Stem Cell Clinic

First stem-cell therapy approved for medical use in Europe

By Stem Cell Treatment

This treatment will only be allowed under carefully defined conditions, however, so that the outcomes can be carefully monitored to see if the treatment works and doesnt have any unexpected side-effects.

Stem cells can act as a repair system for the body.

Limbal stem cells are located in the eye at the border between the cornea the clear front part of the eye - and the sclera the white of the eye.

Physical or chemical burns can cause loss of these stem cells, resulting in limbal stem cell deficiency, LSCD, a condition that is estimated to affect about 3.3 out of 100,000 people in the European Union and around 650 people in Britain.

Symptoms include pain, sensitivity to light, inflammation, excessive blood vessel growth, clouding of the cornea, and eventually blindness.

In LSCD the limbal stem cells become so diminished that they eyes can no longer make new cells to repair damage.

The new treatment takes a small sample of the patients healthy cornea, removes the stem cells and grows them until there are sufficient numbers to put back into the eye. The cells themselves then repair the damage.

Moorfields Eye Hospital in London has successfully treated around 20 people with Holocar so far in trials.

Prof Chris Mason, from University College London, told the BBC: "This move would enable far more people to access it, you could now prescribe this."

The EMA decision to approve Holoclar will now be sent to the European Commission for market authorization. It will then be up to Nice to decide whether to approve the therapy for use on the NHS.

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First stem-cell therapy approved for medical use in Europe

Howe's Family Reports Rapid Improvement

By Stem Cell Treatment

Gordie Howe's family says the hockey great has made a dramatic improvement after he participated in a stem cell clinical trial.

The 86-year-old Howe had a serious stroke in late October, but in a statement released through the Detroit Red Wings on Friday, his family said his physical therapists have been "astonished" by his progress.

Executives from Stemedica Cell Technologies contacted the family and facilitated Howe's participation in the clinical trial. He had a two-day, non-surgical treatment earlier this month.

"The treatment included neural stem cells injected into the spinal canal on Day 1 and mesenchymal stem cells by intravenous infusion on Day 2," the family said. "His response was truly miraculous. At the end of Day 1 he was walking with minimal effort for the first time since his stroke. By Day 2 he was conversing comfortably with family and staff at the clinic."

The family says Howe has been able to help out with daily household chores, and when tested, his ability to name items has gone from less than 25 percent before the treatment to 85 percent.

"Although his short-term memory, strength, endurance and coordination have plenty of room for improvement, we are hopeful that he will continue to improve in the months to come," the family said. "As a family, we are thrilled that dad's quality of life has greatly improved, and his progress has exceeded our greatest expectations."

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Howe's Family Reports Rapid Improvement

Howe shows steady progress following stem cell treatment

By Stem Cell Treatment

Saturday, 20 December 2014 12:07

LOS ANGELES: Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe has made an "astonishing" recovery after receiving stem cell treatment earlier this month from a Mexico-based medical firm, the Howe family said on Friday.

The 86-year-old Hall of Famer, who suffers from severe dementia, has gone from being bedridden in a semi-comatose state to walking on his own and doing daily chores as he "shuffles" around his daughter's Texas home, the family said in a statement.

"We are thrilled that Dad's quality of life has greatly improved, and his progress has exceeded our greatest expectations," the family wrote.

Howe underwent two days of a stem cell clinical trial from Tijuana-based firm Novastem. Two days after the start of treatment Howe was talking to the nurses, the family said.

After three days he left the hospital and walked on his own to the airplane, and after five days he was "taking part in helping out with household chores."

The family said his treatment included injecting neural stem cells into the spinal canal.

"His response was truly miraculous. His short-term memory, strength, endurance and coordination have plenty of room for improvement. We are hopeful that he will continue to improve in the months to come."

Howe suffered a serious stroke on October 26 and because of his deteriorating condition he had to be hospitalized at the beginning of December.

Confined to his bed and unable to speak or communicate, Howe had to rely on the nurses and family to feed him. Doctors said at one point he was "unresponsive" for 30 minutes.

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Howe shows steady progress following stem cell treatment

Japan scientist quits as cell research discredited

By Stem Cell Medical Center

SUB

FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2014 file photo, researcher Haruko Obokata, the lead author of a widely heralded stem-cell research paper by the Japanese government-funded laboratory Riken Center for Development Biology, speaks about research results during a news conference in Kobe, western Japan. Obokata said in a statement Friday, Dec. 19, 2014 that she was leaving the Riken Center for Developmental Biology after the lab concluded the stem cells she said she had created probably never existed. The center said it had stopped trying to match Obokata's results. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT

Posted: Friday, December 19, 2014 6:25 am | Updated: 11:45 am, Fri Dec 19, 2014.

Japan scientist quits as cell research discredited Associated Press |

TOKYO (AP) The Japanese researcher whose claim of a major breakthrough in stem cell research was discredited resigned after the government lab where she worked failed to replicate her results.

Haruko Obokata said in a statement Friday that she was leaving the Riken Center for Developmental Biology after the lab concluded the stem cells she said she had created probably never existed. The center said it had stopped trying to match Obokata's results.

"Now, I am just exhausted. For the results to end this way is just perplexing," she said.

Obokata initially was lauded for leading the research that raised hopes for a discovery of a simple way to grow replacement tissue. But questions about the validity of the research prompted Riken scientists, including Obokata, to retract two scientific papers.

The allegations of research misconduct prompted a shake-up at Riken.

2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Okyanos Expands World-Class Cell Therapy Medical Team

By Uncategorized

Freeport, Grand Bahama (PRWEB) December 18, 2014

Okyanos, the leader in cell therapy, announced the expansion of its medical team to accommodate the growing demand for cell therapy to treat patients with chronic unmet needs for which adult stem cell therapy using cells from a persons own fat (adipose) tissue has been found to be safe and efficacious. Led by a prestigious team of U.S.-licensed physicians and nursing staff, the team includes Dr. Todd Malan, Chief Cell Therapy Officer and pioneer of adipose-derived stem cell therapy, and is joined by Dr. Matthew Mick, Cardiologist, FACC, Fellowship at Cleveland Clinic.

We are very pleased to have such a competent and highly regarded aggregate of expertise, said Okyanos CEO Matt Feshbach. Our team is comprised of leaders in their respective fields, each of whom is committed to bringing about a new standard of care and better quality of life to our patients.

Todd Malan, MD, serves as the Chief Cell Therapy Officer and General Surgeon at Okyanos, overseeing the fat-harvesting and stem cell isolation step of the Okyanos cell therapy process. A pioneer of fat-derived stem cell therapies, he became the first physician in the U.S. to utilize stem cells from fat for soft tissue reconstruction in October 2009, combining water-assisted fat-harvesting, fat transfer and adult stem cell technologies.

Matthew J. Mick, MD, is a triple board-certified interventional cardiologist. After attending the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. Mick completed his Cardiovascular Disease and Interventional Fellowships at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. Dr. Mick participated as Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator in more than 20 cardiac clinical trials. He was a leader in developing trans-radial cardiac catheterization and holds several patents for cardiac catheters. Dr. Mick has performed over 15,000 diagnostic procedures in his 22 years of practice.

As the Director of Nursing managing a medical team which now numbers 10, Gretchen Dezelick oversees all of the clinical operations and maintains the superior cleanliness and safety standards that help make Okyanos a center of excellence. With more than 25 years of nursing experience progressing from bedside nursing to administrative and management positions in a variety of healthcare settings, Gretchen was a Certified Critical Care Nurse (CCRN) for more than 20 years and has been a Certified Peri-Operative Nurse (CNOR) for more than three years as well as being a Licensed Health Care Risk Manager (LHCRM).

Okyanos is also very proud to include several Bahamian medical staff such as Anesthesiologist Dr. Vincent Burton, Fellow of the Royal College of Anaesthetists, UK (FRCA), a Certified Critical Care Nurse, cardiology tech, sonographer, surgical scrub tech and a facilities tech, to deliver well-rounded expert patient care. The team also includes a Certified Cardiovascular Nurse, a BSN RN and a cardiovascular tech, providing more than 88 years of combined experience.

Okyanos follows the treatment guidelines laid out in clinical trials such as PRECISE and others which have demonstrated positive results from adult stem cell therapy. Okyanos cell therapy is performed in their newly constructed surgery center built to U.S. surgical standards and which also includes a state-of-the-art Phillips cath lab.

Adult stem cell therapy has emerged as a new treatment alternative for those who are restricted in activities they can no longer do but are determined to live a more normal life. Okyanos cell therapy uses a unique blend of adult stem cells derived from a patients own fat tissue, thereby helping the bodys own natural biology to heal itself.

Just 50 miles from US shore, Okyanos cell therapy is available to patients with severe heart disease including coronary artery disease (CAD) and congestive heart failure (CHF) as well as patients with autoimmune diseases, tissue ischemia, neurological and orthopedic conditions.

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Okyanos Expands World-Class Cell Therapy Medical Team

Stem cells born out of indecision

By Stem Cell Treatment

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Dec-2014

Contact: Joshua Brickman joshua.brickman@sund.ku.dk 45-51-68-04-38 University of Copenhagen - The Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

This latest research by Joshua Brickman and his research team from Danish Stem Cell Center (Danstem) at the University of Copenhagen specifically found that inhibiting or blocking stem cells ability to make a specific decision, leads to better cell growth and could lead to defined ways to differentiate stem cells.

This research is the first comprehensive analysis of a pathway important for stem and cancer cell decisions known as Erk. As a result this work could contain clues to cancer treatment as well as helping to establish a platform to make stem cell treatments for gut related disorders like the pancreas or the liver.

The research results have just been published in Cell Reports.

Blocking choices

"If you block all the choices they can make, they stay in the stem cell state. If you only allow them one door to exit from the stem cell state, you should be able to make particular cell types more efficiently. So if you only leave one door open then it's the path of least resistance and when you give them a push they really go," says Professor Joshua Brickman.

As embryonic stem cells can become any cell type in the body, they have to make choices. Based on this research, it appears that blocking these choices is the key to making them grow as stem cells. In other words, if these choices are removed the cells simply reproduce more stem cells.

Embryonic stem cells

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Stem cells born out of indecision

Europe boosts stem cell patent rights

By Stem Cell Treatment

Cultures of ISCOs parthenogenetic stem cells, made from unfertilized human egg cells.

Stem cells produced by Carlsbad's International Stem Cell Corp. can be patented, a European court ruled Thursday. The decision allows the biotech company to get patents for its stem cells made from unfertilized, or parthenogenetic, human egg cells.

In related news, the company said Thursday it plans to apply by the end of the year to do a clinical trial of a Parkinson's treatment derived from its parthenogenetic cells.

The trial should begin in a couple of months, said Simon Craw, the company's executive vice president of business development. The company will need to raise about $5 million for the trial, he said.

International Stem Cell is developing these cells as an alternative to human embryonic stem cells, which many regard as morally wrong. Moreover, the parthenogenetic cells have a reduced tendency to cause immune reactions when transplanted, which could make them an attractive use for therapy.

The European Union forbids patents on the use of human embryos, the source of embryonic stem cells. Patent applications in the United Kingdom and other countries for parthenogenetic cells have been held up because dividing parthenogenetic cells resemble embryos.

However, the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg ruled that parthenogenetic cells are not embryos, so cells made from them are eligible for patenting. While the structures look like embryos, they stop growing in a few days and die.

"In todays judgment, the Court holds that, in order to be classified as a human embryo, a non-fertilised human ovum must necessarily have the inherent capacity of developing into a human being," the European court said in a press release. "Consequently, the mere fact that a parthenogenetically-activated human ovum commences a process of development is not sufficient for it to be regarded as a human embryo."

Shares of the company closed after the decision at 8 cents, up 1 cent for the day.

The decision is a great turning point in the legal struggle to patent parthenogenetic stem cells in Europe, Craw said.

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Disgraced Japan researcher fails to replicate 'game changing' stem cell results

By Stem Cell Treatment

Published December 19, 2014

Haruko Obokata, a researcher at semi-governmental research institute RIKEN, lowers her eyes during a news conference in Osaka, western Japan, in this photo taken by Kyodo April 9, 2014. REUTERS/Kyodo

A disgraced Japanese researcher has failed to replicate results hailed as a potential breakthrough in stem-cell treatment and efforts to do so will be abandoned, officials at her research institute said on Friday.

The scandal involving the research, which detailed simple ways to reprogram mature cells back to an embryonic-like state, eventually led to the retraction of papers published in the influential journal Nature and tarnished the reputation of Japanese scientific research.

The so-called STAP cells had seemed to offer hope for replacing damaged cells or even growing new human organs for sick or injured people, and made research leader Haruko Obokata a national sensation after the news broke in January.

But the discovery began to unravel soon after when other researchers said they could not replicate the results. Investigations by Riken, the Japanese research institute where Obokata was based, found she had plagiarized and fabricated parts of the papers, which were withdrawn in July.

"We were unable to recreate the STAP phenomenon," said Svinicki Aizawa, head of Aiken's verification team.

"We had planned to continue replication efforts until March next year, but in the light of these results, we have decided to terminate the experiments."

But when asked if this decision meant that the STAP cells did not exist, Aizawa said that as a scientist, he could not give an answer.

"All I can say is that we couldn't replicate the original results," he added.

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Disgraced Japan researcher fails to replicate 'game changing' stem cell results

Embattled Stem Cell Researchers Sue Harvard And Brigham And Women's Hospital

By Stem Cell Medicine

Two embattled and highly controversial stem cell researchers are suing the Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School for an ongoing investigation into their research. The investigation has already resulted in the retraction of one paper inCirculationand anexpression of concern about another paper in theLancet.

The suit was filed by Piero Anversa, the highly prominent stem cell researcher who is a Harvard professor and the head of a large lab at the Brigham, and his longtime colleague,Annarosa Leri, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard who has coauthored many papers with Anversa. The suit places the blame for any scientific misconduct relating to the two papers on a third colleague and coauthor,Jan Kajstura, their longtime collaborator. In an explanation of the problems relating to the Circulation paper,Anversa and Leri accuse Kajstura of doctoring data in a spreadsheet in such a way that they could not have detected it. For theLancet paper the two scientists say thatKajstura and another unnamed scientist in the lab altered two images. Kastura is no longer at the Brigham.

The news was first reported byCarolyn Johnson in theBoston GlobeandJessica Bartlett in the Boston Business Journal. The story has also been reported in depth by Ivan Oransky onRetraction Watch.

The lawsuit accuses Elizabeth Nabel, the president of the Brigham, and the individual members of the investigating panel, of inappropriate and illegal behavior and conflicts of interest.At one point the complaint alleges that the scientists on the panel lack substantial expertise in the relevant scientific areas, including cardiac stem cells. But then, when another member was added to the panel, Ulrich von Andrian, the complaint states that he suffers from serious conflicts of interest that impede his ability to participate in the investigation in an impartial manner. Nabel and von Andrian, along with other Harvard and Brigham figures, serve on the scientific advisory board of Moderna Therapeutics, a stem cell company pursuing an alternative modality for regenerative treatment of cardiac disease.

Anversa and Leri further allege that the investigation caused the withdrawal of a multimillion dollar offer to purchase their company, Autologous/Progenital. The investigation also ended efforts to recruit Anversa and Leri to the University of Miami and the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

The complaint discloses that as a result of the ongoing investigation Anversa and Leri were subject to embarrassing questions from other prominent stem cell researchers, including Joshua Hare, Steven Houser, and Eduardo Marban. These researchers, the complaint states, had no need to know of the inquiry.

Anversa and Leri also criticizethe panel for expanding its investigation to at least 15 papers from the research group. There is no justification for expanding the investigation to encompass these additional papers at this late stage. Most were published before the inquiry process began in January 2013, and all were published before the investigation began in February 2014. It is unclear from the complaint why these papers should not have been subject to scrutiny.

As I reported in 2011, the Lancet paper reporting the results of theSCIPIO trial was the subject of considerable hype at the time of its original publication. ABC News, CBS News and other media outlets used phrases like medical breakthrough and heart failure cure. ABC News correspondent Richard Besser was so enthusiastic that anchor Diane Sawyer commented that she had never seen him so excited. The first author of SCIPIO, Roberto Bolli, said the work could represent the biggest advance in cardiology in my lifetime.

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Embattled Stem Cell Researchers Sue Harvard And Brigham And Women's Hospital

365 days: 2014 in science

By Stem Cell Clinic

Keith Vanderlinde/NSF

The BICEP2 telescope at the South Pole may have spied gravitational waves or dust.

This year may be best remembered for how quickly scientific triumph morphed into disappointment, and even tragedy: breakthroughs in stem-cell research and cosmology were quickly discredited; commercial spaceflight faced major setbacks. Yet landing a probe on a comet, tracing humanitys origins and a concerted push to understand the brain provided reasons to celebrate.

Asian nations soared into space this year. The Indian Space Research Organisation put a mission into orbit around Mars the first agency to do so on its first try. Japan launched the Hayabusa-2 probe, its second robotic voyage to bring back samples from an asteroid. And even as Chinas lunar rover Yutu (or Jade Rabbit) stopped gathering data on the Moons surface, mission controllers took the next step in the countrys lunar exploration programme by sending a test probe around the Moon and back to Earth.

But for commercial spaceflight, it was a bad year. Virgin Galactics proposed tourism vehicle SpaceShipTwo disintegrated during a test flight in California and killed one of its pilots. That came just three days after a launch-pad explosion in Virginia destroyed an uncrewed private rocket intended to take supplies to the International Space Station. The accident wiped out a number of research experiments destined for the station, whose managers are trying to step up its scientific output. Problems on the station also delayed the deployment of a flock of tiny Earth-watching satellites, nicknamed Doves, which are part of the general trend of using miniature CubeSats to collect space data.

On a bigger scale, the European Space Agency successfully launched the first in its long-awaited series of Sentinel Earth-observing satellites.

After a decade-long trip, the European Space Agencys Rosetta spacecraft arrived at comet 67P/ChuryumovGerasimenko in August and settled into orbit. Three months later, Rosetta dropped the Philae probe to 67Ps surface, in the first-ever landing on a comet. Philae relayed science data for 64hours before losing power in its shadowy, rocky landing site.

Meanwhile, a flotilla of Mars spacecraft probes from India, the United States and Europe had an unplanned close brush with comet Siding Spring, which zipped past the red planet in October at a distance of 139,500kilometres about one-third of the distance from Earth to the Moon. NASA rovers continued to trundle along on the Martian surface: Curiosity finally reached the mountain that it has been heading towards since landing in 2012, and Opportunity passed 40kilometres on its odometer, breaking a Soviet lunar rovers distance record for off-Earth driving.

The search for planets beyond the Solar System also got a huge boost. In February, the team behind the now mostly defunct Kepler spacecraft announced that it had confirmed the existence of 715extrasolar planets, the largest-ever single haul. Kepler data also revealed the first known Earth-sized exoplanet in the habitable zone of its star, a step closer to the long-sought Earth twin.

Considering that they have been dead for around 30,000 years, Neanderthals had a hell of a year. Their DNA survives in non-African human genomes, thanks to ancient interbreeding, and two teams this year catalogued humans Neanderthal heritage. Scientists learnt more about the sexual encounters between Homo neanderthalensis and early humans after analysing the two oldest Homo sapiens genomes on record from men who lived in southwest Siberia 45,000years ago and in western Russia more than 36,000years ago, respectively. The DNA revealed hitherto-unknown human groups and more precise dates for when H.sapiens coupled with Neanderthals, which probably occurred in the Middle East between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. Radiocarbon dating of dozens of archaeological sites in Europe, meanwhile, showed that humans and Neanderthals coexisted there for much longer than was once thought up to several thousand years in some places.

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