Stem Cell therapy - pioneering treatment for muscular dystrophy
Neuromuscular specialist Professor Jenny Morgan presents on the new advances in stem cell research for muscular dystrophy, at Muscular Dystrophy Campaign eve...

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Stem Cell Therapy Market by Treatment Mode Therapeutic Applications - 2020
[196 Slides Report] Stem Cell Therapy Market report categories the Global market by Therapeutic Applications (CNS, CVS, Musculoskeletal, Wound Healing, GIT, Eye, Immune System), Treatment...

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torn rotator cuff/shoulder arthritis one year after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Richard discusses his outcome from bone marrow/adipose derived stem cells by Dr Harry Adelson for his torn rotator cuff and arthritic shoulder http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Is CAR T-Cell Therapy the Future of Cancer Treatment?
Dr. David Maloney, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington and medical oncologist at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance, discusses his excitement over CAR (chimeric antigen...

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Genetic Engineering; The Action movie
HEY GUYS! Tai here. This is a Science project that I made! informative yet actiony! ... actiony? LOL ~TIEARMY UNITE!~

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, June 5, 2014Chronic pain due to disease or injury is common, and even prescription pain medications cannot provide acceptable pain relief for many individuals. Virtual reality as a means of distraction, inducing positive emotions, or creating the perception of "swapping" a limb or bodily area affected by chronic pain in a virtual environment can be a powerful therapeutic tool, as described in several articles in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The articles are available free on the Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking website.

Editor-in-Chief Brenda K. Wiederhold, PhD, MBA, BCB, BCN and coauthors Kenneth Gao, Camelia Sulea, MD, and Mark Wiederhold, MD, PhD, FACP from the Virtual Reality Medical Institute, Brussels, Belgium and Virtual Reality Medical Center, San Diego, CA, created pleasant virtual experiences that patients could navigate through in simulated worlds to distract them from pain. They report both the patients' subjective ratings of relief and how those compared to physiological measurements to assess pain responses in the article "Virtual Reality as a Distraction Technique in Chronic Pain Patients."

In "Application of Virtual Body Swapping to Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: A Pilot Study," Bomyi Jeon and coauthors from Korea evaluated the effectiveness of virtual body swapping therapy in improving pain intensity and "body perception disturbance" in patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, a chronic progressive disease characterized by severe pain and disturbed body perception.

Rocio Herrero, PhD and a team of researchers from Spain report significant improvement in multiple factors affecting quality of life for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome, a chronic musculoskeletal pain condition. They describe their therapeutic approach in the article "Virtual Reality for the Induction of Positive Emotions in the Treatment of Fibromyalgia: A Pilot Study over Acceptability, Satisfaction, and the Effect of Virtual Reality on Mood."

"Studies have shown that VR can be an effective adjunct for both chronic and acute pain conditions," says Dr. Wiederhold. "Future possibilities for VR's use in pain conditions may include such diverse groups as military personnel, space exploration teams, and our ever increasing elderly population."

###

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Can virtual reality therapy help alleviate chronic pain?

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NWO Elite Morality; Fate of Planetary Genetics - AJShow Summary
Video Category: Summary Speech Broadcast: Friday 30 May 2014 Additional Tags: explorer humans environment evolve view bilderberg trash general public life bl...

By: omegablizz

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Medical Video Lecture: GENETIC CODON, Biochemistry (genetics)
Prepare for USMLE,UK,CANADIAN,AUSTRALIAN, NURSING OTHER MEDICAL BOARD examinations around the globe with us. Understand the basics, concepts and how to ans...

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Medical Video Lecture: GENETIC CODON, Biochemistry (genetics) - Video

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Flawed Genetics
A place to hang out, for all of us on Flawed Genetics.

By: Kaetun Khlynn

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AgReliant Genetics
As the third largest corn seed company in the United States, AgReliant Genetics has established itself as a leader in seed research, production and quality, becoming one of the fastest growing...

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Washington, DC (PRWEB) June 05, 2014

Barbara Netter and her late husband Edward Netter Greenwich residents and founders of Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) were awarded the prestigious Distinguished Service Award by the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy (ASGCT) on Thursday, May 22, 2014. The award presented in Washington, DC before an audience of over 1,700 top scientists and research advocates honors individuals who have fostered extraordinary progress and enhanced the field of genetic and cellular therapy.

This recognition came during the ASGCTs 17th annual meeting, lauding the Netters for creating a foundation that has granted nearly $25 million to the brightest cancer researchers and physicians around the globe. Founded in 2001, ACGT has funded research that has saved lives, been heralded by the New York Times, and is forging an auspicious path in the effort to conqueror cancer.

Its an honor to receive this accolade from an organization at the center of our medical community, said Barbara Netter. Through the work at ACGT and in the cell and gene therapy realm, I have the rare opportunity to see new and optimistic methods of treating cancer unfold. With fantastic breakthroughs in cancer cell and gene therapy occurring more frequently, the future is bright.

The American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy is a non-profit professional and medical organization devoted to bolstering awareness and education surrounding gene and cell therapies. The organization was founded in 1996 and features 1,800 members, and publishes the medical journal Molecular Therapy. In addition to offering promise in the war against cancer, cell and gene therapies have the ability to treat cardiovascular, genetic, infectious and neural degenerative disorders. Major advancements have been made in immunotherapy for cancer, and using gene therapy treatments for inherited blindness and immune deficiencies such as SCID and hemophilia.

The ASGCT Advisory Council selected Barbara and Edward Netter (posthumously) for this award based on the founding of ACGT and the enormous contributions made to advancing cancer gene therapy research, stated Terence R. Flotte, MD, Chair, ASGCT Advisory Council.

About Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy (ACGT) Established in 2001, ACGT (http://www.acgtfoundation.org) is the nations only not-for-profit exclusively dedicated to cancer cell and gene therapy treatments for all types of cancer. One-hundred percent of contributions go directly to research. ACGT has funded 44 grants in the U.S. and Canada since its founding in 2001 by Barbara Netter and her late husband, Edward, to conduct and accelerate critically needed innovative research for all types of cancer. ACGTs Scientific Advisory Council is comprised of 16 of the nations most distinguished physicians and researchers in cell and gene therapy, who thoroughly review all grants. Since its inception, ACGT has awarded 29 grants to Young Investigators and 15 grants to Clinical Investigators, totaling $24.7 million in funding. Barbara Netter, as President, together with other members of the Board of Directors, are fully committed to ACGTs continued support of this research. ACGT is located at 96 Cummings Point Road, Stamford, CT 06902.

ACGT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ACGTfoundation ACGT on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ACGTfoundation ACGT on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ACGTfoundation

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hES-MSC treat multiple sclerosis mouse
Mesenchymal stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cell(hES-MSC) successfully treated multiple sclerosis in a mouse model. Moving mouse are treated with hES-MSC, the paralyzed mice are...

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The great promise of stem cells may finally be getting close for multiple sclerosis patients.

Stem cells, which have the power to transform into other types of cells, have been much anticipated for more than a decade as a way to treat or even cure diseases like MS, Parkinson's, blindness and spinal cord injuries. But it's taken time to turn that promise into a workable reality.

Two new studies, both published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, suggest that researchers are getting close.

"We haven't landed on the moon yet, but we've tested the rockets," said Jeanne Loring, author of one of the studies and a professor and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.

Her study found that a certain type of stem cell, injected once into the spinal cords of mice with an MS-like condition, could dramatically improve the animals for at least six months.

The mice's immune systems almost immediately rejected and destroyed the cells, known as human embryonic stem cell-derived neural precursor cells. But the cells seemed to trigger a long-lasting benefit, dampening inflammation to slow the disease's progression, and repairing the damaged sheathing around nerve cells that is the hallmark of MS, according to Thomas Lane, a neural immunologist at the University of Utah who helped lead the research.

The other study, led by researchers from the University of Connecticut Health Center, ImStem Biotechnology Inc. of Farmington, Conn., and Advanced Cell Technology, a Massachusetts-based biotech, showed that mice with an MS-like disease could be restored to near normal by injecting them with a different type of stem cell. When injected, these cells ?? mesenchymal stem cells derived from human embryonic stem cells ?? were able to home in on damaged cells in the nervous system, even crossing the blood-brain barrier, said one of the authors, Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell.

They not only reduced the symptoms of the disease, but prevented more damage to nerve cells, he said.

The two studies together "speak to the changing role of stem cells and their potential as treatment strategies for MS," said Tim Coetzee with the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, an advocacy group. The idea of using stem cells in MS has been around for a while, but these two studies overcome some of the challenges of finding a therapy that can be consistent and effective for many people.

"They set the stage quite impressively for potential work in humans," he said, with clinical trials likely within the next few years.

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New stem cells may help in battling multiple sclerosis

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JUNE 5, 2014

BY ERIN DIGITALE

Maria Grazia Roncarolo

Maria Grazia Roncarolo, MD, a stem cell and gene therapy expert and former scientific director of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, is joining the Stanford University School of Medicine as a professor of pediatrics.

Roncarolo has been recruited to lead the schools efforts to translate basic scientific discoveries in the field of regenerative medicine into novel patient therapies, including treatments based on stem cells and gene therapy. My biggest goal is to build an infrastructure and assemble a team of world-class physician-scientists who can take full advantage of the tremendous discovery and knowledge generated at Stanford in order to transfer those into the clinic, she said.

Roncarolo begins June 15 as chief of the newly created Division of Pediatric Translational and Regenerative Medicine within the Department of Pediatrics, and as a pediatric immunologist at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford. She will also co-direct Stanfords Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Roncarolo is a world leader in stem cell and gene therapies, said Hugh OBrodovich, MD, professor and chair of pediatrics, and director of the Child Health Research Institute at Stanford. Under her direction, the San Raffaele Scientific Institute has been seminal in showing that these therapies can actually work. Being able to bring her here to Stanford to translate our discoveries into therapies for patients at one of the best childrens hospitals is a perfect match. OBrodovich is also the Adalyn Jay Physician-in-Chief at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford.

Stanford is the only institution in the world that has the antibodies required to purify human blood-forming stem cells, giving it a unique advantage in the quest to develop stem-cell-based medical treatments. Roncarolo, meanwhile, has brought many basic-science discoveries in this field to patients. She holds eight patents and has six pending for methods used in cell and gene therapies. She has published more than 280 scientific papers and 22 book chapters. Her publications have been cited more than 19,000 times.

No single person has done as much as she in this field, or as successfully, said Irving Weissman, MD, professor of pathology and of developmental biology, and director of Stanfords Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Roncarolo will join Michael Longaker, MD, professor of surgery, as a co-director of the institute.

We are very excited that Maria Grazia is joining our faculty, said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. She is an outstanding basic scientist and translational researcher, and a highly knowledgeable institutional leader. She will be a tremendous asset to our team.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

Contact: Suzanne Wu suzanne.wu@usc.edu 213-740-0252 University of Southern California

In the first evidence of a natural intervention triggering stem cell-based regeneration of an organ or system, a study in the June 5 issue of the Cell Press journal Cell Stem Cell shows that cycles of prolonged fasting not only protect against immune system damage a major side effect of chemotherapy but also induce immune system regeneration, shifting stem cells from a dormant state to a state of self-renewal.

In both mice and a Phase 1 human clinical trial, long periods of not eating significantly lowered white blood cell counts. In mice, fasting cycles then "flipped a regenerative switch": changing the signaling pathways for hematopoietic stem cells, which are responsible for the generation of blood and immune systems, the research showed.

The study has major implications for healthier aging, in which immune system decline contributes to increased susceptibility to disease as we age. By outlining how prolonged fasting cycles periods of no food for two to four days at a time over the course of six months kill older and damaged immune cells and generate new ones, the research also has implications for chemotherapy tolerance and for those with a wide range of immune system deficiencies, including autoimmunity disorders.

"We could not predict that prolonged fasting would have such a remarkable effect in promoting stem cell-based regeneration of the hematopoietic system," said corresponding author Valter Longo, the Edna M. Jones Professor of Gerontology and the Biological Sciences at the USC Davis School of Gerontology, and director of the USC Longevity Institute.

"When you starve, the system tries to save energy, and one of the things it can do to save energy is to recycle a lot of the immune cells that are not needed, especially those that may be damaged," Longo said. "What we started noticing in both our human work and animal work is that the white blood cell count goes down with prolonged fasting. Then when you re-feed, the blood cells come back. So we started thinking, well, where does it come from?"

Prolonged fasting forces the body to use stores of glucose, fat and ketones, but also breaks down a significant portion of white blood cells. Longo likens the effect to lightening a plane of excess cargo.

During each cycle of fasting, this depletion of white blood cells induces changes that trigger stem cell-based regeneration of new immune system cells. In particular, prolonged fasting reduced the enzyme PKA, an effect previously discovered by the Longo team to extend longevity in simple organisms and which has been linked in other research to the regulation of stem cell self-renewal and pluripotency that is, the potential for one cell to develop into many different cell types. Prolonged fasting also lowered levels of IGF-1, a growth-factor hormone that Longo and others have linked to aging, tumor progression and cancer risk.

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Stem Cell Therapy Market by Treatment Mode Therapeutic Applications - 2020
[196 Slides Report] Stem Cell Therapy Market report categories the Global market by Therapeutic Applications (CNS, CVS, Musculoskeletal, Wound Healing, GIT, Eye, Immune System), Treatment...

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Stem Cell Therapy Market by Treatment Mode & Therapeutic Applications - 2020 - Video

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COLLEGE STATION - There are more than 18,000 people waiting for a bone marrow or stem cell transplant, something that could save their lives.

Despite the fact that there are 11-million people on the registry as available donors, only 40% of those in need will find a match.

That's because it's extremely difficult to match someone perfectly, and since it's done by DNA markers, the best chances come from someone in your same race and ethnicity group.

So while the odds are slim to begin with, the chance of finding a match for a minority is even smaller. Fewer minorities are signed up to be potential donors.

Lindsey Crawford, a local recruiter for the "Be the Match" foundation says, " African Americans make up about 10 percent of our registry, Hispanics about 6 percent and multi-racial only about 4 percent."

Most of the time, you won't have to actually donate bone marrow, it'll just be stem cells, which is a painless process similar to giving plasma. 20% of the time, actual bone marrow is needed, and that does require surgery, but you're given an anesthetic to ease the pain.

If you'd like to sign up to be a potential bone marrow or stem cell donor, you can visit http://www.bethematch.org.

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Critical Need for Bone Marrow Donors

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 5, 2014) Scientists in Taiwan have found that intravenous injections of stem cells derived from human exfoliated deciduous tooth pulp (SHED) have a protective effect against brain damage from heat stroke in mice. Their finding was safe and effective and so may be a candidate for successfully treating human patients by preventing the neurological damage caused by heat stroke.

The study is published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT1100Tseng.

"Heat stroke deaths are increasing worldwide and heat stroke-induced brain injury is the third largest cause of mortality after cardiovascular disease and traumatic brain injury," said study lead author Dr. Ying-Chu Lin of the Kaohsiung Medical University School of Dentistry, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. "Heat stroke is characterized by hyperthermia, systemic inflammatory response, multiple organ failure and brain dysfunction."

To investigate the beneficial and potentially therapeutic effects afforded by the protective activities of self-renewing stem cells derived from human exfoliated deciduous teeth, the scientists transplanted SHED into mice that had suffered experimental heat stroke.

According to the research team, these cells have "significantly higher proliferation rates" than stem cells from bone marrow and have the added advantages of being easy to harvest and express several growth factors, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and they can promote the migration and differentiation of neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs).

"We observed that the intravenous administration of SHED immediately post-heat stroke exhibited several therapeutic benefits," said Dr. Lin. "These included the inhibition of neurological deficits and a reduction in oxidative damage to the brain. We suspect that the protective effect of SHED may be related to a decreased inflammatory response, decreased oxidative stress and an increase in hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenocortical axis activity following the heat stroke injury."

There are currently some drawbacks to the experimental therapy, said the researchers. First, there is a limited supply of SHED. Also, SHED transplantation has been associated with cancer and immune rejection.

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Future heat stroke treatment found in dental pulp stem cells

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

5-Jun-2014

Contact: Robert Miranda cogcomm@aol.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (June 5, 2014) A study by a Korean team of neuroscientists has concluded that when mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs; multipotent structural stem cells capable of differentiation into a variety of cell types) are transplanted into the brains of mice modeled with Alzheimer's disease (AD), the cells stimulate neural cell growth and repair in the hippocampus, a key brain area damaged by AD. The finding could lead to improved AD therapies.

The study will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation and is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-CT1059Oh.

Neuroscientists know that Alzheimer's disease is caused by the presence of amyloid-B (AB) "plaques" and "tangles" in the brain's network of neurons. Recently, a protein signaling pathway called "Wnt" (Wingless-type mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) related integration site family) which plays a role in embryonic development as well as the development of some diseases, such as cancer, has been linked to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers speculate that an interruption in the Wnt pathway signaling process caused by the AB plaque buildup may have an impact on potential brain cell renewal processes, called neurogenesis. Evidence has indicated that the Wnt signaling pathway plays an important role in the pathogenesis of AD.

This study was carried out to determine if MSCs benefitted neurogenesis in the hippocampus by "modulating" the Wnt pathway in such a way that that the MSCs are able to differentiate into neuronal progenitor cells (NPCs) that could help rebuild the affected areas of the brain.

"Recent studies have shown that MSCs express various proteins related to the Wnt pathway," said study co-author Dr. Phil Hyu Lee, Department of Neurology, Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, South Korea. "It has also been determined that MSCs derived from bone marrow produce biologically active Wnt proteins that may counteract the negative influence of AB on neuronic activity."

The authors report that MSC treatment of AD in cellular and animal models significantly increased hippocampal neurogenesis and enhanced neuronal differentiation of NPCs.

"Our data suggest that the modulation of adult neurogenesis and neuronal differentiation to repair the damaged AD brain using MSCs could have a significant impact on future strategies for AD treatment," the researchers concluded.

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Stem cells found to play restorative role when affecting brain signaling process

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7 hours ago Directed Network Wiring, a new method to simplify the study of protein networks, is illustrated. Credit: Shohei Koide/University of Chicago

Proteins are responsible for the vast majority of the cellular functions that shape life, but like guests at a crowded dinner party, they interact transiently and in complex networks, making it difficult to determine which specific interactions are most important.

Now, researchers from the University of Chicago have pioneered a new technique to simplify the study of protein networks and identify the importance of individual protein interactions. By designing synthetic proteins that can only interact with a pre-determined partner, and introducing them into cells, the team revealed a key interaction that regulates the ability of embryonic stem cells to change into other cell types. They describe their findings June 5 in Molecular Cell.

"Our work suggests that the apparent complexity of protein networks is deceiving, and that a circuit involving a small number of proteins might control each cellular function," said senior author Shohei Koide, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics at the University of Chicago.

For a cell to perform biological functions and respond to the environment, proteins must interact with one another in immensely complex networks, which when diagrammed can resemble a subway map out of a nightmare. These networks have traditionally been studied by removing a protein of interest through genetic engineering and observing whether the removal destroys the function of interest or not. However, this does not provide information on the importance of specific protein-to-protein interactions.

To approach this challenge, Koide and his team pioneered a new technique that they dub "directed network wiring." Studying mouse embryonic stem cells, they removed Grb2, a protein essential to the ability of the stem cell to transform into other cell types, from the cells. The researchers then designed synthetic versions of Grb2 that could only interact with one protein from a pool of dozens that normal Grb2 is known to network with. The team then introduced these synthetic proteins back into the cell to see which specific interactions would restore the stem cell's transformative abilities.

"The name, 'directed network wiring,' comes from the fact that we create minimalist networks," Koide said. "We first remove all communication lines associated with a protein of interest and add back a single line. It is analysis by addition."

Despite the complexity of the protein network associated with stem cell development, the team discovered that restoring only one interactionbetween Grb2 and a protein known as Ptpn11/Shp2 phosphatasewas enough to allow stem cells to again change into other cell types.

"We were really surprised to find that consolidating many interactions down to a single particular connection for the protein was sufficient to support development of the cells to the next stage, which involves many complicated processes," Koide said. "Our results show that signals travel discrete and simple routes in the cell."

Koide and his team are now working on streamlining directed network wiring and applying it to other areas of study such as cancer. With the ability to dramatically simplify how scientists study protein interaction networks, they hope to open the door to new research areas and therapeutic approaches.

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New method reveals single protein interaction key to embryonic stem cell differentiation

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13 hours ago Fig. 1: Pluripotent stem cells enable planarians to achieve extraordinary feats of regeneration. (A) Planarians are able to re-grow an entire head in a matter of a few days. (B) The stem cells and their early offspring can be found almost all over the worms body. During regeneration, when a lot of new tissue has to be produced, they are able to generate a wide variety of cell types. The cell nuclei are marked in blue. Tissue-specific markers are marked in red, green and white. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine /Bartscherer

Planarians are known as masters of regeneration: they can re-build any part of their bodies after amputation. This ability relies on a large number of pluripotent stem cells. To further investigate the mechanisms that enable planarians to maintain their stem cell pool over generations, scientists have now established a method for analysing the composition of planarian stem cells and the turnover of their proteins. They discovered a protein that is not only required for the maintenance of the stem cell pool in planarians, but might also be active in the pluripotent stem cells of mammals.

Of earthworms and flatworms

Everyone knows the myth about earthworms: if you cut them in half, you get two worms. Nothing could be further from the truth, alas. However, if the earthworm is replaced by a flatworm, the two parts can survive these childish experiments. What's more, be it skin, intestine or brain, the body part lost through cutting will simply grow again in a matter of days. The creatures involved here are planarians[1], a class of flatworms that are so flat that they need neither lungs nor a heart to take in and distribute oxygen in their bodies. So simple and yet so ingenious? It would appear so. Regeneration studies involving these animals have shown that a dismembered planarian can generate several hundred tiny animals, hence they could "almost be called immortal under the edge of a knife" (Dalyell, 1814). The astonishing aspect here is that both the blueprint and construction material for the regeneration process must be contained in each of the fragments: a small piece of tail, for example, becomes a complete worm under the animal's own strength and using existing resources.

Not the preserve of youth: pluripotency also available in adults

So where do the components needed to rebuild the cellular structures come from? In their search for the answer to this question, scientists have a population of small cells in their sights, namely the approximately five-micrometre-long neoblasts. These cells are found almost everywhere in the planarian body and behave like stem cells: they divide, renew and can form the different cell types that have been lost as a result of amputation (Fig. 1). When the planarian loses a body part or discards its tail for reproduction, the neoblasts are reactivated and migrate to the wound. They divide there and their offspring form a blastema, in which as a result of interplay between various extra- and intra-cellular factors important differentiation and patterning processes take place. Thanks to these processes, in turn, complex structures like the brain are formed. If the neoblasts are eliminated through radiation, for example, the planarian loses its ability to regenerate and dies within a few weeks. The fact that, following transplantation into an irradiated, neoblast-free worm, a single neoblast can produce all cell types and enable the host worm to regain its ability to regenerate shows that at least some neoblasts are pluripotent [2]. In healthy mammals, pluripotency, that is the ability of one cell to produce any given cell type found in an organism, e.g. muscle, nerve or pancreas cells, only arises in the early embryonic stage. Therefore, stable pluripotency in the adult organism is something special but not impossible as long as mechanisms exist for conserving this characteristic as is clearly the case with the planarians.

An in-vivo Petri dish for pluripotent stem cells

The preservation of pluripotency has been an important topic in stem cell research for years, and has mostly been examined up to now using isolated embryonic stem cells. Important transcription factors that can induce and preserve pluripotency were discovered in the course of this research. So what can planarians contribute to the current research if their stem cells cannot be cultivated and reproduced outside of the body? This is precisely where the strength of the planarians as a model system in stem cell research lies: the combination they can offer of a natural extracellular environment and pluripotent stem cells. Whereas cultivated stem cells are normally taken out of their natural environment and all important interactions with neighbouring cells and freely moving molecules are interrupted as a result, the stem cells in planarians can be observed and manipulated under normal conditions in vivo. Therefore, planarians are of interest as "in-vivo Petri dishes" for stem cells, in which not only their mechanisms for preserving pluripotency can be studied, but also their regulation and contribution to regeneration.

A venerable old worm meets ultra-modern next-generation technologies

Although planarians have been renowned as masters of regeneration and research objects for generations, they have undergone a genuine explosion in research interest in recent years. In particular, the possibility of switching off specific genes through RNA interference (RNAi) and the availability of the genome sequence of Schmidtea mediterranea, a planarian species which is especially good at regenerating itself, have contributed to this surge in interest. With the development of modern sequencing procedures, that is 'next generation sequencing', gene expression profiles that provide information about the specific genes activated in particular cells or tissues at particular points in time can now be produced on a large scale. Hence, it is possible to examine which messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are produced that act as molecular templates for the production of proteins. For example, hundreds of these mRNAs are produced after the amputation of a worm's head and their proteins provide potential regulators of the regeneration process [3; 4]. However, the real work only starts here: the extent to which the presence of a particular mRNA also reflects the volume of protein that is active in the cell remains to be determined. It is mainly the proteins in the form of enzymes, signalling molecules and structural elements, and not their mRNAs, that ultimately control the majority of cellular processes. In addition, their production using mRNA templates and their lifetime are precisely regulated processes and the frequency with which an mRNA arises cannot provide any information about these processes. The time has come, therefore, to develop experimental approaches for planarians that extend beyond gene expression analysis and lend greater significance to the subsequent regulatory processes.

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How planarians maintain their stem cell pools over generations

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June 5, 2014

Nathan Hurst, University of Missouri

One of the biggest challenges for medical researchers studying the effectiveness of stem cell therapies is that transplants or grafts of cells are often rejected by the hosts. This rejection can render experiments useless, making research into potentially life-saving treatments a long and difficult process. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that a new line of genetically modified pigs will host transplanted cells without the risk of rejection.

The rejection of transplants and grafts by host bodies is a huge hurdle for medical researchers, said R. Michael Roberts, Curators Professor of Animal Science and Biochemistry and a researcher in the Bond Life Sciences Center. By establishing that these pigs will support transplants without the fear of rejection, we can move stem cell therapy research forward at a quicker pace.

In a published study, the team of researchers implanted human pluripotent stem cells in a special line of pigs developed by Randall Prather, an MU Curators Professor of reproductive physiology. Prather specifically created the pigs with immune systems that allow the pigs to accept all transplants or grafts without rejection. Once the scientists implanted the cells, the pigs did not reject the stem cells and the cells thrived. Prather says achieving this success with pigs is notable because pigs are much closer to humans than many other test animals.

Many medical researchers prefer conducting studies with pigs because they are more anatomically similar to humans than other animals, such as mice and rats, Prather said. Physically, pigs are much closer to the size and scale of humans than other animals, and they respond to health threats similarly. This means that research in pigs is more likely to have results similar to those in humans for many different tests and treatments.

Now that we know that human stem cells can thrive in these pigs, a door has been opened for new and exciting research by scientists around the world, Roberts said. Hopefully this means that we are one step closer to therapies and treatments for a number of debilitating human diseases.

Roberts and Prather published their study, Engraftment of human iPS cells and allogeneic porcine cells into pigs with inactivated RAG2 and accompanying severe combined immunodeficiency in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Nathan Hurst, University of Missouri

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Stem Cells Successfully Transplanted And Grown In Pigs

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Immunotherapy: A Promising New Approach to Treating Cancer with Carl June MD
Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Dr. Carl June presents a revolutionary form of targeted immunotherapy to fight cancer, a treatment that involves genetically mod...

By: University of California Television (UCTV)

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Immunotherapy: A Promising New Approach to Treating Cancer with Carl June MD - Video

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By Marcus Johnson

TiGenix NV, which is a leader in Europes cell therapy sector, has announced that it has come to terms with PharmaCell BV in regards to the sale of its Dutch based manufacturing plant. The sale cost PharmaCell a total of 5.75 million Euros. PharmaCell, which is a European contract manufacturing organization (CMO) that focuses primarily on cell therapy and regenerative medicines, will be receiving shares of TiGenixs subsidiary, TiGenix BV, as it is TiGenix BV that holds the manufacturing plant.

The plant is located in Sittard Geleen, which is found in the Netherlands. The plant was assessed by Dutch regulators in 2012, and it passed a cGMP inspection. The facility also received approval from the European Medicines Agency to begin producing ChondroCelect, which is a cell therapy product for knee cartilage repair designed and produced by TiGenix.

Under the terms of the deal, TiGenix will receive 3.5 million Euros immediately, with the last payment of 0.75 million Euros being issued in 2017. Because of a long term manufacturing agreement, TiGenixs ChondroCelect will continue to be produced at the plant.

Eduardo Bravo, the CEO of TiGenix, commented on the facilitys sale. The sale of the Dutch manufacturing facility together with the agreement to license the marketing and distribution rights of ChondroCelect to Sobi, which was signed in April, have transformed TiGenix, he said. The combination of these two deals brings an immediate cash inflow of Euro 3.5 million to TiGenix, and a reduction in annual operating costs for manufacturing, sales and marketing of at least Euro 5 million. The broader geographical reach for ChondroCelect offered by Sobi will give TiGenix the potential for greater value generation in the long-term. TiGenix itself can now fully focus on progressing its promising advanced clinical stage pipeline to patients with high unmet medical need.

PharmaCell has also stated that the company intends to use the facility for further development of investigational cell therapy and regenerative medicine products.

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TiGenix Sells Dutch Manufacturing Plant To PharmaCell

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Patrick McGreevy of The Los Angeles Times reported on SB 1381, the California Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act. This bill would establish a requirement for companies to disclose if foods sold in California are genetically engineered (for raw commodities) to produced with genetic engineering or partially produced with genetic engineering (for processed foods).

McGreevy reaffirmed that the California GMO labeling bill failed in the Senate, 19-16, just two votes short of the majority needed for passage, after some Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure.

In November 2012, a more complex, yet similar labeling initiative, Proposition 37, was rejected by California voters. Its troubling to see that a similar bill resurfaced especially when economic analysis behind Californias Proposition 37 estimated annual food costs for an average-income family would increase by approximately $400.

State Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) sponsored SB 1381, stating that its about consumer choice and information.If the product contains GMOs, label it. We shouldnt be hiding ingredients.

However, her right to know argument is weak. Consumer choice already exists in the market place. They can choose organic or Non-GMO.

Additionally, GMOs are safe for consumption. Scientific authorities such as the National Academies of Science, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, the American Medical Association and the American Association for the Advancement of science have looked at HUNDREDS of scientific studies and have concluded that foods with biotech-derived ingredients do not pose any more risk to people than any other foods.

Lastly, genetic modification isnt an ingredient, its a (farming) technology just as organic is a (farming) technology, both regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA has also held that there is no significant difference between foods produced using bio-engineering, as a class, and their conventional counterparts.

It is important to the look at the bigger picture which The Los Angeles Times caught as it quoted Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) who notably said that the bill is overkill, and would undermine worldwide efforts to develop crops and other food to prevent starvation in developing countries.

Closing his piece, McGreevy reported how Senate action was welcomed by Cynthia Cory, director of environmental affairs for the California Farm Bureau Federation, who greatly amplified the true messaging strategy behind anti-GMO activism, Were pleased the Senate did not fall for the proponents scare tactics and that they rejected this unnecessary, misleading and costly bill that would increase food costs for consumers.

Excerpt from:
California GMO Labeling Bill Fails; Means Win for Consumers

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith