stem cell therapy treatment for Right Hemiparesis Cerebral Palsy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india
improvement seen in just 5 days after stem cell therapy treatment for Right Hemiparesis Cerebral Palsy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india. Stem Cell Therapy do...

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stem cell therapy treatment for Right Hemiparesis Cerebral Palsy by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

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Khanna and Punzo weigh in on recent clinical trial results By Bryan Goodchild and Ellie Castano January 22, 2014 UMass Medical School Communications

Gene therapy researchers at UMass Medical School focused on degenerative retinal diseases are calling a promising new study out of the University of Oxford the future of gene therapy, after clinical trial participants with a rare eye disease experienced significant improvement in their vision.

This therapy used the AAV [adeno-associated viral] vector. The viral delivery with AAV is extremely safe and I think it is going to be the future of gene therapy, especially in the eye because it is easy to target a multitude of cells, said Claudio Punzo, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology, who was not involved in the Oxford study. It holds the promise of treatment for many other retinal diseases.

The small trial targeted a faulty gene in the eye that causes choroideremia, an inherited disease that begins with night blindness and progresses to total blindness. Using AAV vectors to carry healthy versions of the targeted gene to the eye, the treatment produced significantly improved vision in all participants, even those who had just begun to have impaired vision at the start of the trial. The study results were published in The Lancet.

While only a relatively small number of peopleand almost exclusively malesare affected by choroideremia, retinitis pigmentosa is a similar but more common disease of the rods and cones that affects many more.

The incidence of choroideremia is about one in 50,000, whereas retinitis pigmentosa is a relatively more frequent disease that affects one in 3,000 to 4,000, said Hemant Khanna, PhD, assistant professor of ophthalmology, who was also not involved in the Oxford study. This treatment does hold promise for such diseases as retinitis pigmentosa where we can now target photoreceptors. In our lab, we are working on designing treatment strategies for some forms of retinitis pigmentosa.

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LONDON, Jan 22 (Reuters) - People with schizophrenia have genetic mutations that cluster in specific proteins key to the workings of the brain, according to research that suggests a fresh way to look at the illness and links it to other brain disorders such as autism.

In two research papers published in the Journal Nature, which together made up the largest genetic study of its kind, scientists analysed new or "de novo" gene mutations in people with schizophrenia and found they tend to disrupt sets of proteins which have related functions in the brain.

"De novo" gene mutations are found in affected people but not in their parents - in other words they are not inherited.

As well as identifying how genetic mutations affect brain function, findings also point to an overlap with the causes of other brain disorders such as autism and intellectual disability, the researchers said.

"The fact we've been able to identify a degree of overlap between the underlying causes of schizophrenia and those in autism and intellectual disability suggest...these disorders might share some common mechanisms," said Mick O'Donovan of Britain's Cardiff University, who jointly led the research.

He said the combined finding "tells us that for the first time we have a handle on one of the core brain processes that (are) disrupted in the disorder".

Schizophrenia is one of the most common serious psychiatric illnesses, affecting around 1 in 100 people worldwide. Scientists are not clear exactly what causes it, but believe it could be a combination of a genetic predisposition to the condition as well as environmental factors.

Working with teams from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from Harvard and from Britain's Cambridge University, researchers examined DNA blood samples from 623 schizophrenia patients and their parents.

In a separate study, a second team analysed gene sequences of more than 2,500 people with schizophrenia and around the same number of controls as a comparison.

Their teams found that de novo mutations play a role in triggering schizophrenia, and also that they appear clustered in proteins that are involved in modulating the strength of connections between nerve cells and that play important roles in brain development, learning, memory and cognition.

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People who give blood or other tissues for research should be able to track their use through the scientific process to see the data their activities or samples generate, Harvard University scientists said.

The standard one-way flow of information creates an unequal relationship that blocks participants ability to hold scientists accountable for how the data is used, Harvard genetics researchers George Church and Jeantine Lunshof said in a policy paper written with Barbara Prainsack from Kings College London. The paper will be published tomorrow in the journal Science.

Biobanks hold vast stores of information about individuals genes, tissues, and illnesses, and research subjects should have some right to see where their data is kept and how its used, the authors said. The current system is like a financial bank that wont allow customers to verify that their money is in an account, Lunshof, a visiting fellow in genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, said in a telephone interview.

When you donate your data or material to a researcher, its actually quite logical to think youd get an acknowledgment of it and the opportunity to see what you gave them, Lunshof said. But right now it is a one-way transaction, and anything you contribute goes into a black hole.

Church and Lunshof are researchers in the Personal Genome Project, a Harvard-based program that returns the results of full-genome sequencing to individuals. The projects website explains that participants may receive unexpected information about their health or genetic background.

The authors said they werent recommending providing clinical analysis and findings, such as an abnormal heart rhythm or gene mutation, to subjects. Rather, they advocate giving research participants the option to access raw data that their samples generate, such as a gene sequence, with the opportunity to have it interpreted on their own.

Such access would give research subjects the freedom to decide if they want the data, a choice in who analyzes it and would inform their decision-making about participating in studies, Prainsack said in a statement. The same principles would apply in social science research and human behavior studies that dont involve biological samples, Lunshof said.

Human research samples and data are often collected, analyzed, and maintained differently than those that are intended for medical use, said Lainie Ross, a University of Chicago professor of clinical ethics. Giving individuals access to information that may be flawed, inaccurate or out of context incurs the risk that it may lead to harmful decisions, she said.

Theyre confusing clinical care and research, Ross said. To bring data into the clinical setting when it was collected in the research setting is inappropriate.

23andMe Inc. halted sales of health-related data with its DNA tests after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said that people who dont understand the information might react to it inappropriately. For example, people who discover they have mutations in genes related to breast cancer might get unnecessary medical treatment, the FDA said.

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Harvard Scientists Say Research Subjects Should See Data

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Courtesy of Ling Qi

A transmission electron microscopic image shows the sheet-like structure of Endoplasmic Reticulum in normal pancreatic acinar cells (left). Acinar cells of the pancreas produce and secrete digestive enzymes. In the cells without SEL1L genes, these cells appear dilated and fragmented (right). Without the SEL1L gene, the researchers showed that the mice developed exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, where the animals fail to digest and absorb food, become severely malnourished and develop shriveled pancreases.

Much like how a snowplow is needed to clear streets of heavy snow, cells employ a set of genes to clear away misfolded proteins, to prevent them from accumulating and destroying the cell.

For the first time, Cornell researchers have demonstrated how a gene called SEL1L plays a critical role in clearing away misfolded proteins. Complications from misfolded proteins lead to cell death and underlie numerous diseases, including Type 1 diabetes and cystic fibrosis.

SEL1L works within one of several known complexes, known as the endoplasmic reticulum-associated degradation (ERAD), which survey and detect misfolded proteins, grab them and target them for degradation before they accumulate and cause havoc. The endoplasmic reticulum is the cells protein-making machinery, and each ERAD complex is responsible for preventing a subset of these misfolded proteins.

Physiologically, we know almost nothing about the significance of individual ERAD complexes and how they function together in vivo, said Ling Qi, Cornell associate professor of molecular and biochemical nutrition and senior author of a paper published online Jan. 22 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Our study tells us that SEL1L is like the engine of a snowplow; without it, we have no ability to clear the snow in the streets, and cells cannot prevent misfolded proteins from accumulating, said Qi.

Previous research has shown that the SEL1L gene plays a critical role in managing misfolded proteins in yeast, but studying the gene in mammals proved difficult until now, said Qiaoming Long, Cornell assistant professor of animal science and co-senior author on the paper, who has been studying the gene since 2005.

To determine the function of a gene, researchers develop mice without a gene of interest, raise them and look for deficiencies in the mice to determine that genes role. But mice without the SEL1L gene died as embryos. As a result, Qi teamed up with Long to develop mice that were born with the gene, but after birth, the gene could be silenced with injections of a drug called tamoxifen. Without the SEL1L gene, the researchers showed that the mice developed exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, a disease found in humans, dogs and cats, where the animals fail to digest and absorb food, become severely malnourished and develop shriveled pancreases.

When we looked at the cells in the pancreas, we were amazed that the endoplasmic reticulum becomes dilated and fragmented; cells are clearly in the stressed state, said Shengyi Sun, a graduate student and the papers co-first author, along with Guojun Shi, a postdoctoral associate, both of whom work in Qis lab.

In future work, Qi, Long and colleagues will look at the role that SEL1L plays in other tissue types and diseases, such as fat cells in obesity and Type 2 diabetes, intestinal cells in inflammatory bowel disease, and more. Another area of interest will include identifying proteins that this ERAD complex tags and degrades.

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Gene prevents buildup of misfolded cell proteins

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Montral (PRWEB) January 23, 2014

Today, with the addition of members in Antarctica, Synbiota Inc. connects synthetic biology researchers across all 7 continents, just 3 months after the company's launch. Also announced today is $300,000 in available funding for Synbiota members and their biological solutions.

"Genetic engineering is our best bet to save the world," says Bill Liao, Founder of CoderDojo, a global network of hackerspaces and partner at SOSVentures. "That's why we're offering Synbiota's global network of researchers and biohackers $300,000 in available funding to accelerate the development of sustainable biological solutions via the SynBio axlr8r program." Learn more, and sign up at synbiota.com/axlr8r.

Synbiota is satisfying a global need for advanced virtual lab technology with its free web-based software. Previously limited to large corporations such as Monsanto, genetic engineering is touted by experts as one of humanity's best tools to combat global challenges in climate, access to food, fuel, materials, and the development of effective, low-cost medicine.

"Biotech is advancing much faster than computer technology, and Synbiota is at the heart of this revolution" says Rob Carlson, principal at Biodesic, and synthetic biology advisor to corporations and governments around the world. "Bringing together a global cadre of independent researchers, and pairing them with real funding opportunities is just the sort of thing that ignites revolutions. This is an incredible opportunity for the iGEM, DIYBio, and entrepreneurial communities to fund their work."

About Synbiota:

Synbiota Inc. was founded in April 2013 with the mission to streamline life science R&D and to make it universally accessible. Synbiota was a Fellow of Mozilla Labs WebFWD, winner of Hacking Healths Most Transformative Technology award, recipient of grants from FedDev and the Eastern Ontario Development Program, and creator of the S PRIZE global biotech contest. Synbiota Inc. has offices at the Digital Media Zone at Ryerson University (DMZ) in Toronto, and Maison Notman in Montral.

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Synbiota Expands Into Antarctica, Attracts Investors

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Jan-2014

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

New Rochelle, January 23, 2014The search for extraterrestrial life extends far beyond Earth's solar system, looking for planets or moons outside the "stellar habitable zone" that may have environments even more favorable to supporting life than here on Earth. These superhabitable worlds have unique characteristics and are ideal targets for extrasolar exploration, as described in a provocative Hypothesis Article in Astrobiology, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Astrobiology website.

In "Superhabitable Worlds" Ren Heller, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario, Canada) and John Armstrong, Weber State University (Ogden, UT), propose how tidal heating can create conditions in which life could emerge on an icy or terrestrial planet or moon once thought to be uninhabitable.

"A great place for hydrothermal microorganisms and a volcanic eruption in the weather forecast every morning and evening," says Norman Sleep, Senior Editor for Astrobiology and Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University, "a tidally heated planet would be unpleasant though spectacular to visit."

###

About the Journal

Astrobiology, led by Editor-in-Chief Sherry L. Cady, Chief Scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and a prominent international editorial board comprised of esteemed scientists in the field, is the authoritative resource for the most up-to-date information and perspectives on exciting new research findings and discoveries emanating from interplanetary exploration and terrestrial field and laboratory research programs. The Journal is published monthly online with Open Access options and in print, and is the Official Journal of the Astrobiology Society. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Astrobiology website.

About the Publisher

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Looking for a 'superhabitable' world? Try Alpha Centauri B, says Astrobiology Journal

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

23-Jan-2014

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

New Rochelle, NY, January 23, 2013-The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandates adequate enrollment of women in post-approval studies (PAS) of medical devices to ensure that any sex differences in device safety and effectiveness are not overlooked. A group of authors from the FDA report the results of a study evaluating the participation of women and analysis of sex differences in PAS in Journal of Women's Health, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Journal of Women's Health website.

Women may respond differently to medical devices due to factors such as genetics, body size, hormones, or other intrinsic sex-specific or extrinsic societal or environmental factors. They may face greater or lesser risk of adverse events or derive more or less benefit. "Based on these findings, FDA implemented new procedures to ensure participation by sex is evaluated in PAS reviews," state the authors in their article "Enrollment and Monitoring of Women in Post-Approval Studies for Medical Devices Mandated by the Food and Drug Administration."

"It is critically important that we have adequate participation of women in clinical trials, and that we analyze sex differences in study outcomes and adverse events," says Editor-in-Chief Susan G. Kornstein, MD, Executive Director of the Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Women's Health, Richmond, VA, and President of the Academy of Women's Health.

###

About the Journal

Journal of Women's Health, published monthly, is a core multidisciplinary journal dedicated to the diseases and conditions that hold greater risk for or are more prevalent among women, as well as diseases that present differently in women. The Journal covers the latest advances and clinical applications of new diagnostic procedures and therapeutic protocols for the prevention and management of women's healthcare issues. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Journal of Women's Health website. Journal of Women's Health is the Official Journal of the Academy of Women's Health and the Society for Women's Health Research.

About the Academy

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Are enough women included in medical device studies, as required by the FDA?

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Waldo Genetics
Traditional Values. Progressive Practices/ We #39;re a family business. So we think like pork producers, not like a corporation. Everybody here is close to our p...

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Waldo Genetics - Video

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Bikini Bottom Genetics 1

By: Christie Ariail

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Bikini Bottom Genetics 1 - Video

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Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics|Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine
Take a tour of the Cyprus School of Molecular Medicine. You can read more about CSMM and the institute #39;s degree programs here: http://www.educations.com/Cypr...

By: EducationscomTV

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Deer Genetics: Is it #39;Right #39; to Shoot Spikes?
Hiding behind a fallen tree covered in camo paint, a camera guy catches deer hunter Nicole McClain playing "peek-a-boo" with with a spike who stomps his feet...

By: Nicole McClain

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[05] Gene Therapy - Let #39;s Play XCOM:Enemy Within
Hello People! Welcome to my new series. XCOM:Enemy Unknown is a tactical squad based game that pits a crack team of soldiers against the greatest threat huma...

By: StrangeTemplar

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[05] Gene Therapy - Let's Play XCOM:Enemy Within - Video

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New gene therapy success holds promise for degenerative retinal diseases
Gene therapy researchers at UMass Medical School focused on degenerative retinal diseases are calling a promising new study out of University of Oxford the "...

By: UMass Medical School

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New gene therapy success holds promise for degenerative retinal diseases - Video

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As part of my 2014 predictions, I argued gene therapy would get hot and investor interest would turn toward the monogenic programs at Sangamo Biosciences (SGMO). The partnership announced on Jan. 9 between Biogen Idec (BIIB) and Sangamo confirmed my prediction to a certain extent, albeit sooner in the year than I expected.

Let's discuss what the Biogen partnership means for Sangamo moving forward, and discuss the implications for other gene therapy stocks like Bluebird (BLUE) and Acceleron (XLRN)?

The partnership covers two Sangamo programs: sickle cell disease (SCD) and beta-thalassemia (BT). Sangamo will receive a $20 million upfront payment and is eligible for just about $300 million in future milestones. While it is not explicitly stated, $15 million of those milestones appear to be related to the start of a phase I trial. Sangamo will receive double-digit royalties on sales and retains the right to co-promote in the U.S., assuming drug approval, of course.

Summed up, the new partnership is a nice entry into the gene therapy business for Biogen and continued validation of the Sangamo monogenic disease pipeline.

Sobek has no position in any stocks mentioned in this column.

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The State of Gene Therapy in a Biogen Idec World: Sangamo, Bluebird and Acceleron

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Preview ahead of Wings for Life charity run
Preview ahead of Wings for Life charity run THE Sports News Channel on YouTube: http://bit.ly/SportsNewsTelevision The Wings for Life World Run - a charity r...

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Sarah in lift walker

By: ProjectWalkAtlanta Spinal Cord Injury Recovery

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10) Alvar Agusti
From Systems Biology to Systems and Personalized Medicine Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases 22 - 23 November 2013 Modena, Complesso San Geminiano Inter...

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Technology Trends
Computational Challenges in Utilizing DNA Sequencing to Understand Cancer - Matthew E. Hudson, Ph.D. Supercomputing and Big Data - Thom H. Dunning Jr., Ph.D....

By: Mayo Clinic

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11 hours ago

In the U.S., someone suffers a heart attack every 34 secondstheir heart is starved of oxygen and suffers irreparable damage. Engineering new heart tissue in the laboratory that could eventually be implanted into patients could help, and scientists are reporting a promising approach tested with rat cells. They published their results on growing cardiac muscle using a scaffold containing carbon nanofibers in the ACS journal Biomacromolecules.

Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Rui L. Reis, Ana Martins and colleagues point out that when damaged, adult heart tissue can't heal itself very well. The only way to fix an injured heart is with a transplant. But within the past decade, interest in regenerating just the lost tissue has surged. The trick is to find materials that, among other things, are nontoxic, won't get attacked by the body's immune system and allow for muscle cells to pass the electrical signals necessary for the heart to beat. Previous research has found that chitosan, which is obtained from shrimp and other crustacean shells, nearly fits the bill. In lab tests, scientists have used it as a scaffold for growing heart cells. But it doesn't transmit electrical signals well. Vunjak-Novakovic's team decided to build on the chitosan development and coax it to function more like a real heart.

To the chitosan, they added carbon nanofibers, which can conduct electricity, and grew neonatal rat heart cells on the resulting scaffold. After two weeks, cells had filled all the pores and showed far better metabolic and electrical activity than with a chitosan scaffold alone. The cells on the chitosan/carbon scaffold also expressed cardiac genes at higher levels.

Explore further: Researchers develop spring-like fibers to help repair damaged heart tissue

More information: "Electrically Conductive Chitosan/Carbon Scaffolds for Cardiac Tissue Engineering" Biomacromolecules, Just Accepted Manuscript. DOI: 10.1021/bm401679q

Abstract In this work carbon nanofibers were used as doping material to develop a highly conductive chitosan-based composite material. Scaffolds based on chitosan only and chitosan/carbon composites were prepared by precipitation. Carbon nanofibers were homogeneously dispersed throughout the chitosan matrix, and the composite scaffold was highly porous with fully interconnected pores. Chitosan/carbon scaffolds had elastic modulus of 28.1 3.3 KPa, similar to that measured for rat myocardium, and excellent electrical properties, with conductivity of 0.25 0.09 S/m. The scaffolds were seeded with neonatal rat heart cells and cultured for up to 14 days, without electrical stimulation. After 14 days of culture, the scaffold pores throughout the construct volume were filled with cells. The metabolic activity of cells in chitosan/carbon constructs was significantly higher as compared to cells in chitosan scaffolds. The incorporation of carbon nanofibers also led to increased expression of cardiac-specific genes involved in muscle contraction and electrical coupling. This study demonstrates that the incorporation of carbon nanofibers into porous chitosan scaffolds improved the properties of cardiac tissue constructs, presumably through enhanced transmission of electrical signals between the cells.

The threat from a heart attack doesn't end with the event itself. Blockage of blood flow to the heart can cause irreversible cell death and scarring. With transplants scarce, half the people who live through a heart attack ...

(Medical Xpress) -- Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, ...

For the first time, a mouse heart was able to contract and beat again after its own cells were stripped and replaced with human heart precursor cells, said scientists from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. ...

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Toward fixing damaged hearts through tissue engineering

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TAMPA, Fla. (PRWEB) January 22, 2014

Societys continual, obsessive search for perpetual youth has lead many on a tumultuous path of medical mayhem from shots to creams and a variety of procedures in between.

A leader in modern medicine, Dr. Burton Feinerman has always been at the forefront of new and life changing procedures in the healthcare community. Feinerman's experience includes his time as a key research associate at the Papanicolau Cancer Research Institute in Miami.

His career took a glamorous turn when he became a concierge physician to the stars at his office in Maui, Hawaii. He has treated a variety of high-profile clientele including celebrities Eddie Murphy, Larry David, Pink, Brittney Spears, Nick Nolte, Christian Slater, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Oprah, who once thanked him with an autographed magazine for the shot in the tush.

Staying true to his mission to find relief for those afflicted with incurable diseases, Feinerman soon focused his efforts on the innovative and unfamiliar world of cell regeneration and gene therapy. As one of the original physician scientists to create stem cell protocols for incurable diseases, Feinerman now runs his clinic in Tampa, Fla. where he treats patients with conditions such as Alzheimers, ALS, Autism, brain damage, Cerebral Palsy, Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Cord Injury, Parkinsonism, Heart Disease, COPD, diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease, Pulmonary Fibrosis, Tay Sachs, Sandhoff Disease, Stargardt Disease, Huntington Disease, Scleroderma, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Crohns Disease, cancer of all types, Macular Degeneration and Retinitis Pigmentosa.

The emerging developments in stem cell therapy, gene therapy, nanotechnology and tissue engineering offer new hope to millions of patients, said Feinerman.

Stem Cells and Sex Wars By: Dr. Burton Feinerman ISBN: 978-1481774789 Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Authorhouse online bookstores.

About the authors A graduate of New York Medical College, Dr. Burton Feinerman also received extensive postgraduate training from Long Island College Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. He served as chief medicine for the U.S. Army, as part of the 98th General Hospital in Germany as well as chairman of medicine at Miami General Hospital, Opa-Locka Hospital, N. Miami General Hospital and chairman of cancer technologies Kids Medical Centers of America. Active in many industry organizations, Feinerman is a member of the Society of Apheresis, the Society of Bone Marrow Blood Transplantation, the International Society for Cellular Therapy, the Society for Cranial Transplantation and Brain Repair, and the Society for Cardiac Translational Therapy. With over 55 years of experience in medical practice, he is currently the president and CEO of Stem Cell Regen Med.

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Dr. Burton Feinerman Shares Experiences from Celebrity Care to Modern Medicine

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A team of international researchers has turned to stem cells in a quest to find an a more effective treatment for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB). The new method being investigated involves using the patients own bone marrow mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to boost immune response and heal damaged tissue.

Multi-drug resistant TB effects around 450,000 in Eastern Europe, Asia, and South Africa according to the World Health Organization, and conventional treatments have a low rate of success.

Currently in its preliminary stages, the study is designed to investigate the possibility that MSCs can help organs to regulate themselves and repair damaged or traumatized tissues. Specifically in this case, the stem cells migrate to the lung with TB bacteria inflammation and improve the immune response to help the body get rid of the bacteria.

Between September 2009 and June 2011, the study looked at 30 patients from a specialist center in Minsk, Belarus, whose age varied from 21 to 65 years old, and who were resistant to TB drugs. They chose Belarus because of the high rate of resistant tuberculosis (76 percent) among treated patients in that region. They also observed 30 patients who met the inclusion criteria and who opted not to have MSC therapy.

Besides giving patients the anti-TB antibiotics, the researchers collected cells from their own bone marrow, cultured them and introduced them back into the patient within four weeks of the start of the anti-TB drug treatment. Eighteen months later, the rate of cure for patients who received MSC therapy was more than three times higher compared with those who didnt get treated with the cells.

MSC therapy produced a few side effects, which the researchers considered mild. Fourteen patients had high cholesterol, 11 patients suffered from nausea while 10 others had lymphopenia (low level of lymphocytes in the blood) or diarrhoea.

The researchers noted MSC cells harvested from TB patients did not present any aberrant features in comparison with those extracted from healthy donors. Neither did the anti-TB drugs seem to have a negative impact on the harvest. Concerns over the risk of suppressing an immune response, leading to the worsening of tuberculosis, did not materialize. However, they highlight that future studies would need to assess whether certain anti-M tuberculosis drug combinations or concomitant M. tuberculosis infection (a type of TB infection) could have an impact.

The results of this novel and exciting study show that the current challenges and difficulties of treating multi-drug resistant TB are not insurmountable, and they bring a unique opportunity with a fresh solution to treat hundreds of thousands of people who die unnecessarily of drug-resistant TB," says co-author Professor Alimuddin Zumla. "Further evaluation in phase 2 trials is now urgently required to ascertain efficacy and further safety in different geographical regions such as South Africa where multi-drug resistant and extensively-drug resistant TB are rife.

Details of the study are published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

Source: UCL

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Stem cells could offer alternative treatment for patients with resistant tuberculosis

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Renew

Revolutionary skin care with a novel,proprietary approach tocellular aging.

The bodys signals govern skin stem cells, controlling the decision to remain dormant, divide or differentiate (become normal, active tissue cells). Signals flow in path-ways and multiple paths funnel into the common Wnt signaling pathway. Signaling stimulatesskin stem cells to begin the process leading to fibroblasts, keratino-

cytesand other dermal/epidermalcells.

Renewnt skin care products contain the high-end ingredients available today for cosmeceuticals, but also have an entirely new technology,Asymmtate.Unlike many cosmetic agents, Asymmtate has been clinically provento penetrate through the epidermis into the dermis. Makucell currentlyoffers fourtargeted skin careproducts.

Asymmtate AwakensSkin's Stem Cells

Asymmtateis a small molecule that optimizes signaling in the Wnt Pathway and was developed by a team of researchers led byDr. Michael Kahn of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

Chief Medical Officer

Vice President of Medical &

Scientific Affairs

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Makucell - Best Anti Aging Skin Care

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STEMCORE-3 SETS STEMOLOGY APART AS FIRST AND ONLY SKINCARE LINE TO COMBINE HUMAN ADULT AND PLANT STEM CELLS - http://www.stemologyskincare.com. (PRNewsFoto/DermaTech Research Laboratories)

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 22, 2014 /PRNewswire-iReach/ -- DermaTech Research Laboratories reveals StemCore-3TM, a proprietary technology that provides the most powerful combination of skin and collagen growth boosters available in any anti-aging skin care product today, as the key to Stemology, the world's first and only skincare line to incorporate the superior features of both humanadultstem cellsand plant stem cells. This exclusive formulation provides superior anti-aging efficacy that is ethically prepared, contains no DNA or stem cell matter, and is all natural and intelligently organic whenever possible.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140122/MN48823)

The StemCore-3 complex helps to stimulate the natural process of tissues by providing additional natural growth factors and other molecules normally found in young, healthy tissue and skin, while supplying protein nutrients needed for cellular development.Scientific studies have shown that it stimulates the skin's growth factor communication between the epidermal and the dermal layers, thus causing an increase in collagen production in aging skin. This is natural appearance rejuvenation in its truest sense - a body systems approach.

"It is our StemCore-3 complex that allows us to promise superior anti-aging efficacy. Stemology products containing StemCore-3 have been clinically proven to significantly improve all 12 signs of facial aging including fine lines and wrinkles, skin elasticity, firmness, brightness, skin tone, pore refinement, skin thickness, collagen and free radical damage," says Hal Simeroth, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CTO of DermaTech Research, and lead formulator for Stemology. "With over 10 years experience in the biotechnology field, the creation of StemCore-3 and the resulting Stemology brand is my greatest achievement."

The three components in the StemCore-3 complex are:

Each component of the complex makes its own unique contribution in providing a recharging effect for skin stem cells, collagen fibroblasts and the ECM, TA cells, and keratinocytes similar to that which naturally occurred in youth. This "best of" approach maximizes Stemology's ability to help prevent and improve the number one cause of skin aging - the declining production of epidermal, collagen and elastin cells, which results in dull, thin and wrinkled skin.

StemCore-3 is a proprietary stem cell-based peptide that is contained in all Stemology treatment products and is not available in any other product on the market.

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Original post:
StemCore-3 Sets Stemology Apart As First And Only Skincare ...

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Jan-2014

Contact: Kris Van der Beken kris.vanderbeken@vib.be 32-473-7834 VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

A European consortium of epilepsy researchers has reported the discovery of a new gene involved in severe childhood epilepsy. Using a novel combination of technologies, including trio exome sequencing of patient/parental DNA and genetic studies in the tiny larvae of zebrafish, the EuroEPINOMICS RES consortium found that mutations in the gene CHD2 are responsible for a subset of epilepsy patients with symptoms similar to Dravet syndrome a severe form of childhood epilepsy that is in many patients resistant to currently available anti-epileptic drugs. The discovery of CHD2's role in epilepsy offers new diagnostic tools for families and clinicians of children with Dravet syndrome and related genetic epilepsies. In addition, the creation of a zebrafish model for CHD2 encephalopathy may facilitate the discovery of new drugs that can treat patients with this form of epilepsy.

Dravet syndrome is a severe genetic epilepsy with onset during infancy, with initial seizures often triggered by fever. For most Dravet patients these seizures cannot be treated adequately with currently available anti-epileptic drugs, and therefore the syndrome is classified as pharmacoresistant. Dravet patients usually develop moderate to severe cognitive delays and some features of autism, and are at increased risk of SUDEP (sudden unexplained death in epilepsy). Approximately 80% of Dravet patients have mutations in the gene SCN1A which encodes the Nav1.1 sodium channel, however for the remaining 20% of patients the underlying genetic cause has yet to be determined.

To identify novel genes involved in Dravet Syndrome and other genetic epilepsies, epilepsy clinicians and human geneticists across Europe recently initiated the EuroEPINOMICS RES (Rare Epilepsy Syndromes) consortium. In 2011, the EuroEPINOMICS RES consortium was awarded 2,37 million in funding from the national funding agencies participating in the European Science Foundation program to systematically search for novel genes for seizure disorders.

As part of these ongoing research activities, the DNA of Dravet patients without SCN1A mutations was analyzed by trio exome sequencing, which searches across the active parts of the genome for de novo mutations that have arisen in these patients (de novo mutations are DNA copying errors that occur in the parents' gametes or in the fertilized egg or embryo, resulting in the afflicted family member being the first person in their family to have this genetic condition). In a group of 9 such patients, this analysis of their DNA (and the DNA of their parents) resulted in the identification of 2 patients with de novo mutations in CHD2, which stands for chromodomain helicase DNA binding protein 2. A third patient with a CHD2 mutation was subsequently identified as well.

To confirm that mutations in CHD2 cause the epilepsy observed in these patients, the same gene was then functionally analyzed in the tiny larvae of zebrafish, which have emerged in the last decade as a powerful animal model for the study of epilepsy. In the case of CHD2, scientists collaborating with the EuroEPINOMICS RES consortium used antisense technology to rapidly generate zebrafish larvae with a partial loss of function of this gene, and were then able to detect epileptic seizures in these animals using electrographic analysis (this method is very similar to electroencephalography, or EEG, which is used to analyze seizures in humans).

The genetic analysis was led by Peter De Jonghe, head of the Neurogenetics Group of the VIB Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Antwerp (Antwerp, Belgium) and the epilepsy genetics group in Kiel, headed by Ingo Helbig (Dept. of Neuropediatrics, University of Kiel, Germany). Peter De Jonghe: "This research reinforces our belief that trio sequencing enables us to unravel the genetic background of syndromes which occur spontaneously. Previously, investigations into the genetic causes of syndromes such as Dravet Syndrome were not feasible. These types of investigations were only possible by screening large families and seeing how a disorder was passed along. But in disorders such as Dravet Syndrome, this did not work since the children were so seriously ill that they themselves never went on to have their own children. So this new technology also opens up new perspectives in the search for the genetic background of many disorders."

Ingo Helbig adds that "the epileptic encephalopathies pose a major clinical problem as most children have treatment-resistant epilepsy, intellectual disability and many other medical issues. We hope that identifying the underlying genetic cause will help us find better treatment options for the affected patients. In the past, we were not able to identify the reason why children have severe epilepsy. The discovery of CHD2 as the culprit gene in a subset of children with epileptic encephalopathy is a major step for us."

See the original post here:
European epilepsy consortium identifies new gene for severe childhood epilepsy

Recommendation and review posted by Bethany Smith