Cell Therapy: Technologies, Markets and Companies-A 2014 Report With 292 Companies Involved in Cell Therapy Profiled

This report describes and evaluates cell therapy technologies and methods, which have already started to play an important role in the practice of medicine. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is replacing the old fashioned bone marrow transplants. Role of cells in drug discovery is also described. Cell therapy is bound to become a part of medical practice.

Stem cells are discussed in detail in one chapter. Some light is thrown on the current controversy of embryonic sources of stem cells and comparison with adult sources. Other sources of stem cells such as the placenta, cord blood and fat removed by liposuction are also discussed. Stem cells can also be genetically modified prior to transplantation.

Cell therapy technologies overlap with those of gene therapy, cancer vaccines, drug delivery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Pharmaceutical applications of stem cells including those in drug discovery are also described. Various types of cells used, methods of preparation and culture, encapsulation and genetic engineering of cells are discussed. Sources of cells, both human and animal (xenotransplantation) are discussed. Methods of delivery of cell therapy range from injections to surgical implantation using special devices.

Cell therapy has applications in a large number of disorders. The most important are diseases of the nervous system and cancer which are the topics for separate chapters. Other applications include cardiac disorders (myocardial infarction and heart failure), diabetes mellitus, diseases of bones and joints, genetic disorders, and wounds of the skin and soft tissues.

Regulatory and ethical issues involving cell therapy are important and are discussed. Current political debate on the use of stem cells from embryonic sources (hESCs) is also presented. Safety is an essential consideration of any new therapy and regulations for cell therapy are those for biological preparations.

The cell-based markets was analyzed for 2013, and projected to 2023.The markets are analyzed according to therapeutic categories, technologies and geographical areas. The largest expansion will be in diseases of the central nervous system, cancer and cardiovascular disorders. Skin and soft tissue repair as well as diabetes mellitus will be other major markets.

The number of companies involved in cell therapy has increased remarkably during the past few years. More than 500 companies have been identified to be involved in cell therapy and 292 of these are profiled in part II of the report along with tabulation of 285 alliances. Of these companies, 162 are involved in stem cells. Profiles of 72 academic institutions in the US involved in cell therapy are also included in part II along with their commercial collaborations. The text is supplemented with 56 Tables and 13 Figures. The bibliography contains 1,050 selected references, which are cited in the text.

Key Topics Covered:

Part I: Technologies, Ethics & Regulations

Executive Summary

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Cell Therapy: Technologies, Markets and Companies-A 2014 Report With 292 Companies Involved in Cell Therapy Profiled

Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: Leaders in Stem Cell …

15:00 EST 27 Feb 2014 | PR Web

Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center offers free educational seminars to the public about the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions.

(PRWEB) February 27, 2014

The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, and Boca Raton, Florida, announces a series of free public seminars on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief, and, Dr. Nia Smyrniotis, Medical Director.

The next upcoming seminars will be held on March 2nd and March 16th. The March 2nd lecture will be at the Hampton Inn Fort Lauderdale Downtown, 250 N. Andrews Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301, at 2pm. The March 16th lecture will be at the Comfort Suites Weston, 2201 N. Commerce Parkway, Weston, Florida 33326, at 2pm. You can, also, join Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center at the Health and Wellness Experience Expo presented by WPEC Channel 12 and the Sun-Sentinel on March 1st at Mizner Park Amphitheater, Boca Raton, Florida from 10am-5pm.

At the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, utilizing investigational protocols, adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be deployed to improve patients quality of life with a number of degenerative conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (also called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). Adipose tissue is exceptionally abundant in ADSCs. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15 minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red blood cells, and important Growth Factors that facilitate the stem cell process and promote their activity.

ADSCs are the body's natural healing cells - they are recruited by chemical signals emitted by damaged tissues to repair and regenerate the bodys damaged cells. The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center only uses autologous stem cells from a person's own fat no embryonic stem cells are used. Our current areas of study include: Heart Failure, Emphysema, COPD, Asthma, Parkinsons Disease, Stroke, Multiple Sclerosis, and orthopedic joint injections. For more information, or if someone thinks they may be a candidate for one of the stem cell protocols offered by Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center, they may contact Dr. Nia or Dr. Gionis directly at (561) 331-2999, or see a complete list of the Centers study areas at: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

About Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: The Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center is an affiliate of the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center (Irvine, California) and the Cell Surgical Network (CSN). We provide care for people suffering from diseases that may be alleviated by access to adult stem cell based regenerative treatment. We utilize a fat transfer surgical technology to isolate and implant the patients own stem cells from a small quantity of fat harvested by a mini-liposuction on the same day. The investigational protocols utilized by the Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center have been reviewed and approved by an IRB (Institutional Review Board) which is registered with the U.S. Department of Research Protections; and the study is registered with http://www.Clinicaltrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). For more information contact: Miami(at)MiamiStemCellsUSA(dot)com or visit our website: http://www.MiamiStemCellsUSA.com.

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Miami Stem Cell Treatment Center: Leaders in Stem Cell ...

Cedars-Sinai Presents Stem Cell Program and Essay Contest for High School Students

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Newswise LOS ANGELES (Feb. 27, 2014) High school students may compete for essay awards and attend a free educational program on stem cells sponsored by the Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurosurgery. Deadline for essay entries is March 3.

All high school students essayists or not and parents and teachers are invited to the March 11 program, Introduction to the World of Stem Cells, from 5 to 7 p.m. Essay contest winners competing for an e-tablet and other education-oriented prizes will be announced.

John Yu, MD, neurosurgeon, stem cell research scientist, vice chair of the Department of Neurosurgery and director of surgical neuro-oncology, will lead the program. He and other researchers at the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have made important discoveries about certain stem cells that have the potential to become brain cells. Many of Yus colleagues, such as those at the Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute and the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, also research and employ stem cell technologies.

Clive Svendsen, PhD, professor of biomedical sciences, professor of medicine and director of the Regenerative Medicine Institute, will be a featured speaker. Svendsens primary research focus is modeling and treating neurodegenerative disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Parkinson's disease, using a combination of stem cells and powerful growth factors.

Ahmed Ibrahim, who has a masters degree in public health and is in Cedars-Sinais Graduate Program in Biomedical Science and Translational Medicine, also will speak. As a high school student, Ibrahim participated in a summer research project at Cedars-Sinai. He now conducts stem cell research at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, which in 2009 performed the first procedure in which a heart attack patients tissue was used to grow specialized stem cells that were injected back into the heart. The researchers have found significant reduction in the size of heart attack-caused scars in patients who underwent the experimental stem cell procedure, compared to other heart attack patients who did not receive the experimental therapy.

Additionally, Andrew Kahng, a college student working in Yus laboratory, will describe his experience in stem cell research.

Students who choose to participate in the contest must submit an essay on any one of four topics:

1. How do stem cells differentiate into adult cells? How can these processes be manipulated to generate new tissues? 2. Discuss the recent successes of the use of stem cells in therapy for human disease. 3. Discuss the challenges of making stem cell therapies more viable for human use. 4. What are stem cells and how do they work? How do embryonic differ from adult stem cells? Which stem cells have seen success in their intended use for human therapies?

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Cedars-Sinai Presents Stem Cell Program and Essay Contest for High School Students

Learning About Cancer by Studying Stem Cells

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Newswise Normally, when a cell becomes damaged or doesnt divide properly, the bodys natural recycling process breaks it down and it dies. Sometimes, though, the damage is to the genes that control a cell, and the result is out-of-control division. When this happens, a cancer cell is born.

New insights into how cancer cells arise and develop into tumors have come from researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Some of them are exploring the process by studying stem cells.

Modeling Early Pancreatic Cancer

Despite decades of progress in the detection, treatment and prevention of many types of cancer, the long-term survival rate for pancreatic cancer remains very low. One reason is that pancreatic cancer rarely produces symptoms until it has spread in the body.

The late stage at diagnosis also poses problems for researchers who want to study the early development of pancreatic cancer, according to Kenneth Zaret of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Thats because pancreatic cancer cells taken from people and then used to form tumors in animal models immediately produce the aggressive, advanced cancers from which they were derived.

Zarets lab has focused on understanding how transcription factors-proteins that control which genes in a cell are expressed-work in stem cells. His team recently explored the idea of reprogramming cancer cells so they act like embryonic stem cells, which can become just about any type of cell in the body. Because transcription factors in embryonic stem cells guide early organ development, the researchers thought that forcing cancer cells back to an embryonic state might allow the transcription factors to reproduce the early stages of cancer. This could then provide a model for studying the early development of pancreatic cancer.

Using tumor tissue from people with pancreatic cancer, Zaret and his colleagues succeeded in turning a sample of cancer cells back to an early, stem cell-like state. When used to create tumors in mice, these so-called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells formed early stage tumors and slowly progressed to invasive disease.

The human tumors grown in mice also secreted a wide range of proteins that are indicative of cell networks known to drive pancreatic cancer progression, as well as some not previously known to be associated with the disease. Were setting up collaborations to test these markers for their utility in screening human blood samples and see if they function as markers for detecting or predicting pancreatic cancer in humans, said Zaret.

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Learning About Cancer by Studying Stem Cells

Researchers rejuvenate stem cell population from elderly …

FEB. 16, 2014

BY KRISTA CONGER

Benjamin Cosgrove, Helen Blau and their colleagues have identified a process by which older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have pinpointed why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury: Over time, stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew.

In the past, its been thought that muscle stem cells themselves dont change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells environment, said Helen Blau, PhD, the Donald and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor. However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age. In fact, two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles.

Blau and her colleagues also identified for the first time a process by which the older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells. Our findings identify a defect inherent to old muscle stem cells, she said. Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect. As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage.

Blau, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanfords Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, is the senior author of a paper describing the research, published online Feb. 16 in Nature Medicine. Postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Cosgrove, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Penney Gilbert, PhD, now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, are the lead authors.

The researchers found that many muscle stem cells isolated from mice that were 2 years old, equivalent to about 80 years of human life, exhibited elevated levels of activity in a biological cascade called the p38 MAP kinase pathway. This pathway impedes the proliferation of the stem cells and encourages them to instead become non-stem, muscle progenitor cells. As a result, although many of the old stem cells divide in a dish, the resulting colonies are very small and do not contain many stem cells.

Using a drug to block this p38 MAP kinase pathway in old stem cells (while also growing them on a specialized matrix called hydrogel) allowed them to divide rapidly in the laboratory and make a large number of potent new stem cells that can robustly repair muscle damage, Blau said.

Aging is a stochastic but cumulative process, Cosgrove said. Weve now shown that muscle stem cells progressively lose their stem cell function during aging. This treatment does not turn the clock back on dysfunctional stem cells in the aged population. Rather, it stimulates stem cells from old muscle tissues that are still functional to begin dividing and self-renew.

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This week in health: Prostate cancer and stem cell breakthroughs, snoozing and headaches

Canada.com Health takes a look at a few stories you may have missed this week.

A new study may suggest a re-think is in order in the way we treat prostate cancer. Dr. Julia Hayes, at the Lank Center for Genitourinary Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, led a study that has found observation to be a reasonable alternative to initial treatment for the 70 percent of men who are diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer.

Related:

At the same time, research continues at Dana-Farber to identify additional biomarkers that can aid in the diagnosis of prostate cancer, as well as to find genetic abnormalities in prostate cancer cells that might indicate how they would respond to certain treatments.

More information on the study can be found here.

PHOTO: Stringer/AFP/Getty Images A scientist conducts research on stem cells at a laboratory in Bangalore, India.

A new study shows it may be possible to reverse aging in muscles.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a possible explanation for why muscles take longer to heal in older bodies: the stem cells within muscle tissues that are supposed to repair damage become less able over time to generate new fibres and self-renew.

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But the research team, led by Dr. Helen Blau, also claim to have discovered a way to rejuvenate these older muscle stem cells so that they function like younger cells. The results of their study has been published in Nature Medicine.

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This week in health: Prostate cancer and stem cell breakthroughs, snoozing and headaches

Stem Cells from Fat Tissue Show Promise in Reconstructive Surgeries for Face and Skull

Durham, NC (PRWEB) February 21, 2014

A new study released today in STEM CELLS Translational Medicine shows that many patients with defects to the skull, face or jaw bone might benefit from reconstructive surgery combining stem cells taken from adipose (fat) tissue seeded on resorbable scaffolds.

These defects can be due to congenital malformations, such as cleft lip and palate, or to traumatic injuries or surgery to remove a tumor. The use of a patients own bone is still considered the gold standard for reconstructing these defects, but this requires yet another surgery to harvest the bone for the reconstructive procedure. The STEM CELLS Translational Medicine study tracked the case of 13 patients undergoing regenerative medicine procedures.

To our knowledge, this study represents the first GMP-compliant application for autologous adipose-derived stem cells in the treatment of defects at various sites of the cranio-maxillofacial skeleton, said the studys lead investigator, George K. Sndor, M.D., DDS, Ph.D., of the University of Tampere (UT), Tampere, Finland. He and Susanna Miettinen, Ph.D., were lead investigators on the study conducted by scientists and clinicians who, in addition to UT, came from the University of Oulu (Oulu, Finland) and Central Hospital (Jyvskyl, Finland).

Isolated reports of hard tissue (bone) reconstruction in the skull, face or jaw (cranio-maxillofacial skeleton) exist, but multi-patient case series are lacking. This study aimed to review the experience of 13 people with hard tissue defects at four anatomically different sites: the frontal sinus (three cases), cranial bone (five cases), the jaw (three cases) and the nasal septum (two cases).

Stem cells were harvested from adipose tissue in each patients abdomen, treated in the lab and then seeded onto resorbable scaffold materials for implantation back into the patient. The scaffolds were constructed with either bioactive glass or -TCP (a bone graft substitute). In some cases a protein called rhBMP-2, which plays an important role in the development of bone and cartilage, was added, too.

The results were promising. All three of the frontal sinus cases and three of the five cranial defect cases were successfully treated. (The other two cranial cases in which non-rigid resorbable containment meshes were used sustained bone resorption to the point that they required a redo procedure.) One of the two septal perforations failed after a year due to an infection resulting from the patients own actions, but the other healed successfully.

The three patients with reconstructed jaw defects also had good results; in fact, two of them chose to have dental implants placed directly into the stem cell-seeded grafts after healing, allowing these patients to once again enjoy a normal diet.

While the resorption of some of the constructs in the cranial defects was more than expected, Nevertheless, Dr. Sndor said, the majority of these challenging defects 10 of 13 were successfully treated with integration of the stem cell-seeded constructs to the surrounding skeleton at the defect sites. Dr. Miettinen added that the next steps should involve more animal studies and tracking of long-term results in humans.

This case series, involving various sites of defect, illustrates the potential promise of engineering replacement bone in the lab to avoid harvesting bone from the patient, commented Anthony Atala, M.D., editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

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Stem Cells from Fat Tissue Show Promise in Reconstructive Surgeries for Face and Skull

$5B initiative proposed for stem cell research

Supporters of Californias multibillion-dollar stem cell program plan to ask for $5 billion more to bring the fruits of research to patients.

Robert Klein, a leader of the 2004 initiative campaign that established the program, said Thursday hes going to be talking with California voters about the proposal. If the public seems receptive, backers will work to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot to extend funding for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Klein outlined the proposal Thursday at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, during a symposium on how to speed research to patient care.

Since cancer cells and stem cells share some underlying characteristics, CIRM has funded research into those similarities, including the work of Moores Cancer Center researchers David Cheresh and Catriona Jamieson.

Klein said supporters, including researchers, patients and patient advocates need to educate the public about the benefits of funding stem cell research, and the results to date. A former chairman of CIRM, Klein is no longer formally affiliated with the agency but continues to support its work.

No stem cell treatments funded by CIRM have been approved, but patients have benefited in other ways. CIRM-funded research into cancer stem cells led to a clinical trial of a drug that caused remission of a bone marrow cancer in Sandra Dillon, a patient of Jamiesons. Moreover, California has vaulted into prominence in regenerative medicine, and the field has also provided a new growth engine for the states large biotech industry.

Though CIRM has been praised for advancing quality research, it has been criticized for being slow to fund commercialization by life science companies.

In addition, CIRM has been criticized for a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest in how it awards grants. The agency revamped its policies last year to forbid members of its governing oversight committee from voting on proposals to fund research at their own institutions.

California voters set aside $3 billion in bond money for CIRM in 2004 under Proposition 71. The money is expected to run out around 2017, so Klein and other supporters have been preparing to go back to the public. The amount paid back will be $6 billion, including interest over the life of the bonds, Klein noted. So the $5 billion for CIRM would require a $10 billion bond measure.

Can it be done again? Klein asked. If we continue to have the extraordinary results the scientists and research institutes are presenting, as well as the biotech sector.

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$5B initiative proposed for stem cell research

Older Muscle Stem Cells Rejuvenated to Function Like Younger Cells, May Help Elderly Repair Muscle

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Older Muscle Stem Cells Rejuvenated to Function Like Younger Cells, May Help Elderly Repair Muscle

Stanford researchers pinpoint why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury

By Krista Conger

Feb. 17, 2014 - Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have pinpointed why normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury: Over time, stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew.

In the past, its been thought that muscle stem cells themselves dont change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells environment, said Helen Blau, PhD, the Donald and Delia B. Baxter Foundation Professor.

However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age. In fact, two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles.

Blau and her colleagues also identified for the first time a process by which the older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells. Our findings identify a defect inherent to old muscle stem cells, she said. Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect. As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage.

Blau, a professor of microbiology and immunology and director of Stanfords Baxter Laboratory for Stem Cell Biology, is the senior author of a paper describing the research, published online Feb. 16 in Nature Medicine. Postdoctoral scholar Benjamin Cosgrove, PhD, and former postdoctoral scholar Penney Gilbert, PhD, now an assistant professor at the University of Toronto, are the lead authors.

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Older Muscle Stem Cells Rejuvenated to Function Like Younger Cells, May Help Elderly Repair Muscle

Scientists 'rejuventate' stem cells in elderly mice to repair muscles

PALO ALTO, Calif., Feb. 17 (UPI) -- In an experiment with mice, U.S. scientists say they've enabled muscle recovery in elderly mice by rejuvenating stem cells within their muscle tissue.

Normal aging is accompanied by a diminished ability to regain strength and mobility after muscle injury because over time stem cells within muscle tissues dedicated to repairing damage become less able to generate new muscle fibers and struggle to self-renew, researchers at Stanford University reported Sunday.

"In the past, it's been thought that muscle stem cells themselves don't change with age, and that any loss of function is primarily due to external factors in the cells' environment," Helen Blau of the university's school of medicine said.."However, when we isolated stem cells from older mice, we found that they exhibit profound changes with age. In fact, two-thirds of the cells are dysfunctional when compared to those from younger mice, and the defect persists even when transplanted into young muscles."

However, Blau and her colleagues say they've identified for the first time a process by which the older muscle stem cell populations can be rejuvenated to function like younger cells.

"Our findings identify a defect inherent to old muscle stem cells," she said. "Most exciting is that we also discovered a way to overcome the defect. As a result, we have a new therapeutic target that could one day be used to help elderly human patients repair muscle damage."

The researchers used drugs to block elevated biological activity within the stem cells that causes them to degenerate into non-stem, muscle progenitor cells.

When transplanted back into the animal, the treated, rejuvenated stem cells migrate to their natural niches and provide a long-lasting stem cell reserve to contribute to repeated demands for muscle repair, they researchers said.

"In mice, we can take cells from an old animal, treat them for seven days -- during which time their numbers expand dramatically, as much as 60-fold -- and then return them to injured muscles in old animals to facilitate their repair," Blau said.

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Scientists 'rejuventate' stem cells in elderly mice to repair muscles