Stem cell treatment regrows Whitfield man’s foot

By the time Dr. Spencer Misner had carved away the dead and diseased flesh from Bobby Rices right foot last year, little remained other than bones and tendons.

I couldnt believe it. It didnt look real. It looked like something out of a movie, recalled Rice, a Whitfield County resident.

Today, the ankle has almost completely healed. It looks like Rice had simply scraped it. And Rices foot has largely healed, too. Misner credits cutting-edge stem cell treatments for saving Rices foot and leg.

Rice, who has diabetes, stepped on a piece of glass last fall and his foot quickly became infected. After trying a home remedy, Rice eventually went to Daltons Hamilton Medical Center emergency room, where doctors found he had a rapidly spreading necrotizing fasciitis, or in laymans terms, flesh-eating bacteria.

Physicians treated the infection with antibiotics. However, Rice had one toe amputated. Doctors had to strip away much of the flesh from Rices foot and a great deal of flesh along his ankle.

We did what we had to do, Misner said. We got the infection out. We saved his life. But what do you do next? Wed normally say all you can do now is cut of his leg so he can get on with his life.

But Misner had another idea. He contacted Ed Fickey, a sales representative for Osiris Therapeutics and asked about using the companys new stem cell technologies to rebuild the foot and ankle.

Stem cells can grow and differentiate into many different types of cells. Stem cell treatments introduce these cells into damaged or diseased organs to repair them.

The problem is that Bobby is an indigent patient and didnt have the financial resources. Ed spoke to the company, and they agreed to donate the products for free, Misner said.

Osiris provided two products called Grafix and Ovation. Fickey said they are made from adult stem cells derived from donated placenta and do not come from embryos.

See the original post:
Stem cell treatment regrows Whitfield man’s foot

Fat stem cells may help treat kidney ailments

Fat stem cells may help treat kidney ailments BS Reporter / Mumbai/ AhmedabadMarch 06, 2007 In a breakthrough in the stem cell research, scientist from Ahmedabad have developed a technique to encourage a new kind of stem cells called Mesenchymal stem cells generated from fat (adipose tissue) of donors, which can be used in treating kidney diseases. Mesenchymal stem cells generated from fat of donors hold great promise for the treatment of kidney diseases, claims H L Trivedi, director, Institute of Kidney Diseases and Research Center (IKDRC), Ahmedabad. We will soon patent the research, he added. The institute will soon convene a meeting of scientists working on the project and take a decision on securing the patent for the research. A team of scientists from the IKDRC, led by Trivedi, has clinically proved that when presented in the right physical context, certain growth factors encourage the survival and proliferation of fat mesenchymal stem cells grown outside the body. Trivedi says the research offers hope of cent per cent recovery for patients suffering from severe kidney diseases as the mesenchymal stem cells will nullify the rejection rate of the body, thus inducing the body to accept the newly transplanted kidney as part of its own body. Emphasising on the success of mesenchymal stem cells for kidney treatment, Trivedi further said mesenchymal stem cells were the best repair stem cells compared to other stem cells. The worlds first recipient of these kinds of stem cells is a kidney patient - Hetalben Mewada, a 30-year-old housewife from Palanpur in Gujarat, claims the scientist from IKDRC. Speaking about the financial aspect of the kidney treatment, Trivedi said, Mesenchymal stem cells using fat is simple and cheap. The latest invention would cut the cost of surgery drastically and make it affordable for the needy people. It will also reduce the chances of recurrence and complexity in the post surgery situation, he said. Mesenchymal stem cells are available in bone marrow and peripheral blood cells in smaller quantity, but the cells are not economically feasible. Mesenchymal stem cells can be easily derived from fat and is economically viable. Mesenchymal stem cells that are already in the fats are separated and grown through culturing technique in laboratory. IKDRCs scientists carried out a kidney transplant operation using Mesenchymal stem cells derived from fats along with adult hematopoietic stem cells infused into the transplanted kidney to create tolerance or acceptance by the patients. This eliminates the chance of rejection, and the patients would not need medication. Under this procedure, the mesenchymal stem cells act as a big brother to adult hematopoietic stem cells. Mesenchymal stem cells protect these hematopoietic stem cells and help their grafting into different organs by themselves getting grafted and making space for their younger siblings (adult hematopoietic stem cells) to live along with them in their vicinity. Fat stem cells may help treat kidney ailments BS Reporter / Mumbai/ Ahmedabad Mar 06, 2007, 22:52 IST

View post:
Fat stem cells may help treat kidney ailments

UC San Diego researchers receive new CIRM funding

Public release date: 25-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego

Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer's disease.

The awards mark the third round of funding in CIRM's Early Translational Awards program, which supports projects that are in the initial stages of identifying drugs or cell types that could become disease therapies. More than $69 million in awards were announced yesterday, including funding for first-ever collaboratively funded research projects with China and the federal government of Australia.

"With these new awards, the agency now has 52 projects in 33 diseases at varying stages of working toward clinical trials," said Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD and CIRM governing board chair. "Californians should take pride in being at the center of this worldwide research leading toward new cures. These projects represent the best of California stem cell science and the best international experts who, together, will bring new therapies for patients."

The five new UC San Diego awards are:

With a $1.8 million award, Lawrence Goldstein, PhD, professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program, and colleagues will continue their work developing new methods to find and test drug candidates for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Currently, there is no effective treatment for AD. The researchers screen novel candidates using purified human brain cells made from human reprogrammed stem cells. Already, they have discovered that these human brain cells exhibit a unique biochemical behavior that indicates early development of AD in a dish.

Mark H. Tuszynski, MD, PhD, professor of neurosciences and director of the Center for Neural Repair at UC San Diego, and colleagues seek to develop more potent stem cell-based treatments for spinal cord injuries. By combining grafts of neural stem cells with scaffolds placed at injury sites, the researchers have reported substantial progress in restoring functional improvement in impaired animal models. The new $4.6 million grant will fund work to identify the optimal human neural stem cells for preclinical development and, in an unprecedented step, test this treatment in appropriate preclinical models of spinal cord injury, providing the strongest validation for human translation.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) is a progressive neurological condition that is currently incurable. Gene Yeo, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, and colleagues will use a $1.6 million grant to exploit recent discoveries that specific mutations in RNA-binding proteins cause neuronal dysfunction and death. They will use neurons generated from patient cells containing the mutations to identify the unique RNA "signature" of these doomed neurons and screen for drug-like compounds that bypass the mutations to correct the RNA signature to obtain healthy neurons.

Eric David Adler, MD, an associate clinical professor of medicine and cardiologist, studies heart failure, including the use of stem cells to treat it. His $1.7 million award will fund research into Danon disease, a type of inherited heart failure that frequently kills patients by their 20s. Adler and colleagues will turn stem cells created from skin cells of patients with Danon disease into heart cells, then screen hundreds of thousands of drug candidates for beneficial effects. The most promising drugs will subsequently be tested on mice with a genetic defect similar to Danon disease, with the ultimate goal of identifying a suitable candidate for human clinical trials. The research may have broader applications for other conditions with similar pathogenesis, such as cancer and Parkinson's disease.

Read this article:
UC San Diego researchers receive new CIRM funding

State awards stem cell grants to medical researchers

SACRAMENTO California's stem cell agency today approved two grants to UC Davis Health System researchers for their innovative work in regenerative medicine.

Kyriacos A. Athanasiou, distinguished professor of orthopaedic surgery and professor and chair of biomedical engineering, and the Child Family Professor of Engineering at UC Davis, is investigating the use of skin-derived stem cells to heal cartilage injuries and debilitating conditions of the knee such as osteoarthritis.

W. Douglas Boyd, professor of surgery, plans to further refine a novel approach to treating cardiovascular injuries suffered during a heart attack by using stem cells and a tissue-like scaffold to repair cardiac damage.

The pair received individual grants totaling approximately $6.6 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's (CIRM) governing board.

Athanasiou's and Boyd's multi-year grants were among the proposals submitted to CIRM for its third round of Early Translational Awards, which are intended to enable clinical therapies to be developed more rapidly.

"Both of these scientists are conducting exciting research that could have far-reaching implications in health care," said Jan Nolta, director of the UC Davis Institute for Regenerative Cures and the university's stem cell program director. "Dr. Athanasiou is bioengineering new cartilage that could have the same physiological integrity as the cartilage a person is born with. Dr. Boyd is developing a treatment that uses a paper-thin patch embedded with stem cells to harness their regenerative powers to repair damaged heart muscle."

Boyd, who's a pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon, pointed out in his CIRM proposal that heart disease is the nation's number-one cause of death and disability. An estimated 16.3 million Americans over the age of 20 suffer from coronary heart disease, which in 2007 accounted for an estimated 1 in 6 deaths in the U.S. Boyd plans to use bone-marrow derived stem cells -- known as mesenchymal stem cells -- in combination with a bioengineered framework known as an extracellular matrix, to regenerate damaged heart tissue, block heart disease and restore cardiac function, something currently not possible except in cases of a complete and very invasive heart transplant.

An expert in biomedical engineering, Athanasiou is focusing on developing a cellular therapy using stem cells created from an individual's own skin -- known as autologous skin-derived stem cells -- which have shown great promise in animal models. He plans to use the new funding to conduct extensive toxicology and durability tests to determine the technique's long-term safety and efficacy. Such tests are among the many steps needed to advance toward human clinical trials.

Cartilage is the slippery tissue that covers the ends of bones in joints, allowing bones to glide over each other and absorbing the shock of movement. Cartilage defects from injuries and lifelong wear and tear can eventually degenerate into osteoarthritis. According to the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis and affects an estimated 27 million Americans over the age of 25.

"For anyone suffering from osteoarthritis or other debilitating cartilage conditions, Dr. Athanasiou's goal of using stem cells to regenerate new tissue could have enormous quality-of-life and economic benefits," said Nolta, who is the recipient of a prior translational grant from CIRM to develop potential therapies for Huntington's disease . "Dr. Boyd's work is equally promising because he's using a bioengineered structure to encourage cardiac tissue repair, which could have important benefits in the treatment of heart disease."

Continue reading here:
State awards stem cell grants to medical researchers

5 scientists receive stem-cell research grants

Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer's disease.

The awards mark the third round of funding in CIRM's Early Translational Awards program, which supports projects that are in the initial stages of identifying drugs or cell types that could become disease therapies. More than $69 million in awards were announced yesterday, including funding for first-ever collaboratively funded research projects with China and the federal government of Australia.

"With these new awards, the agency now has 52 projects in 33 diseases at varying stages of working toward clinical trials," said Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD and CIRM governing board chair. "Californians should take pride in being at the center of this worldwide research leading toward new cures. These projects represent the best of California stem cell science and the best international experts who, together, will bring new therapies for patients."

The five new UC San Diego awards are:

CIRM was established in November 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The statewide ballot measure provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions and called for the establishment of an entity to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities, and other vital research opportunities.

The May 24 grants bring UC San Diego's total to more than $112 million in CIRM funding since the first awards in 2006.

Go here to read the rest:
5 scientists receive stem-cell research grants