New York, NY (PRWEB) April 29, 2014

The Stem Cell Institute located in Panama City, Panama, welcomes special guest speaker Roberta F. Shapiro, DO, FAAPM&R to its public seminar on umbilical cord stem cell therapy on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in New York City at the New York Hilton Midtown from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm.

Dr. Shapiro will discuss A New York Doctors Path to Panama.

Dr. Shapiro operates a private practice for physical medicine and rehabilitation in New York City. Her primary professional activities include outpatient practice focused on comprehensive treatment of acute and chronic musculoskeletal and myofascial pain syndromes using manipulation techniques, trigger point injections, tendon injections, bursae injections, nerve and motor point blocks. Secondary work at her practice focuses on the management of pediatric onset disability.

She is the founder and president of the Dayniah Fund, a non-profit charitable foundation formed to support persons with progressive debilitating diseases who are faced with catastrophic events such as surgery or illness. The Dayniah Fund educates the public about the challenges of people with disabilities and supports research on reducing the pain and suffering caused by disabling diseases and conditions.

Dr. Shapiro serves as assistant clinical professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center.

Stem Cell Institute Speakers include:

Neil Riordan PhD Clinical Trials: Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy for Autism and Spinal Cord Injury

Dr. Riordan is the founder of the Stem Cell Institute and Medistem Panama Inc.

Jorge Paz-Rodriguez MD Stem Cell Therapy for Autoimmune Disease: MS, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus

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Stem Cell Institute Welcomes Special Guest Speaker Roberta F. Shapiro DO, FAAPM&R to Stem Cell Therapy Public Seminar ...

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Released: 4/28/2014 3:00 PM EDT Source Newsroom: City of Hope Contact Information

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Newswise DUARTE, Calif. Bone marrow transplants offer a second chance for people with life-threatening blood cancers and other hematologic malignancies. But many recipients, though overwhelmed with curiosity and the need to express their gratitude, can only dream of meeting the strangers who saved their lives. City of Hope is about to make that dream come true for two patients.

At City of Hopes annual Bone Marrow Transplantation Reunion on May 9, two grateful patients will meet the strangers, each hailing from different countries, who gave them back their futures.

Shes a world away, and weve never met, but were in a way genetic twins, said George Winston, the impressionistic, genre-defying musician with more than 20 instrumental albums under his belt. Winston received a lifesaving transplant from a young German woman two years ago, and cant wait to get to know her. Its amazing how they can locate a donor. I cant wait to meet her and just thank her from the bottom of my heart.

The meetings are the public focal point of City of Hopes annual Celebration of Life. Other meetings, and reunions, will take place throughout the event, attended by more than 6,500 bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplant recipients, their families and donors. All will celebrate second chances, scientific breakthroughs and transplant anniversaries.

Each survivor wears a button proudly proclaiming the years since his or her transplant. For some, its only a year. For others, a few decades. They celebrate their own recoveries, and the medical advances that have allowed this fellowship of survivors to grow from just a single patient 38 years ago at the first reunion, to thousands.

City of Hope helped pioneer bone marrow transplantation nearly four decades ago and is now a leader in bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplant, preparing to formally launch its Hematologic Cancers Institute. City of Hope has the only transplant program in the nation to achieve nine consecutive reporting years of over performance in one-year overall patient survival, according to the most recent data from the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, which tracks all such transplants performed in the U.S.

The reunion is a motivation that leaves us in awe of the many patients weve been able to help, but also humbled and focused on the patients currently in our care and those who will count on us in the future, said Stephen J. Forman, M.D., Francis & Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation. We dont have any results so good that they cannot be improved. Were always focused on how we can do this better. Were never satisfied.

Two patients will be highlighted as part of the reunion, and will meet their donors for the first time ever.

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Bone Marrow Recipients Get Rare Chance to Meet Their "Genetic Twins" at City of Hope

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SAN FRANCISCO, April 28 (UPI) -- An international team of researchers developed skin grown from human stem cells that may eliminate using animals for drug and cosmetics testing and help develop news therapies for skin disorders.

The team led by Kings College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center developed the first laboratory-grown epidermis -- the outer layer of skin -- similar to real skin.

"The ability to obtain an unlimited number of genetically identical units can be used to study a range of conditions where the skins barrier is defective due to mutations in genes involved in skin barrier formation, such as ichthyosis (dry, flaky skin) or atopic dermatitis, (eczema)," Dr. Theodora Mauro, leader of the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center team, said in a statement.

"We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery."

The new skin is grown from human pluripotent stem cells -- stem cells that have the potential to differentiate into almost any cell in the body. Under the right circumstances, the stem cell can produce almost all of the cells in the body.

The human induced pluripotent stem cells can produce an unlimited supply of pure keratinocytes, the predominant cell type in the outermost layer of skin that closely match keratinocytes generated from human embryonic stem cells.

The artificial skin forms a protective barrier between the body and the environment keeping out microbes and toxins, while not allowing water from escaping the body.

The findings were published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

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Researchers create artificial skin using stem cells

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Researchers hope stem cells could one day treat chronic conditions like diabetes and Parkinsons disease.

Healthy bloom: Insulin, shown in red, is being produced by cells that started as embryonic stem cells derived from a patient with type 1 diabetes.

A series of breakthroughs in cloning technology over the last year and a half are stoking hopes that cells could be used as treatments for patients with chronic, debilitating diseases such as diabetes and Parkinsons.

In January 2013, researchers at the Oregon Health and Science University reported that they had successfully created embryonic stem cells from a human embryo formed when the nucleus of one persons cell was transferred into another persons egg that had its original nucleus removed (see Human Embryonic Stem Cells Cloned). That was the first time stem cells had been made from such a cloned embryo, and the advance provides a potential route by which scientists could create various kinds of replacement cells based on a patients own genome. Many other research teams are pursuing another method of creating stem cells from a patients own cells, but some believe cells made with the cloning technique could be more likely to develop into a wide variety of cell types.

In the most recent advance for the cloning-based approach, a new report describes stem cells produced by cloning a skin cell from a woman with type 1 diabetes. The researchers were then able to turn those stem cells into insulin-producing cells resembling the beta cells that are lost in that disease. The immune system attacks these pancreatic cells, leaving patients unable to properly regulate their blood sugar levels.

Susan Solomon, a coauthor of the new study and cofounder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), told reporters the results are an important step forward in our quest to develop healthy patient-specific stem cells to be used to replace cells that are diseased or dead.

The ultimate idea is to treat diabetes with insulin-producing cells made from a patients own cells and a donated egg. Currently, insulin-producing cells harvested from a cadaver are transplanted into some diabetes patients. But patients treated this way must take immunosuppressing drugs, and the number of cadaver cells is limited.

The cloned cells are thought to be better accepted by the immune system. But given that the body attacks its own beta cells, how can researchers prevent the immune destruction of the transplants? Its very difficult, says Solomon. We are acutely aware of the need to address both sides of the problem.

There are also regulatory issues surrounding the cloning method. Lead researcher and coauthor Dieter Egli began the research at Harvard University but moved it to the New York institution because Massachusetts restrictions on egg donation prevented the work from progressing.

Egg supply is another challenge. The cloning works about 10 percent of the time, and only three of the four cloned embryos in the experiment led to viable stem-cell lines. When you think about wider application of this technology for patients with diabetes, cardiovascular disease, [and others], you are talking about hundreds of millions of people, says Robert Lanza, a stem-cell pioneer at Advanced Cell Technology and coauthor of a recent cloning report. When you start talking about numbers like that, its just not going to be practical to use these cells in that patient-specific way.

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Stem Cells from a Diabetes Patient

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Scientists have used cloning technology to make stem cells from a woman with Type 1 diabetes that are genetically matched to her and to her disease.

They hope to someday use such cells as tailor-made transplants to treat or potentially even cure the disease, which affects millions and which now has few treatment options other than careful diet and regular use of insulin.

Its the second report his month of success in using cloning technology to make human embryonic stem cells the cells that eventually create a complete human being and that scientists hope to harness to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinsons and injuries that cause paralysis or organ damage.

I think this is going to become reality, Dr. Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, whose report is published in the journal Nature on Monday, told reporters. It may be a bit in the future but it is going to happen.

The technique they use is called somatic cell nuclear transfer the same method used to make Dolly, the sheep who was the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996. Scientists remove the nucleus from a normal cell, clear the nucleus from a human egg cell, then inject the nucleus from the skin cell into the egg.

I think this is going to become reality."

Various chemical or electrical tricks can be used to start the egg growing as if it had been fertilized by sperm. In this case, they used DNA from a woman with Type 1 diabetes, and they said they used an improved method to trick the egg into developing.

It got to whats called a blastocyst a ball of cells that has not yet begun to differentiate into the different types of cells and tissues in the body, such as nerve cells, blood cells and bone cells. They removed individual cells and used various chemical baths to direct them to form into the desired cell type the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin and that are destroyed in diabetes. These cells carry the patients own unique DNA, including whatever genetic mistakes led to her diabetes.

These stem cells could therefore be used to generate cells for therapeutic cell replacement, they wrote in their report.

Scientists have cloned sheep, pigs, mice and monkeys, but its been far harder to clone human beings. Its partly because of the controversy few people advocate cloning humans for the purpose of making babies, and many people object to destroying a human embryo, even one that only ever existed in a lab dish.

Continued here:
Stem Cells Made From Cloning Diabetic Woman

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Scientists have taken skin cells from a woman suffering from type 1 diabetes, reprogrammed them into embryonic stem cells, and then converted those cells into insulin-producing cells in mice, according to a new study.

The announcement, which comes soon after another stem cell success involving therapeutic cloning, was published Monday in the journal Nature.

"This advance brings us a significant step closer to the development of cell replacement therapies," said senior study author Dieter Egli, a researcher at the New York Stem Cell Foundation.

Embryonic stem cells, or pluripotent cells, are cells that can reproduce endlessly and transform themselves into any type of human tissue. Researchers hope that the cells will one day be used to create transplant tissues that will not be rejected by the patient's body, because they carry their own DNA.

Egli and his colleagues used a cloning technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT -- a process similar to the one used to clone "Dolly" the sheep in 1996.

The process involves removing the nucleus from a human egg cell, replacing it with the nucleus from a foreign "donor" cell, and then allowing the egg to divide and develop for a period of days. The developing embryo will contain a mass of pluripotent cells, which are removed and used to create a line of reproducing cells.

If the cloned embryo were implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother -- an act scientists consider unethical for a number of reasons -- it could possibly develop into a baby.

Up until now, the stem cell field has relied on a very different method of pluripotent cell production called induced pluripotency. The process is viewed as being much easier than SCNT, because it does not involve the controversial use of human egg cells, which are also difficult to obtain.

At a news conference, Egli told reporters that the SCNT process was becoming increasingly refined and should be viewed as a reliable source of pluripotent cells.

"For me this is the way to go," Egli said. "This is about reprogramming a patient's own cells, with their own genotype, with their own DNA that are immunologically matched to them and no one else, essentially. I think this is going to become a reality."

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Scientists report another embryonic cloning success

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Scientists have used cloning technology to make stem cells from a woman with Type 1 diabetes that are genetically matched to her and to her disease.

They hope to someday use such cells as tailor-made transplants to treat or potentially even cure the disease, which affects millions and which now has few treatment options other than careful diet and regular use of insulin.

Its the second report his month of success in using cloning technology to make human embryonic stem cells the cells that eventually create a complete human being and that scientists hope to harness to treat diseases ranging from diabetes to Parkinsons and injuries that cause paralysis or organ damage.

I think this is going to become reality, Dr. Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, whose report is published in the journal Nature on Monday, told reporters. It may be a bit in the future but it is going to happen.

The technique they use is called somatic cell nuclear transfer the same method used to make Dolly, the sheep who was the first mammal to be cloned, in 1996. Scientists remove the nucleus from a normal cell, clear the nucleus from a human egg cell, then inject the nucleus from the skin cell into the egg.

I think this is going to become reality."

Various chemical or electrical tricks can be used to start the egg growing as if it had been fertilized by sperm. In this case, they used DNA from a woman with Type 1 diabetes, and they said they used an improved method to trick the egg into developing.

It got to whats called a blastocyst a ball of cells that has not yet begun to differentiate into the different types of cells and tissues in the body, such as nerve cells, blood cells and bone cells. They removed individual cells and used various chemical baths to direct them to form into the desired cell type the beta cells in the pancreas that make insulin and that are destroyed in diabetes. These cells carry the patients own unique DNA, including whatever genetic mistakes led to her diabetes.

These stem cells could therefore be used to generate cells for therapeutic cell replacement, they wrote in their report.

Scientists have cloned sheep, pigs, mice and monkeys, but its been far harder to clone human beings. Its partly because of the controversy few people advocate cloning humans for the purpose of making babies, and many people object to destroying a human embryo, even one that only ever existed in a lab dish.

See the rest here:
Diabetic Woman's Cells Are Turned Into Embryonic Stem Cells

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Cell lines made by two separate teams could boost the prospects of patient-specific therapies

This colony of embryonic stem cells, created from a type 1 diabetes patient, is one of the first to be cloned from an adult human. Credit:Bjarki Johannesson, NYSCF

Two research groups have independently produced human embryonic stem-cell lines from embryos cloned from adult cells. Their success could reinvigorate efforts to use such cells to make patient-specific replacement tissues for degenerative diseases, for example to replace pancreatic cells in patients with type 1 diabetes. But further studies will be needed before such cells can be tested as therapies.

The first stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos were reported in May last year by a team led by reproductive biology specialist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton (see 'Human stem cells created by cloning'). Those cells carried genomes taken from fetal cells or from cells of an eight-month-old baby, and it was unclear whether this would be possible using cells from older individuals. (Errors were found in Mitalipov's paper, but were not deemed to affect the validity of its results.)

Now two teams have independently announced success. On 17 April, researchers led by Young Gie Chung and Dong Ryul Lee at the CHA University in Seoul reported inCell Stem Cellthat they had cloned embryonic stem-cell (ES cell) lines made using nuclei from two healthy men, aged 35 and 75. And in a paper published onNature's website today, a team led by regenerative medicine specialist Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute describes ES cells derived from a cloned embryo containing the DNA from a 32-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes. The researchers also succeeded in differentiating these ES cells into insulin-producing cells.

Nuclear transfer To produce the cloned embryos, all three groups used an optimized version of the laboratory technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the nucleus from a patient's cell is placed into an unfertilized human egg which has been stripped of its own nucleus. This reprograms the cell into an embryonic state. SCNT was the technique used to create the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, in 1996.

The studies show that the technique works for adult cells and in multiple labs, marking a major step. It's important for several reasons, says Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem-cell biologist at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London.

At present, studies to test potential cell therapies derived from ES cells are more likely to gain regulatory approval than those testing therapies derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are made by adding genes to adult cells to reprogram them to an embryonic-like state. Compared with iPS cells, ES cells are less variable, says Lovell-Badge. Therapies for spinal-cord injury and eye disease using non-cloned ES cells have already been tested in human trials. But while many ES cell lines have been made using embryos left over from fertility treatments, stem cells made from cloned adult cells are genetically matched to patients and so are at less risk of being rejected when transplanted.

Ethically fraught Lovell-Badge says cloned embryos could also be useful in other ways, in particular to improve techniques for reprogramming adult cells and to study cell types unique to early-stage embryos, such as those that go on to form the placenta.

Few, however, expect a huge influx of researchers making stem cells from cloned human embryos. The technique is expensive, technically difficult and ethically fraught. It creates an embryo only for the purpose of harvesting its cells. Obtaining human eggs also requires regulatory clearance to perform an invasive procedure on healthy young women, who are paid for their time and discomfort.

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Stem Cells Made from Cloned Human Embryos

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Bjarki Johannesson, NYSCF

This colony of embryonic stem cells, created from a type 1 diabetes patient, is one of the first to be cloned from an adult human.

Two research groups have independently produced human embryonic stem-cell lines from embryos cloned from adult cells. Their success could reinvigorate efforts to use such cells to make patient-specific replacement tissues for degenerative diseases, for example to replace pancreatic cells in patients with type 1 diabetes. But further studies will be needed before such cells can be tested as therapies.

The first stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos were reported in May last year by a team led by reproductive biology specialist Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University in Beaverton (see 'Human stem cells created by cloning'). Those cells carried genomes taken from fetal cells or from cells of an eight-month-old baby1, and it was unclear whether this would be possible using cells from older individuals. (Errors were found in Mitalipov's paper, but were not deemed to affect the validity of its results.)

Now two teams have independently announced success. On 17 April, researchers led by Young Gie Chung and Dong Ryul Lee at the CHA University in Seoul reported inCell Stem Cell that they had cloned embryonic stem-cell (ES cell) lines made using nuclei from two healthy men, aged 35 and 752. And in a paper published on Nature's website today, a team led by regenerative medicine specialist Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute describes ES cells derived from a cloned embryo containing the DNA from a 32-year-old woman with type 1 diabetes. The researchers also succeeded in differentiating these ES cells into insulin-producing cells3.

To produce the cloned embryos, all three groups used an optimized version of the laboratory technique called somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), where the nucleus from a patient's cell is placed into an unfertilized human egg which has been stripped of its own nucleus. This reprograms the cell into an embryonic state. SCNT was the technique used to create the first mammal cloned from an adult cell, Dolly the sheep, in 1996.

The studies show that the technique works for adult cells and in multiple labs, marking a major step. It's important for several reasons, says Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem-cell biologist at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London.

At present, studies to test potential cell therapies derived from ES cells are more likely to gain regulatory approval than those testing therapies derived from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are made by adding genes to adult cells to reprogram them to an embryonic-like state. Compared with iPS cells, ES cells are less variable, says Lovell-Badge. Therapies for spinal-cord injury and eye disease using non-cloned ES cells have already been tested in human trials. But while many ES cell lines have been made using embryos left over from fertility treatments, stem cells made from cloned adult cells are genetically matched to patients and so are at less risk of being rejected when transplanted.

Lovell-Badge says cloned embryos could also be useful in other ways, in particular to improve techniques for reprogramming adult cells and to study cell types unique to early-stage embryos, such as those that go on to form the placenta.

Few, however, expect a huge influx of researchers making stem cells from cloned human embryos. The technique is expensive, technically difficult and ethically fraught. It creates an embryo only for the purpose of harvesting its cells. Obtaining human eggs also requires regulatory clearance to perform an invasive procedure on healthy young women, who are paid for their time and discomfort.

The rest is here:
Stem cells made by cloning adult humans

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

28-Apr-2014

Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation

NEW YORK, NY (April 28, 2014) Using somatic cell nuclear transfer, a team of scientists led by Dr. Dieter Egli at the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and Dr. Mark Sauer at Columbia University Medical Center has created the first disease-specific embryonic stem cell line with two sets of chromosomes.

As reported today in Nature, the scientists derived embryonic stem cells by adding the nuclei of adult skin cells to unfertilized donor oocytes using a process called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). Embryonic stem cells were created from one adult donor with type 1 diabetes and a healthy control. In 2011, the team reported creating the first embryonic cell line from human skin using nuclear transfer when they made stem cells and insulin-producing beta cells from patients with type 1 diabetes. However, those stem cells were triploid, meaning they had three sets of chromosomes, and therefore could not be used for new therapies.

The investigators overcame the final hurdle in making personalized stem cells that can be used to develop personalized cell therapies. They demonstrated the ability to make a patient-specific embryonic stem cell line that has two sets of chromosomes (a diploid state), the normal number in human cells. Reports from 2013 showed the ability to reprogram fetal fibroblasts using SCNT; however, this latest work demonstrates the first successful derivation by SCNT of diploid pluripotent stem cells from adult and neonatal somatic cells.

"From the start, the goal of this work has been to make patient-specific stem cells from an adult human subject with type 1 diabetes that can give rise to the cells lost in the disease," said Dr. Egli, the NYSCF scientist who led the research and conducted many of the experiments. "By reprograming cells to a pluripotent state and making beta cells, we are now one step closer to being able to treat diabetic patients with their own insulin-producing cells."

"I am thrilled to say we have accomplished our goal of creating patient-specific stem cells from diabetic patients using somatic cell nuclear transfer," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and co-founder of NYSCF. "I became involved with medical research when my son was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, and seeing today's results gives me hope that we will one day have a cure for this debilitating disease. The NYSCF laboratory is one of the few places in the world that pursues all types of stem cell research. Even though many people questioned the necessity of continuing our SCNT work, we felt it was critical to advance all types of stem-cell research in pursuit of cures. We don't have a favorite cell type, and we don't yet know what kind of cell is going to be best for putting back into patients to treat their disease."

The research is the culmination of an effort begun in 2006 to make patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines from patients with type 1 diabetes. Ms. Solomon opened NYSCF's privately funded laboratory on March 1, 2006, to facilitate the creation of type 1 diabetes patient-specific embryonic stem cells using SCNT. Initially, the stem cell experiments were done at Harvard and the skin biopsies from type 1 diabetic patients at Columbia; however, isolation of the cell nuclei from these skin biopsies could not be conducted in the federally funded laboratories at Columbia, necessitating a safe-haven laboratory to complete the research. NYSCF initially established its lab, now the largest independent stem cell laboratory in the nation, to serve as the site for this research.

In 2008, all of the research was moved to the NYSCF laboratory when the Harvard scientists determined they could no longer move forward, as restrictions in Massachusetts prevented their obtaining oocytes. Dr. Egli left Harvard University and joined NYSCF; at the same time, NYSCF forged a collaboration with Dr. Sauer who designed a unique egg-donor program that allowed the scientists to obtain oocytes for the research.

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First disease-specific human embryonic stem cell line by nuclear transfer

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

Regenerative medicine took a step forward on Monday with the announcement of the creation of the first disease-specific line of embryonic stem cells made with a patient's own DNA.

These cells, which used DNA from a 32-year-old woman who had developed Type-1 diabetes at the age of ten, might herald the daystill far in the futurewhen scientists replace dysfunctional cells with healthy cells identical to the patient's own but grown in the lab.

The work was led by Dieter Egli of the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) and was published Monday in Nature.

"This is a really important step forward in our quest to develop healthy, patient-specific stem cells that can be used to replace cells that are diseased or dead," said Susan Solomon, chief executive officer of NYSCF, which she co-founded in 2005 partly to search for a cure for her son's diabetes.

Stem cells could one day be used to treat not only diabetes but also other diseases, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Embryonic Stem Cells Morph Into Beta Cells

In Type 1 diabetes, the body loses its ability to produce insulin when insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas become damaged. Ideally this problem could be corrected with replacement therapy, using stem cells to create beta cells the body would recognize as its own because they contain the patient's own genome. This is the holy grail of personalized medicine.

To create a patient-specific line of embryonic stem cells, Egli and his colleagues used a technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. They took skin cells from the female patient, removed the nucleus from one cell and then inserted it into a donor egg cellan oocytefrom which the nucleus had been removed.

They stimulated the egg to grow until it became a blastocyst, a hundred-cell embryo in which some cells are "pluripotent," or capable of turning into any type of cell in the body. The researchers then directed a few of those embryonic stem cells to become beta cells. To their delight, the beta cells in the lab produced insulin, just as they would have in the body.

This research builds on work done last year in which scientists from the Oregon Health and Science University used the somatic cell nuclear transfer technique with skin cells from a fetus. It also advances previous work done by Egli and his colleagues in 2011, in which they created embryonic stem cell lines with an extra set of chromosomes. (The new stem cells, and the ones from Oregon, have the normal number of chromosomes.)

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Scientists Create Personalized Stem Cells, Raising Hopes for Diabetes Cure

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Newswise The gene mutation that causes Huntingtons disease appears in every cell in the body, yet kills only two types of brain cells. Why? UCLA scientists used a unique approach to switch the gene off in individual brain regions and zero in on those that play a role in causing the disease in mice.

Published in the April 28 online edition of Nature Medicine, the research sheds light on where Huntingtons starts in the brain. It also suggests new targets and routes for therapeutic drugs to slow the devastating disease, which strikes an estimated 35,000 Americans.

From day one of conception, the mutant gene that causes Huntingtons appears everywhere in the body, including every cell in the brain, explained X. William Yang, professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. Before we can develop effective strategies to treat the disorder, we need to first identify where it starts and how it ravages the brain.

Huntington's disease is passed from parent to child through a mutation in a gene called huntingtin. Scientists blame a genetic stutter -- a repetitive stretch of DNA at one end of the altered genefor the cell death and brain atrophy that progressively deprives patients of their ability to move, speak, eat and think clearly. No cure exists, and people with aggressive cases may die in as little as 10 years.

Huntingtons disease targets cells in two brain regions for destruction: the cortex and the striatum. Far more neurons die in the striatuma cerebral region named after its striped layers of gray and white matter. But its unclear whether cortical neurons play a role in the disease, including striatal neurons malfunction and death.

Yangs team used a unique approach to uncover where the mutant gene wreaks the most damage in the brain.

In 2008, Yang collaborated with co-first author Michelle Gray, a former UCLA postdoctoral researcher now at the University of Alabama, to engineer a mouse model for Huntingtons disease. The scientists inserted the entire human huntintin gene, including the stutter, into the mouse genome. As the animals brains atrophied, the mice developed motor and psychiatric-like problems similar to the human patients.

In the current study, Yang and Nan Wang, co-first author and UCLA postdoctoral researcher, took the model one step further. They integrated a genetic scissors that snipped off the stutter and shut down the defective genefirst in the cortical neurons, then the striatal neurons and finally in both sets of cells. In each case, they measured how the mutant gene influenced disease development in the cells and affected the animals brain atrophy, motor and psychiatric-like symptoms.

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Scientists Hunt Down Origin of Huntington's Disease in the Brain and Provide Insights to Help Deliver Therapy

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Gene expression profiling tests play a critical role when women with early-stage breast cancer decide whether to have chemotherapy, but many of them do not fully understand what some of the test results mean, new research suggests.

Current guidelines for treating early-stage breast cancer -- cancer that has not spread to nearby lymph nodes or other parts of the body -- result in thousands of women receiving chemotherapy without benefitting from it.

A gene expression profiling test can help differentiate women who might benefit from chemotherapy versus those that might not. The test analyzes the patterns of 21 different genes within the cancer cells to help predict how likely it is that a women's cancer will recur within 10 years after initial treatment and how beneficial chemotherapy will be to her.

Dr. Yvonne Bombard, a genomics and health services researcher in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital, said women she interviewed understood the test would indicate whether chemotherapy would be beneficial to them.

But, she said, many thought the test reflected their unique circumstances and did not understand that their test result was based on larger population statistics.

Her findings have been published online in the journal Current Oncology.

"Patients often viewed their GEP results as providing information that was more scientifically valid, uniquely personalized and emotionally significant than any other information they had received," Dr. Bombard said. "For many, the test was a transformational element that empowered them, allowed them to feel confident in their decisions and may even have rescued them from unnecessary chemotherapy."

The GEP test was a main determinant of patients' chemotherapy decisions, despite their misunderstanding of the test and its validity.

"GEP is one of many factors that women in consultation with their oncologists, should consider when choosing treatment for early stage breast cancer," said Dr. Maureen Trudeau, a medical oncologist of the Breast Care team and head of the Medical Oncology Program at Sunnybrook's Odette Cancer Centre, and study co-author. "The GEP test does not replace standard prognostic information but adds one more piece of information."

Clinical guidelines suggest the majority of the 22,600 Canadians whose breast cancer tests negative for human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) should be offered chemotherapy. Yet only 15 per cent of such cancers will recur, suggesting that about 8,500 Canadian patients are treated without benefit each year.

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Breast cancer patients place huge emphasis on gene expression profiling test

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ABC Professors Carola Vinuesa and Matthew Cook will head up the new Centre for Personalised Immunology.

A pioneering research centre to develop individual genetic therapies that will treat rare immune disorders is opening in Canberra.

The Centre for Personalised Immunology at the Australian National University (ANU) is the first centre of its kind in the world.

The researchers will focus on immune deficiencies, where the body's natural defences are dampened, and auto-immune disorders, where the patient's immune system attacks itself.

Centre co-director Professor Carola Vinuesa says the field of personalised immunology will revolutionise the way immune disorders are treated.

"Up to very recently, diseases like auto-immune diseases, so we're talking about diseases like Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, were all treated as if they were a single disease," Professor Vinuesa said.

"The only treatments available therefore were treatments that basically dampened the entire immune system.

"By knowing precisely what is the mechanism of disease in each patient we can start to tailor treatments specific for each patient. And we find that each patient, even though they might be diagnosed with the same disease, might need a completely different drug.

"So the treatments are now more effective and would have potentially less side effects."

Co-director Professor Matt Cook says many of the disorders are only vaguely diagnosed and are treated with broad, generic medicines.

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World-first centre opens for research into individual gene therapies for immune disorders

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Lego Star Wars Genetic Medicine
by the Hetero-geniuses.

By: Dylon Quiros

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Lego Star Wars Genetic Medicine - Video

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A study published today in Nature Genetics has revealed mutations that could have a major impact on the future diagnosis and treatment of many human diseases. Through an international collaboration, researchers at the Montreal Heart Institute (MHI) were able to identify a dozen mutations in the human genome that are involved in significant changes in complete blood counts and that explain the onset of sometimes severe biological disorders.

The number of red and white blood cells and platelets in the blood is an important clinical marker, as it helps doctors detect many hematological diseases and other diseases. Doctors can also monitor this marker to determine the effectiveness of therapy for certain pathologies.

"Complete blood counts are a complex human trait, as the number of cells in the blood is controlled by our environment and the combined expression of many genes in our DNA," explained Dr. Guillaume Lettre, a study co-author, an MHI researcher, and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Universit de Montral.

In collaboration with their colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Greifswald in Germany, these MHI researchers analyzed the DNA of 6,796 people who donated specimens to the MHI Biobank by looking specifically at segments of DNA directly involved in protein function in the body. They specifically identified a significant mutation in the gene that encodes erythropoietin, a hormone that controls the production of red blood cells. "Subjects who carry this mutation in their DNA have reduced hemoglobin levels and a 70% greater chance of developing anemia," explained Dr. Lettre. The scientists also identified a mutation in the JAK2 gene, which is responsible for a 50% increase in platelet counts and, in certain cases, for the onset of bone marrow diseases that can lead to leukemia. Dr. Jean-Claude Tardif, Director of the MHI Research Centre, Full Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at Universit de Montral, and a study co-author, added that "after reviewing pre-existing clinical data from the MHI Biobank, we observed that these donors also had a higher risk of having a stroke during their lifetime."

Dr. Lettre believes that these findings are very encouraging, as they suggest that the experimental approach used in the study can be applied to other human diseases. "Thanks to the existing genetic data and wealth of other clinical information available from the MHI Biobank, we will be able to identify other rare genetic variations that may impact the risk of cardiovascular disease and open the door to the development of new therapies."

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by Montreal Heart Institute. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Genetic mutations involved in human blood diseases identified

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Three Texas universities are joining together to create ahome for environmental investigators, funding infrastructure needs with a $4.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health,funding the first-ever hub for researchers looking for connections between genetic traits and environmental health factors.

UH, Texas A&M University and Baylor College of Medicine are teaming up to create thecenter, named by the National Institutes of Health as the newest national Center of Excellence in Environmental Health Science. It will be led by research team leader Cheryl Lyn Walker, director of the Texas A&M Health Science Center Institute of Biosciences and Technology andCollege ofVeterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences.

In addition to the $4.4 million NIH grant, researchers will be using their own existing grants and seeking additional grants to do their work, said Jeannie Kever, senior media relations specialist at UH.

As reported by the Eagle, this center is a cross-institutional initiative to promote integrated environmental health research and translate research advances into practices that can improve human health.

The grant will pay for the centers infrastructure needs and provide $250,000 in seed grants through a pilot program, officials said in a press release.

This is a game-changer, Walker said in a press release. We knew it needed to be an intercollegiate effort.

The Texas A&M Health Science Center is leading the centers development with collaboration from AgriLife Research, the Bush School of Government and Public Service,the Collegeof Education and Human Development, the College of Medicine, the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences and the Dwight Look College of Engineering. That network is expanded with help from the Baylor College of Medicine and University of Houston researchers in the Texas Medical Center.

This is a great opportunity for major Texas institutions to address the environmental health issues of Texas, said Melissa Bondy, professor in the National Cancer Institute-designated Dan L. DuncanCancer Centerat the Baylor College of Medicine and associate director of the new center, in a UH press release.

news@thedailycougar.com

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UH helps create hub for environmental experts

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Dr. Judy Garber on Cancer Genetics
Slides for this presentation are available on Dana-Farber #39;s Slideshare page: http://www.slideshare.net/DanaFarber/judy-garber-dfcicancer-genetics-nov-2012 Have you ever wondered about your...

By: DanaFarberCancerInst

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Dr. Judy Garber on Cancer Genetics - Video

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Minecraft Tutorials - Advanced Genetics - The Basics
Part one of my Minecraft tutorial series for Advanced Genetics. In this video you will find out how to get started in any mod pack that includes Advanced Genetics such as Attack of the B-team....

By: IDEDonline

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Minecraft Tutorials - Advanced Genetics - The Basics - Video

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Richard Sherman has something to say about cancer the Swedish Cancer Institute
http://www.SwedishCancerInstitute.org The Seattle Seahawks #39; All-Pro cornerback, Richard Sherman, is sending a message to cancer and he wants people to know that the Swedish Cancer Institute...

By: swedishseattle

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Richard Sherman has something to say about cancer & the Swedish Cancer Institute - Video

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Phoenix, Arizona (PRWEB) April 28, 2014

Center for Joint Regeneration is now offering stem cell procedures for nonoperative rotator cuff repair with Board Certified orthopedic doctors. The regenerative medicine procedures are performed as an outpatient and involve either bone marrow derived or amniotic derived stem cell material. Call (480) 466-0980 for more information and scheduling.

Millions of Americans are affected by shoulder pain due to a rotator cuff bursitis or tendon tear. The pain may persist for months and may end up needing surgery if traditional treatments fail. These may include steroid injections, physical therapy and pain medication.

Treatment with regenerative medicine has now become available with stem cell material. The Board Certified orthopedic doctors at Center for Joint Regeneration offer stem cell procedures for rotator cuff injuries with either bone marrow or amniotic derived stem cells.

The bone marrow stem cells involve harvesting the material in a short procedure from the patient, with immediate processing to concentrate the stem cells and growth factors for injection into the shoulder. The amniotic material is obtained from consenting donors after a scheduled c-section procedure. There is no fetal tissue used at all, alleviating any ethical concerns.

Small studies to date have shown stem cell procedures to work well for pain relief and restoration of function with musculoskeletal conditions such as knee arthritis, ligament injury and tendonitis. The stem cell material includes growth factors, stem cells, hyaluronic acid and anti-inflammatory medicine as well.

Center for Joint Regeneration also offers stem cell procedures for joint arthritis, ligament injuries and tendonitis of other areas of the body as well. This helps patients avoid surgery as well as helping athletes return to sporting activities.

For more information and scheduling to discuss regenerative medicine stem cell procedure options, call (480) 466-0980.

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Center for Joint Regeneration in Phoenix Now Offering Stem Cell Procedures for Nonoperative Rotator Cuff Tendon Repair

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2020 Stem Cell Therapy Market Alternative Strategies
Read more at http://www.reportsnreports.com/reports/281584-stem-cell-therapy-market-by-treatment-mode-autologous-allogeneic-therapeutic-applications-cns-cvs-...

By: paul harris

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2020 Stem Cell Therapy Market Alternative Strategies - Video

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Stem Cell Therapy | Genetics and Rheumatoid Arthritis
What do genes have to do with arthritis? No... not those kinds of genes... these kinds of jeans. Genetics can explain why infections can trigger rheumatoid arthritis Appearing in Science Codex...

By: Nathan Wei

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Stem Cell Therapy | Genetics and Rheumatoid Arthritis - Video

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Purtier Deer Placenta - Stem Cell Therapy
Increasingly hectic lifestyles, bad dietary habits, stress and pollution take a toll on our bodies. As we age, metabolic syndromes and cardiovascular diseases will surface. High blood pressure,...

By: Purtier International

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Purtier Deer Placenta - Stem Cell Therapy - Video

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Skin grown in the laboratory can replace animals in drug and cosmetics testing, UK scientists say.

A team led by King's College London has grown a layer of human skin from stem cells - the master cells of the body.

Stem cells have been turned into skin before, but the researchers say this is more like real skin as it has a permeable barrier.

It offers a cost-effective alternative to testing drugs and cosmetics on animals, they say.

The outermost layer of human skin, known as the epidermis, provides a protective barrier that stops moisture escaping and microbes entering.

Scientists have been able to grow epidermis from human skin cells removed by biopsy for several years, but the latest research goes a step further.

The research used reprogrammed skin cells - which offer a way to produce an unlimited supply of the main type of skin cell found in the epidermis.

They also grew the skin cells in a low humidity environment, which gave them a barrier similar to that of true skin.

Skin barrier

Lead researcher Dr Dusko Ilic, of King's College London, told BBC News: "This is a new and suitable model that can be used for testing new drugs and cosmetics and can replace animal models.

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Human Skin Grown In Lab 'Can Replace Animal Testing'

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