New drug dramatically improves survival in Hodgkin lymphoma patients

ScienceDaily (June 27, 2012) A new cancer drug with remarkably few side effects is dramatically improving survival in Hodgkin lymphoma patients who fail other treatments and are nearly out of options.

Loyola University Medical Center oncologist Scott E. Smith, MD, PhD presented survival data for the drug, brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association. Smith is director of Loyola's Hematological Malignancies Research Program.

The multi-center study included 102 Hodgkin lymphoma patients who had relapsed after stem cell transplants. Tumors disappeared in 32 percent of patients and shrank by at least half in 40 percent of patients. An additional 21 percent of patients experienced some tumor shrinkage. Only 6 percent of patients had no response to the drug.

Sixty five percent of patients were alive at 24 months, and in 25 percent of patients, the cancer had not progressed at all.

These are "encouraging results in patients with historically poor prognosis," researchers said.

Loyola patient Michelle Salerno had failed two stem cell transplants -- one using her own cells and one using cells donated by her brother -- and multiple rounds of chemotherapy before going on brentuximab vedotin. After three or four infusions, she stopped suffering chills, sweats, high fevers and itchy pain from head to toe. And she experienced almost none of the side effects common to chemotherapy.

"I kept my hair, and never felt like vomiting," she said. "You get the drug, you go home, you feel good."

The standard regimen is a 30-minute infusion every three weeks. A patient typically receives 16 doses over 48 weeks.

Loyola has administered about 500 doses to 60 patients. "A lot of our patients are doing great on this regimen," Smith said.

Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer of the immune system. Most patients can be cured with chemotherapy or radiation, especially when the disease is diagnosed in early stages. However, if initial treatment fails, the patient may require an autologous stem cell transplant. This procedure uses the patient's own stem cells to replace immune system cells that are destroyed by high-dose chemotherapy or radiation.

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New drug dramatically improves survival in Hodgkin lymphoma patients

Rick Green: State Funds West Hartford Center Restaurant

Our state's $291 million investment in medical research at the UConn Health Center is a smart move. The same for the millions of dollars pouring into stem cell research. The $112 million Connecticut will sink into the busway may even one day prove prescient.

These and other projects under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's aggressive economic development strategy are what's needed after years of somnolent leadership in a state that has failed to create jobs and nurture new business.

But a $47,500 grant from the taxpayers to make sure West Hartford Center gets another trendy restaurant?

Among a slew of economic stimulus grants and loans announced last week, handing taxpayer money to help convert Reuben's Deli on West Hartford's Lasalle Road to a restaurant and bar feels like just too much. Even my local focus group of friends who regularly go to West Hartford restaurants - two doctors and a sucessful businessman I met for a couple of beers one night this week - had a hard time swallowing this one.

Why is the state in the business of propping up a business in a booming town center that has been in the midst of a restaurant explosion in recent years?

"I can understand how people might look at it (that) way,'' said Catherine Smith, commissioner of Economic and Community Development for the state, when I called. "Our belief was they would not go forward with the expansion unless we helped them."

The folks at Reuben's, understandably perhaps, did not respond when I called and emailed looking to talk. And who can blame them for applying for a state grant under the generous Small Business Express program, a $100 million initiative that also provides loans? The program is aimed at helping Connecticut's "base industries" such as "precision manufacturing, business services, green and sustainable technology, bioscience and information technology."

It's just that corned beef on rye doesn't strike me as one of our base industries.

To be sure, this is hardly a no strings attached deal: Reuben's promises to invest $180,000 of its own cash and to hire five new workers in return for the $47,500 state grant. That's five jobs that will be created in a still-struggling state recovery that has left 150,000 people without jobs. By a lot of measures, that's a win.

"We view the Small Business Express program as a Main Street-regular-old-business-guy being able to access state assistance to make an investment in business that they haven't made because of the economy," Smith said. "These programs are about getting small business to do more and grow fast and create jobs We underwrite each of these deals. We make sure the company isn't about to go flat on its face."

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Rick Green: State Funds West Hartford Center Restaurant

State Funds West Hartford Center Restaurant

Our state's $291 million investment in medical research at the UConn Health Center is a smart move. The same for the millions of dollars pouring into stem cell research. The $112 million Connecticut will sink into the busway may even one day prove prescient.

These and other projects under Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's aggressive economic development strategy are what's needed after years of somnolent leadership in a state that has failed to create jobs and nurture new business.

But a $47,500 grant from the taxpayers to make sure West Hartford Center gets another trendy restaurant?

Among a slew of economic stimulus grants and loans announced last week, handing taxpayer money to help convert Reuben's Deli on West Hartford's Lasalle Road to a restaurant and bar feels like just too much. Even my local focus group of friends who regularly go to West Hartford restaurants - two doctors and a sucessful businessman I met for a couple of beers one night this week - had a hard time swallowing this one.

Why is the state in the business of propping up a business in a booming town center that has been in the midst of a restaurant explosion in recent years?

"I can understand how people might look at it (that) way,'' said Catherine Smith, commissioner of Economic and Community Development for the state, when I called. "Our belief was they would not go forward with the expansion unless we helped them."

The folks at Reuben's, understandably perhaps, did not respond when I called and emailed looking to talk. And who can blame them for applying for a state grant under the generous Small Business Express program, a $100 million initiative that also provides loans? The program is aimed at helping Connecticut's "base industries" such as "precision manufacturing, business services, green and sustainable technology, bioscience and information technology."

It's just that corned beef on rye doesn't strike me as one of our base industries.

To be sure, this is hardly a no strings attached deal: Reuben's promises to invest $180,000 of its own cash and to hire five new workers in return for the $47,500 state grant. That's five jobs that will be created in a still-struggling state recovery that has left 150,000 people without jobs. By a lot of measures, that's a win.

"We view the Small Business Express program as a Main Street-regular-old-business-guy being able to access state assistance to make an investment in business that they haven't made because of the economy," Smith said. "These programs are about getting small business to do more and grow fast and create jobs We underwrite each of these deals. We make sure the company isn't about to go flat on its face."

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State Funds West Hartford Center Restaurant

RPI breaks ground on Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research

Posted at: 06/22/2012 3:10 PM | Updated at: 06/22/2012 5:29 PM By: WNYT Staff

TROY - Stem cells have been heralded as the frontier from which great medical treatments will come. Whether or not that materializes, New York wants to be in on the action.

So Friday, ground was broken on the Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research. Located on the RPI campus, the state is providing a grant of almost $2.5 million over four years to get it built.

And through it's funding, the state is very forward looking and it is foster a strong stem cell research community here in New York State, said Shirley Ann Jackson, president of RPI.

RPI has already started working in this area, partnering with Albany Medical College and the University at Albany.

This expands the scope of that work, with the hopes of finding new medicines and cures for a variety of illness and traumatic injuries.

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RPI breaks ground on Rensselaer Center for Stem Cell Research

New method generates cardiac muscle patches from stem cells

ScienceDaily (June 19, 2012) A cutting-edge method developed at the University of Michigan Center for Arrhythmia Research successfully uses stem cells to create heart cells capable of mimicking the heart's crucial squeezing action.

The cells displayed activity similar to most people's resting heart rate. At 60 beats per minute, the rhythmic electrical impulse transmission of the engineered cells in the U-M study is 10 times faster than in most other reported stem cell studies.

An image of the electrically stimulated cardiac cells is displayed on the cover of the current issue of Circulation Research, a publication of the American Heart Association.

For those suffering from common, but deadly heart diseases, stem cell biology represents a new medical frontier.

The U-M team of researchers is using stem cells in hopes of helping the 2.5 million people with an arrhythmia, an irregularity in the heart's electrical impulses that can impair the heart's ability to pump blood.

"To date, the majority of studies using induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells have focused on single cell functional analysis," says senior author Todd J. Herron, Ph.D., an assistant research professor in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Molecular & Integrative Physiology at the U-M.

"For potential stem cell-based cardiac regeneration therapies for heart disease, however, it is critical to develop multi-cellular tissue like constructs that beat as a single unit," says Herron.

Their objective, working with researchers at the University of Oxford, Imperial College and University of Wisconsin, included developing a bioengineering approach, using stem cells generated from skin biopsies, which can be used to create large numbers of cardiac muscle cells that can transmit uniform electrical impulses and function as a unit.

Furthermore, the team designed a fluorescent imaging platform using light emitting diode (LED) illumination to measure the electrical activity of the cells.

"Action potential and calcium wave impulse propogation trigger each normal heart beat, so it is imperative to record each parameter in bioengineered human cardiac patches," Herron says.

The rest is here:
New method generates cardiac muscle patches from stem cells

Cellerant Appoints Gisela Schwab, M.D., to Its Board of Directors and Names Lowell Sears as Chairman of the Board

SAN CARLOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Cellerant Therapeutics Inc., a biotechnology company developing novel hematopoietic stem cell-based cellular and antibody therapies for blood disorders and cancer, announced today the appointment of Gisela Schwab, M.D. to its Board of Directors and the appointment of Lowell Sears as Chairman of the Board. Richard Rathmann, Cellerants former Chairman of the Board, will remain a director on the Board.

Dr. Schwab joins Cellerants Board with more than 20 years of experience in the development of oncology therapeutics. She currently serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Exelixis. Previously, she held the position of Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Abgenix, Inc., a human antibody-based drug development company. Prior to Abgenix, Dr. Schwab held positions of increasing responsibility at Amgen Inc., most recently as Director of Clinical Research and Hematology/Oncology Therapeutic Area Team Leader. Dr. Schwab also serves as a member of the board of directors of Topotarget A/S, a publicly-held biopharmaceutical company. She received her Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Heidelberg, trained at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the National Cancer Institute and is board certified in internal medicine and hematology and oncology.

Dr. Schwab is an accomplished leader in the development of oncology therapeutics. I am pleased to welcome her to our board, said Ram Mandalam, President and CEO of Cellerant. Her extensive experience in hematology-oncology indications will significantly benefit Cellerant in the development of CLT-008 and our cancer stem cell programs.

I am very excited to join the Cellerant Board and about the opportunity to work with such an accomplished group of people on the board and in management on the development of a novel, cell-based approach to the treatment for chemotherapy- and radiation-induced neutropenia and on novel therapeutic antibodies aimed at cancer stem cells, said Dr. Schwab.

Mr. Sears joined Cellerants Board in February, 2012. He is currently Chairman and CEO of Sears Capital Management, a venture investment and portfolio management firm specializing in life sciences. He has been an active life science venture investor since 1994, helping to found and fund over forty companies. From 1986 until 1994, Mr. Sears was a part of the senior management team of Amgen, Inc., where he held positions of Chief Financial Officer as well as Senior Vice President responsible for the Asia Pacific Region.

Lowell's vast operational and governance experience has already proven a great benefit to Cellerant since his joining the board earlier this year, said Richard Rathmann, Cellerants former Chairman. I could not be more pleased this recognized leader in biotechnology has agreed to increase his stewardship role in the exciting opportunities ahead for this promising company.

I want to thank Richard for his outstanding leadership and vision in governance of the Company during his five year tenure as Chairman, said Mr. Sears. I look forward to working with the board and management of Cellerant as the Company drives forward its leading edge product portfolio for the benefit of cancer patients worldwide.

About Cellerant Therapeutics

Cellerant Therapeutics is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the regulation of the hematopoietic (blood-forming) system. The Company is developing human stem cell and antibody therapies for oncology applications and blood-related disorders. Cellerants lead product, CLT-008, is currently in two Phase 1 clinical trials in patients with hematological malignancies. The Company also has a cancer stem cell (CSC) antibody discovery program focused on therapies for acute myelogenous leukemia, multiple myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome.

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Cellerant Appoints Gisela Schwab, M.D., to Its Board of Directors and Names Lowell Sears as Chairman of the Board

Six New UM Stem Cell Lines Now Publicly Available

ANN ARBOR Six new human embryonic stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan have just been placed on the National Institutes of Healths registry, making the cells available for federally funded research.

UM now has a total of eight cell lines on the registry, including five that carry genetic mutations for serious diseases such as the severe bleeding disorder hemophilia B, the fatal brain disorder Huntingtons disease and the heart condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which causes sudden death in athletes and others.

Researchers at UM and around the country can now begin using the stem cell lines to study the origins of these diseases and potential treatments. Two of the cell lines are believed to be the first in the world bearing that particular disease gene.

The three UM stem cell lines now in the registry that do not carry disease genes are also useful for general studies and as comparisons for stem cells with disease genes. In all, there are 163 stem cell lines in the federal registry, most of them without major disease genes.

Each of the lines was derived from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. The embryos carrying disease genes were created for reproductive purposes, tested and found to be affected with a genetic disorder, deemed not suitable for implantation and would have otherwise been discarded if not donated by the couples who donated them.

Some came from couples having fertility treatment at UMs Center for Reproductive Medicine, others from as far away as Portland, Ore. Some were never frozen, which may mean that the stem cells will have unique characteristics and utilities.

The full list of UM-derived stem cell lines accepted to the NIH registry includes:

UM9-1PGD Hemophilia B

UM17-1PGD Huntingtons disease

UM38-2PGD- HypertrophicCardiomyopathy (MYBPC3)

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Six New UM Stem Cell Lines Now Publicly Available

Millennium Highlights Updated Survival Data from ADCETRIS® (Brentuximab Vedotin) Pivotal Trial in Patients with …

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502), today announced updated survival data from a pivotal Phase II clinical trial of single-agent brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) showing that the median overall survival has not been reached after a 26.5 month median follow-up. The data will be reported during an oral presentation at the 17th European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Meeting being held June 14-17, 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Brentuximab vedotin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) directed to CD30, a defining marker of the majority of types of HL.

Heavily pretreated Hodgkin lymphoma patients who relapse following autologous stem cell transplant often have a poor prognosis and there is a high unmet medical need for effective treatment options, said Scott Smith M.D., Ph.D., Loyola University Medical Center. These updated overall survival results from the pivotal trial are encouraging and suggest that brentuximab vedotin may play an important role in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory disease.

Long-term Follow-up Results of an Ongoing Pivotal Study of Brentuximab Vedotin in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma

A pivotal trial was conducted in 102 patients with relapsed or refractory HL after ASCT. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per independent review. The secondary endpoints were complete remission (CR) rate, duration of response, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety and tolerability. At the time of the long-term follow-up analysis, the median observation time from first dose was 26.5months. Data, to be presented by Dr. Smith, include:

Patients received 1.8milligrams per kilogram of brentuximab vedotin every 3 weeks as a 30-minute outpatient intravenous infusion for up to 16cycles. Patients received a median of nine cycles of brentuximab vedotin while on trial. The median age of patients in the pivotal trial was 31 years. Enrolled patients had received a median of 3.5 (range 113) prior cancer-related systemic therapies, excluding ASCT. Seventy-one percent of patients had primary refractory disease, defined in the study protocol as patients who relapsed within three months of attaining CR or failed to achieve a CR, and 42 percent had not responded to their most recent prior therapy.

Details of the oral presentation are as follows:

About Brentuximab Vedotin

Brentuximab vedotin is an ADC comprising an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody attached by a protease-cleavable linker to a microtubule disrupting agent, monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), utilizing Seattle Genetics proprietary technology. The ADC employs a linker system that is designed to be stable in the bloodstream but to release MMAE upon internalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells.

Brentuximab vedotin is not approved for use outside the United States. The marketing authorization application for brentuximab vedotin in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma and sALCL, filed by Takeda Global Research & Development Centre (Europe), was accepted for review by the European Medicines Agency for review in June 2011.

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Millennium Highlights Updated Survival Data from ADCETRIS® (Brentuximab Vedotin) Pivotal Trial in Patients with ...

Linux creator, stem cell scientist win big technology prize

Agence France-Presse

11:05 pm | Wednesday, June 13th, 2012

Linus Torvalds PHOTO FROM FACEBOOK.COM

HELSINKIUS-Finnish software engineer Linus Torvalds, who created the Linux open source operating system, and Japanese stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka on Wednesday won a 1.2-million-euro technology prize in Finland.

Today, millions use computers, smartphones and digital video recorders that run on Linux. Linus Torvaldss achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, the Millennium Technology Prize organizers said in a statement.

Yamanaka, meanwhile, won for his discovery of a new method to develop induced pluripotent stem cells for medical research, the prize jury said, adding that it was the first time that the award has been split between two scientists.

Using (Yamanakas) method to create stem cells, scientists all over the world are making great strides in research in medical drug testing and biotechnology, it said.

This should one day lead to the successful growth of implant tissues for clinical surgery and combating intractable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and Alzheimers.

Yamanaka himself vowed in the statement to continue to work hard to achieve our goals of developing new drugs and medical treatments to intractable diseases by using iPS cell technology.

Finnish President Sauli Niinistoe presented the prize to the two laureates at a ceremony at the Finnish National Opera in Helsinki Wednesday.

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Linux creator, stem cell scientist win big technology prize

Fresh, purified fat stem cells grow bone faster, better

LOS ANGELES UCLA stem cell scientists who purified a subset of stem cells from fat tissue and used the stem cells to grow bone discovered that the bone formed faster and was of higher quality than bone grown using traditional methods.

The finding may one day eliminate the need for painful bone grafts that use material taken from patients during invasive procedures.

Adipose, or fat, tissue is thought to be an ideal source of mesenchymal stem cells cells capable of developing into bone, cartilage, muscle and other tissues because such cells are plentiful in the tissue and easily obtained through procedures like liposuction, said Dr. Chia Soo, vice chair of research for the UCLA Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Soo and Bruno Pault, the co-senior authors on the project, are members of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Traditionally, cells taken from fat had to be cultured for weeks to isolate the stem cells which could become bone, and their expansion increases the risk of infection and genetic instability. A fresh, non-cultured cell composition called stromal vascular fraction (SVF) also is used to grow bone. However, SVF cells taken from adipose tissue are a highly heterogeneous population that includes cells that aren't capable of becoming bone.

Pault and Soo's team used a cell-sorting machine to isolate and purify human perivascular stem cells (hPSC) from adipose tissue and showed that those cells worked far better than SVF cells in creating bone. They also showed that a growth factor called NELL-1, discovered by Dr. Kang Ting of the UCLA School of Dentistry, enhanced bone formation in their animal model.

"People have shown that culture-derived cells could grow bone, but ours are a fresh cell population, and we didn't have to go through the culture process, which can take weeks," Soo said. "The best bone graft is still your own bone, but that is in limited supply and sometimes not of good quality. What we show here is a faster and better way to create bone that could have clinical applications."

The study was published Monday (June 11) in the early online edition of Stem Cells Translational Medicine, a new peer-reviewed journal that seeks to bridge stem cell research and clinical trials.

In the animal model, Soo and Pault's team put the hPSCs with NELL-1 in a muscle pouch, a place where bone is not normally grown. They then used X-rays to determine that the cells did indeed become bone.

"The purified human hPSCs formed significantly more bone in comparison to the SVF by all parameters," Soo said. "And these cells are plentiful enough that patients with not much excess body fat can donate their own fat tissue."

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Fresh, purified fat stem cells grow bone faster, better