Stem cell center to open next month

BSALIM, Lebanon: In April, a German medical team reported that it successfully treated a 2-year-old boy with cerebral palsy using intravenous stem cells from his umbilical cord more than four years after he emerged from cardiac arrest paralyzed and in a coma. Also this spring, doctors in Illinois performed a windpipe transplant on a 2-year-old girl using lungs grown from her own stem cells; scientists used stem cells to regenerate teeth and damaged liver tissue in mice; and researchers in Ireland completed a preclinical trial using stem cells to heal diabetic foot ulcers, which leads to amputation in nearly half of middle-aged patients.

Since the late 1990s, doctors at AUH, the Makassed Medical Center, and other major health care facilities across the country have routinely used stem cells from the bone marrow of patients and donors to treat blood diseases such as leukemia.

They have also ventured into more experimental regenerative therapies for liver cirrhosis, cardiac infarctions, infertility, spinal cord injuries and even multiple sclerosis, with varying degrees of success.

Cosmetic surgeons in Lebanon regularly use adult stem cells from fatty tissue to augment breasts, buttocks and lips, stimulate hair growth, and remove stretch marks, burns and under-eye circles. Most hospitals also charge a fee to extract stem cells from the umbilical blood of newborns with the mothers consent.

But until the countrys first long-term cell bank, Transmedical For Life, opened in 2009, the samples had to be shipped to banks in Europe, which dramatically reduced the volume of viable cells. The facility also does not extract stem cells or perform transplantations on site, and only served Lebanese patients.

Although regenerative medicineis becoming increasingly routine in Lebanon, none of the stem cell procedures and services were conducted in a single facility, and the national contribution to scientific research on stem cells has lagged far behind that of the West and even the Gulf.

All this may change on Aug. 1 when the first comprehensive stem cell therapy center and bank, Reviva, opens at the Middle East Institute of Health in Bsalim, Metn.

According to Revivas scientific director, Dr. Norman Makdissi, Reviva will be the only medical facility in the Middle East equipped to collect, process, preserve and transplant stem cells from four different tissue sources in patients from Lebanon and abroad.

The 30 Lebanese investors, doctors and scientists behind the new $7 million clinic hope Reviva will become a leading international stem cell research institute and treatment facility, enhancing Lebanons status as a top medical tourism destination in the region.

When we talk about stem cells we are talking about cases where hope doesnt exist, Makdissi told the Daily Star. The number of stem cells is very limited in the organism so the future of the [field of regenerative] medicine will be about amplifying the number of stem cells to treat the patients with.

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Stem cell center to open next month

Stem cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease advances toward clinical trials

July 1, 2013 Researchers at UCLA's Eli & Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine & Stem Cell Research have successfully established the foundation for using hematopoietic (blood-producing) stem cells (HSC) from the bone marrow of patients with sickle cell disease (SCD) to treat the disease. The study was led by Dr. Donald Kohn, professor of pediatrics and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics in the life sciences.

Kohn introduced an anti-sickling gene into the HSC to capitalize on the self-renewing potential of stem cells and create a continual source of healthy red blood cells that do not sickle. The breakthrough gene therapy technique for sickle cell disease is scheduled to begin clinical trials by early 2014. The study was published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Gene Therapy

Kohn's gene therapy approach using HSC from patient's own blood is a revolutionary alternative to current SCD treatments as it creates a self-renewing normal blood cell by inserting a gene that has anti-sickling properties into HSC. This approach also does not rely on the identification of a matched donor, thus avoiding the risk of rejection of donor cells. The anti-sickling HSC will be transplanted back into the patient's bone marrow and multiplies the corrected cells that make red blood cells without sickling.

"The results demonstrate that our technique of lentiviral transduction is capable of efficient transfer and consistent expression of an effective anti-sickling beta-globin gene in human SCD bone marrow progenitor cells, which improved the physiologic parameters of the resulting red blood cells." Kohn said.

Kohn and colleagues found that in the laboratory the HSC produced new non-sickled blood cells at a rate sufficient for significant clinical improvement for patients. The new blood cells survive longer than sickled cells, which could also improve treatment outcomes. The success of this technique will allow Kohn to begin clinical trials in patients with SCD by early next year.

Sickle Cell Disease

Affecting more than 90,000 patients in the US, SCD mostly affects people of Sub-Saharan African descent. It is caused by an inherited mutation in the beta-globin gene that makes red blood cells change from their normal shape, which is round and pliable (like a plastic bag filled with corn oil), into a rigid sickle-shaped cell (like a corn flake). Normal red blood cells are able to pass easily through the tiniest blood vessels, called capillaries, carrying oxygen to organs such as the lungs, liver and kidneys. But due to their rigid structure, sickled blood cells get stuck in the capillaries and deprive the organs of oxygen, which causes organ dysfunction and failure.

Current treatments include transplanting patients with donor HSC, which is a potential cure for SCD, but due to the serious risks of rejection, only a small number of patients have undergone this procedure and it is usually restricted to children with severe symptoms.

CIRM Disease Team Program

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Stem cell gene therapy for sickle cell disease advances toward clinical trials

Stem-cell cocktail produces human liver tissue in mice

Published: Wednesday, July 3, 2013, 6:42p.m. Updated: Wednesday, July 3, 2013

An international stem cell research team reported on Wednesday that they have grown functioning human liver tissues in mice.

The human liver buds implanted in the mice represent a first experimental step in growing replacement organs from stem cells for transplants, such as liver, pancreas and kidneys, says the research team headed by Japan's Takanori Takebe of the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine. The team relied on a cocktail of so-called induced stem cells grown to resemble the nascent liver bud cells used in the experiment.

The liver bud is formed at the very early stage of development normally in humans, maybe around five or six weeks, Takebe said. We basically mimicked this very early transition process of the liver-bud-forming process.

Discovered in 2006, induced stem cells are grown from mature tissues, typically skin cells, into the unspecialized stem cell state that allows for their cultivation into a wide variety of cell types, from brain to blood to liver cells.

Implanted into mice, the liver buds released human liver enzymes much more effectively than more copious amounts of liver precursor cells implanted alone in mice. The buds also developed blood vessels and grew to resemble normal liver tissues within about two days of implantation. As a final test, the researchers induced a kind of chemically induced liver failure that resembles the disease in people in 12 of the mice, and they report that implanted liver buds helped the mice survive.

Despite the effort's success, Takebe warned that implants of such tissues in human patients are at least a decade away, after tests of their long-term growth and safety.

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Stem-cell cocktail produces human liver tissue in mice

New stem cell patent action filed

A patent controlling use of human embryonic stem cells should be struck down, two consumer groups said in a legal appeal filed Tuesday.

Promising therapies developed with these cells will be delayed from reaching patients if the patent remains intact, say researchers, including Jeanne Loring of The Scripps Research Institute and Gene Yeo of UC San Diego.

The appeal was filed by Consumer Watchdog, based in Santa Monica, and the New York-based Public Patent Foundation, with the U.S. Court of Appeals. The groups said the U.S. Patent and Trade Office incorrectly upheld a patent awarded to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.

WARFs use of what is called the 913 patent, has put a severe burden on taxpayer-funded research in the State of California, the appeal stated. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine funds embryonic and nonembryonic stem cell research with $3 billion from state bonds.

CIRM's president, Dr. Alan Trounson, did not directly say whether the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine supported or opposed the new filing.

"We don't want to do anything that gets in the way of finding treatments for some of the biggest killers today, so we feel that all patients with all kinds of diseases deserve to have access to these kinds of cells," Trounson said.

Yeo said the foundation permits basic research with embryonic stem cells, but warns scientists that any products resulting from that research requires a license. This warning scares away potential corporate partners.

Last months Supreme Court decision invalidating gene patents held by Myriad Genetics makes the case especially timely, the groups said in their brief. Human embryonic stem cells are a product of nature like genes, and so cannot be patented, they say. In addition, isolating those cells is an obvious extension of their discovery in other animals. The Public Patent Foundation and the ACLU represented those challenging Myriad's patents.

The case began in 2006, when stem cell scientists joined the two groups in challenging the WARF patent and two others. The other two have been dropped from the litigation. Loring took part in the original challenge and continues to advise the groups. The 913 patent is the most troublesome, because of its broad scope, Loring said.

The foundation said it was properly protecting breakthrough research from the University of Wisconsin at Madison by James Thomson. In 1998, Thomson was the first to isolate and culture human embryonic stem cells, which had previously been found in other animals.

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New stem cell patent action filed

Stem-cell therapy wipes out HIV in 2 patients

LONDON - Two men with HIV have been off AIDS drugs for several months after receiving stem-cell transplants for cancer that appear to have cleared the virus from their bodies, researchers reported on Wednesday.

Both patients, who were treated in Boston and had been on long-term drug therapy to control their HIV, received stem-cell transplants after developing lymphoma, a type of blood cancer.

Since the transplants, doctors have been unable to find any evidence of HIV infection, Timothy Henrich of Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston told an International AIDS Society conference in Kuala Lumpur.

While it is too early to say for sure that the virus has disappeared from their bodies altogether, one patient has now been off antiretroviral drug treatment for 15 weeks and the other for seven weeks.

Last July Henrich first reported that the two men had undetectable levels of HIV in their blood after their stem-cell treatment, but at that time they were still taking medicines to suppress HIV.

Using stem-cell therapy is not seen as a viable option for widespread use, since it is extremely expensive, but the latest cases could open new avenues for fighting the disease, which infects about 34 million people worldwide.

The latest cases resemble that of Timothy Ray Brown, known as "the Berlin patient", who became the first person to be cured of HIV after receiving a bone marrow transplant for leukaemia in 2007. There are, however, important differences.

While Brown's doctor used stem cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation, known as CCR5 delta 32, which renders people virtually resistant to HIV, the two Boston patients received cells without this mutation.

"Dr. Henrich is charting new territory in HIV eradication research," Kevin Robert Frost, chief executive officer of the Foundation for AIDS Research, which funded the study, said in a statement.

Scientific advances since HIV was first discovered more than 30 years ago mean the virus is no longer a death sentence and the latest antiretroviral AIDS drugs can control the virus for decades.

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Stem-cell therapy wipes out HIV in 2 patients

Scientists create human liver from stem cells

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Scientists create human liver from stem cells

Custom research papers examples: Embrotic Stem Cell Research

embryologic Stem kiosk research Pros and Cons Denise Sturmer ? In the case al-Qaida prison mobile phone research at that place argon m either divers(prenominal) views towards the latent benifets that come with it. They offer lots hope for aesculapian promotion because of their aptitude to grow into near whatsoever resistant of cell. With these cells, which are taken directly from an embryo, advances spate be do in the research of the aging process, cancer, spinal cord injuries, diabetes, Parkinsons, Alzheimers and schizpophrenia. They support breeding on every cell in the body and they can be manipulated in nearly any way possible. Embryonic stubble cells also have the ability to regenerate, opening up nevertheless more possibilities including organ and sleeve replacement as hale as cloning. I in person belive that we, as the benevolent race, could growth greatly from this opportunity. However, as it goes with any discussion, there are around who do non call for this research as such(prenominal) a sound thing, The home cell contestation comes from the communication channel over whether or not life begins at conception. Those who learn it that way beleive that using embryonal cells for research is murder. The embryo that is utilise for research must be destroyed in order of magnitude for the research to commence. There is some other form of bitterness well-nigh the use of national funding to support embryonic stell cell research. In 2001, death chair George W. crotch hair banned fedearl currency for foundation cell research and by and by allowed very especial(a) funding. In 2009, President Barak Obama lifted the ban on federal funding, stating that the government had squeeze a false weft betwixt sound intelligence and moral values. Everyone has a their give birth veiws on this subject and I honestly believe that this motive go away stay on for many years to come. In my opinion I cipher we should continue in favor of embryonic musical theme cell research for the overall good for the human race. ? ? Research sites; allaboutpopularissues.com google.com stemcell.com The pros of stem cell research are that...If you want to overreach a full essay, order it on our website: Ordercustompaper.com

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Custom research papers examples: Embrotic Stem Cell Research

Researchers use patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient …

A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).

The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin in a manner similar to that of the beta cells of MODY patients. Repair of the gene mutation restored insulin secretion to levels seen in cells obtained from healthy subjects. The findings were reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells to become beta cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose or other molecules. But the question remained as to whether stem cell-derived beta cells could accurately model genetic forms of diabetes and be used to develop and test potential therapies.

We focused on MODY, a form of diabetes that affects approximately one in 10,000 people. While patients and other models have yielded important clinical insights into this disease, we were particularly interested in its molecular aspects-how specific genes can affect responses to glucose by the beta cell, said co-senior author Dieter Egli, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NYSCF, who was named a NYSCF-Robertson Stem Cell Investigator in 2012.

MODY is a genetically inherited form of diabetes. The most common form of MODY, type 2, results in a loss-of-function mutation in one copy of the gene that codes for the sugar-processing enzyme glucokinase (GCK). With type 2 MODY, higher glucose levels are required for GCK to metabolize glucose, leading to chronic, mildly elevated blood sugar levels and increased risk of vascular complications.

MODY patients are frequently misdiagnosed with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Proper diagnosis can not only change the patients course of treatment but affect family members, who were previously unaware that they, too, might have this genetic disorder.

NYSCF scientists took skin cells from two Berrie Center type 2 MODY patients and reprogrammed-or reverted-them to an embryonic-like state to become iPS cells. To examine the effect of the GCK genetic mutation, they also created two genetically manipulated iPS cell lines for comparison: one fully functional (two correct copies of the GCK gene) and one with complete loss of function (two faulty copies of the GCK gene). They then generated beta cell precursors from the fully functional and loss-of-function iPS cell lines and transplanted the cells for further maturation into immune-compromised mice.

Our ability to create insulin-producing cells from skin cells, and then to manipulate the GCK gene in these cells using recently developed molecular methods, made it possible to definitively test several critical aspects of the utility of stem cells for the study of human disease, said Haiqing Hua, PhD, lead author on the paper, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute.

Read the original: Researchers use patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient insulin-producing cells

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Researchers Demonstrate Use of Stem Cells to Analyze Causes …

NYSCF AND COLUMBIA RESEARCHERS DEMONSTRATE USE OF STEM CELLS TO ANALYZE CAUSES AND TREATMENT OF DIABETES

Using patient-specific stem cells to correct deficient insulin-producing cells

Newswise NEW YORK, NY (June 17, 2013) A team from the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute and the Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center of Columbia University has generated patient-specific beta cells, or insulin-producing cells, that accurately reflect the features of maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY).

The researchers used skin cells of MODY patients to produce induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, from which they then made beta cells. Transplanted into a mouse, the stem cell-derived beta cells secreted insulin in a manner similar to that of the beta cells of MODY patients. Repair of the gene mutation restored insulin secretion to levels seen in cells obtained from healthy subjects. The findings were reported today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Previous studies have demonstrated the ability of human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells to become beta cells that secrete insulin in response to glucose or other molecules. But the question remained as to whether stem cell-derived beta cells could accurately model genetic forms of diabetes and be used to develop and test potential therapies.

We focused on MODY, a form of diabetes that affects approximately one in 10,000 people. While patients and other models have yielded important clinical insights into this disease, we were particularly interested in its molecular aspectshow specific genes can affect responses to glucose by the beta cell, said co-senior author Dieter Egli, PhD, Senior Research Fellow at NYSCF, who was named a NYSCFRobertson Stem Cell Investigator in 2012.

MODY is a genetically inherited form of diabetes. The most common form of MODY, type 2, results in a loss-of-function mutation in one copy of the gene that codes for the sugar-processing enzyme glucokinase (GCK). With type 2 MODY, higher glucose levels are required for GCK to metabolize glucose, leading to chronic, mildly elevated blood sugar levels and increased risk of vascular complications.

MODY patients are frequently misdiagnosed with type 1 or 2 diabetes. Proper diagnosis can not only change the patients course of treatment but affect family members, who were previously unaware that they, too, might have this genetic disorder.

NYSCF scientists took skin cells from two Berrie Center type 2 MODY patients and reprogrammedor revertedthem to an embryonic-like state to become iPS cells. To examine the effect of the GCK genetic mutation, they also created two genetically manipulated iPS cell lines for comparison: one fully functional (two correct copies of the GCK gene) and one with complete loss of function (two faulty copies of the GCK gene). They then generated beta cell precursors from the fully functional and loss-of-function iPS cell lines and transplanted the cells for further maturation into immune-compromised mice.

Our ability to create insulin-producing cells from skin cells, and then to manipulate the GCK gene in these cells using recently developed molecular methods, made it possible to definitively test several critical aspects of the utility of stem cells for the study of human disease, said Haiqing Hua, PhD, lead author on the paper, a postdoctoral fellow in the Division of Molecular Genetics, Department of Pediatrics and Naomi Berrie Diabetes Center at Columbia University and the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute.

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Researchers Demonstrate Use of Stem Cells to Analyze Causes ...

Mount Sinai Researchers Succeed in Programming … – Stem Cell Cafe

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 13, 2013

By transferring four genes into mouse fibroblast cells, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have produced cells that resemble hematopoietic stem cells, which produce millions of new blood cells in the human body every day. These findings provide a platform for future development of patient-specific stem/progenitor cells, and more differentiated blood products, for cell-replacement therapy.

The study, titled, Induction of a Hemogenic Program in Mouse Fibroblasts, was published online in CELL STEM CELL on June 13. Mount Sinai researchers screened a panel of 18 genetic factors for inducing blood-forming activity and identified a combination of four transcription factors, Gata2, Gfi1b, cFos, and Etv6 as sufficient to generate blood vessel precursor cells with the subsequent appearance of hematopoietic cells. The precursor cells express a human CD34 reporter, Sca1 and Prominin1 within a global endothelial transcription program.

The cells that we grew in a petri dish are identical in gene expression to those found in the mouse embryo and could eventually generate colonies of mature blood cells, said the first author of the study, Carlos Filipe Pereira, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow of Developmental and Regenerative Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine.

Other leaders of the research team that screened the genetic factors to find the right combination included Kateri Moore, DVM, Associate Professor of Developmental and Regenerative Biology at the Icahn School and Ihor R. Lemischka, PhD, Professor of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics and Director of The Black Family Stem Cell Institute at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

The combination of gene factors that we used was not composed entirely of the most obvious or expected proteins, said Dr. Lemischka. Many investigators have been trying to grow hematopoietic stem cells from embryonic stem cells, but this process has been problematic. Instead, we used mature mouse fibroblasts, picked the right combination of proteins, and it worked.

This discovery is just the beginning of something new and exciting and can hopefully be used to identify a treatment for blood disorders, said Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at The Mount Sinai Medical Center.

According to Dr. Pereira, there is a critical shortage of suitable donors for blood stem cell transplants. Donors are currently necessary to meet the needs of patients suffering from blood diseases such as leukemia, aplastic anemia, lymphomas, multiple myeloma and immune deficiency disorders. Programming of hematopoietic stem cells represents an exciting alternative, said Pereira.

Dr. Lemischka and I have been working together for over 20 years in the fields of hematopoiesis and stem cell biology, said Dr. Moore, senior author of the study. It is truly exciting to be able to grow these blood forming cells in a culture dish and learn so much from them. We have already started applying this new approach to human cells and anticipate similar success.

Mount Sinai Innovation Partners is managing the intellectual property for this cell replacement technology on behalf of the Mount Sinai researchers and is actively engaged with commercial collaboration opportunities.

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Mount Sinai Researchers Succeed in Programming ... - Stem Cell Cafe