PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Oct-2014

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

NEW YORK, NY (October 22, 2014) The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute, through the launch of its repository in 2015, will provide for the first time the largest-ever number of stem cell lines available to the scientific research community. Initially, over 600 induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines and 1,000 cultured fibroblasts from over 1,000 unique human subjects will be made available, with an increasing number available in the first year. To collect these samples, NYSCF set up a rigorous human subjects system that protects patients and allows for the safe and anonymous collection of samples from people interested in participating in research.

A pilot of over 200 of NYSCF's iPS cell lines is already searchable on an online database. The pilot includes panels of iPS cell lines generated from donors affected by specific diseases such as type 1 diabetes, Parkinson's disease, and multiple sclerosis, as well as a diversity panel of presumed healthy donors from a wide range of genetic backgrounds representing the United States Census. These panels, curated to provide ideal initial cohorts for studying each area, include subjects ranging in age of disease onset, and are gender matched. Other panels that will be available in 2015 include Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, Juvenile Batten disease, and Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease.

"NYSCF's mission is to develop new treatments for patients. Building the necessary infrastructure and making resources available to scientists around the world to further everyone's research are critical steps in accomplishing this goal," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO of The New York Stem Cell Foundation.

NYSCF has developed the technology needed to create a large collection of stem cell lines representing the world's population. This platform, known as the NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM, is an automated robotic system for stem cell production and is capable of generating 200 iPS cell lines a month from patients with various diseases and conditions and from all genetic backgrounds. The NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM is also used for stem cell differentiation and drug screening.

Currently available in the online database that was developed in collaboration with eagle-i Network, of the Harvard Catalyst, is a pilot set of approximately 200 iPS cell lines and related information about the patients. This open source, open access resource discovery platform makes the cell lines and related information available to the public on a user-friendly, web-based, searchable system. This is one example of NYSCF's efforts to reduce duplicative research and enable even broader collaborative research efforts via data sharing and analysis. NYSCF continues to play a key role in connecting the dots between patients, scientists, funders, and outside researchers that all need access to biological samples.

"The NYSCF repository will be a critical complement to other existing efforts which are limited in their ability to distribute on a global scale. I believe that this NYSCF effort wholly supported by philanthropy will help accelerate the use of iPS cell based technology," said Dr. Mahendra Rao, NYSCF Vice President of Regenerative Medicine.

To develop these resources, NYSCF has partnered with over 50 disease foundations, academic institutions, pharmaceutical companies, and government entities, including the Parkinson's Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI), PersonalGenomes.org, the Beyond Batten Disease Foundation, among several others. NYSCF also participates in and drives a number of large-scale multi stakeholder initiatives including government and international efforts. One such example is the Cure Alzheimer's Fund Stem Cell Consortium, a group consisting of six institutions, including NYSCF, directly investigating, for the first time, brain cells in petri dishes from individual patients who have the common sporadic form of Alzheimer's disease.

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The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute announces largest-ever stem cell repository

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Newswise Scientists have described a way to convert human skin cells directly into a specific type of brain cell affected by Huntingtons disease, an ultimately fatal neurodegenerative disorder. Unlike other techniques that turn one cell type into another, this new process does not pass through a stem cell phase, avoiding the production of multiple cell types, the studys authors report.

The researchers, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, demonstrated that these converted cells survived at least six months after injection into the brains of mice and behaved similarly to native cells in the brain.

Not only did these transplanted cells survive in the mouse brain, they showed functional properties similar to those of native cells, said senior author Andrew S. Yoo, PhD, assistant professor of developmental biology. These cells are known to extend projections into certain brain regions. And we found the human transplanted cells also connected to these distant targets in the mouse brain. Thats a landmark point about this paper.

The work appears Oct. 22 in the journal Neuron.

The investigators produced a specific type of brain cell called medium spiny neurons, which are important for controlling movement. They are the primary cells affected in Huntingtons disease, an inherited genetic disorder that causes involuntary muscle movements and cognitive decline usually beginning in middle-adulthood. Patients with the condition live about 20 years following the onset of symptoms, which steadily worsen over time.

The research involved adult human skin cells, rather than more commonly studied mouse cells or even human cells at an earlier stage of development. In regard to potential future therapies, the ability to convert adult human cells presents the possibility of using a patients own skin cells, which are easily accessible and wont be rejected by the immune system.

To reprogram these cells, Yoo and his colleagues put the skin cells in an environment that closely mimics the environment of brain cells. They knew from past work that exposure to two small molecules of RNA, a close chemical cousin of DNA, could turn skin cells into a mix of different types of neurons.

In a skin cell, the DNA instructions for how to be a brain cell, or any other type of cell, is neatly packed away, unused. In past research published in Nature, Yoo and his colleagues showed that exposure to two microRNAs called miR-9 and miR-124 altered the machinery that governs packaging of DNA. Though the investigators still are unraveling the details of this complex process, these microRNAs appear to be opening up the tightly packaged sections of DNA important for brain cells, allowing expression of genes governing development and function of neurons.

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Human Skin Cells Reprogrammed Directly Into Brain Cells

By C. Rajan, contributing writer

The University of Pennsylvania has announced promising results of its novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) therapy for cancer.

In the study involving 25 children and five adults with end-stage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), there was an impressive 90 percent response rate with complete remission.

Twenty-seven of the 30 patients went into complete remission after receiving the investigational therapy (called CTL019), and 78 percent of the patients were alive six months after treatment. The longest remission among the patients has lasted almost three years.

The patients who participated in these trials had relapsed as many as four times, including 60 percent whose cancers came back even after stem cell transplants. Their cancers were so aggressive they had no treatment options left, said the studys senior author, Stephan Grupp, MD, PhD, at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. The durable responses we have observed with CTL019 therapy are unprecedented.

The ongoing study is being conducted by researchers at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia and the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). The CAR trial program enrolling children with leukemia is also expanding to nine other pediatric centers.

The experimental CAR therapy received FDAs breakthrough designation in July for the treatment of relapsed and refractory adult and pediatric ALL. The novel treatment was pioneered by Penn researchers and then supported by Novartis. Penn entered an exclusive global research and licensing agreement with Novartis in 2012 to develop and commercialize personalized CAR T-cell therapies for cancers.

"This represents a really powerful therapy for ALL," Penn oncologist David Porter says. "We've treated enough patients to confirm that. It's time to start multi-center trials."

A CAR is a genetically engineered marker protein that is grafted onto T cells, which are part of the immune system. The CAR activates the T cell to attack tumor cells that express specific markers; in this case, the target is a protein called CD19.

The treatment procedure involves removing patients' T cells via an apheresis process and then genetically reprogramming them to hunt tumor cells. When injected back into patients bodies, these new hunter cells multiply and attack tumor cells expressing CD19. The hunter cells can grow, creating 10,000+ new cells in the body for each single engineered cell injected into the patients.

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University Of Pennsylvania's T-Cell Therapy Shows Promising Results

I have to admit that my first response to these reports out of Britain that stem cells had been successfully used to repair a complete spinal cord transection was skepticism incredulity even. Theyre reporting that a man with a completely severed spinal cord at level T10-T11 is able to walk again! The Guardian gushes! The Daily Mail gets in the act (always a bad sign)! When I read that the patient had an 8mm gap in his spinal cord that had been filling up with scar tissue for the last two years, I was even more doubtful: under the best of conditions, it was unlikely that youd get substantial connectivity across that distance.

So I read the paper. Im less skeptical now, for a couple of reasons. They actually did this experiment on 3 people, and all showed degrees of improvement, although the newspapers are all focusing on just the one who had the greatest change. The gradual changes are all documented thoroughly and believably. And, sad to say, the improvements in the mans motor and sensory ability are more limited and more realistic than most of the accounts would have you think.

The story is actually in accord with what weve seen in stem cell repair of spinal cord injury in rats and mice.

Overall, they found that stem cell treatment results in an average improvement of about 25% over the post-injury performance in both sensory and motor outcomes, though the results can vary widely between animals. For sensory outcomes the degree of improvement tended to increase with the number of cells introduced scientists are often reassured by this sort of dose response, as it suggests a real underlying biologically plausible effect. So the good news is that stem cell therapy does indeed seem to confer a statistically significant improvement over the residual ability of the animals both to move and feel things beyond the spinal injury site.

Significant but far from complete improvement is exactly what wed expect, and that improvement is a very, very good thing. It is an accomplishment to translate animal studies into getting measurable clinical improvements in people.

The basic procedure is straightforward. There is a population of neural cells in humans that do actively and continuously regenerate: the cells of the olfactory bulb. So what they did is remove one of the patients own olfactory bulbs, dissociate it into a soup of isolated cells, and inject them into locations above and below the injury. They also bridged the gap with strips of nerve tissue harvested from the patients leg. The idea is that the proliferating cells and the nerves would provide a nerve growth-friendly environment and build substrate bridges that would stimulate the damaged cells and provide a path for regrowth.

Big bonus: this was an autologous transplant (from the patients own tissues), so there was no worry about immune system rejection. There were legitimate worries about inflammation, doing further damage to the spinal cord, and provoking greater degeneration, and part of the purpose of this work was to assess the safety of the procedure. There were no complications.

Also, Im sure you were worried about this, but the lost olfactory cells also regenerated and the patients completely recovered their sense of smell.

Now heres the clinical assessment. Three patients were operated on; T1 is the one who has made all the news with the most remarkable improvement. There were also three control patients who showed no improvement over the same period.

Neurological function improved in all three transplant recipients (T1, T2, T3) during the first year postsurgery. This included a decrease of muscle spasticity (T1, T2) as well as improvement of sensory (T1, T2, T3) and motor function (T1, T2, T3) below the level of spinal cord injury.

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Stem cell treatment of spinal cord injuries [Pharyngula]

A man paralyzed from the chest down in a knife attack is walking again after undergoing surgery using cells responsible for the sense of smell, marking an advance in the search for treatments for spinal injuries.

Darek Fidyka, 38, received the cells after failing to recover from a stabbing in the back in 2010, according to University College London, whose doctors developed the procedure. The technique involves using olfactory ensheathing cells and placing them in the spinal cord.

The study gives hope to the thousands of people each year who suffer a severe spinal cord injury and must live the rest of their lives with permanently damaged body functions. Such injuries typically occur during sports or automobile crashes and there is no approved treatment to repair them.

We have now opened the door to a treatment of spinal cord injury that will get patients out of wheelchairs, said Geoff Raisman, chairman of neural regeneration at the UCL Institute of Neurology and leader of the U.K. research team. Our goal now is to develop this first procedure to a point where it can be rolled out as a worldwide general approach.

The cells used were discovered by Raisman in 1985 and were shown to work in treating spinal injuries in rats in 1997. They allow nerve cells that give people their sense of smell to grow back when they are damaged. The procedure on Fidyka was performed by surgeons at Wroclaw University Hospital in Poland.

For the treatment, Fidyka underwent brain surgery to remove an olfactory bulb, a structure responsible for the sense of smell. The bulb was placed in a cell culture for two weeks to produce olfactory cells, which were injected into the spinal cord along with four strips of nerve tissue taken from the ankle. The strips formed bridges for the spinal nerve fibers to grow across, with the aid of the cells.

Three months after the surgery, Fidykas left thigh muscle began to grow and after six months he was starting to walk within the rehabilitation center with the help of a physiotherapist and leg braces, according to UCL. His bladder sensation and sexual function have also improved.

This technology has been confined to labs, so its promising to see that it may have helped someone recover from a clean cut through the spinal cord, said Jeremy Fairbank, a professor of spine surgery at the University of Oxford who wasnt involved in the research.

The next question is what sort of clinical experiments must be done to prove that this works, Fairbank said. I suspect it will take years until there is a practical way of doing this.

The research, funded by the UK Stem Cell Foundation and the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation, was published in the Cell Transplantation journal. Further studies in patients are planned by UCL and Wroclaw University Hospital, according to Michael Hanna, director of the UCL Institute of Neurology.

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Paralyzed Man Walks Again After Nose Cells Are Placed in Spine

A man paralysed from the waist down after his spinal cord was sliced in half in a stabbing attack is able to walk again thanks to cells transplanted from his NOSE.

Darek Fidyka, 38, is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves.

The Bulgarian - who suffered his injury in 2010 - can now walk with a frame and has been able to resume an independent life, even to the extent of driving a car.

Sensation has returned to his lower limbs.

Surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from Darek's nose to provide pathways along which the broken tissue was able to grow.

Despite success in the laboratory, it is the first time the procedure has been shown to work in a human patient.

Professor Geoffrey Raisman, whose team at University College London's Institute of Neurology discovered the technique, said: "We believe that this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury."

The research, funded by the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation (NSIF) and the UK Stem Cell Foundation, is featured in a special Panorama programme on BBC One tonight.

A Polish team led by one of the world's top spinal repair experts, Dr Pawel Tabakow, from Wroclaw Medical University, performed the surgery.

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Paralysed man able to walk again thanks to cells transplanted from his NOSE

A 26-year-old woman paralyzed after a motor vehicle accident a year ago has successfully undergone a first-in-human experimental procedure to test whether neural stem cells injected at the site of a spinal cord injury is safe and could be an effective treatment.

The procedure, conducted on Sept. 30 under the auspices of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System and in collaboration with Neuralstem, Inc., a Maryland-based biotechnology firm, is the first of four in the Phase I clinical trial. Post safety testing, it's hoped that the transplanted neural stem cells will develop into new neurons that bridge the gap created by the injury, replace severed or lost nerve connections and restore at least some motor and sensory function.

The patient, whose identity remains confidential for privacy reasons, has been discharged and is recovering without complication or adverse effects at home, said Joseph Ciacci, MD, principal investigator and neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health System.

The spinal cord injury trial is one of three recent ground-breaking stem cell efforts at UC San Diego, supported by the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, to make the significant leap from laboratory to first-in-human clinical trials.

Last month, researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center launched a novel Phase I trial to assess the safety of a monoclonal antibody treatment that targets cancer stem cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of blood cancer.

And later this month, the first patient is scheduled to receive an unprecedented stem cell-based therapy designed to treat type 1diabetes in another Phase I clinical trial at UC San Diego.

"What we are seeing after years of work is the rubber hitting the road," said Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell program and Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System. "These are three very ambitious and innovative trials. Each followed a different development path; each addresses a very different disease or condition. It speaks to the maturation of stem cell science that we've gotten to the point of testing these very real medical applications in people."

To be sure, Goldstein said, the number of patients involved in these first trials is small. The initial focus is upon treatment with low doses to assess safety, but also with hope of patient benefit. As these trials progress -- and additional trials are launched -- Goldstein predicts greater numbers of patients will be enrolled at UC San Diego and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and elsewhere.

"Clinical trials are the safest way to pursue potential therapies. You want to prove that a new therapy will work for more than just a single, random patient."

While stem cell-based trials are beginning to emerge around the country, Goldstein noted that San Diego continues to assert itself as a stem cell research hub and a leading force for translating basic discoveries into medical applications, now and in the future.

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With three first-in-human trials, therapeutic stem cell science takes a bold step

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Newswise A 26-year-old woman paralyzed after a motor vehicle accident a year ago has successfully undergone a first-in-human experimental procedure to test whether neural stem cells injected at the site of a spinal cord injury is safe and could be an effective treatment.

The procedure, conducted on Sept. 30 under the auspices of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System and in collaboration with Neuralstem, Inc., a Maryland-based biotechnology firm, is the first of four in the Phase I clinical trial. Post safety testing, its hoped that the transplanted neural stem cells will develop into new neurons that bridge the gap created by the injury, replace severed or lost nerve connections and restore at least some motor and sensory function.

The patient, whose identity remains confidential for privacy reasons, has been discharged and is recovering without complication or adverse effects at home, said Joseph Ciacci, MD, principal investigator and neurosurgeon at UC San Diego Health System.

The spinal cord injury trial is one of three recent ground-breaking stem cell efforts at UC San Diego, supported by the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center, to make the significant leap from laboratory to first-in-human clinical trials.

Last month, researchers at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center launched a novel Phase I trial to assess the safety of a monoclonal antibody treatment that targets cancer stem cells in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the most common form of blood cancer.

And later this month, the first patient is scheduled to receive an unprecedented stem cell-based therapy designed to treat type 1diabetes in another Phase I clinical trial at UC San Diego.

What we are seeing after years of work is the rubber hitting the road, said Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell program and Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System. These are three very ambitious and innovative trials. Each followed a different development path; each addresses a very different disease or condition. It speaks to the maturation of stem cell science that weve gotten to the point of testing these very real medical applications in people.

To be sure, Goldstein said, the number of patients involved in these first trials is small. The initial focus is upon treatment with low doses to assess safety, but also with hope of patient benefit. As these trials progress and additional trials are launched Goldstein predicts greater numbers of patients will be enrolled at UC San Diego and the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center and elsewhere.

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Promise Put to the Test

Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cell Prolotherapy
Stem Cell Prolotherapy is a procedure in which adult mesenchymal stem cells are transplanted directly into the damaged tissue or injury and promotes healing....

By: Kab S. Hong M.D.

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Bone Marrow-Derived Stem Cell Prolotherapy - Video

While megakaryocytes are best known for producing platelets that heal wounds, these "mega" cells found in bone marrow also play a critical role in regulating stem cells according to new research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. In fact, hematopoietic stem cells differentiate to generate megakaryocytes in bone marrow. The Stowers study is the first to show that hematopoietic stem cells (the parent cells) can be directly controlled by their own progeny (megakaryocytes).

The findings from the lab of Stowers Investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D., described in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, could cause researchers to rethink what they know about the workings of megakaryocytes and potentially lead to new treatments for patients recovering from chemotherapy or organ transplantation.

"Our results suggest that megakaryocytes might be used clinically to facilitate adult stem cell regeneration and to expand cultured cells for adult stem cell transplants," says Meng Zhao, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Stowers and lead author on the study. Stowers researchers discovered that megakaryocytes directly regulate the function of murine hematopoietic stem cells -- adult stem cells that form blood and immune cells and that constantly renew the body's blood supply. These cells can also develop into all types of blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Because of their remarkable ability to renew themselves and differentiate into other cells, hematopoietic stems cells are the focus of intense research and have been used to treat many diseases and conditions. The transplantation of isolated human hematopoietic stem cells is used in the treatment of anemia, immune deficiencies and other diseases, including cancer.

Basic research has centered on identifying and characterizing hematopoietic stem cells, however, it is still not clear how hematopoietic stem cells actually work, and how they are regulated because of the complexity of the bone marrow microenvironment. Zhao and his colleagues discovered that as a terminally differentiated progeny, megakaryocytes regulate hematopoietic stem cells by performing two previously unknown functions.

"Megakaryocytes can directly regulate the amount of hematopoietic stem cells by telling the cells when they need to keep in the quiescent stage, and when they need to start proliferating to meet increased demand." Maintaining that delicate balance is important, he adds. "You don't want to have too many or too few hematopoietic stem cells."

These findings are supported by similar research from the laboratory of Paul S. Frenette, Ph.D., at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, also reported in the Oct. 19 issue of Nature Medicine.

Employing the advanced technology of the Institute's Cytometry, Imaging and Histology centers, the researchers examined the relationship between megakaryocytes and hematopoietic stem cells in mouse bone marrow. In the course of their research, they found that the protein transforming growth factor B1 (TGF-B1), contained in megakaryocytes, signaled quiescence of hematopoietic stem cells. They also found that when under stress from chemotherapy, megakaryocytes signaled fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), to stimulate the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells.

"Our findings suggest that megakaryocytes are required for the recovery of hematopoietic stem cells post chemotherapy," explains Li. The discovery could provide insight for using megakaryocyte-derived factors, such as TGF-B1 and FGF1, clinically to facilitate regeneration of hematopoietic stem cells, he adds.

Engineering a megakaryocyte niche (a special environment in which stem cells live and renew) that supports the growth of hematopoietic stem cells in culture, is the next step for the researchers. Zhao and his colleagues are also investigating whether a megakaryocyte niche can be used to help expand human hematopoietic stem cells in vitro and stem cell transplantation for patients.

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'Mega' cells control growth of blood-producing cells

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Oct-2014

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

Leaders in translational stem cell research from around the world will present the latest advances in stem cell science that are leading to better treatments and cures to disease and injury at The New York Stem Cell Foundation's Ninth Annual Translational Stem Cell Research Conference.

The opening day of the conference includes a panel discussion on large scale, big data stem cell and genetic initiatives moderated by Susan L. Solomon, JD, CEO and Co-founder of The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF), with panelists George Church, PhD, Harvard Medical School; John Greally, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Scott Noggle, PhD, The NYSCF Research Institute; and Eric Schadt, PhD, the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

Later that day, a discussion on neurodegeneration includes Kevin Eggan, PhD, Harvard University and the NYSCF Research Institute, who will discuss his research identifying an existing drug candidate that may be of use treating ALS and is entering clinical trials in the coming year. The following session on cell reprogramming and cancer includes Michael Milone, MD, PhD, University of Pennsylvania, who will discuss recent research results from his lab and his colleagues including the results of a clinical trial for leukemia featured in The New York Times last week. The first day closes with a conversation on personalized medicine featuring Dieter Egli, PhD, NYSCF Robertson Investigator at the NYSCF Research Institute and Columbia University; Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, The Whitehead Institute; and Sir Ian Wilmut, FRS, FRSE, University of Edinburgh.

On October 23, the day will begin with remarks by Kenneth Adams and Kyle Kimball, President of the Empire State Development Corporation and President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation, respectively. The session on translating innovation from the laboratory to the clinic features Stephen Chang, PhD, of the NYSCF Research Institute and Richard Pearse, PhD, of the Harvard Catalyst and eagle-i Network who will discuss their collaboration on the first publicly available induced pluripotent stem cell database. The day will close with a presentation on induced neuronal cells and cell transdifferentiation from the 2014 NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize recipient, Marius Wernig, MD, PhD, of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Sir Ian Wilmut will give the keynote address on October 22nd and Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch will give the keynote address on the last day of the conference.

The full conference agenda can be found at http://www.nyscf.org/conference

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Stem cell and clinical research advances to be presented at NYSCF's Ninth Annual Conference

La Jolla, CA (PRWEB) October 21, 2014

StemGenex, the leading resource for adult adipose stem cell therapy in the US aimed at improving the lives of patients dealing with degenerative diseases today announced their newest clinical study in partnership with Stem Cell Research Centre for Osteoarthritis. StemGenex and Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC) believe that a commitment to the safety and efficacy of stem cell therapy are paramount when providing care to patients with life threatening diseases.

There are currently 21 million people in the U.S. alone, who suffer from Osteoarthritis. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness which most commonly affect the neck, lower back, knees, shoulders and hips. These symptoms gradually worsen over time ultimately leading to the need for a total joint replacement procedure. StemGenex believe their new clinical study may provide patients improved mobility, significantly reduced pain and ultimately a better quality of life without needing joint replacement surgery.

This clinical study makes stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis accessible to the millions of individuals currently struggling with this painful disease. The protocol used in these stem cell treatments is unique to StemGenex and SCRC, having the possibility of being more effective than other stem cell treatments currently available. These treatments will utilize a multiple administration method which also includes injections precisely targeting the joint space. StemGenex believes these treatments may be able to keep patients from needing joint replacement surgery in the future, due to regeneration of cartilage in the joint.

This clinical study will be conducted under the leadership of the principal investigator,Dr. Jeremiah McDole, Ph.D. Dr. McDole states, We are excited to begin enrolling for this new study. We have high expectations for what we will learn and what advancements can ultimately be implemented. Of course, our focus is always set toward the near future and what can be done to help improve the lives of those individuals with Osteoarthritis.

This study is registered through The National Institutes of Health which can be found at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov and is being conducted under IRB approval of Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC). There are many patients who are exploring stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis and it is important they have access to top-tier stem cell therapy. By providing patients access to stem cell studies registered through The National Institutes of Health, patients now have the ability to choose treatment that focuses on both safety and efficacy.

Rita Alexander, founder and president of StemGenex stated With so many people suffering from Osteoarthritis its absolutely wonderful to provide a treatment that has not only shown efficacy but also to be minimally invasive. Over the last several years we have observed significant improvement in the symptoms of Osteoarthritis patients through stem cell treatment. Through these registered clinical studies, we will now be able to publish our findings over the next few years.

This clinical study follows on the heels of StemGenex latest clinical studies for both Parkinsons disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Stem cell treatment studies are currently being offered by StemGenex partnering with Stem Cell Research Centre (SCRC) to patients diagnosed with Osteoarthritis as well as degenerative neurological diseases. StemGenex takes a unique approach of compassion and empowerment while providing access to the latest stem cell therapies for degenerative conditions including Multiple Sclerosis, Alzheimers disease, stroke recovery and others.

To find out more about stem cell therapy, contact StemGenex either by phone at (800) 609-7795 or email Contact@stemgenex.com

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StemGenex New Clinical Study Aims to Provide Relief to Osteoarthritis Patients through Latest Stem Cell Therapy

Aarkstore -Stem Cell Research in Cardiology
This market insight report on Stem Cell Research in Cardiology emphasizes on the market for stem cells in Cardiology. The study is segmented by Source (Allogenic and Autogenic) and by Type...

By: sangam Jain

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Aarkstore -Stem Cell Research in Cardiology - Video

There are myriad complex cultural and religious reasons as to why ethnic minority donor rates are so low. We dont fully understand the reasons but this has to change if more lives are to be saved, says Dr Adnan Sharif, a consultant nephrologist at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham and member of the National Black, Asian and minority ethnic Transplant Association (NBTA). Aneesas case is heartbreaking, but unfortunately it is not isolated. There are simply not enough minority ethnic communities donating.

In August 2012, Aneesa the eldest of three siblings who live in Birmingham with their father Manzoor, 46, a purchasing manager for a car company, and mother Resiat, 46, a primary school teacher started suffering from headaches and feeling lethargic. The following month, her GP took a blood test that revealed Aneesas platelet count platelets help blood to clot was critically low, leaving her at risk of excessive bruising and bleeding.

Aneesa was rushed to the citys Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where, two days later, she was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia after further blood tests and a bone marrow biopsy. A potentially fatal disease of the bone marrow, it affects around two people per million and is caused by a deficiency of all three blood cell types red and white blood cells, and platelets. Symptoms include fatigue and a reduced immune system, which can lead to infection and bleeding.

Blood transfusions are the best treatment for serious cases such as Aneesas, and a bone marrow transplant in which a donors healthy stem cells are injected into the patient the only cure. I felt shocked and isolated, recalls Aneesa of her diagnosis. There was no history of the condition in my family and no reason given as to why I had developed it.

She immediately had a 14-hour blood transfusion, and remained in hospital for a month to have further platelet transfusions every three days. Meanwhile, Aneesas brother Eghshaam, 18, and sister Iyla-Rose, six, were tested to see if they could be donors. For bone marrow stem cell transplants to succeed, there needs to be a close match in tissue type between donor and patient.

When it transpired that her siblings tissue types were less than a 50 per cent match, Aneesa was forced to abandon her studies because of her failing health and she was put on the organ donor list.

My doctor warned me there was a shortage of ethnic minority donors, she says. I was surprised. I naively assumed everybody who needed a donor would find one.

By the end of 2012, Aneesa had developed liver and kidney failure a side effect of the anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive pills she had to take to protect her immune system. I had to have two litres of fluid injected through a drip every day to stop me dehydrating, she says. I grew jealous of friends leading normal lives.

Last January, Aneesas doctors widened their search to include the international bone marrow donor registry, which contains 10 million people. But, unfortunately, the lack of BAME donors is a global problem.

Although the majority of religious leaders have issued statements of support for organ donation, many Muslims still believe that to donate would contravene their religion. There are certain aspects of the Islamic faith such as the emphasis put on the respect of the dead and not defacing the body that suggest you shouldnt donate, explains Dr Sharif. He says that even though bone marrow donation a relatively simple procedure compared with other organ transplants doesnt require the death of the donor, it is viewed with similar suspicion.

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Bone-marrow transplant teenager: 'I feel angry that my community let me down'

FranchiseStemcell Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging
Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging .

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FranchiseStemcell Fat Stem Cell Therapy Anti Aging - Video

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Newswise Kansas City, Mo. - While megakaryocytes are best known for producing platelets that heal wounds, these mega cells found in bone marrow also play a critical role in regulating stem cells according to new research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research. In fact, hematopoietic stem cells differentiate to generate megakaryocytes in bone marrow. The Stowers study is the first to show that hematopoietic stem cells (the parent cells) can be directly controlled by their own progeny (megakaryocytes).

The findings from the lab of Stowers Investigator Linheng Li, Ph.D., described in the Oct. 19 issue of the journal Nature Medicine, could cause researchers to rethink what they know about the workings of megakaryocytes and potentially lead to new treatments for patients recovering from chemotherapy or organ transplantation.

Our results suggest that megakaryocytes might be used clinically to facilitate adult stem cell regeneration and to expand cultured cells for adult stem cell transplants, says Meng Zhao, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at Stowers and lead author on the study. Stowers researchers discovered that megakaryocytes directly regulate the function of murine hematopoietic stem cellsadult stem cells that form blood and immune cells and that constantly renew the bodys blood supply. These cells can also develop into all types of blood cells, including white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

Because of their remarkable ability to renew themselves and differentiate into other cells, hematopoietic stems cells are the focus of intense research and have been used to treat many diseases and conditions. The transplantation of isolated human hematopoietic stem cells is used in the treatment of anemia, immune deficiencies and other diseases, including cancer.

Basic research has centered on identifying and characterizing hematopoietic stem cells, however, it is still not clear how hematopoietic stem cells actually work, and how they are regulated because of the complexity of the bone marrow microenvironment. Zhao and his colleagues discovered that as a terminally differentiated progeny, megakaryocytes regulate hematopoietic stem cells by performing two previously unknown functions.

Megakaryocytes can directly regulate the amount of hematopoietic stem cells by telling the cells when they need to keep in the quiescent stage, and when they need to start proliferating to meet increased demand. Maintaining that delicate balance is important, he adds. You dont want to have too many or too few hematopoietic stem cells.

These findings are supported by similar research from the laboratory of Paul S. Frenette, Ph.D., at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, also reported in the Oct. 19 issue of Nature Medicine.

Employing the advanced technology of the Institutes Cytometry, Imaging and Histology centers, the researchers examined the relationship between megakaryocytes and hematopoietic stem cells in mouse bone marrow. In the course of their research, they found that the protein transforming growth factor B1 (TGF-B1), contained in megakaryocytes, signaled quiescence of hematopoietic stem cells. They also found that when under stress from chemotherapy, megakaryocytes signaled fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1), to stimulate the proliferation of hematopoietic stem cells.

Link:
New Insight That "Mega" Cells Control the Growth of Blood-Producing Cells

If you skin your knee, your body makes new skin. If you donate a portion of your liver, whats left will grow back to near-normal size. But if you lose a billion heart cells during a heart attack, only a small fraction of those will be replaced. In the words of Ke Cheng, an associate professor of regenerative medicine at N.C. State, The hearts self-repair potency is very limited.

Cheng has designed a nanomedicine he hopes will give the heart some help. It consists of an engineered nanoparticle that gathers the bodys own self-repair cells and brings them to the injured heart tissue.

In this case, the self-repair cells are adult stem cells. A stem cell is a very rich biological factory, Cheng said. Stem cells can become heart muscle, or they can produce growth factors that are beneficial to the regrowth of heart muscle.

After a heart attack, dying and dead heart cells release chemical signals that alert stem cells circulating in the blood to move to the injured site. But there just arent very many stem cells in the bloodstream, and sometimes they are not sufficiently attracted to the injured tissue.

Matchmakers with hooks

The nanomedicine Cheng designed consists of an iron-based nanoparticle festooned with two different kinds of hooks one kind of hook grabs adult stem cells, and the other kind of hook grabs injured heart tissue. Cheng calls the nanomedicine a matchmaker, because it brings together cells that can make repairs with cells that need repairs.

The hooks are antibodies that seek and grab certain types of cells. Because the antibodies are situated on an iron nanoparticle, they and the stem cells theyve grabbed can be physically directed to the heart using an external magnet. Cheng calls the nanomedicine MagBICE, for magnetic bifunctional cell engager.

The magnet is a first pass to get the iron-based particles and antibodies near the heart. Once there, the antibodies are able to identify and stick to the injured heart tissue, bringing the stem cells right where they need to go. Using two methods of targeting the magnet and the antibodies improves the chances of being able to bring a large number of stem cells at the site of injury.

In addition to providing a way to physically move the stem cells to the heart, the iron nanoparticles are visible on MRI machines, which allows MagBICE to be visualized after its infused into the bloodstream.

Cheng doesnt foresee much toxicity from the nanomedicine unless someone is allergic or particularly sensitive to iron. In fact, the iron-based nanoparticle that forms the platform for the antibodies is an FDA-approved IV treatment for anemia.

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A HEALTHCARE worker at Royal Bournemouth Hospital has donated stem cells in a bid to save the life of an unknown man.

Claire Waugh, pictured, who has always been a regular blood donor, decided to join the Anthony Nolan stem cell register after her father was diagnosed with prostate cancer three years ago.

The healthcare assistant co-ordinator was later identified as a possible match for a man needing life-saving treatment.

Following rigorous testing Claire was visited by nurses from the blood cancer charity, who gave her three injections every day for three days to stimulate her bone marrow to produce stem cells.

On the fourth day she travelled to Kings College Hospital in London to receive a final set of injections and undergo a stem cell collection in a simple five-hour outpatient procedure, which is similar to giving blood.

Claire said: I couldnt move or bend my arm due to the fairly heavy duty needle, but I was looked after really well so in the end the time went very quickly.

After donating, Claires stem cells were rushed to the recipient within the required 72 hours. A volunteer from Anthony Nolan told me that if he doesnt survive, there is nothing else on this earth that would have cured him, so this was this persons last chance, added Claire.

When my dad was poorly it made me think that if he needed this kind of help, I would be praying every night that someone would help him.

By doing this, it meant that I could give that chance to someone else and their family.

Royal Bournemouth Hospital granted special leave to Claire for the donation with the charity covering all of her and her husbands travel expenses.

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