GARDEN CITY, N.Y., Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Beyond Air, Inc. (NASDAQ: XAIR), a clinical-stage medical device and biopharmaceutical company focused on developing inhaled nitric oxide (NO) for the treatment of patients with respiratory conditions, including serious lung infections and pulmonary hypertension, and gaseous NO (gNO) for the treatment of solid tumors, today announced new in vitro and in vivo preclinical data that suggest the Company’s innovative gNO-based treatment may treat lung cancer locally and its metastases systemically, potentially via stimulation of an anti-tumor immune response. These data were included in a presentation by Hila Confino, PhD of Beyond Air at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer’s (IASLC) North America Conference on Lung Cancer 2020 (NACLC 2020), which is being held from October 16th to 17th.

Read the original:
Beyond Air® Presents Positive New Preclinical Data for the Use of a Single Injection of Gaseous Nitric Oxide as a Novel In situ Cancer Vaccination

Global News Feed Comments Off on Beyond Air® Presents Positive New Preclinical Data for the Use of a Single Injection of Gaseous Nitric Oxide as a Novel In situ Cancer Vaccination | October 17th, 2020

CHMP recommends approval of Dupixent® (dupilumab) for children aged 6 to 11 years with severe atopic dermatitis

Link:
CHMP recommends approval of Dupixent® (dupilumab) for children aged 6 to 11 years with severe atopic dermatitis

Global News Feed Comments Off on CHMP recommends approval of Dupixent® (dupilumab) for children aged 6 to 11 years with severe atopic dermatitis | October 17th, 2020

Final European Commission Decision on Marketing Approval Anticipated in Q4 2020 Final European Commission Decision on Marketing Approval Anticipated in Q4 2020

Continued here:
Aimmune Receives Positive CHMP Opinion on PALFORZIA® for the Treatment of Patients with Peanut Allergy in Europe

Global News Feed Comments Off on Aimmune Receives Positive CHMP Opinion on PALFORZIA® for the Treatment of Patients with Peanut Allergy in Europe | October 17th, 2020

15 data presentations cover each of Spero’s three pipeline programs and include a late breaker oral presentation on the Phase 3 ADAPT-PO clinical trial 15 data presentations cover each of Spero’s three pipeline programs and include a late breaker oral presentation on the Phase 3 ADAPT-PO clinical trial

View original post here:
Spero Therapeutics to Present Data for All Pipeline Programs at IDWeek 2020

Global News Feed Comments Off on Spero Therapeutics to Present Data for All Pipeline Programs at IDWeek 2020 | October 17th, 2020

EMERYVILLE, Calif., Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Zogenix (NASDAQ: ZGNX), a global biopharmaceutical company developing rare disease therapies, today announced that the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), a part of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), has adopted a positive opinion recommending the marketing authorization of FINTEPLA® (fenfluramine) oral solution for the treatment of seizures associated with Dravet syndrome, a rare and devastating infant- and childhood onset epilepsy, as an add-on therapy to other antiepileptic medicines for patients two years of age and older. The European Commission (EC) is expected to make a final decision on the company’s Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) by the end of the year.

Read this article:
Zogenix Receives Positive CHMP Opinion for FINTEPLA® (Fenfluramine) Oral Solution for the Treatment of Seizures in Patients with Dravet Syndrome

Global News Feed Comments Off on Zogenix Receives Positive CHMP Opinion for FINTEPLA® (Fenfluramine) Oral Solution for the Treatment of Seizures in Patients with Dravet Syndrome | October 17th, 2020

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NetworkNewsAudio -- 180 Life Sciences Corp. announces the availability of a broadcast titled, “Blockbuster Year and Bright Horizons for SPACs.”

See original here:
SPACs Show Investors Faster, Simpler Way to Go Public

Global News Feed Comments Off on SPACs Show Investors Faster, Simpler Way to Go Public | October 17th, 2020

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NetworkNewsAudio -- Cybin Corp. announces the availability of a broadcast titled, “Multi-Billion-Dollar Market Forecast in Psychedelic Therapeutics.”

Read more here:
Psychedelics Experiencing Renaissance, Offer Tremendous Treatment Potential

Global News Feed Comments Off on Psychedelics Experiencing Renaissance, Offer Tremendous Treatment Potential | October 17th, 2020

IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Biomerica, Inc. (Nasdaq: BMRA), a global provider of advanced medical products, today reported financial results for the fiscal quarter ended August 31, 2020.

See more here:
Biomerica Reports Fiscal 2021 1st Quarter Financial Results

Global News Feed Comments Off on Biomerica Reports Fiscal 2021 1st Quarter Financial Results | October 17th, 2020

/NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR FOR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES/

View post:
German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) Issues Nationwide Reimbursement Decision for EndoPredict® Breast Cancer Prognostic Test

Global News Feed Comments Off on German Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) Issues Nationwide Reimbursement Decision for EndoPredict® Breast Cancer Prognostic Test | October 17th, 2020

NEW YORK, Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Y-mAbs Therapeutics, Inc. (the “Company” or “Y-mAbs”) (Nasdaq: YMAB) a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company focused on the development and commercialization of novel, antibody-based therapeutic products for the treatment of cancer, today announced clinical updates on naxitamab for the treatment of relapsed/refractory high-risk neuroblastoma and omburtamab for CNS/leptomeningeal metastasis from neuroblastoma. Data was presented at the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (“SIOP”) Virtual Annual Congress held October 14 through October 17, 2020 in Ottawa, Canada. The naxitamab data was presented by Dr. Jaume Mora from SJD Barcelona Children's Hospital, and the omburtamab data was presented by Dr. Kim Kramer from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (“MSK”).

More here:
Y-mAbs Announces Update on Naxitamab and Omburtamab in Neuroblastoma

Global News Feed Comments Off on Y-mAbs Announces Update on Naxitamab and Omburtamab in Neuroblastoma | October 17th, 2020

Orphazyme A/SCompany announcement                                                                                       No. 66/2020                                                                                                           Company Registration No. 32266355

Read this article:
Stabilization measures taken

Global News Feed Comments Off on Stabilization measures taken | October 17th, 2020

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Coherus BioSciences, Inc. (“Coherus” or the “Company”, Nasdaq: CHRS), today announced that effective October 15, 2020, the compensation committee of the Company’s board of directors granted a newly hired Executive Vice President an option to buy 150,000 shares of the Company’s common stock with a per share exercise price of $18.09, the closing trading price on the grant date, and 10,000 restricted stock units.

More here:
Coherus BioSciences Announces New Employment Inducement Grants

Global News Feed Comments Off on Coherus BioSciences Announces New Employment Inducement Grants | October 17th, 2020

DEER PARK, Ill., Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eton Pharmaceuticals, Inc (Nasdaq: ETON), a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on developing and commercializing innovative treatments for rare pediatric diseases, today announced the closing of its previously announced offering of 3,220,000 shares of common stock at a public offering price of $7.00 per share. The total offering included 420,000 shares sold as a result of the underwriter’s exercise of its overallotment option in full.

Visit link:
Eton Pharmaceuticals Announces Closing of Public Offering

Global News Feed Comments Off on Eton Pharmaceuticals Announces Closing of Public Offering | October 17th, 2020

– Agios Continues to Advance Two Phase 3 Combination Trials of TIBSOVO® in Newly Diagnosed AML Patients –

Here is the original post:
Agios Announces Withdrawal of European Marketing Authorization Application for TIBSOVO® as a Treatment for Relapsed or Refractory IDH1-mutant Acute...

Global News Feed Comments Off on Agios Announces Withdrawal of European Marketing Authorization Application for TIBSOVO® as a Treatment for Relapsed or Refractory IDH1-mutant Acute… | October 17th, 2020

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 16, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- MYDECINE INNOVATIONS GROUP, INC., (CSE: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF) (FSE: 0NFA) (“Mydecine” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce the appointment of UK-based Boustead Capital Markets LLP (“Boustead”) to commence the dual listing process on the London Stock Exchange (“LSE” or the “Exchange”) for the admission of the Company’s common shares to the Standard Segment of the Official List’s Main Market.

See original here:
Mydecine Innovations Group Appoints Boustead Capital Markets LLP as Financial Advisor for its Planned Dual Listing on the London Stock Exchange

Global News Feed Comments Off on Mydecine Innovations Group Appoints Boustead Capital Markets LLP as Financial Advisor for its Planned Dual Listing on the London Stock Exchange | October 17th, 2020

Considered untreatable until the early 1990s, multiple sclerosis (MS) has benefited in recent decades from huge progress in developing treatments for people with relapsing MS, the most common form of the condition at the point of diagnosis. But there are many people living with the progressive forms of MS who face increasing disability and still have very few, if any, treatment options.

Thats why the MS Society is now focusing its attention on finding effective treatments for everyone with MS. And it has a clear plan to get there.

To stop MS, people will need to be treated with a combination of drugs, explains the charitys director of research, Dr Susan Kohlhaas. This might include one drug that acts on the immune system, another that prompts brain stem cells to repair damage to myelin, the fatty substance protecting nerve fibres, and a treatment that increases the resilience of brain and nerve cells to help prevent damage occurring in the first place.

Were now at a point where were beginning to understand the molecular mechanisms that cause myelin damage and promote repair exactly what we need to stop MS, she says. Were also in the middle of a promising trial of a common statin, which we think may be able to protect nerves. The Stop MS Appeal is about making sure we have a coordinated approach to developing these treatments and can do it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

In early 2020, the MS Society plans to launch a world-leading clinical trials platform to test multiple treatments for MS at the same time. The aim is to set up a large trial in which several drugs can be tested concurrently on different groups of patients the first time this will ever have been done in neurodegenerative disease.

It will be a much more efficient process than having separate trials and means participants will have a much higher chance of receiving an active treatment that may work, rather than a placebo. Regular reviews will ensure that promising drugs can go straight through to late-stage clinical trials, while ineffective drugs are dropped and replaced by others.

This means desperately needed new treatments could reach people living with progressive MS much faster, says Dr Kohlhaas. We now have around 40 researchers actively working on the programme and theres a real sense of momentum and excitement about its potential.

The MS Society Tissue Bank is a repository of brain and spinal-cord tissue donated by people with MS after their death to help researchers understand more about the condition. The charity has recently invested 1.5million to fund new developments at the facility including a digital brain bank of high-definition pictures of brain tissue that will allow researchers around the world easier access to the resource.

The MS Society also funds research facilities around the UK and the UK MS Register, which enables people to record information about the progress of their condition every six months. An important research tool and source of data, it can also help identify patients for new trials.

Something Im really proud of is that we involve people with MS in the decision-making about research, says Dr Kohlhaas. They sit on our panels and committees to decide what to fund, and they have a strong voice. Im confident this approach has absolutely changed our way of working and ensured we really focus on what people with MS want.

Our vision is that, by 2025, well have treatments in late-stage clinical trials that can be taken through into practice quite quickly, and that well soon have the ability to start treating people with combinations of treatments that not only slow the progress of MS but can actually stop it.

This article is brought to you by the MS Society and Telegraph Spark. The MS Society believes that with investment, MS can be stopped. Scientists can see a future in which no one with the condition need worry about it getting worse. But action is needed now.

Donate today and help the MS Society raise 100million to find treatments for everyone. Visit mssociety.org.uk/stop-ms-now

Original post:
What is being done to treat MS? - Telegraph.co.uk

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on What is being done to treat MS? – Telegraph.co.uk | October 11th, 2019

In theglobal stem cells marketa sizeable proportion of companies are trying to garner investments from organizations based overseas. This is one of the strategies leveraged by them to grow their market share. Further, they are also forging partnerships with pharmaceutical organizations to up revenues.

In addition, companies in the global stem cells market are pouring money into expansion through multidisciplinary and multi-sector collaboration for large scale production of high quality pluripotent and differentiated cells. The market, at present, is characterized by a diverse product portfolio, which is expected to up competition, and eventually growth in the market.

Some of the key players operating in the global stem cells market are STEMCELL Technologies Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., Cellular Engineering Technologies Inc., BioTime Inc., Takara Bio Inc., U.S. Stem Cell, Inc., BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc., Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., and Caladrius Biosciences, Inc.

Get Sample with Latest Research @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=S&rep_id=132

As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global market for stem cells is expected to register a healthy CAGR of 13.8% during the period from 2017 to 2025 to become worth US$270.5 bn by 2025.

Depending upon the type of products, the global stem cell market can be divided into adult stem cells, human embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, etc. Of them, the segment of adult stem cells accounts for a leading share in the market. This is because of their ability to generate trillions of specialized cells which may lower the risks of rejection and repair tissue damage.

Depending upon geography, the key segments of the global stem cells market are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and the Middle East and Africa. At present, North America dominates the market because of the substantial investments in the field, impressive economic growth, rising instances of target chronic diseases, and technological progress. As per the TMR report, the market in North America will likely retain its dominant share in the near future to become worth US$167.33 bn by 2025.

Request Report Brochure @ https://www.transparencymarketresearch.com/sample/sample.php?flag=B&rep_id=132

Investments in Research Drives Market

Constant thrust on research to broaden the utility scope of associated products is at the forefront of driving growth in the global stem cells market. Such research projects have generated various possibilities of different clinical applications of these cells, to usher in new treatments for diseases.Since cellular therapies are considered the next major step in transforming healthcare, companies are expanding their cellular therapy portfolio to include a range of ailments such as Parkinsons disease, type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injury, Alzheimers disease, etc.

The growing prevalence of chronic diseases and increasing investments of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies in stem cell research are the key driving factors for the stem cells therapeutics market. The growing number of stem cell donors, improved stem cell banking facilities, and increasing research and development are other crucial factors serving to propel the market, explains the lead analyst of the report.

Here is the original post:
Stem Cells Market : Insights Into the Competitive Scenario of the Market - Online News Guru

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Stem Cells Market : Insights Into the Competitive Scenario of the Market – Online News Guru | October 11th, 2019

Image caption Caroline Wyatt visited Prof Robin Franklin to find out more about a drug that might help stop the progression of MS

"I don't like to think of the future. It's such a big question mark. I just keep living in the present."

Karine Mather was diagnosed with MS when she was 27, although she noticed the first symptoms much earlier.

It started off as a mental-health issue with anxiety and depression, she remembers. Later, she noticed she was starting to limp when she walked longer distances.

Karine began using a walker to help with her balance and stamina, and then a scooter when she could no longer walk very far.

"I got to the stage where the wheelchair became quite liberating, and gave me back a sense of freedom again. Now I rely on the power-chair full-time because I can't stand by myself any more."

Now Karine and her wife, Sarah, have had to give up their full-time jobs.

Karine was forced to stop working as a customer service adviser at a bank because she could no longer fulfil the physical demands of work and Sarah gave up working as a data analyst so she could take care of Karine.

Now 34, Karine retains the use of just one hand, and suffers pain, stiffness and spasticity in her body that has got worse as the disease has progressed.

"It feels like a fist clenching all the time. And I have days when my mind is cloudy and I miss out words and sentences."

Both remain upbeat but the financial, as well as the emotional, impact of MS has been huge.

Karine's MS is the type known as "primary progressive", or PPMS, which meant that for the first years after diagnosis, no disease-modifying treatment was available.

One new drug - Ocrevus, or ocrelizumab - was recently licensed for early PPMS in the UK but came too late to help Karine.

Now the MS Society is launching an ambitious "Stop MS" appeal, aiming to raise 100m to fund research over the next decade into treatments that can stop the progression of disability in MS.

Since being diagnosed with MS in 2015, after many years of symptoms, I've been looking for anything that might help slow or even stop the progression of my MS, which affects the nerves in my brain and spinal cord.

I last wrote about my MS after travelling to Mexico for an autologous stem cell transplant (aHSCT) in 2017.

Sadly, despite initial improvements, I'm now back to where I was before: slowly but surely getting worse.

The only improvements that have endured are the lifting of some of the crushing brain fog I had before HSCT and less hesitation in my speech.

For both, I am eternally grateful, as they mean I can continue to work at the BBC, in the job I love.

However, I have no idea how long this reprieve will last.

The fatigue that had long been my worst symptom is now back with a vengeance, so that staying awake throughout a busy working day remains a challenge.

That MS fatigue did lift for a few months, and it felt miraculous. I awoke every day refreshed. But then it returned, and I awake after eight full hours fast asleep feeling as if I haven't been to bed at all.

The ageing process - including menopause - has almost certainly been a factor in the worsening of some symptoms.

Ageing cells repair less well, and with my faulty immune system apparently determined to keep stripping away the myelin sheath that should protect my nerves, I'm less able now to repair the damage than I was when the disease first began to affect me in around 1992.

Since 2016, I've had to walk using a stick to aid my balance. It is sparkly-topped; an effort to make the accoutrements of disability just a little more cheery.

Dizziness is now a constant companion. It rarely goes away, making car travel or even buses a nightmare. Just turning my head too fast can make me stagger or fall over.

And for the past year or two, my right foot has begun to drag along the ground thanks to foot drop, meaning that I trip more often because I can't fully raise it.

I am always grateful to the strangers who kindly stop to help me up from the uneven pavement when I do fall.

Perhaps most worrying for me is that my right hand no longer works as it used to, catching on the computer keyboard as my outer fingers drag lazily along the keys, sullenly refusing my brain's command to lift.

In the mornings, both my hands and my feet are numb and frozen, then painfully full of pins and needles before warming up enough to be usable a few hours later.

When I wake, I wonder how long it might be until these hands and feet barely function at all, and quickly push that unwelcome thought away.

I'm well aware how very lucky I am that the progression of my MS has been relatively slow - at least until recently. I've learned how better to conserve energy for the things that really matter, though I still chafe at how little I manage to achieve.

Having enough energy to cook a meal from scratch on a day off is a cause for rejoicing. I'm still learning how to save up enough energy for family and friends, and not use up all of my much-depleted ration for work or research.

I have had to face the fact that I have now probably gone from the relapsing-remitting phase of MS (for which a dozen or so treatments exist) into the secondary progressive phase, for which there is currently no treatment licensed in the UK to stop the relentless progression that will affect so many of the 100,000 or more of us living with MS here.

But that may be about to change.

Anna Williams, professor of regenerative neurology at the University of Edinburgh, is looking at how the brain responds to MS damage and how the fatty myelin sheath under attack in MS can be restored more efficiently.

"We have to look at ways to stop the nerves dying," she says. "We want to be able to try to limit that either by keeping the nerves alive, or keeping them working better."

Repurposing existing drugs to help with remyelination should prove the quickest route to therapies for progressive forms of MS, because creating and licensing new ones is a much lengthier and more expensive process.

Prof Williams still sees patients at the Anne Rowling Clinic of Regenerative Neurology in Edinburgh, named in memory of the Harry Potter author J K Rowling's mother, who had MS. (The author this year donated 15m for research at the unit.)

"At the moment, with PPMS or SPMS, we can always give relief for pain or stiffness but we won't change the course of the disease.

"So for those patients, to slow or stop or reverse the disease can only be done with more research, and money is critical for research."

The biggest trial yet in the UK for patients with secondary progressive MS is the MS STAT2 trial, conducted by Prof Jeremy Chataway for the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology in London.

The trial is still recruiting at 30 centres across the UK to look at whether simvastatin, a drug used to treat high cholesterol, can slow or stop disability progression. If so, it has the potential to become one of the first disease-modifying therapies for people with secondary progressive MS.

And perhaps most encouraging of all, Prof Robin Franklin and his team at the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute recently published research suggesting a common diabetes drug - metformin - could hold the key to stopping disease progression in MS.

Costing just a few pence per tablet, metformin appears to have an ability to restore cells to a younger, healthier state and encourage myelin regrowth.

The next question is whether it works in people as well as it does in the lab.

Prof Franklin says: "This is a drug that's well tolerated and widely available. There is every reason to believe that the effects that we have seen - which have been so spectacular - will translate into humans.

"This is the great frontier of MS therapy. We're good at stopping the inflammation in MS. What we're not so good at doing is repairing the damage. All this work has given us some real hope that this medicine will reverse the damage done by MS."

I certainly feel rather more hopeful than I did.

I've changed as much about my lifestyle as I can - prioritising sleep, eating healthily, largely giving up alcohol, doing yoga and stretching every day, and cutting back on stress, be that reporting from war zones or attending too many BBC meetings.

But I'm all too aware that time is against me as my ageing brain and body struggle to repair the damage done in their lengthy continuing battle with my own immune system.

My hope now is that these trials will show good enough results in the next few years for at least one or two of the drugs to be rapidly approved for MS so they can help people like Karine and me before it's too late.

I ask Karine what she makes of the current research.

She is suitably succinct.

"I'm sitting here with just the one limb working and I'm thinking - quicker, please."

Visit link:
Caroline Wyatt: The fight to reverse damage caused by MS - BBC News

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Caroline Wyatt: The fight to reverse damage caused by MS – BBC News | October 11th, 2019

This article, written byKatharine Sedivy-Haley, University of British Columbia, originally appeared on The Conversation and is republished here with permission:

When I was applying to graduate school in 2012, it felt like stem cells were about to revolutionize medicine.

Stem cells have the ability to renew themselves, and mature into specialized cells like heart or brain cells. This allows them to multiply and repair damage.

If stem cell genes are edited to fix defects causing diseases like anemia or immune deficiency, healthy cells can theoretically be reintroduced into a patient, thereby eliminating or preventing a disease. If these stem cells are taken or made from the patient themselves, they are a perfect genetic match for that individual, which means their body will not reject the tissue transplant.

Because of this potential, I was excited that my PhD project at the University of British Columbia gave me the opportunity to work with stem cells.

However, stem cell hype has led some to pay thousands of dollars on advertised stem cell treatments that promise to cure ailments from arthritis to Parkinsons disease. These treatments often dont help and may harm patients.

Despite the potential for stem cells to improve medicine, there are many challenges as they move from lab to clinic. In general, stem cell treatment requires we have a good understanding of stem cell types and how they mature. We also need stem cell culturing methods that will reliably produce large quantities of pure cells. And we need to figure out the correct cell dose and deliver it to the right part of the body.

Embryonic, 'induced and pluripotent

Stem cells come in multiple types. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos which makes them controversial to obtain.

A newly discovered stem cell type is the induced pluripotent stem cell. These cells are created by collecting adult cells, such as skin cells, and reprogramming them by inserting control genes which activate or induce a state similar to embryonic stem cells. This embryo-like state of having the versatile potential to turn into any adult cell type, is called being pluripotent.

However, induced pluripotent and embryonic stem cells can form tumours. Induced pluripotent stem cells carry a particularly high risk of harmful mutation and cancer because of their genetic instability and changes introduced during reprogramming.

Genetic damage could be avoided by using younger tissues such as umbilical cord blood, avoiding tissues that might contain pre-existing mutations (like sun-damaged skin cells), and using better methods for reprogramming.

Stem cells used to test drugs

For now, safety concerns mean pluripotent cells have barely made it to the clinic, but they have been used to test drugs.

For drug research, it is valuable yet often difficult to get research samples with specific disease-causing mutations; for example, brain cells from people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Researchers can, however, take a skin cell sample from a patient, create an induced pluripotent stem-cell line with their mutation and then make neurons out of those stem cells. This provides a renewable source of cells affected by the disease.

This approach could also be used for personalized medicine, testing how a particular patient will respond to different drugs for conditions like heart disease.

Vision loss from fat stem cells

Stem cells can also be found in adults. While embryonic stem cells can turn into any cell in the body, aside from rare newly discovered exceptions, adult stem cells mostly turn into a subset of mature adult cells.

For example, hematopoietic stem cells in blood and bone marrow can turn into any blood cell and are widely used in treating certain cancers and blood disorders.

A major challenge with adult stem cells is getting the right kind of stem cell in useful quantities. This is particularly difficult with eye and nerve cells. Most research is done with accessible stem cell types, like stem cells from fat.

Fat stem cells are also used in stem cell clinics without proper oversight or safety testing. Three patients experienced severe vision loss after having these cells injected into their eyes. There is little evidence that fat stem cells can turn into retinal cells.

Clinical complications

Currently, stem cell based treatments are still mostly experimental, and while some results are encouraging, several clinical trials have failed.

In the brain, despite progress in developing treatment for genetic disorders and spinal cord injury, treatments for stroke have been unsuccessful. Results might depend on method of stem cell delivery, timing of treatment and age and health of the patient. Frustratingly, older and sicker tissues may be more resistant to treatment.

For eye conditions, a treatment using adult stem cells to treat corneal injuries has recently been approved. A treatment for macular degeneration using cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells is in progress, though it had to be redesigned due to concerns about cancer-causing mutations.

A path of cautious optimism

While scientists have good reason to be interested in stem cells, miracle cures are not right around the corner. There are many questions about how to implement treatments to provide benefit safely.

In some cases, advertised stem cell treatments may not actually use stem cells. Recent research suggests mesenchymal stem cells, which are commonly isolated from fat, are really a mixture of cells. These cells have regenerative properties, but may or may not include actual stem cells. Calling something a stem cell treatment is great marketing, but without regulation patients dont know what theyre getting.

Members of the public (and grad students) are advised to moderate their excitement in favour of cautious optimism.

Katharine Sedivy-Haley, PhD Candidate in Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

See more here:
BEYOND LOCAL: Expert recommends 'path of cautious optimism' about the future of stem cell treatment - ElliotLakeToday.com

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on BEYOND LOCAL: Expert recommends ‘path of cautious optimism’ about the future of stem cell treatment – ElliotLakeToday.com | October 11th, 2019

New York (AFP)

Creating meat from cells is no longer the realm of science fiction: a Russian cosmonaut did it aboard the International Space Station, and it is just a matter of time before these products arrive in supermarkets.

Tests carried out in space in September led to the production of beef, rabbit and fish tissue using a 3D printer.

This new technology "could make long-term travel possible and renew space exploration," to Mars for example, said Didier Toubia, the head of the Israeli startup Aleph Farms, which provided cells for the tests.

"But our goal is to sell meat on Earth," he told AFP.

The idea "is not to replace traditional agriculture," he said. "It's about being a better alternative to factory farming."

- What's in a name? -

The first burger designed with cow stem cells was made by Mark Post, a Dutch scientist from Maastricht University, and presented in 2013. Several startups have since taken to the niche market.

The cost of production is still very high, and none of the products are available for sale.

The name for the meat products is still up for debate: laboratory, artificial, cell-based, cultivated.

But tastings have already taken place, and industry players are banking on small-scale commercialization taking place fairly quickly.

"It is likely to be this year," Josh Tetrick, the head of California's JUST company, which is growing meat from cells, said at a conference in San Francisco.

"Not on the market in four thousand Walmarts or in all McDonald's, but in a handful of restaurants," Tetrick said.

"The question is what do you want to put out at what cost," said Niya Gupta, founder and CEO of Fork & Goode, which is growing meat from cells in New York.

"As an industry, we are finally making progress on the science. The next step is really making progress on the engineering challenges."

The arrival of laboratory-grown meat on supermarket shelves at reasonable prices could happen in five to 20 years, according to estimates.

But it would need more investment, according to several observers. The sector attracted a total of only $73 million in 2018, according to The Good Food Institute, an organization promoting alternatives to meat and fish.

Another obstacle is regulation, which remains imprecise.

In the United States, for example, the government outlined a regulatory framework that shared oversight of cell-based foods between the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration, but it is not yet finalized.

- Labeling -

For supporters, cell-based meat and fish products can transform the production system sustainably by avoiding the raising and killing of animals.

However, questions remain about the real environmental impact, particularly in terms of energy consumption, as well as about safety.

But "the market opportunity is enormous, especially for seafood," said Lou Cooperhouse, the CEO of startup BlueNalu.

"Global demand in the world is at an all-time high," he said of seafood, but "we have a supply problem" with overfishing, climate change and a very variable supply, coupled with "an issue with the supply itself" with, for example, the presence of mercury in some fish.

"What if we could add a third leg on the supply chain, wild caught, farm raised, cell-based?"

Created in 2018, BlueNalu is developing a technological platform that can be used to design various seafood products, mainly fish filets without bones or skin.

Scientific literature on stem cells, biological engineering or organic tissue printing already existed, said BlueNalu's chief technology officer Chris Dammann.

"We need to put the technology back together and optimize it," Dammann said.

The rise of cell-based proteins is not a major source of concern for traditional agriculture.

"It is something we need to monitor," said Scott Bennett, the director of congressional relations for the Farm Bureau organization, which represents farmers and ranchers.

Bennett said he feels "our energy would be much better spent in focusing (on) increasing the overall market shares for proteins, especially in developing countries."

"Some people for social reasons will want to buy this product. But there will always remain a market for conventional meat," he said.

"We feel as it should not be called meat, because we don't want to confuse the consumer as to what this really is. We want to make sure the labelling is very clear," Bennett added.

2019 AFP

See more here:
Artificial meat is now made in space, coming to a supermarket near you - FRANCE 24

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Artificial meat is now made in space, coming to a supermarket near you – FRANCE 24 | October 11th, 2019