Ben-Gurion U. establishes stem cell research fund in honor of inventor Jordan Baruch

Public release date: 14-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Andrew Lavin andrewlavin@alavin.com 516-944-4486 American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

CHEVY CHASE, MD, January 15, 2013 -- American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU) received a substantial donation from Rhoda Baruch, wife of the late Dr. Jordan Baruch, to fund stem cell research at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

The Jordan Baruch Stem Cell Research Fund was dedicated at the University on December 30 in the presence of Rhoda Baruch and 20 members of her extended family.

"Jordan recognized that here at Ben-Gurion University are the people who walk the extra mile and who are dedicated to the less fortunate. What the people of BGU have in addition to their brilliance and creativity is a sense of compassion and dedication that touched us so much. If anyone can do it, you guys can do it," Baruch declared.

The donation will support scholarly collaboration between specially selected medical and pharmacological researchers, stem cell biologists and tissue engineers. It will support the work of BGU's new Center for Regenerative Medicine, Cellular Therapy and Stem Cell Research.

"Jordan was a passionate supporter of Israel and especially BGU," says Keren Waranch, director of the Washington-Baltimore Region of American Associates, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (AABGU), who also attended the dedication.

"He and Rhoda founded the local AABGU chapter in the 1980s and funded the Mendel Wasserman Career Development Chair in Desert Studies, named in memory of Rhoda's father.

"We are extremely grateful to Rhoda for this generous contribution and moving tribute to her husband of 67 years," Waranch adds. "This fund will launch BGU forward in researching the treatment and potential cure for debilitating diseases such as diabetes, ALS, Parkinson's and leukemia."

Dr. Baruch (pronounced Bah-ROOSH), who died in 2011, was considered one of the foremost authorities in the field of acoustics. He held several patents for sound-dampening technology and loudspeaker systems.

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Ben-Gurion U. establishes stem cell research fund in honor of inventor Jordan Baruch

Stem-cell approach shows promise for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Jan. 14, 2013 Researchers have shown that transplanting stem cells derived from normal mouse blood vessels into the hearts of mice that model the pathology associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) prevents the decrease in heart function associated with DMD.

Their findings appear in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a genetic disorder caused by a mutation in the gene for dystrophin, a protein that anchors muscle cells in place when they contract. Without dystrophin, muscle contractions tear cell membranes, leading to cell death. The lost muscle cells must be regenerated, but in time, scar tissue replaces the muscle cells, causing the muscle weakness and heart problems typical of DMD.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that DMD affects one in every 3,500 males. The disease is more prevalent in males because the dystrophin mutation occurs on the X chromosome; males have one X and one Y chromosome, so a male with this mutation will have DMD, while females have two X chromosomes and must have the mutation on both of them to have the disease. Females with the mutation in one X chromosome sometimes develop muscle weakness and heart problems as well, and may pass the mutation on to their children.

Although medical advances have extended the lifespans of DMD patients from their teens or 20s into their early 30s, disease-related damage to the heart and diaphragm still limits their lifespan.

"Almost 100 percent of patients develop dilated cardiomyopathy," in which a weakened heart with enlarged chambers prevents blood from being properly pumped throughout the body, said University of Illinois comparative biosciences professor Suzanne Berry-Miller, who led the study. "Right now, doctors are treating the symptoms of this heart problem by giving patients drugs to try to prolong heart function, but that can't replace the lost or damaged cells," she said.

In the new study, the researchers injected stem cells known as aorta-derived mesoangioblasts (ADM) into the hearts of dystrophin-deficient mice that serve as a model for human DMD. The ADM stem cells have a working copy of the dystrophin gene.

This stem cell therapy prevented or delayed heart problems in mice that did not already show signs of the functional or structural defects typical of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the researchers report.

Berry-Miller and her colleagues do not yet know why the functional benefits occur, but proposed three potential mechanisms. They observed that some of the injected stem cells became new heart muscle cells that expressed the lacking dystrophin protein. The treatment also caused existing stem cells in the heart to divide and become new heart muscle cells, and the stem cells stimulated new blood vessel formation in the heart. It is not yet clear which of these effects is responsible for delaying the onset of cardiomyopathy, Berry-Miller said.

"These vessel-derived cells might be good candidates for therapy, but the more important thing is the results give us new potential therapeutic targets to study, which may be activated directly without the use of cells that are injected into the patient, such as the ADM in the current study," Berry-Miller said. "Activating stem cells that are already present in the body to repair tissue would avoid the potential requirement to find a match between donors and recipients and potential rejection of the stem cells by the patients."

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Stem-cell approach shows promise for Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Stem Cells May Hold Promise for Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS)

SAN DIEGO, Jan. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Apparent stem cell transplant success in mice may hold promise for people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. The results of the study will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 65th Annual Meeting in San Diego, March 16 to 23, 2013.

"There have been remarkable strides in stem cell transplantation when it comes to other diseases, such as cancer and heart failure," said study author Stefania Corti, MD, PhD, with the University of Milan in Italy and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. "ALS is a fatal, progressive, degenerative disease that currently has no cure. Stem cell transplants may represent a promising avenue for effective cell-based treatment for ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases."

For the study, mice with an animal model of ALS were injected with human neural stem cells taken from human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). iPSC are adult cells such as skin cells that have been genetically reprogrammed to an embryonic stem cell-like state. Neurons are a basic building block of the nervous system, which is affected by ALS. After injection, the stem cells migrated to the spinal cord of the mice, matured and multiplied.

The study found that stem cell transplantation significantly extended the lifespan of the mice by 20 days and improved their neuromuscular function by 15 percent.

"Our study shows promise for testing stem cell transplantation in human clinical trials," said Corti.

The study was supported by AriSLA - The Italian Foundation for Research on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

Learn more about ALS at http://www.aan.com/patients.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 25,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to promoting the highest quality patient-centered neurologic care. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer's disease, stroke, migraine, multiple sclerosis, brain injury, Parkinson's disease and epilepsy.

For more information about the American Academy of Neurology, visit http://www.aan.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube.

SOURCE American Academy of Neurology

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Stem Cells May Hold Promise for Lou Gehrig's Disease (ALS)

Gazette.Net: Neuralstem

Physicians, researchers, patients and their advocates in the spinal injury field are keeping a close eye on Rockville biotech Neuralstem as it prepares to launch a Phase 1 safety trial of its stem cell treatment for chronic spinal cord injury.

The Food and Drug Administration approved the trial Monday. Neuralstem plans to conduct the study on eight patients who are completely paralyzed at or below their spinal cord injuries.

Its important that people understand this is very different from other methods that have gone on before, CEO Richard Garr said. This is the real deal. We have compelling data. Cells are surviving, grafting and doing what we would they would do. The FDA go-ahead follows Neuralstems report in October that rats given the stem cell product, NSI-566, seven days after suffering an ischemic stroke showed improvement in motor and neurological tests.

Should this prove to be successful, it will allow for some regeneration of human spinal cord cells and for people to regain function. It will be an incredible breakthrough, with huge implications for the health care market, said Paul Tobin, president and CEO of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association.

More than 10,000 people in the U.S. sustain spinal cord injuries each year, according to the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation. About 840,000 people have chronic spinal cord injury. Currently, the best treatment is mitigating secondary damage and providing environments and tools that support patients with these injuries, Tobin said.

While Tobin emphasized that the industry is still far from a cure yet, the Neuralstem treatment could be a tremendous step and appears to be worth exploring.

The primary objective of the study is to determine the safety and toxicity of human spinal stem cell transplants for treating paralysis and related symptoms due to chronic spinal cord injury, according to Neuralstem information. A secondary objective is evaluating graft survival in the transplant site.

All patients will receive six injections in or around the injury site, with the first four patients receiving 100,000 cells per injection and the second four receiving 200,000 cells per injection. The study will follow the patients for six months after the procedures.

Following Mondays announcement, stock analyst Aegis Capital of New York raised its 12-month price target for Neuralstem to $4 from $3.50.

Investors should note the fact that spinal cord injury is the clinical indication that most closely mirrors the situation in the preclinical rat model that yielded the ground-breaking data published in the [trade journal] Cell last year, Aegis wrote in a report Monday.

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Vail's Science Behind series event looks at stem cell treatment for joint pain

Join Walking Mountains Science Center for a discussion on the Science Behind Stem Cell Treatment for Joint Pain on Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. ThriveMD medical director Scott Brandt will discuss how stem cells carry huge potential to restore an active and pain-free life.

Autologous (self-derived adult) stem cell therapy is one of the newest and most innovative avenues in regenerative medicine. Brandt will walk attendees through the minimally invasive procedure that works to relieve the pain and limitations of damaged joint cartilage without resorting to an invasive joint replacement surgery.

The procedure involves harvesting a patient's own stem cells found in fat tissue, most often from the abdominal region. The tissue is then prepared in a cell-processing laboratory and injected into the ailing joint an hour later, using fluoroscopic guidance. Once injected, the cells can sense proteins that have been generated from cartilage damage. In response, these cells have the ability to make chondrocytes, which are the type of cells found in healthy cartilage. Then, through chondrogenesis (cartilage cell division), the damaged cartilage can be replaced with healthy cartilage tissue.

Brandt will also discuss the results he is seeing with autologous stem cell therapy and why he prefers using adipose (fat)-derived stem cells.

For the past 15 years, Brandt has specialized in interventional pain management and is now one of the few physicians in the country to be trained in a minimally invasive technique that is helping many patients find alternatives to difficult joint replacement surgery. He is board certified by the America Board of Anesthesiology and has been a diplomat of the American Board of Pain Medicine.

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Vail's Science Behind series event looks at stem cell treatment for joint pain

Stem Cell Research Wins A Final Legal Battle

(Credit: ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images)

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) Local researchers are hailing the announcement that the Supreme Court will not take up the issue of embryonic stem cell research.

The Court refused to review the dismissal of a lawsuit challenging funding for the research.

The decision is good news for researchers at Penn and the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, who use stem cells to explore treatment for a wide variety of diseases.

But, ultimately, says Jonathan Moreno of Penns bioethics center, its patients who benefit.

People who have diseases that, if not directly treated, will be much better understood because of access to human embryonic stem cells, says Moreno.

He hopes the decision will remove the stigma that plagued the research as opponents argued the morality of using cells from embryos left over from in vitro fertilization.

(Father Tad Pacholczyk Credit: Pat Loeb)

This raises very significant moral concerns and thats why this has been so much in the eye of the public, he explains.

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Stem Cell Research Wins A Final Legal Battle

Stem Cell Surgeons Restore Severely Damaged Baboon Artery

A damaged baboon artery was regenerated with stem cell therapy (Reuters)

Stem cells have been used to completely restore a severely damaged artery, leading to hope that the therapy could be used to fix damaged human organs.

Researchers at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute have shown for the first time that embryonic baboon stem cells can be used to heal a damaged artery that would not have fixed itself.

The artery began to heal three days after being treated with stem cells and was 100 percent restored after two weeks.

John VandeBerg, chief scientific officer at the institute, said: "We first cultured the stem cells in petri dishes under special conditions to make them differentiate into cells that are the precursors of blood vessels, and we saw that we could get them to form tubular and branching structures, similar to blood vessels."

They removed the cells that line the inside surface of segment of the artery and put the stem cells inside the artery.

The stem cell segment was then connected to plastic tubing inside a bioreactor - a device designed to grow cells and tissues. Researchers then pumped fluid through the artery as if blood was flowing through it and the outside of the artery was bathed in fluid to sustain the cells.

Real potential for stem cell medicine

After three days, the inner surface of the stem cell-treated artery had started to regenerate and after 14 days, the artery had been perfectly restored to a fully functional artery.

In order to ensure the artery would not have restored itself, the scientists took a control arterial segment but did not seed it with stem cells - no healing took place.

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Stem Cell Surgeons Restore Severely Damaged Baboon Artery

End to stem cell research challenge doesn't calm funding fears for scientists

Even as they celebrate clearing a legal hurdle, worries of stem cell research grant money evaporating constantly weigh on scientists like Dr. Ted Dawson, whose projects at Johns Hopkins Hospital have helped inform treatment of neurological diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

A three-year court battle by two researchers to stop stem cell research using human embryos ended Monday when the Supreme Court declined to review the case. Scientists like Dawson say that frees up grant opportunities and are relieved for now.

"It takes some of the uncertainty out," Dawson said. "It takes us back to a situation where we're hopefully only limited by our creativity, our talent in doing the science and the resources available."

The problem is that more limitations appear likely. Research advocates fear a handful of threats to funding for all types of stem cell research and scientific study in general: the so-called "fiscal cliff," more legal challenges, an eventual new administration in Washington and the possibility of a more competitive peer review process.

Altogether, the hazards have tempered researchers' enthusiasm over the high court's non-decision.

"It's good for research in general," said Dan Gincel, director of the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund. "It doesn't stop any future presidents from having another executive order to go the other way. If the Supreme Court would have discussed that, it would have put an end to it one way or another."

Embryonic stem cell research has long faced hurdles from those who see it as morally wrong, akin to abortion. Generating a line of the cells requires destroying the embryo. President George W. Bush limited federally funded embryonic stem cell research to only projects using lines developed before August 2001.

President Barack Obama reversed the decision in April 2009, opening up new embryonic stem cell lines to federal funding. But a federal court in Washington, D.C., suspended the change in August 2010 when two scientists sued on behalf of "plaintiff embryos." The opponents lost on appeal. The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case means the appeals court's ruling in support of the policy stands.

Proponents of the research argue that the cells can be key in the treatment of many diseases because they have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. The scientists who challenged the Obama policy, and others like them, argue that research should be limited to using stem cells derived from adult tissue, though some scientists question whether the adult cells have the same potential.

Uncertainty over how courts might have handled appeals of the lawsuit meant few options for stem cell research projects for the past decade. Scientists are reluctant to take on any project for which funding is or might become scarce, Gincel said.

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End to stem cell research challenge doesn't calm funding fears for scientists

Research and Markets: Stem Cell Therapy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2018

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dd7jnv/stem_cell_therapy) has announced the addition of the "Stem Cell Therapy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2018 - Commercialization Supported by Favorable Government Policies, Strong Pipeline and Increased Licensing Activity" report to their offering.

Commercialization Supported by Favorable Government Policies, Strong Pipeline and Increased Licensing Activity

Stem Cell Research in Asia-Pacific a Growth Engine for Region's Scientific Ambitions

The stem cell therapy market in Asia-Pacific is poised to offer significant contributions in the future, thanks to renewed interest by the respective governments of India, China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore to provide cures for a range of diseases, states a new report by healthcare experts GBI Research.

Stem cells are unique body cells that possess the ability to divide and differentiate into diverse cell types, and can be used to produce more stem cells. The use of adult stem cells has been successfully employed to treat bone and blood related disorders such as leukemia, through bone marrow transplants. Stem cell therapy is used to repair and regenerate the damaged tissue, though the actual mechanism of action is largely unknown.

The growth in the stem cell therapy market will not only provide treatment options but will also contribute significantly to the countries' Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with the President of South Korea only last year referring to stem cell research as a new growth engine for the nation's economy. In order to support the stem cell industry, regulatory guidelines in Asia-Pacific countries allow stem cell research, and this has led to its commercialization. India and South Korea are the leaders in the commercialization of stem cell therapy, with approved products for Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), osteoarthritis and anal fistula in Crohn's disease, amongst others. The countries allow the use of human embryonic stem cells and provide adequate funding support for the research.

Stem cell therapy is an emerging field, and a large amount of research is currently being carried out by institutions such as hospitals, universities and medical colleges. According to GBI Research's analysis of the stem cell therapy research in Asia-Pacific, 63% of pipeline molecules were being researched by academia. The emergence of institutional research has boosted stem cell discoveries, as companies can be put off conducting research due to uncertain therapeutic outcomes. China and Japan witness only a negligible industry presence in stem cell research, as academic institutions dominate - however in contrast, India has the presence of both industry and academia. The major institutions engaged in stem cell research in India are LV Prasad Eye Institute (LYPEI) for Limbal Stem Cell Technology (LSCT), and the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) for stem cell therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

The market is poised for significant growth in the future, due to the anticipated launch of JCR Pharmaceuticals' JR-031 in Japan in 2014, and FCB Pharmicell's Cerecellgram (CCG) in South Korea in 2015. GBI Research therefore predicts that the stem cell therapy market will grow in value from $545m in 2012 to $972m in 2018, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 10%.

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Research and Markets: Stem Cell Therapy Market in Asia-Pacific to 2018

Stem cells found to heal damaged artery in lab study

Public release date: 10-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Joseph Carey jcarey@txbiomed.org 210-258-9437 Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute have for the first time demonstrated that baboon embryonic stem cells can be programmed to completely restore a severely damaged artery. These early results show promise for eventually developing stem cell therapies to restore human tissues or organs damaged by age or disease.

"We first cultured the stem cells in petri dishes under special conditions to make them differentiate into cells that are the precursors of blood vessels, and we saw that we could get them to form tubular and branching structures, similar to blood vessels," said John L. VandeBerg, Ph.D., Texas Biomed's chief scientific officer.

This finding gave VandeBerg and his team the confidence to do complex experiments to find out if these cells could actually heal a damaged artery. Human embryonic stem cells were first isolated and grown in 1998.

The results are presented in a manuscript, co-authored by Texas Biomed's Qiang Shi, Ph.D., and Gerald Shatten, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, published in the January 10, 2013 issue of the Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

The scientists found that cells derived from embryonic stem cells could actually repair experimentally damaged baboon arteries and "are promising therapeutic agents for repairing damaged vasculature of people," according to the authors.

Researchers completely removed the cells that line the inside surface from a segment of artery, and then put cells that had been derived from embryonic stem cells inside the artery. They then connected both ends of the arterial segment to plastic tubing inside a device called a bioreactor which is designed to grow cells and tissues. The scientists then pumped fluid through the artery under pressure as if blood were flowing through it. The outside of the artery was bathed in another fluid to sustain the cells located there.

Three days later, the complex structure of the inner surface was beginning to regenerate, and by 14 days, the inside of the artery had been perfectly restored to its complex natural state. It went from a non-functional tube to a complex fully functional artery.

"Just think of what this kind of treatment would mean to a patient who had just suffered a heart attack as a consequence of a damaged coronary artery. And this is the real potential of stem cell regenerative medicinethat is, a treatment with stem cells that regenerates a damaged or destroyed tissue or organ," VandeBerg said.

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Stem cells found to heal damaged artery in lab study