23andMe Research: Understanding Genetics
When will knowing your genetic information become part of your everyday life like knowing your blood pressure or cholesterol levels? And how will genetics help us make decisions about our healthcar...

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23andMe Research: Understanding Genetics - Video

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After seven years, Mt Linton Station genetics manager Hamish Bielski is walking off the farm feeling he has achieved his goal of breeding low-input, high-output sheep.

Mr Bielski and his wife Amy have moved to an equity partnership on a 300ha property near Clydevale, in South Otago.

He said he was sad to say goodbye to the place, especially when it was starting to see the rewards of an extensive breeding programme involving Texels and Romneys.

''The most successful part of my job was the start of the new maternal breeding programme, which basically held together our top Texels. We also bought Romneys and were heading to stabilise that over the last seven years, coupled with buying 750 of the Tan Bar Romney ewes in 2012.

''In my last two years at the station, I feel as though we are just starting to gain traction and starting to get there. It's taken six years to build the foundation.

''It's almost a bit of a shame to go at a time when we are in a sense starting to see rewards coming through, but it's well set up to keep the progress going.''

Working at Mt Linton station was the best decision he and Amy could have made for their careers, despite his having been sick of genetics when he first started there, after working at a composite breeding outfit for a year, Mr Bielski said.

''Amy and I had just had a baby girl and I needed a job. It wasn't really the genetics that excited me, more the challenge of being on a big station and having new opportunities. It just happened to be that the genetics was my job title.

''I'm really stoked with the experience I got there. It's one of the best moves that Amy and I have done in our careers, with what we have learnt.

"The environment that we are in has been great, and there's been plenty of challenges too - there always is when you're dealing with a lot of people. It's been very stimulating. We're sad to leave really.''

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Station genetics manager sad to leave

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Mt Linton Station genetics manager Hamish Bielski is leaving to move into an equity partnership. Photo from Southern Rural Life files.

Mr Bielski and his wife Amy have moved to an equity partnership on a 300ha property near Clydevale, in South Otago.

He said he was sad to say goodbye to the place, especially when it was starting to see the rewards of an extensive breeding programme involving Texels and Romneys.

''The most successful part of my job was the start of the new maternal breeding programme, which basically held together our top Texels. We also bought Romneys and were heading to stabilise that over the last seven years, coupled with buying 750 of the Tan Bar Romney ewes in 2012.

''In my last two years at the station, I feel as though we are just starting to gain traction and starting to get there. It's taken six years to build the foundation.

''It's almost a bit of a shame to go at a time when we are in a sense starting to see rewards coming through, but it's well set up to keep the progress going.''

Working at Mt Linton station was the best decision he and Amy could have made for their careers, despite his having been sick of genetics when he first started there, after working at a composite breeding outfit for a year, Mr Bielski said.

''Amy and I had just had a baby girl and I needed a job. It wasn't really the genetics that excited me, more the challenge of being on a big station and having new opportunities. It just happened to be that the genetics was my job title.

''I'm really stoked with the experience I got there. It's one of the best moves that Amy and I have done in our careers, with what we have learnt. The environment that we are in has been great, and there's been plenty of challenges too - there always is when you're dealing with a lot of people. It's been very stimulating. We're sad to leave really.''

And while he would be busy with the equity farming business, he would continue in the genetics area, operating a consultancy on the side.

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Station genetics manager sad to leave, happy with progress

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Jean Bennett on gene therapy as a treatment for blindness
Jean Bennett of the University of Pennsylvania on gene therapy as a treatment for blindness http://www.CharlieRose.com.

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Jean Bennett on gene therapy as a treatment for blindness - Video

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Uniqure Gene Therapy Info.

By: Arjun Chakroborty

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Uniqure Gene Therapy Info. - Video

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The electrodes in a cochlear implant can be used to direct gene therapy and regrow neurons.

Growth factor: The cochlear nerve regenerates after gene therapy (top) versus the untreated cochlea from the same animal (bottom).

Researchers have demonstrated a new way to restore lost hearing: with a cochlear implant that helps the auditory nerve regenerate by delivering gene therapy.

The researchers behind the work are investigating whether electrode-triggered gene therapy could improve other machine-body connectionsfor example, the deep-brain stimulation probes that are used to treat Parkinsons disease, or retinal prosthetics.

More than 300,000 people worldwide have cochlear implants. The devices are implanted in patients who are profoundly deaf, having lost most or all of the ears hair cells, which detect sound waves through mechanical vibrations, and convert those vibrations into electrical signals that are picked up by neurons in the auditory nerve and passed along to the brain. Cochlear implants use up to 22 platinum electrodes to stimulate the auditory nerve; the devices make a tremendous difference for people but they restore only a fraction of normal hearing.

Cochlear implants are very effective for picking up speech, but they struggle to reproduce pitch, spectral range, and dynamics, says Gary Housley, a neuroscientist at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, who led development of the new implant.

Cyborg cavy: An Xray image shows the cochlear implant in the left ear of a guinea pig.

When the ears hair cells degrade and die, the associated neurons also degrade and shrink back into the cochlea. So theres a physical gap between these atrophied neurons and the electrodes in the cochlear implant. Improving the interface between nerves and electrodes should make it possible to use weaker electrical stimulation, opening up the possibility of stimulating multiple parts of the auditory nerve at once, using more electrodes, and improving the overall quality of sound.

Peptides called neurotrophins can encourage regeneration of the neurons in the auditory nerve. Housley used a common process, called electroporation, to cause pores to open up in cells, allowing DNA to get inside. It usually requires high voltages, and it hasnt found much clinical use, but Housley wanted to see whether the small, distributed electrodes of the cochlear implant could be used to achieve the effect.

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Cochlear Implant Also Uses Gene Therapy to Improve Hearing

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By Steven Reinberg HealthDay Reporter

WEDNESDAY, April 23, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Australian researchers say that gene therapy may one day improve the hearing of people with cochlear implants, allowing them to appreciate music and hear in noisy environments.

In experiments with deaf guinea pigs, senior study author Gary Housley and colleagues found that inserting genes in the area of the cochlear implant and passing an electric charge through the implant stimulated the growth of cochlear cells.

"Our study found a [new] way to provide safe localized delivery of a gene to the cochlea, using the cochlear implant device itself. The gene acts as a nerve growth factor, which stimulates repair of the cochlear nerve," said Housley, a professor and director of the Translational Neuroscience Facility at the University of New South Wales, in Sydney.

The cochlear implant is surgically placed in the cochlea, in the inner ear. The implant works by using a line of small electrodes within the cochlea to selectively stimulate cochlear nerve fibers at different positions and enhancing different sounds, or frequencies, Housley explained.

"In the cochlea of a person with good hearing, sound vibrations are encoded by sensory cells, called 'hair cells,' which stimulate the cochlear nerve fibers," he said. "With hearing loss, the hair cells are lost, and without them the cochlear nerve fibers die and retract into the bone within the core of the cochlea."

This makes the job of the cochlear implant difficult as the amount of electrical current needed to stimulate the nerves is quite high, Housley added.

The gene therapy, which makes the cells close to the electrode produce the nerve growth factor, causes the nerve fibers to grow out to those cells -- and therefore to the electrodes, he explained. This means that much less current is needed, so more selective groups of nerve fibers can be stimulated.

"In the future, people with cochlear implants may get this gene therapy at the time of their implant, and the computer system -- which is part of the cochlea implant that converts sound to electrical pulses along the array of electrodes -- should be able to provide a better sound perception," Housley said.

Scientists note, however, that research with animals often fails to provide similar results in humans.

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Gene Therapy May Enhance Cochlear Implants, Animal Study Finds

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A new study out of Australia has promising potential for patients across the globe who use cochlear implants. Photo by Flickr user ryanjpoole

A new study outlines how gene therapy could reverse hearing loss and deafness. This may be music to the ears of the roughly 300,000 patients across the globe that depend on cochlear implants to hear.

Australian researchers published their findings Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. By stimulating gene cells, which were injected into the ear canal with electrical impulses, chemically deafened guinea pigs were able to regrow auditory nerve cells.

The scientists used guinea pigs as test subjects because of the similarities between the ear canals of humans and guinea pigs. While the researchers noted just how effective cochlear implants have been to date in helping those with profound hearing loss, they also noted their limitations. They hope to overcome those limitations through their research.

People with cochlear implants do well with understanding speech, but their perception of pitch can be poor, so they often miss out on the joy of music, said the studys senior author Gary Housley, a professor of neuroscience at the University of South Wales.

The cochlea is a tiny seashell-shaped organ located in the inner ear. It is filled with groups of microscopic hair cells that move in response to vibrations, and then convert those vibrations into electrical impulses that are carried to the brain and interpreted as sound. In some peoples ears, either because of genetics, old age, poisoning or loud noises, those tiny hair cells are damaged or lost and scientists havent found a way found to regrow them yet. In certain patients who experience profound hearing loss, a cochlear implant with electrodes can help stimulate whatever nerve cells are left.

With this study, Housley and his colleagues encouraged the production of neurotrophins, small proteins that stimulate the growth and maintenance of the hair-like nerve cells. They injected small rings of DNA, called plasmids, into the inner ear of the guinea pigs. Then, they exposed the animals cochleas to electrical currents that mimicked the electrical impulses provided to human cochleas through cochlear implants. By doing so, the membranes of the guinea pigs cells became more permeable to the injected DNA. The result triggered the production of neurotrophins and thus, the regrowth of nerve cells. The researchers are hoping that, in human subjects, they can achieve similar results.

While the researchers were ecstatic over the results, some of their enthusiasm was tempered because in some guinea pigs, results began to taper after three to six weeks. They hope to continue studying the application of gene therapy going forward.

The development of electrode array gene delivery may not only improve the hearing of cochlear implant recipients but also find broader therapeutic applications, Housely said. [Gene therapy] could be used to treat a range of neurological disorders, from Parkinsons disease to psychiatric disorders.

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Gene therapy shows promise to help people regrow auditory nerve cells

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Australian researchers are trying a novel way to boost the power of cochlear implants: They used the technology to beam gene therapy into the ears of deaf animals and found the combination improved hearing.

The approach reported Wednesday isn't ready for human testing, but it's part of growing research into ways to let users of cochlear implants experience richer, more normal sound.

Normally, microscopic hair cells in a part of the inner ear called the cochlea detect vibrations and convert them to electrical impulses that the brain recognizes as sound. Hearing loss typically occurs as those hair cells are lost, whether from aging, exposure to loud noises or other factors.

Cochlear implants substitute for the missing hair cells, sending electrical impulses to directly activate auditory nerves in the brain. They've been implanted in more than 300,000 people. While highly successful, they don't restore hearing to normal, missing out on musical tone, for instance.

The idea behind the project: Perhaps a closer connection between the implant and the auditory nerves would improve hearing. Those nerves' bush-like endings can regrow if exposed to nerve-nourishing proteins called neurotrophins. Usually, the hair cells would provide those.

Researchers at Australia's University of New South Wales figured out a new way to deliver one of those growth factors.

They injected a growth factor-producing gene into the ears of deafened guinea pigs, animals commonly used as a model for human hearing. Then they adapted an electrode from a cochlear implant to beam in a few stronger-than-normal electrical pulses.

That made the membranes of nearby cells temporarily permeable, so the gene could slip inside. Those cells began producing the growth factor, which in turn stimulated regrowth of the nerve fibers - closing some of the space between the nerves and the cochlear implant, the team reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

The animals still needed a cochlear implant to detect sound - but those given the gene therapy had twice the improvement, they concluded.

Senior author Gary Housley estimated small studies in people could begin in two or three years.

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Gene therapy may boost power of cochlear implants, study says

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A procedure that uses a series of electric jolts to inject lab-designed DNA molecules into cells of the inner ear may help to regrow auditory nerves in people with profound hearing loss, according to researchers.

In a paper published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, Australian researchers said they used tiny electrodes and gene therapy to regenerate nerve cells in chemically deafened guinea pigs.

The procedure, they said, may one day improve the functioning of human cochlear implants -- electronic devices that provide hearing sensations to the deaf.

"People with chochlear implants do well with understanding speech, but their perception of pitch can be poor, so they often miss out on the joy of music," said senior author Gary Housley, a professor of neuroscience at the University of South Wales.

"Ultimately we hope that after further research, people who depend on cochlear implant devices will be able to enjoy a broader dynamic and tonal range of sound," Housely said in a prepared statement.

Houseley and his colleagues studied the procedure on guinea pigs because the structure of their inner ear is similar to that of humans.

The cochlea is shaped like a snail's shell, and is filled with a multitude of tiny hair cells that move in response to sound vibrations. Those vibrations are then converted into electrical nerve impulses that are carried to the brain.

If the hair cells are lost or damaged due to age, genetics, chemical poisoning or loud noise, they will not grow back. In some people who are profoundly deaf, an electrode may be implanted within the cochlea that can stimulate some nerve cells.

While cochlear implants help roughly 300,000 patients throughout the world to detect and interpret speech, researchers believe they can be improved if nerve cells are encouraged to grow closer to the electrode. In this latest study, Housely and his colleagues set out to stimulate growth in spiral ganglion neurons in guinea pigs.

Study authors believed they could do this by causing inner ear cells to produce neurotrophins, proteins that control the development, maintenance and function of nerve cells.

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Hear me now? Gene therapy improves 'bionic ear' technology

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Episode 11 - Personalized Medicine in CRPC

By: AJMCtv

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Episode 11 - Personalized Medicine in CRPC - Video

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How I Became a Quadriplegic (Extended version)
This is my story of my life before and after my spinal cord injury. My struggle is not yet over but my life has only just begun. I take pride in myself for all I have overcome. Andrew...

By: Chloe Rose

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How I Became a Quadriplegic (Extended version) - Video

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Spinal Cord Injury Survivor and Optimistic Surfer - Jesse Billauer
Click http://win.gs/1hNLO5D to register! Jesse Billauer, a spinal cord injury survivor, describes how he stays positive and leads a happy life by not dwelling on what he can #39;t do, but by focusing...

By: Red Bull

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Spinal Cord Injury Survivor and Optimistic Surfer - Jesse Billauer - Video

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Jesse Billauer - Spinal Cord Injury Survivor and Optimistic Surfer
Click http://win.gs/1hNLO5D to register! Jesse Billauer, a spinal cord injury survivor, describes how he stays positive and leads a happy life by not dwelling on what he can #39;t do, but by focusing...

By: WingsForLifeWorldRun

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Dr John Barker on Regenerative Medicine
Dr. John Barker discusses hand and facial reconstruction, transplantation and the future of regenerative medicine with Stuart students and teachers. Note: Co...

By: Stuart Country Day School of the Sacred Heart

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Dr John Barker on Regenerative Medicine - Video

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Stem Cell Treatment For MS Working Wonders
We are in Panama City Panama for treatment of my wife #39;s Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis. She has been through the first round of treatment with little to no side effects. Some nausea...

By: Stem Cell Patient

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Stem Cell Treatment For MS Working Wonders - Video

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Wounded Warrior severe low back pain 3 months after stem cells by Dr Harry Adelson
Seven years ago while serving in Special Forces in Afghanistan, Ben was hit directly in the chest by a Rocket-Propelled-Grenade which slammed him against a wall and crushed his spine. THEN...

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Wounded Warrior severe low back pain 3 months after stem cells by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

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Durham, NC (PRWEB) April 23, 2014

Stress could activate "crosstalking" cell signals that decrease the bodys natural healing process after a wound occurs, according to a new study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine. The finding helps explain how stress impairs healing and, conversely, could lead to a way to overcome chronic wounds resulting from serious burns and other skin injuries.

Chronic wounds are a major global health problem, with annual costs in the United States alone of more than $23 billion, said Roslyn Isseroff, M.D., of the University of California Davis and the Northern California Health Care Systems Department of Veterans Affairs. She was a lead investigator in the study along with Mohan R. Dasu, Ph.D.

The precise process that prevents their healing is unclear except for two constants: a prolonged inflammatory response and the bacterial colonization of the wound bed. These two interrelated factors are thought to contribute to the wounds chronic state.

Previous studies had demonstrated an increase in epinephrine (adrenaline), as occurs during stress, produces an increase in the activity of TLR2 (Toll-like receptor 2), a protein that appears to stimulate the early inflammatory process needed to set the steps of healing in motion. Together they alter the ability of stem cells and keratinocytes, the barrier-forming cells that make up 90 percent of skin, to repair wound damage by slowing down the stem cells migration to the area and by promoting inflammation.

To compound the potential for damage, bacteria in the wound can activate the TLR2 system, and crosstalk to the epinephrine signaling system, creating a cycle of escalating damaging signals.

The Isseroff and Dasu team, which included colleagues at UC-Daviss Institute for Regenerative Cures and California State University, decided to look at how increased epinephrine and TLR2 stimulation affected stem cells taken from bone marrow and keratinocytes by analyzing the "crosstalk" between their signaling pathways. The researchers tested their theory in cultured cells and in mice. In both instances they found that the crosstalk led to impaired healing, with elevated levels of TLR2 as well as MyD88 and IL-6, both of which regulate the activation of numerous pro-inflammatory genes, in the wounds.

Thus, our data describe a recipe for decreasing cell migration and exacerbating inflammation via novel crosstalk between the adrenergic and Toll-like receptor pathways in wounds, Dr. Dasu said.

"These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms controlling the differing susceptibility to infections and immune/inflammatory-related conditions in wounds," said Anthony Atala, M.D., editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The full article, Crosstalk Between Adrenergic and Toll-Like Receptors in Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells and Keratinocytes: A Recipe for Impaired Wound Healing, can be accessed at http://www.stemcellstm.com.

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Stress Could Activate "Crosstalking" Cell Signals That Turn Bodys Natural Wound Healing Process Against It

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More Media Coverage for MediVet Stem Cell Therapy at Newman Veterinary Centers - Central Florida
We are proud to offer this amazing procedure at Newman Veterinary Centers. Stem cell therapy can help pets with arthritis, hip dysplasia and many other degenerative conditions. Learn more at...

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Neck/knee/shoulder/wrist pain 7 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Neck/knee/shoulder/wrist pain 7 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Neck/knee/shoulder/wrist pain 7 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Apr-2014

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

Putnam Valley, NY. (Apr. 23, 2014) People who have had a stroke, often suffer motor deficits with little potential to restore neurological function. However, a study conducted in Taiwan, that will be published in a future issue of Cell Transplantation, but is currently freely available on-line as an unedited early e-pub at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/pre-prints/content-ct1168Chen, has found that when one group of stroke victims had their own peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) injected directly into the brain and a similar group did not, those who received the PBSCs experienced some "improvement in stroke scales and functional outcome." Those in the PBSC-injected group also received injections of the growth factor granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), known to be potentially neuroprotective.

"In this phase 2 study, we provide the first evidence that intracerebral injection of autologous (self-donated) PBSCs can improve motor function in those who have suffered a stroke and have motor deficits as a result," said study corresponding Dr. Woei-Cheng Shyu of the Center for Neuropsychiatry, Graduate Institute of Immunology and Translational Medicine Research Center, China Medical University in Taiwan. "Our study demonstrated that this therapeutic strategy was feasible and safe in stroke patients who suffered a prior stroke, but within five years from the onset of symptoms."

According to the authors, there has been little advance made in restoring neurological function following ischemic stroke. However, since neuronal death is the primary mechanism that limits functional recovery, stem cell therapy is emerging as a potentially effective regenerative approach. Once more PBSCs are being increasingly used as a self-donated source for cell therapies for regenerating skeletal muscle, heart and neurons. The PBSCs may need to be "amplified" with G-CSF, speculated the researchers.

All of the patients in the trial had suffered a stroke in the past, as long as five years prior to this study. At the end of a 12 month follow-up, the group of 15 patients with neurological deficits who received injections of PBSCs experienced neurological and functional improvement based on a number of clinical outcomes measures. The control group of 15 patients with neurological deficits that did not receive the PBSC injections did not experience the same beneficial outcomes.

The researchers reported that nine of the 15 patients undergoing PBSC transplantation experienced "positive motor evoked potentials" (MEPs) after transcranial magnetic stimulation, but why MEPs appeared in some of the transplanted group, but not all, was unclear.

"Despite this success, it should be noted that this was a preliminary study and, due to the small number of patients, are tentative," concluded the researchers. "In the future we plan to conduct a multi-center, large-scale, double blind, placebo-controlled randomized studies to better evaluate the effect of PBSC implantation in patients suffering from the effects of past stroke."

"This phase II study offers pilot clinical evidence supporting the use of autologous stem cell-based treatment for stroke" said Dr. Cesar V. Borlongan, Prof. of Neurosurgery and Director of the Center of Excellence for Aging & Brain Repair at the University of South Florida. "Clarification of the impact of G-CSF on the cells and whether other factors are necessary to maximize the benefit of cell transplantation, as well as further studies with a larger number of patients are necessary to determine equivocal safety and efficacy of this treatment".

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Autologous stem cell therapy improves motor function in chronic stroke victims

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23-Apr-2014

Contact: Nicanor Moldovan Moldovan.6@osu.edu 614-247-7801 Ohio State University

COLUMBUS, Ohio New research suggests that attempts to isolate an elusive adult stem cell from blood to understand and potentially improve cardiovascular health a task considered possible but very difficult might not be necessary.

Instead, scientists have found that multiple types of cells with primitive characteristics circulating in the blood appear to provide the same benefits expected from a stem cell, including the endothelial progenitor cell that is the subject of hot pursuit.

"There are people who still dream that the prototypical progenitors for several components of the cardiovascular tree will be found and isolated. I decided to focus the analysis on the whole nonpurified cell population the blood as it is," said Nicanor Moldovan, senior author of the study and a research associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at The Ohio State University.

"Our method determines the contributions of all blood cells that serve the same function that an endothelial progenitor cell is supposed to. We can detect the presence of those cells and their signatures in a clinical sample without the need to isolate them."

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Stem cells, including the still poorly understood endothelial progenitor cells, are sought-after because they have the potential to transform into many kinds of cells, suggesting that they could be used to replace damaged or missing cells as a treatment for multiple diseases.

By looking at gene activity patterns in blood, Moldovan and colleagues concluded that many cell types circulating throughout the body may protect and repair blood vessels a key to keeping the heart healthy.

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Stem cells in circulating blood affect cardiovascular health, study finds

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Released: 4/21/2014 8:55 AM EDT Embargo expired: 4/23/2014 5:00 PM EDT Source Newsroom: Ohio State University Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise COLUMBUS, Ohio New research suggests that attempts to isolate an elusive adult stem cell from blood to understand and potentially improve cardiovascular health a task considered possible but very difficult might not be necessary.

Instead, scientists have found that multiple types of cells with primitive characteristics circulating in the blood appear to provide the same benefits expected from a stem cell, including the endothelial progenitor cell that is the subject of hot pursuit.

There are people who still dream that the prototypical progenitors for several components of the cardiovascular tree will be found and isolated. I decided to focus the analysis on the whole nonpurified cell population the blood as it is, said Nicanor Moldovan, senior author of the study and a research associate professor of cardiovascular medicine at The Ohio State University.

Our method determines the contributions of all blood cells that serve the same function that an endothelial progenitor cell is supposed to. We can detect the presence of those cells and their signatures in a clinical sample without the need to isolate them.

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

Stem cells, including the still poorly understood endothelial progenitor cells, are sought-after because they have the potential to transform into many kinds of cells, suggesting that they could be used to replace damaged or missing cells as a treatment for multiple diseases.

By looking at gene activity patterns in blood, Moldovan and colleagues concluded that many cell types circulating throughout the body may protect and repair blood vessels a key to keeping the heart healthy.

The scientists also found that several types of blood cells retain so-called primitive properties. In this context, primitive is positive because these cells are the first line of defense against an injury and provide a continuous supply of repair tissue either directly or by telling local cells what to do.

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Stem Cells in Circulating Blood Affect Cardiovascular Health

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Stem Cells and Multiple Sclerosis
Dr Colin Andrews speaks about the optimistic results of treating MS (multiple sclerosis) with stem cell therapy and the ethical limitations within Australia.

By: Norwood Day Surgery

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Stem Cells and Multiple Sclerosis - Video

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By Estel Grace Masangkay

Aastrom Biosciences announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Sanofis Cell Therapy and Regenerative Medicine (CTRM) business for $6.5 million.

Sanofi will receive $4 million in cash at closing and $2.5 million in promissory. The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to be completed in about three weeks.

Nick Colangelo, president and CEO of Aastrom, said, The acquisition of Sanofi's CTRM business is a transformative transaction that positions Aastrom as a fully-integrated global regenerative medicine company. The CTRM business brings us global manufacturing, marketing and sales capabilities that are structured to support the current portfolio of marketed products as well as our future product development plans. This transaction also provides us with a platform to generate operating income to support the development of our high-potential pipeline products and continued growth through additional strategic transactions.

Through its acquisition of CTRM, Aastrom acquires global rights to three marketed autologous cell therapy products. These are Carticel (autologous cultured chondrocytes), Epicel (cultured epidermal autografts), and MACI (matrix-induced autologous chondrocyte implant). Carticel is approved and marketed in the U.S. for the treatment of articular cartilage defects. Epicel is a permanent skin replacement for burns with full thickness greater than or equal to 30 percent of total body surface area. Epicel is marketed worldwide. MACI is a third-generation autologous chondrocyte implant (ACI) product currently commercialized in the E.U.

Sanofi's CTRM business, a pioneering organization with more than 20 years of experience in cell therapy and regenerative medicine, developed and marketed some of the first regenerative medicine products in the world. We look forward to working with the talented CTRM team to build Aastrom into the leading cell therapy company in the regenerative medicine field, Aastrom CEO Colangelo said.

Sanofi originally acquired its CTRM business through its acquisition of Genzyme Corp. in 2011.

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Aastrom Biosciences Acquires Sanofi Cell Therapy And Regenerative Medicine Business

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