Growing Bone in Space: UCLA and CASIS Announce Pioneering Collaborative Study to Test Therapy for Bone Loss on the …

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Newswise UCLA has received grant funding from the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) to lead a research mission that will send rodents to the International Space Station (ISS). The mission will allow astronauts on the space station and scientists on Earth to test a potential new therapy for accelerating bone growth in humans.

The research will be led by Dr. Chia Soo, a UCLA professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery and orthopaedic surgery, who is member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research. Soo is also research director for UCLA Operation Mend, which provides medical care for wounded warriors. The study will test the ability of a bone-forming molecule called NELL-1 to direct stem cells to induce bone formation and prevent bone degeneration.

Other members of the UCLA research team are Dr. Kang Ting, a professor in dentistry who discovered NELL-1 and is leading efforts to translate NELL-1 therapy to humans, Dr. Ben Wu, a professor of bioengineering who modified the NELL-1 molecule to make useful for treating osteoporosis, and Dr. Jin Hee Kwak, an assistant professor of dentistry who will manage daily operations.

Based on results of previous studies supported by the NIH, the UCLA-ISS team will begin ground operations in early 2015. They hope that the study will provide new insights into the prevention of bone loss or osteoporosis as well as the regeneration of massive bone defects that can occur in wounded military personnel. Osteoporosis is a significant public health problem commonly associated with skeletal disuse conditions such as immobilization, stroke, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, spinal cord injury and jaw resorption after tooth loss.

NELL-1 holds tremendous hope, not only for preventing bone loss but one day even restoring healthy bone, Ting said. For patients who are bed-bound and suffering from bone loss, it could be life-changing.

The UCLA team will oversee the ground operations of the mission in tandem with a flight operation coordinated by CASIS and NASA.

A group of 40 rodents will be sent to the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory onboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule, where they will live for two months in a microgravity environment during the first ever test of NELL-1 in space, said Dr. Julie Robinson, NASAs chief scientist for the International Space Station program at the Johnson Space Center.

CASIS is proud to work alongside UCLA in an effort to promote the station as a viable platform for bone loss inquiry, said Warren Bates, director of portfolio management for CASIS. Through investigations like this, we hope to make profound discoveries and enable the development of therapies to counteract bone loss ailments common in humans.

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Growing Bone in Space: UCLA and CASIS Announce Pioneering Collaborative Study to Test Therapy for Bone Loss on the ...

Four University Technologies Receive $650,000 from Science Centers QED Program

Philadelphia, PA (PRWEB) January 20, 2015

Researchers developing technologies for high-speed eye exams, cancer treatment, stem cell growth and healthcare sanitation will receive a total of $650,000 in funding through the seventh round of the University City Science Centers QED Proof-of-Concept Program. The program, started in 2009, funds novel university technologies with market potential, bridging the gap between academic research and product commercialization. The awardees were selected from a pool of 68 applicants and nine universities in the Greater Philadelphia region.

The QED grants will support researchers at Lehigh University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Temple University and Thomas Jefferson University. Half of the $650,000 awarded will be contributed by the Science Center and half by the researchers institutions. Each project will also receive guidance from the Science Centers experienced team of business advisors. To date, 24 previously-funded QED projects have attracted $14.8 million in follow-on funding and led to six licensed technologies.

QED has received support from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvanias Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvanias Department of Health, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corporation, William Penn Foundation, and Wexford Science and Technology, a BioMed Realty Company.

QED continues to resonate with both the academic and funding community, says Science Center President and CEO Stephen S. Tang, Ph.D., MBA. The number of submissions continues to increase round over round as academic researchers identify ways to commercialize their emerging technologies. At the same time, the support of our funders enables us to continue to facilitate the development of these exciting technologies and contribute to the robust life science ecosystem in the Greater Philadelphia Region.

The Round 7 awardees include:

About the Science Center The University City Science Center is a dynamic hub for innovation, and entrepreneurship and technology development in the Greater Philadelphia region. It provides business incubation, programming, lab and office facilities, and support services for entrepreneurs, start-ups, and growing and established companies. The Science Center was the first, and remains the largest, urban research park in the United States. Since it was founded in 1963, graduate organizations and current residents of the University City Science Centers Port business incubators have created more than 15,000 jobs that remain in the Greater Philadelphia region today and contribute more than $9 billion to the regional economy annually. For more information about the Science Center, go to http://www.sciencecenter.org.

About the QED Program The QED Program was launched in April 2009. A common participation agreement that defines matching funds, indirect costs, and intellectual property management, has been signed by 21 universities and research institutions in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware: The Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia, Delaware State University, Drexel University, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Harrisburg University of Science and Technology, Lankenau Institute for Medical Research, Lehigh University, Monell Chemical Senses Center, New Jersey Institute of Technology, The Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, Philadelphia University, Rowan University, Rutgers University, Temple University, Thomas Jefferson University, University of Delaware, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, Widener University, and The Wistar Institute.

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Four University Technologies Receive $650,000 from Science Centers QED Program

Stem Cell Study | Perlmutter Health Center

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, (http://ajpheart.physiology.org) hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by 800% the number of stem cells circulating in a patients body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells, are important players in repairing the body after injury and in tissue regeneration. Stem cells exist in the bone marrow and are capable of changing their characteristics to become part of many different organs and tissues. When a body part is injured, stem cells are mobilized and provide the cells necessary for the healing process to occur. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) provides an important trigger or stimulus for this mobilization.It is for this reason that HBOT was utilized and likely responsible, at least in part, for the remarkable recovery Randal McCloy Jr., the only survivor of the recent of Sago Mineaccident.

CHEST: Hyperbaric Oxygen Credited for Miners Recovery CME Teaching Brief MedPage Today

This is the safest way clinically to increase stem cell circulation, far safer than any of the pharmaceutical options, said Stephen Thom, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, lead author of the study. This study provides information on the fundamental mechanisms for hyperbaric oxygen and offers a new theoretical therapeutic option for mobilizing stem cells We reproduced the observations from humans in animals in order to identify the mechanism for the hyperbaric oxygeneffect.

So, in addition to increasing blood supply and reducing the damaging effects of free radicals, this is yet another mechanism explaining the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a variety of brain disorders including head trauma, stroke, multiple sclerosis, hypoxic brain injury, Parkinsons disease, cerebral palsy and vasculardementia.

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Stem Cell Study | Perlmutter Health Center

Bone stem cells shown to regenerate bone and cartilage in adult mice

VIDEO:A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported... view more

NEW YORK, NY (January 15, 2015) - A stem cell capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage has been identified in bone marrow of mice. The discovery by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) is reported today in the online issue of the journal Cell.

The cells, called osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells, were discovered by tracking a protein expressed by the cells. Using this marker, the researchers found that OCR cells self-renew and generate key bone and cartilage cells, including osteoblasts and chondrocytes. Researchers also showed that OCR stem cells, when transplanted to a fracture site, contribute to bone repair.

"We are now trying to figure out whether we can persuade these cells to specifically regenerate after injury. If you make a fracture in the mouse, these cells will come alive again, generate both bone and cartilage in the mouse--and repair the fracture. The question is, could this happen in humans," says Siddhartha Mukherjee, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at CUMC and a senior author of the study.

The researchers believe that OCR stem cells will be found in human bone tissue, as mice and humans have similar bone biology. Further study could provide greater understanding of how to prevent and treat osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, or bone fractures.

"Our findings raise the possibility that drugs or other therapies can be developed to stimulate the production of OCR stem cells and improve the body's ability to repair bone injury--a process that declines significantly in old age," says Timothy C. Wang, MD, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at CUMC, who initiated this research. Previously, Dr. Wang found an analogous stem cell in the intestinal tract and observed that it was also abundant in the bone.

"These cells are particularly active during development, but they also increase in number in adulthood after bone injury," says Gerard Karsenty, MD, PhD, the Paul A. Marks Professor of Genetics and Development, chair of the Department of Genetics & Development, and a member of the research team.

The study also showed that the adult OCRs are distinct from mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which play a role in bone generation during development and adulthood. Researchers presumed that MSCs were the origin of all bone, cartilage, and fat, but recent studies have shown that these cells do not generate young bone and cartilage. The CUMC study suggests that OCR stem cells actually fill this function and that both OCR stems cells and MSCs contribute to bone maintenance and repair in adults.

The researchers also suspect that OCR cells may play a role in soft tissue cancers.

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Bone stem cells shown to regenerate bone and cartilage in adult mice

Mice stem cells capable of regenerating bone, cartilage

January 16, 2015

This is a schematic of the head of a femur (the thigh bone), showing OCR stem cells in red and the growth of bone (green), cartilage and stromal cells. (Credit: Mike Barnett/Columbia University Medical Center)

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) have announced the discovery of a new stem cell in mice that is capable of regenerating both bone and cartilage, according to a new report in the journal Cell.

The study team found the new cells by following the activity of a protein called Gremlin1. When they transplanted the cells, called osteochondroreticular (OCR) stem cells, to a fracture site they saw that the cells aided in bone repair.

We are now trying to figure out whether we can persuade these cells to specifically regenerate after injury, said Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, assistant professor of medicine at CUMC and co-author of the new study. If you make a fracture in the mouse, these cells will come alive again, generate both bone and cartilage in the mouseand repair the fracture. The question is, could this happen in humans?

The researchers predicted that OCR stem cells will eventually be found in humans because we have a biological makeup similar to that of mice. The CUMC team said they were optimistic that their work could eventually lead to treatments for bone-degenerative diseases like osteoporosis and osteoarthritis in addition to therapy for bone fractures.

Our findings raise the possibility that drugs or other therapies can be developed to stimulate the production of OCR stem cells and improve the bodys ability to repair bone injurya process that declines significantly in old age, said Dr. Timothy C. Wang, another co-author and professor of Medicine at CUMC.

These cells are particularly active during development, but they also increase in number in adulthood after bone injury, added co-author Dr. Gerard Karsenty, a professor of genetics and development at CUMC.

The Columbia researchers were also able to show that the adult OCRs are unlike mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which lead to bone growth during adolescence and in adulthood. Scientists presumed that MSCs were the source of all skeletal system cells, but the latest research has revealed that these cells do not produce fresh bone and cartilage. The Columbia study implies that OCR stem cells serve this function and that both OCR stems cells and MSCs bring about bone repair in adults.

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Mice stem cells capable of regenerating bone, cartilage

Bone Stem Cells Regenerate Bone, Cartilage in Mice

Osteoarthritis is a common condition seen in older people in which the tissue between joints becomes worn down, causing severe pain. In what could be an important development for people who suffer from it, U.S. researchers have isolated stem cells in adult mice that regenerate both worn tissue, or cartilage, and bone.

For the past decade, researchers have been trying to locate and isolate stem cells in the spongy tissue or marrow of bones of experimental animals.

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The so-called osteochondroreticular, or OCR, cells are capable of renewing and generating important bone and cartilage cells.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York identified these master cells in the marrow. When grown in the lab and transplanted back into a fracture site in mice, they helped repair the broken bones.

Siddhartha Mukherjee, the study's senior author, said similar stem cells exist in the human skeletal system.

The real provocative experiment or the provocative idea is being able to do this in humans being able to extract out these stem cells from humans and being able to put them back in to repair complex fracture defects or osteoarthritis defects, said Mukherjee.

He noted that children have more bone stem cells than adults, which may explain why the bones of young people repair more easily than fractures in adults.

Mukherjee said the next step is to try to identify the OCR cells in humans and attempt to use them to repair complex bone and cartilage injuries.

Once cartilage is injured or destroyed in older people, as in osteoarthritis, Mukherjee said it does not repair itself.

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Bone Stem Cells Regenerate Bone, Cartilage in Mice

Team isolates stem cell that gives rise to bones, cartilage in mice

13 hours ago Hematopoietic precursor cells: promyelocyte in the center, two metamyelocytes next to it and band cells from a bone marrow aspirate. Credit: Bobjgalindo/Wikipedia

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered the stem cell in mice that gives rise to bone, cartilage and a key part of bone marrow called the stroma.

In addition, the researchers have charted the chemical signals that can create skeletal stem cells and steer their development into each of these specific tissues. The discovery sets the stage for a wide range of potential therapies for skeletal disorders such as bone fractures, brittle bones, osteosarcoma or damaged cartilage.

A paper describing the findings will be published Jan. 15 in Cell.

"Millions of times a year, orthopedic surgeons see torn cartilage in a joint and have to take it out because cartilage doesn't heal well, but that lack of cartilage predisposes the patient to arthritis down the road," said Michael Longaker, MD, a professor of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford and a senior author of the paper. "This research raises the possibility that we can create new skeletal stem cells from patients' own tissues and use them to grow new cartilage." Longaker is also co-director of the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

An intensive search

The researchers started by focusing on groups of cells that divide rapidly at the ends of mouse bones, and then showed that these collections of cells could form all parts of bone: the bone itself, cartilage and the stromathe spongy tissue at the center of bones that helps hematopoietic stem cells turn into blood and immune cells. Through extensive effort, they then identified a single type of cell that could, by itself, form all these elements of the skeleton.

The scientists then went much further, mapping the developmental tree of skeletal stem cells to track exactly how they changed into intermediate progenitor cells and eventually each type of skeletal tissue.

"Mapping the tree led to an in-depth understanding of all the genetic switches that have to be flipped in order to give rise to more specific progenitors and eventually highly specialized cells," said postdoctoral scholar Charles Chan, PhD, who shares lead authorship of the paper with postdoctoral scholar David Lo, MD, graduate student James Chen and research assistant Elly Eun Young Seo. With that information, the researchers were able to find factors that, when provided in the right amount and at the right time, would steer the development of skeletal stem cells into bone, cartilage or stromal cells.

"If this is translated into humans, we then have a way to isolate skeletal stem cells and rescue cartilage from wear and tear or aging, repair bones that have nonhealing fractures and renew the bone marrow niche in those who have had it damaged in one way or another," said Irving Weissman, MD, professor of pathology and of developmental biology, who directs the Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Weissman, the other senior author of the paper, also holds the Virginia and Daniel K. Ludwig Professorship in Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research.

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Team isolates stem cell that gives rise to bones, cartilage in mice

Live imaging captures how blood stem cells take root in the body

IMAGE:This image captures a blood stem cell en route to taking root in a zebrafish. view more

Credit: Boston Children's Hospital

BOSTON (January 15, 2015) -- A see-through zebrafish and enhanced imaging provide the first direct glimpse of how blood stem cells take root in the body to generate blood. Reporting online in the journal Cell today, researchers in Boston Children's Hospital's Stem Cell Research Program describe a surprisingly dynamic system that offers several clues for improving bone marrow transplants in patients with cancer, severe immune deficiencies and blood disorders, and for helping those transplants "take."

The steps are detailed in an animation narrated by senior investigator Leonard Zon, MD, director of the Stem Cell Research Program. The Cell version offers a more technical explanation

"The same process occurs during a bone marrow transplant as occurs in the body naturally," says Zon. "Our direct visualization gives us a series of steps to target, and in theory we can look for drugs that affect every step of that process."

"Stem cell and bone marrow transplants are still very much a black box--cells are introduced into a patient and later on we can measure recovery of their blood system, but what happens in between can't be seen," says Owen Tamplin, PhD, the paper's co-first author. "Now we have a system where we can actually watch that middle step. "

The blood system's origins

It had already been known that blood stem cells bud off from cells in the aorta, then circulate in the body until they find a "niche" where they're prepped for their future job creating blood for the body. For the first time, the researchers reveal how this niche forms, using time-lapse imaging of naturally transparent zebrafish embryos and a genetic trick that tagged the stem cells green.

On arrival in its niche (in the zebrafish, this is in the tail), the newborn blood stem cell attaches itself to the blood vessel wall. There, chemical signals prompt it to squeeze itself through the wall and into a space just outside the blood vessel.

"In that space, a lot of cells begin to interact with it," says Zon. Nearby endothelial (blood-vessel) cells wrap themselves around it: "We think that is the beginning of making a stem cell happy in its niche, like a mother cuddling a baby."

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Live imaging captures how blood stem cells take root in the body

New Approach, New Hope: $12M New York State Investment Will Fast-Track Innovative Roswell Park Research in Ovarian …

Buffalo, NY (PRWEB) January 14, 2015

Researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) have received a prestigious grant of nearly $12 million from the New York State Stem Cell Science Program (NYSTEM) to develop new therapies for advanced ovarian cancer. The four-year, $11.9 million grant to RPCI is one of three new state awards totaling $36 million to support innovative approaches for developing stem-cell based therapies for diseases that are notoriously hard to treat. The clinical need for new treatments is dire, as advanced ovarian cancer is an aggressive and typically fatal disease.

Using an approach known as adoptive T-cell therapy, the Roswell Park team, led by Kunle Odunsi, MD, PhD, FRCOG, FACOG, Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology, M. Steven Piver Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy, will take stem cells from patients blood, re-engineer them and infuse the reprogrammed cells back into those patients. Once inside the patients body, the re-engineered stem cells become a continuous, potentially lifelong source of cancer-fighting immune cells. This strategy has proven successful in preclinical studies as a way to not only eradicate existing cancer but to prevent new cancer cells from developing.

New York is home to some of the best researchers across the globe, and this funding will help ensure they can do the necessary work to grow our progress in stem cell science, New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said in announcing the awards on Jan. 12. This state is proud to be a leader in the health industry, and with this funding we will continue to develop modern, world-class research programs that work to make people worldwide healthier.

The concept behind this new and novel project, which builds on past Roswell Park research, is to unite the cancer-killing power of T cells with the long-term regenerative power of adult stem cells. By enlisting both killer CD8+ T cells and helper CD4+ T cells, the researchers will be able to turn a patients own, reprogrammed stem cells into immune cells armed with the ability to recognize and kill cancer cells.

This project represents a potentially paradigm-shifting approach in the use of immunotherapy to treat cancer, because we will be generating billions of these antitumor effector cells to continually control existing tumors and minimize the chance of relapse, said Dr. Odunsi, who is also Co-Leader of Roswell Parks Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program and a Professor of Gynecology & Obstetrics at the University at Buffalo (UB). Reprograming adult hematopoietic stem cells for sustained attack against ovarian cancer is, to our knowledge, a completely new approach.

Like much previous RPCI research on immune therapies to combat ovarian cancer, this new project targets the NY-ESO-1 antigen, which is expressed in cancer cells but not in most normal body tissues. Because this protein is so widely expressed by various malignant tumors, the approach may have application in the treatment of other cancers as well.

The project will encompass both preclinical work and an early-phase clinical research study in patients with ovarian cancer, and will take advantage of three resources housed within the RPCI Center for Immunotherapy:

Roswell Park faculty members Thinle Chodon, MD, PhD, and Takemasa Tsuji, PhD, are also among Dr. Odunsis co-investigators, as are Dr. Richard Bankert, VMD, PhD, from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University at Buffalo and Leonard Shultz, PhD, from The Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

This Roswell Park-developed, Roswell Park-led initiative is just the latest example of the ingenuity Dr. Odunsi and his team bring to the pressing challenge of how to develop better and more effective therapies for cancer, said Candace Johnson, PhD, President & CEO and Cancer Center Director at Roswell Park. We are enormously grateful for the leadership Gov. Cuomo and NYSTEM have shown in dedicating these funds strategically to address high-priority medical issues, and to the numerous individual and corporate donors whose contributions to the Roswell Park Alliance Foundation enabled the laboratory advances that Dr. Odunsi and his team will now be able to bring to patients.

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New Approach, New Hope: $12M New York State Investment Will Fast-Track Innovative Roswell Park Research in Ovarian ...

Bad luck may play a role in two thirds of cancers

While environmental factors and genetics play a role in the development of cancer, scientists at Johns Hopkins University have used statistical modeling to show that two-thirds of adult cancers may be attributable to "bad luck," or random mutations, rather than lifestyle.

Researchers Bert Vogelstein M.D. (Clayton Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, co-director of the Ludwig Center at Johns Hopkins and an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute) and Cristian Tomasetti PhD (assistant professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health) charted the number of stem cell divisions in 31 tissue types and compared them with the lifetime risks of cancer in the same tissues among Americans.

Stem cells "self-renew," meaning they repopulate cells that die off in a specific organ. Cancer occurs when tissue-specific stem cells make random mistakes, or mutations.The more mutations, the higher the risk of cancer, however it was not previously known how these random mutations contribute to cancer compared to genetic or environmental factors.

"All cancers are caused by a combination of bad luck, the environment and heredity, and weve created a model that may help quantify how much of these three factors contribute to cancer development," says Vogelstein.

Vogeltsein and Tomasetti determined the correlation between the total number of stem cell divisions and cancer risk to be 0.804. Mathematically, the closer this value is to one, the more stem cell divisions and cancer risk are correlated. Using statistical theory, they calculated that approximately 65 percen of the variation in cancer risk can be explained by the number of stem cell divisions.

Of the pair tissue types studied, the researchers found that 22 cancer types, including head and neck, esophageal, gallbladder and some bone cancers, can be largely explained by the bad luck factor of random DNA mutations during cell division.

The other nine cancer types had incidences higher than predicted by bad luck, so are presumably due to a combination of bad luck as well as environmental or genetic factors. These include lung cancer, which is linked to smoking, and skin cancer, which is linked to sun exposure.

Vogelstein and Tomasetti use the analogy of a car accident to help explain their results. "Our results would be equivalent to showing a high correlation between length of trip and getting into an accident," they say. "The longer the trip is, the higher the risk of an accident."

They liken road conditions en-route to the destination to the environmental factors in cancer. Worse conditions are associated with a higher risk of an accident. The mechanical condition of the car is a metaphor for inherited genetic factors. Mechanical problems in the car, such as bad brakes and worn tires, increase the risk of an accident. The more mechanical defects, the greater the risk. Similarly, the amount of inherited genetic mutations contributes to cancer risk.

The length of the trip can be compared to the stem cell divisions and random mutations Vogelstein and Tomasetti discuss in their paper. Regardless of road and car conditions, the probability of an accident increases with distance traveled. Short trips have the lowest risk, while long trips are associated with the highest risk.

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Bad luck may play a role in two thirds of cancers