circulates throughout the body, blood is an obvious place to look for controlling or signaling molecules that prompt or coordinate aging. A key carrier of oxygen and nutrients, blood is also rich with other compounds, some of which appear to play a role in decline linked to age.

Scadden described recent work done separately by Ben Ebert, a professor of medicine working at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Womens Hospital, and Steve McCarroll, the Dorothy and Milton Flier Associate Professor of Biomedical Science and Genetics, that identified age-related changes in the blood that can increase the risk of diseases we dont typically think of as blood diseases.

Another tantalizing study, published in 2013, used the blood of a young mouse to rejuvenate the organs of an older one. In these parabiotic experiments, conducted by Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Richard Lee and Forst Family Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Amy Wagers, the circulatory systems of the two mice were joined, allowing the blood of the young to flow through the older ones body. The older mouse showed improvements in muscle tone and heart function. Later, similar experiments done by Rubin also showed improvements in neuronal health and brain functioning.

The young mouses fate depended on the age of the older mouse, Rubin said. If the latter was middle-aged, the young mouse appeared to be fine. If the older mouse was very old, however, the young mouse did worse.

Rubin said the experiments suggest that blood contains both positive and negative factors that influence aging. It may be, he said, that both are always present, but that positive factors outweigh negative in the young and that negative factors increase as we age.

Researchers have identified but not yet confirmed candidate blood factors for the rejuvenating effects. What seems not in doubt is the overall effect of the young blood on the old mouse. Interest is intense enough that a California company, Alkahest, has begun experiments giving Alzheimers patients plasma from young blood in hopes of improving cognition and brain function.

Even if that approach works, Rubin said, there would be practical hurdles to the widespread administration of young peoples blood plasma to older patients. But with an active compound identified, a drug could be made available to restore at least some cognitive function in Alzheimers patients.

In addition to the overall process of aging, researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, as well as across the University and its affiliated institutions, are investigating an array of diseases whose incidence increases sometimes dramatically with age.

The list includes several of the countrys top causes of death heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer as well as rarer conditions such as the lethal neurodegenerative disorder amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Two decades ago, when stem cell research hit mainstream consciousness, many thought its greatest promise would be in stem cells ability to grow replacement parts: organs and tissues for damage caused by trauma or disease.

The stem cell revolution is still developing, Scadden said, but so far has taken a different form than many expected. The dream of harnessing stem cells to grow replacement hearts, livers, and kidneys remains, but potentially powerful uses have emerged in modeling disease for drug discovery and in targeting treatment for personalized medicine.

We thought stem cells would provide mostly replacement parts. I think thats clearly changed very dramatically. Now we think of them as contributing to our ability to make disease models for drug discovery.

David Scadden

Researchers have taken from the sick easily accessible cells, such as skin or blood, and reprogrammed them into the affected tissue type nerve cells in the case of ALS, which most commonly strikes between 55 and 75, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

These tissues are used as models to study the disease and test interventions. Work on ALS in the lab of Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Kevin Eggan has identified a drug approved for epilepsy that might be effective against ALS. This application is now entering clinical trials, in collaboration with Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

In the end, stem cells might have their greatest impact as a drug-discovery tool, Scadden said.

Much of stem cell medicine is ultimately going to be medicine, he said. Even here, we thought stem cells would provide mostly replacement parts. I think thats clearly changed very dramatically. Now we think of them as contributing to our ability to make disease models for drug discovery.

Also evolving is knowledge of stem cell biology. Our previous understanding was that once embryonic stem cells differentiated into stem cells for muscle, blood, skin, and other tissue, those stem cells remained flexible enough to further develop into an array of different cells within the tissue, whenever needed.

Recent work on blood stem cells, however, indicates that this plasticity within a particular tissue type may be more limited than previously thought, Scadden said. Instead of armies of similarly plastic stem cells, it appears there is diversity within populations, with different stem cells having different capabilities.

If thats the case, Scadden said, problems might arise in part from the loss of some of these stem cell subpopulations, a scenario that could explain individual variation in aging. Getting old may be something like the endgame in chess, he said, when players are down to just a few pieces that dictate their ability to defend and attack.

If were graced and happen to have a queen and couple of bishops, were doing OK, said Scadden, whose work is largely funded through the NIH. But if we are left with pawns, we may lose resilience as we age.

Scaddens lab is using fluorescent tags to mark stem cells in different laboratory animals and then following them to see which ones do what work. It might be possible to boost populations of particularly potent players the queens to fight disease.

Were just at the beginning of this, Scadden said. I think that our sense of stem cells as this highly adaptable cell type may or may not be true. What we observe when we look at a population may not be the case with individuals.

The replacement parts scenario for stem cells hasnt gone away. One example is in the work of Harvard Stem Cell Institute co-director and Xander University Professor Douglas Melton, who has made significant progress growing replacement insulin-producing beta cells for treatment of diabetes.

Another is in Lees research. With support from the NIH, Lee is working to make heart muscle cells that can be used to repair damaged hearts.

Trials in this area have already begun, though with cells not genetically matched to the patient. In France, researchers are placing partially differentiated embryonic stem cells on the outside of the heart as a temporary aid to healing. Another trial, planned by researchers in Seattle, would inject fully differentiated heart muscle cells into a patient after a heart attack as a kind of very localized heart transplant.

Lees approach will take longer to develop. He wants to exploit the potential of stem cell biology to grow cells that are genetically matched to the patient. Researchers would reprogram cells taken from the patient into heart cells and, as in the Seattle experiment, inject them into damaged parts of the heart. The advantage of Lees approach is that because the cells would be genetically identical to the patient, he or she could avoid antirejection drugs for life.

What were thinking about is longer-term but more ambitious, Lee said. Avoiding immune suppression could change the way we think about things, because it opens the door to many decades of potential benefit.

Change has been a constant in Lees career, and he says theres no reason to think that will slow. Patient populations are older and more complex, disease profiles are changing, and the tools physicians have at their disposal are more powerful and more targeted.

Many of our patients today wouldnt be alive if not for the benefit of research advances, he said. Cardiology has completely changed in the last 25 years. If you think its not going to change even more in the next 25 years, youre probably wrong.

When Lee envisions the full potential of stem cell science, he sees treatments and replacement organs with the power to transform how we develop and grow old.

It may not be there for you and me, but for our children or their children, ultimately, regenerative biology and stem cell biology have that kind of potential, he said. We imagine a world where it doesnt matter what mutations or other things youre born with, because we can give you a good life.

Lees not guessing at future longevity. Hes not even sure extending life span beyond the current record, 122, is possible. Instead, he cites surveys that suggest that most Americans target 90 as their expectation for a long, healthy life.

Thats about a decade more than we get now in America, Lee said. We have work to do.

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Researchers study secrets of aging via stem cells - Harvard Gazette

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Quinnipiac University President John Lahey is the recipient of the Stamford-based Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapys first Edward Netter Award for Business and Industry.

Quinnipiac University President John Lahey is the recipient of the Stamford-based Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapys first Edward Netter Award for Business and Industry.

Quinnipiac president to receive new award from Stamford nonprofit

STAMFORD Outgoing Quinnipiac University President John Lahey ranks at the top of the class for his community service, according to the leaders of one of Stamfords major nonprofits.

The Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy, which supports the development of cell and gene therapies for cancer, will recognize Lahey on Wednesday at its anniversary gala at the Harvard Club in Manhattan with the first Edward Netter Award for Business and Industry.

ACGT officials said Lahey, an ACGT board member since 2004, embodies the qualities valued by the late ACGT co-founder Edward Netter: intellect, creativity, tenacity, curiosity and compassion.

Im deeply honored to receive the first-ever Edward Netter Award for Business and Industry, Lahey said. Edward was a true visionary. He and his wife Barbara have made such an impact in this area of research. Im delighted that Ive been able to be a part of ACGT and help see their vision of successfully treating cancer advance so quickly.

ACGT co-founder and honorary chairman Barbara Netter will present the award to Lahey.

Im so thrilled to honor Dr. John Lahey, Netter said in a statement. He has worked closely with Edward and me over the years to guide ACGT and to fund some of the most innovative and breakthrough cancer research in decades. I know Edward would be extremely proud to know what ACGT has been able to accomplish these years under the stewardship of John Lahey.

Lahey is the eighth president of Quinnipiac. After arriving at the Hamden institution in 1987, Lahey started a planning process that resulted in the growth of student enrollment from 2,000 to nearly 10,000. He also expanded Quinnipiac from a college to a university, which offers more than 100 programs in its nine schools and colleges.

Last week, he announced his intention to retire next year.

Among the other gala speakers, ACGT research fellow Dr. Robert Vonderheide, of the University of Pennsylvania will discuss breakthroughs using immunotherapy for the treatment of solid cancers. Doug Olson will talk about his experience as one of the first three patients treated in the cancer immunotherapy CAR-T clinical trial developed by ACGT research fellow and Scientific Advisory Council member Dr. Carl June.

Since its founding in 2001, ACGT has provided nearly $27 million in funding for cancer cell, gene and immunotherapy research in North America. ACGT officials said the nonprofit has supported the underlying science that has led to the founding of four companies in the final stages of bringing new treatments to patients: Novartis, Ziopharm, Juno Therapeutics and Turnstone Biologics.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; twitter: @paulschott

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Quinnipiac president to receive new award from Stamford nonprofit - The Advocate

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As a practising specialist in internal medicine with 34 years of professional experience at the San Fernando General Hospital, and as a past president of the Council of the Medical Board of Trinidad and Tobago (2004-2010), I am calling on the Medical Association of this country, through its president, to set the record straight with regard to the utterances of the Minister of Health, Terrence Deyalsingh, who continues to insist that the hereditary haemoglobinopathy called beta thalassaemia major, which is what has been reported in the media that the child Shannen Luke suffers from, is not a life-threatening illness in this country.

His statement is patently untrue. The minister has stated in the Parliament that he has obtained five independent professional opinions from doctors in this country and Barbados in support of his position. Further, he has insisted that he has formed his opinion based on the recommendation of the board that advises the Children's Life Fund. I am also, therefore, calling on this board to publicly outline their position regarding the advice given to the minister as it pertains to this specific issue.

Having not been a party to the details of this child's diagnosis, I am guided solely by media reports. All of the reports that I have read concerning the issue of this unfortunate child's illness consistently attest to the fact that she has been diagnosed with beta thalassaemia major.

Beta thalassaemia major is a hereditary haemoglobinopathy that results in variable phenotypes depending on the extent of the patient's inability to synthesise non-alpha globin chains. Based on media reports, including an excerpt of a referring letter from the child's attending haematologist taken together with what the Minister of Health has said in the Parliament, one can reasonably conclude that this child suffers from beta (0) thalassaemia which refers to mutations of the beta-globin locus that result in the absence of production of beta globin. This is to be distinguished from beta thalassaemia intermedia and beta thalassaemia minor.

Only the last of these mutations can truly be considered to be non-life-threatening in the context of the present state of development of the health services in this country.

Beta (0) thalassaemia is a rare illness with a reported annual global incidence of just one in 100,000. Such children usually present with severe anaemia during the first two years of life. These children require repeated and regular transfusions of red cells which, in turn, if not managed properly with commensurate parenteral iron chelating therapy, e.g., deferoxamine (Desferal), administered through a continuous infusion pump device, will lead inevitably to a systemic iron overload with resultant organ failure.

Are infusion pumps routinely and reliably provided by Mr Deyalsingh's ministry today?

Can he say that these patients reliably receive a supply of deferoxamine?

How often are they transfused and how safe are these red cell transfusions? Inadequacy in any one of these aspects of treatment poses a threat to life!

Furthermore, poorly transfused individuals with this disease suffer from obligatory resultant conditions that reduce their life expectancy considerably. On the other hand, regular transfusions in the absence of addressing iron overload similarly lead to a range of pathologic entities, e.g., diabetes, hypothyroidism, hypopituitarism, adrenal insufficiency and most frequently cardiomyopathy.

How on earth then, can the Minister of Health insist that this illness, such as it is reported to be, is not life-threatening?

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Shannen's illnesslife-threatening or not? - Trinidad & Tobago Express

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The association between endothelial dysfunction and late onset hypogonadism (LOH) in patients with vasculogenic erectile dysfunction (ED) is not yet well settled. Our objective was to assess the association between LOH and endothelial dysfunction in patients with vasculogenic ED. Throughout 2014-2015 a total of 90 men were enrolled in this cross-sectional observational study. Of them 60 patients with a clinical diagnosis of ED were further subdivided into two equal groups: patients with vasculogenic ED and LOH (A); patients with vasculogenic ED and euogonadal (B). Thirty age-matched men with no ED or hypogonadism were enrolled as control group (C). All patients were subjected to detailed medical and sexual history, total testosterone (TT), calculated free (FT) and bioavailable testosterone (BT), flow cytometric evaluation for endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) (CD45negative/CD34positive/CD144positive) and endothelial microparticles (EMPs) (CD45negative/CD144positive/annexin V positive). The mean age SD of the three groups A, B and C were 51.311.1, 53.610.6 and 48.35years, respectively, with insignificant age differences (p=0.089). The diagnostic criteria of LOH were adapted according to European male aging study, 2010. The means of TT(ng/mL) were 2.320.21, 6.430.36 and 5.370.30 in groups A, B and C, respectively. There were highly significant differences between group A and groups B and C (p<0.001 for each). The means of EPCs were 0.430.070, 0.220.05 and 0.0320.013 in groups A, B and C, respectively. The means of EMPs were 0.150.029, 0.056 .013 and 0.0140.002 in groups A, B and C, respectively. There were significant differences between group C and groups A and B (p<0.05 for each). This study clearly demonstrated that there is a significant association between LOH and the higher expression of EPCs and EMPs in patients with vasculogenic ED.

Andrology. 2017 May [Epub]

Y A Omar, S E Younis, I Y Ismail, A I El-Sakka

Department of Urology, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt., Department of Clinical Pathology, Suez Canal University, Ismailia, Egypt.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28409902

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Testosterone level and endothelial dysfunction in patients with vasculogenic erectile dysfunction. - UroToday

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A female specimen of a zebrafish (Danio rerio) breed with fantails

Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in the world with approximately 30% of global mortality attributed to it.Cardiovascular disease conditions lead to damage of cardiac muscle cells resulting in defective heart function.

Stem cell therapy, though a relatively young science, is one of the upcoming treatment options for such diseases in the near future. In principle, stem cells from embryos can be made to differentiate into many functional cell types including heart cells, which can be effectively used to replace damaged cells in heart patients. To achieve this, scientists are constantly trying to understand the developmental process by which the heart is formed from various progenitors in a growing embryo. Once we understand this pathway at an organismal level, efforts can be made to use these stem cells for regenerative medicine.

A team of scientists led by Bruno Reversade from Singapore and Ian Scott from the University of Toronto have come together to study heart development in the Zebrafish model.

Zebrafish, scientifically called Danio rerio, is one of the powerful models for studying various organ functions. Although there are major structural differences between zebrafish and humans, there are strong similarities at the genetic and morphological levels. One of the biggest advantages of using zebrafish is that unlike mice, rats or monkeys, zebrafish embryos are transparent and hence provide a tractable system for visualizing these important developmental processes in situ.

During embryonic development, early heart development requires the activation of one of the important signaling pathways called Nodal or TGF pathway. Depending on the activation levels of Nodal, different cells become different stem cell types. Hence, there has to be a mechanism for fine-tuning of this signaling to produce these activity thresholds. Scientists from these two groups have recently identified the candidates involved in this fine-tuning.

Researchers recently identified a mutation, which leads to zebrafish with no heart at all. This suggests that this mutation somehow alters an early developmental process in heart formation. Interestingly, this gene encodes for a protein called Apelin receptor. So how does the Apelin receptor affect heart development? Scientists revealed that mutation in this receptor caused lower levels of Nodal signaling in mutant embryos as compared to the normal ones, thus failing to induce the formation of cardiac stem cells. When Nodal activity is artificially elevated in embryos that lack the Apelin receptor, they were able to develop hearts further confirming the role of Apelin receptor in this pathway.

A detailed understanding of this molecular cross-talk could help in the derivation of specific cell types from human embryonic stem cells for regenerative medicine, says Bruno Reversade, a human geneticist at the A*STAR Institute of Medical Biology, who co-led the investigation.

Further, this collaborative study showed that the Apelin receptor does not work in cells that produce or receive Nodal signals, suggesting that the Apelin receptor modulates Nodal signaling levels by acting in cells that lie between the cells that release Nodal signals and the cardiac progenitors.

In brief, this receptor functions as a distant regulator for fine-tuning the expression of the Nodal pathway during early stages of heart development ensuring proper cardiac development. One important area of future study is to determine whether modulating the levels of this receptor can prove useful for patients with various heart disorders.

Original article can be found here: https://elifesciences.org/content/5/e13758

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Scientists identify mechanisms of early heart development in Zebrafish - Biotechin.Asia

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April 18, 2017 by Gian Galassi

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 patient's own bone-marrow cells directly to the point of cardiac injury to potentially stimulate the body's 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 patient's 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 patient's 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.

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A team of biomedical engineering researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. The discovery is a major step ...

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First participant treated in trial of stem-cell therapy for heart failure - Medical Xpress

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Biomedical engineering Associate Professor Brenda Ogle (right) and Ph.Dstudent Molly Kupfer, with a mouse heart (Credit: Patrick OLeary, University of Minnesota)

One of the problems with heart attacks (as if there weren't enough already) is that when the heart heals afterwards, it grows scar tissue over the part of the heart that was damaged. That scar tissue never does become beating heart tissue, so it leaves the heart compromised for the rest of the patient's life. There may be hope, however, as scientists from the University of Minnesota have created a new patch that allows the heart to heal more completely.

First of all, yes, this has been done before. We have already seen experimental "heart patches" from places like the University of Tel Aviv, Brown University and MIT, which allow the heart to heal with a minimum of scar tissue growth.

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One of the things that makes this latest patch unique is the fact that it's 3D-bioprinted out of structural proteins native to the heart. It takes the form of a scaffolding-like matrix, which is subsequently seeded with cardiac cells derived from stem cells. The result is a patch of material, similar in structure and material to heart tissue, containing actual functioning heart cells as opposed to inert scar tissue.

In lab tests, one of the patches was placed on the heart of a mouse that had suffered a simulated heart attack. Within just four weeks, the scientists noted a "significant increase in functional capacity." The patch was ultimately absorbed by the body, so no additional surgeries were required to remove it after its job was done.

"We were quite surprised by how well it worked given the complexity of the heart," says associate professor Brenda Ogle, who is leading the research. "We were encouraged to see that the cells had aligned in the scaffold and showed a continuous wave of electrical signal that moved across the patch."

A larger patch is now in the works, which will be tested on a pig heart.

Other institutions involved in the study include the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Alabama-Birmingham. A paper on the research was recently published in the journal Circulation Research.

Source: University of Minnesota

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Heart-healing patch has got the beat - New Atlas

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BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ Interventional orthopedics in pain medicine practice was recently published by Elsevier as a chapter in Techniques in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management. The chapter, authored by Regenexx founder Christopher J. Centeno, MD examines less invasive ways to treat orthopedic pain and injuries through autologous biologics, such as stem cells and platelet rich plasma (PRP), and the shift from surgical orthopedics to interventional orthopedics.

Interventional orthopedics utilizing advanced technologies, such as ultrasound and X-ray guidance, precise percutaneous injections of autologous biologics, and bone marrow concentrate, (BMC) expand nonsurgical options in the field of orthopedics. Citing the dramatic reduction in cardiac surgery rates since the adoption of the specialty interventional cardiology, the authors reveal, We are poised on the brink of the same change in orthopedic care. The authors also state, The field of autologous biologics has the potential to alter the playing field of orthopedic care by allowing percutaneous injections to replace the need for more invasive orthopedic surgeries.

The chapter covers three important tenets in the developing field that will allow Interventional Orthopedics to alter traditional orthopedic care in the future. First is the rapid expansion of injectates (material being injected), such as stem cells and PRP, that can help heal damaged tissue and that can effectively treat musculoskeletal tissues. Second is the precise image-guided placement of those injectates into those damaged tissues. And third is the development of new tools that will advance this regenerative-medicine technology. The chapter also highlights research that supports the use of bone marrow stem cells and the importance of education standards and organization, training, and retraining of physicians to meet these standards.

The full chapter Interventional orthopedics in pain medicine practice can be found online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084208X16300052.

Christopher J. Centeno, MD, is the CEO of Regenexx and an international expert and specialist in regenerative medicine and the clinical use of mesenchymal stem cells in orthopedics. Dr. Centeno maintains an active research-based practice and has multiple publications listed in the US National Library of Medicine.He has also served as editor-in-chief of a medical research journal dedicated to traumatic injury and is one of the few physicians in the world with extensive experience in the culture expansion of and clinical use of adult stem cells to treat orthopedic injuries.

MEDIA CONTACT Mark Testa 155014@email4pr.com (303) 885-9630

SOURCE Regenexx

Drue has been helping orthopedic companies overcome challenges since starting the firm in 2000. Direct orthopedic industry experience informs Drues perspective on who is best suited to take companies to the next level. A father of four, Drue strives to live a life of integrity and commitment to excellence. Prior to starting TDG, Drue was at Zimmer for 10 years as a Multiple President's Club Achieving Sales Representative before being recruited by Stryker as Branch Manager of the Arizona Branch where he built an award winning team in Reconstruction, Trauma & Spine.

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Regenexx Network Using Regenerative Medicine Technologies in Interventional Orthopedics to Treat Pain - OrthoSpineNews

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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 ... and more »

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Jonathan Pitre has unexpected surgery to control a blood infection - Ottawa Citizen

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A peculiar kind of cognitive dissonance grips most people who talk about death. On one hand, death is awful: It is the most tragic fate that can befall somebody, murderers are the lowest of the low, and the death of a loved one, even an elderly loved one who has lived a long life, clogs us with sadness.

On the other hand, any intimation that we might wish to, I dont know, abolish death is met with deep suspicion. Everyones time comes eventually, I have been told. Or: Itd be unnatural any other way. Even: But would you really want to live forever?

Yes, actually. Yes I would. I have wanted to live forever for as long as I can remember. My instinctive response when asked why is, well, why not? Life is a self-evident good to me. Justifying that seems absurd dont you like happiness? And love? And experiencing things? Dont you like being alive? Peoples tendency to reply, Well yes, but and trail off, looking vaguely concerned for my mental wellbeing, continues to mystify me.

Like large swathes of secular ethics, I suspect that this hesitancy is, in some sense, a hangover from Christianity. Christians, of course, might reasonably shun the idea of earthly immortality, but the basic impulse underlying Christianitys doctrine of life and death that one must endure an imperfect and pious life on Earth before rejoicing in the eternity of the empyrean is the same one that motivates me. I just have less faith that death brings anything other than an ineffable and everlasting nothingness.

Immortality is no longer, however, as niche an aspiration as it was even five, ten years ago. Tad Friend recently published a (highly recommended) piece in The New Yorker that documents the recent anti-aging buzz that has overcome Silicon Valley. Iconoclastic tech entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel, ever ahead of the zeitgeist, wrote in 2009 that he stand[s] against the ideology of the inevitability of the death of every individual.

Since then, a steadily growing number of futurists have become interested in abolishing aging in one form or another. Donald Trump considered appointing Jim ONeill, a man who considers aging a disease to be overcome, to head the FDA, before, disappointingly, settling on the more establishment, Big Pharma-friendly Scott Gottlieb. Cryonics (freezing ones corpse in the hope that future technology may breathe life into it anew), once dismissed as mere science fiction, has slowly but surely gained popularity among Silicon Valleys elite. Futurist and AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky, a man unafraid of polemical positions (he once argued on utilitarian grounds that a single person being tortured for fifty years was preferable to a sufficiently large number of people getting dust specks in their eyes), wrote in a post on the website Less Wrong that If you dont sign up your kids for cryonics then you are a lousy parent. Thinking about cryonics reminds me of an H.P. Lovecraft line from the fictional text The Necronomicon, an esoteric book filled with secrets so vast in their cosmic implications that readers are sent insane merely by reading it. One of the few lines that Lovecraft reveals from the book goes like so: That is not dead which can eternal lie,/And with strange aeons even death may die. Strange aeons indeed, but perhaps ones not so far away.

I find this exhilarating. The world especially outside of Silicon Valley is starved of the kind of grand projects that can inspire a nation. Something like the space race would be nigh-unthinkable today (just ask Newt Gingrich). Even political projects like the New Deal or the Great Society, whatever you think of their outcomes, had an idealistic flavor to them that neither side of mainstream politics except, arguably, parts of Trumpism and Sanders-esque social democracy is really willing to embrace anymore. The prospect of seizing a truly fundamental part of human destiny the inevitability of death and forging it into a shape that befits our will is intoxicating in its grandiosity.

I think that one day the idea that death was so readily embraced, and that there was resistance against a project to eliminate it, will be incomprehensible to people. Life, and as much life as possible, will simply be taken for granted as a wonderful thing. Perhaps thats naive of me.

Tell you what, if Im still wrong in a thousand years, Ill write an apology column.

Contact Sam Wolfe at swolfe2 at stanford.edu.

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The technologist's stone - The Stanford Daily

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Most children who identify as transgender are faking it, says gender clinic psychiatrist

Boys in tutus are not transgender

Should schools and parents rush to indulge the fantasies of children who claim they identify with the gender opposite their sex in particular, starting them on hormone treatments?

Absolutely not, according to psychiatrist Stephen Stathis, who runs a statewide gender service at Australias Lady Cilento Childrens Hospital.

Stathis told The Courier Mail that gender confusion in some girls he has treated seemed to stem from sexual abuse:

The girls say, If only I had been a male I wouldnt have been abused, Dr Stathis said.

Only a minority of the expected 180 children to visit his clinic this year will be diagnosed with gender dysphoria many are trying out being transgender and theyll drop it by the time they reach puberty, according to Stathis:

The psychiatrist has also seen transgender children so desperate to start puberty blockers then progress to irreversible hormone treatment they harm themselves.

Ive seen genital mutilation, some who try to cut off their penis, he said.

The thought of touching their genitals is so abhorrent they dont wash them and get infections.

A quick glance at the psychiatrists name on Twitter shows many people trying to assail him as transphobic or a quack.

Stathis told Brisbane Times earlier this year that his clinic traffic started to climb significantly about three years ago, when it was still his personal project and not yet funded at the childrens hospital:

To the point where in November last year, I had a two-year waiting list for me to see young people, Dr Stathis said.

And then the waiting list continued. The numbers were growing by about 25 per cent per quarter.

He criticized the intersection of cultural normswith the new interest in transgender identity, saying it drives kids who are not transgender to think they are:

Dr Stathis said girls could do stereotypical boys things and were called a tomboy.

But boys, you put on a pink tutu and youre off to see the doctor, he said.

Many of these young people were just gender variant, they didnt identify as the opposite gender, they just like to do things that the opposite gender likes to do, he said.

A little boy would say to me, Dr Steve, I like playing with dolls and I like fairies and I like dressing up, but Im still a boy. Thats not gender dysphoria.

And other kids simply see being transgender as a lifestyle choice, not something innate, he says.

Dont tell Lady Gaga.

Readthe stories.

h/t Daily Wire

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IVme is opening a new clinic this month in Marina City. View Full Caption

DNAinfo/Ted Cox; Provided

RIVER NORTH IV therapy: it's not just for hangovers anymore says the owner of a new facility opening in Marina City.

IVmeplans toopen a clinic by the end of the month at 346 N. State St., co-founder and medical director Dr. Jack Dybissaid.

The 2,600-square-foot clinic coming to the landmarkcorncob towers will follow a facility IVme opened three years ago in Old Town.Though thatclinic billed itself on hydration therapy and vitamin supplements that help with hangovers, Dybis said the new one at Marina City will offer a whole lot more.

"It's kind of grown up," he said.

New treatments include Botox,hormone therapy billed as a way to help with weight loss and other things, and other blood work that can help patients "have a greater say in their own health," Dybis said. Hydration therapies run from $89 to $199 per the clinic's website.

"Some people go to work out," Dybissaid. "Some people are now using IV as part of their health routine."

Treatments are by appointment and usually last between 45 minutes and an hour, Dybis said. He plans to keep the clinic open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily to start, but may expand the clinic's hours later.

IVme first opened as "Revive" in 2012 but later changed its name and moved to Old Town. The Marina City clinic will be the company's second. Dybis said he's already searching for a third location.

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IV Clinic Coming to Marina City: It's Not Just For Hangovers Anymore - DNAinfo

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Photo courtesy of the University of Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL A team of biomedical engineering researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. The discovery is a major step forward in treating patients with tissue damage after a heart attack.

The research study was published Apr. 14 inCirculation Research, a journal published by the American Heart Association. Researchers have filed a patent on the discovery.

According to the American Heart Association, heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. killing more than 360,000 people a year. During a heart attack, a person loses blood flow to the heart muscle and that causes cells to die. Our bodies cant replace those heart muscle cells so the body forms scar tissue in that area of the heart, which puts the person at risk for compromised heart function and future heart failure.

In this study, researchers from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and University of Alabama-Birmingham used laser-based 3D-bioprinting techniques to incorporate stem cells derived from adult human heart cells on a matrix that began to grow and beat synchronously in a dish in the lab.

Watch a video of the cells beating on the patch.

Video credit:College of Science and Engineering, UMN

When the cell patch was placed on a mouse following a simulated heart attack, the researchers saw significant increase in functional capacity after just four weeks. Since the patch was made from cells and structural proteins native to the heart, it became part of the heart and absorbed into the body, requiring no further surgeries.

Related Article:3D-Printed Guide Helps Regrow Complex Nerves After Injury

This is a significant step forward in treating the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., said Brenda Ogle, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Minnesota. We feel that we could scale this up to repair hearts of larger animals and possibly even humans within the next several years.

A team of biomedical engineering researchers has created a revolutionary 3D-bioprinted patch that can help heal scarred heart tissue after a heart attack. Two of the researchers involved are biomedical engineering associate professor Brenda Ogle (right) and PhD student Molly Kupfer (left).Photo credit: Patrick OLeary, University of MinnesotaOgle said that this research is different from previous research in that the patch is modeled after a digital, three-dimensional scan of the structural proteins of native heart tissue. The digital model is made into a physical structure by 3D printing with proteins native to the heart and further integrating cardiac cell types derived from stem cells. Only with 3D printing of this type can we achieve one micron resolution needed to mimic structures of native heart tissue.

We were quite surprised by how well it worked given the complexity of the heart, Ogle said. We were encouraged to see that the cells had aligned in the scaffold and showed a continuous wave of electrical signal that moved across the patch.

Ogle said they are already beginning the next step to develop a larger patch that they would test on a pig heart, which is similar in size to a human heart.

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, University of Minnesota Lillehei Heart Institute, and University of Minnesota Institute for Engineering in Medicine.

In addition to Ogle, other biomedical engineering researchers who were part of the team include Molly E. Kupfer, Jangwook P. Jung, Libang Yang, Patrick Zhang, and Brian T. Freeman from the University of Minnesota; Paul J. Campagnola, Yong Da Sie, Quyen Tran, and Visar Ajeti from the University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Jianyi Zhang, Ling Gao, and Vladimir G. Fast from the University of Alabama,

To read the full research paper entitled Myocardial Tissue Engineering With Cells Derived from Human Induced-Pluripotent Stem Cells and a Native-Like, High-Resolution, 3-Dimensionally Printed Scaffold, visit theCirculation Researchwebsite.

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3D-Printed Patch Can Help Mend a 'Broken' Heart - Lab Manager | News (press release) (blog)

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BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 17, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- "Interventional orthopedics in pain medicine practice" was recently published by Elsevier as a chapter in Techniques in Regional Anesthesia and Pain Management. The chapter, authored by Regenexx founder Christopher J. Centeno, MD examines less invasive ways to treat orthopedic pain and injuries through autologous biologics, such as stem cells and platelet rich plasma (PRP), and the shift from surgical orthopedics to interventional orthopedics.

Interventional orthopedics utilizing advanced technologies, such as ultrasound and X-ray guidance, precise percutaneous injections of autologous biologics, and bone marrow concentrate, (BMC) expand nonsurgical options in the field of orthopedics. Citing the dramatic reduction in cardiac surgery rates since the adoption of the specialty interventional cardiology, the authors reveal, "We are poised on the brink of the same change in orthopedic care." The authors also state, "The field of autologous biologics has the potential to alter the playing field of orthopedic care by allowing percutaneous injections to replace the need for more invasive orthopedic surgeries."

The chapter covers three important tenets in the developing field that will allow Interventional Orthopedics to alter traditional orthopedic care in the future. First is the rapid expansion of injectates (material being injected), such as stem cells and PRP, that can help heal damaged tissue and that can effectively treat musculoskeletal tissues. Second is the precise image-guided placement of those injectates into those damaged tissues. And third is the development of new tools that will advance this regenerative-medicine technology. The chapter also highlights research that supports the use of bone marrow stem cells and the importance of education standards and organization, training, and retraining of physicians to meet these standards.

The full chapter "Interventional orthopedics in pain medicine practice" can be found online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1084208X16300052.

Christopher J. Centeno, MD, is the CEO of Regenexx and an international expert and specialist in regenerative medicine and the clinical use of mesenchymal stem cells in orthopedics. Dr. Centeno maintains an active research-based practice and has multiple publications listed in the US National Library of Medicine.He has also served as editor-in-chief of a medical research journal dedicated to traumatic injury and is one of the few physicians in the world with extensive experience in the culture expansion of and clinical use of adult stem cells to treat orthopedic injuries.

MEDIA CONTACT Mark Testa 155014@email4pr.com (303) 885-9630

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/regenexx-network-using-regenerative-medicine-technologies-in-interventional-orthopedics-to-treat-pain-300439851.html

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Regenexx Network Using Regenerative Medicine Technologies in Interventional Orthopedics to Treat Pain - Yahoo Finance

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April 11, 2017 07:15 ET | Source: Cesca Therapeutics Inc.

RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., April 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cesca Therapeutics Inc. (Nasdaq:KOOL), a market leader in automated cell processing and point-of-care, autologous cell-based therapies, today announced that Dr. Xiaochun (Chris) Xu, Chairman and Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Boyalife Group, will present an overview of the Companys cardiovascular clinical research program at the 2017 International Symposium of Translational Medicine in Stem Cell Myocardial Repair, being held April 10-12, 2017 at the Hope Hotel in Shanghai, China.

Details of the presentation are as follows:

Despite recent therapeutic and surgical advances, the effects of peripheral arterial disease, including heart attack and critical limb ischemia (CLI), remain among the worlds leading causes of morbidity and mortality and represent a rapidly escalating public health crisis, noted Dr. Xu. I look forward to presenting a review of our latest findings, including key feasibility study results and an overview of our Phase 3 Critical Limb Ischemia Rapid Stemcell Treatment (CLIRST) trial, which we believe highlight the potential of Cesca Therapeutics proprietary AutoXpress point-of-care platform to deliver autologous cell-based therapies that may represent a new paradigm in patient treatment going forward.

About the Symposium of Translational Medicine in Stem Cell Myocardial Repair

The 2017 International Symposium of Translational Medicine in Stem Cell Myocardial Repair brings together more than 650 of the worlds cardiac disease thought leaders to discuss the potential of translational and regenerative medicine in treating myocardial infarction (MI) and cardiac failure. The symposium is co-sponsored by the Shanghai Society for Cell Biology, the Institute of Health Sciences, the Shanghai Cardiovascular Disease Institute, the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, and the Key Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology, Shanghai.

About Cesca Therapeutics Inc.

Cesca is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of cellular therapies and delivery systems for use in regenerative medicine. The Company is a leader in the development and manufacture of automated blood and bone marrow processing systems that enable the separation, processing and preservation of cell and tissue therapeutics. Cesca is an affiliate of the Boyalife Group (http://www.boyalifegroup.com), a China-based industrial-research alliance among top research institutes for stem cell and regenerative medicine.

Forward-Looking Statement

The statements contained herein may include statements of future expectations and other forward-looking statements that are based on managements current views and assumptions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results, performance or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements. A more complete description of risks that could cause actual events to differ from the outcomes predicted by Cesca Therapeutics' forward-looking statements is set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in Cesca Therapeutics annual report on Form 10-K and other reports it files with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time, and you should consider each of those factors when evaluating the forward-looking statements.

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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

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

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

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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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Recommendation and review posted by sam

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.

Morning Consult welcomes op-ed submissions on policy, politics and business strategy in our coverage areas. Updated submission guidelines can be foundhere.

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Ensure Medicare Access to Blood and Marrow Transplants for Seniors with Cancer - Morning Consult

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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

Original post:
UW Treats First Participant in Trial of Stem-Cell Therapy for Heart Failure - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

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.

See the original post:
Cheyenne's Day of Giving provides an opportunity to save a life - Wyoming Business Report

Recommendation and review posted by simmons

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

Recommendation and review posted by sam

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.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170417005737/en/

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.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170417005737/en/

MULTIMEDIA AVAILABLE:http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170417005737/en/

Read more:
DKMS Creates Celebrity Driven #Castingforahero Campaign - Yahoo Finance

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

BY: DUSTIN BATTY

Stem cell research is a controversial topic that is often vilified in the minds of the general public. This is in part because of the vast mainstream media coverage of the debates surrounding the use of embryonic stem cells, and their tendency to refer to the issue simply as the stem cell controversy rather than specifying that the problematic stem cells are those harvested from embryos.

Embryonic stem cells aside, though, there is still some discussion in bioethical circles about the harvesting of stem cells from bone marrow and even from skin. According to a study exploring an alternative method of obtaining stem cells, the debates surrounding the extraction of stem cells from even a mildly invasive procedure such as a skin biopsy are particularly relevant when one is procuring cells from vulnerable populations, such as children and individuals with intellectual disability. The study was undertaken to prove the viability of a non-invasive method of procuring stem cells from individuals with Down syndrome.

The method used by the researchers was surprisingly successful. They managed to extract cells from urine samples that were able to become induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), which means that the cells were altered so they could act like stem cells. Notably, the iPSCs obtained from the urine samples were superior to those harvested from skin biopsies and other methods because theyd had no exposure to ultraviolet light, and thus their DNA was generally undamaged.

Perhaps the most significant advantage that iPSCs from urine samples have over other methods is their completely non-invasive nature. This is particularly true when collecting stem cells from individuals with Down syndrome; in the past, a significant percentage of such individuals or their parents or guardians have refused to go forward with skin biopsies, limiting the availability of material for developing treatment methods. Research ethics boards have also been known to prevent the wide-scale use of skin biopsies in individuals with DS [Down syndrome]. This new method is expected to relieve the anxieties of the individuals involved, and should be easily accepted by ethics boards as well.

The researchers expect that the use of this method will improve both the quality of cells used and the quantity available to be studied. This increased availability is important to the efficient continuation of research into treatments for Down syndrome. Although such research begins with the use of lab mice to test the viability of new treatment methods, mouse physiology is so much simpler than that of humans that such tests arent sufficient. Eventually, the treatment needs to be tested on human cells. Stem cells are particularly useful for these kinds of tests because they are able to grow into a variety of different cells, which can be tested with the treatment individually.

The researchers conclude with the assurance that the techniques they implemented could be useful not only for research into Down syndrome, but also in the study of other neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.

Providing better quality cells with increased participation and no ethical concerns, this new method of harvesting stem cells could be the answer that medical researchers were looking for.

Read more:
Stem cells can now be gathered from urine samples - The Plaid Zebra (blog)

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith