Stem Cell Clinic

Stem Cells: Promises and Reality

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Medicine

Renowned Israeli stem-cell researcher in Fairfield Aug. 6

By Cindy Mindell

Dr. Yaqub Hanna

A leading Israeli scientist who has pioneered groundbreaking stem-cell reprogamming research will discuss his work on Wednesday, Aug. 6 at Jewish Senior Services in Fairfield.

Together with a team of researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science Department of Molecular Genetics in Rehovot, Israel, Dr. Jacob (Yaqub) Hanna has overcome a major roadblock in the use of human stem cells for medical purposes. Funded by a grant from the Israel Cancer Research Fund, their pioneering breakthrough was recently published in the peer-reviewed international science journal, Nature.

Its not only Hannas work that is note-worthy: the award-winning research scientist is a Palestinian living in Israel, a native of Kafr Rama in the Galilee and the son of two medical doctors.

Hanna earned a BS in medical sciences summa cum laude in 2001, an MS in microbiology and immunology in 2003, and a PhD-MD in immunology summa cum laude in 2007, all from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he was among the top five percent of all Israeli medical-school graduates. After completing his PhD, Hanna decided to abandon clinical medicine and focus on research, and spent four years conducting postdoctoral research in the lab, part of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at MIT.

During his postdoctoral work, Hanna was the first non-American to receive a prestigious Novartis Fellowship from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation. He joined the Weizmann Institute Department of Molecular Genetics upon his return to Israel in 2011. That year, he received the Clore Prize for distinguished new faculty at the Weizmann Institute and was accepted as a Yigal Alon Program Scholar for junior faculty in Israel. He is also the recipient of the Wolf Foundations Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research and the 2013 Rappaport Prize in Biomedical Research.

Hanna has had to find a way to navigate between his personal and professional identities.

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Stem Cells: Promises and Reality

Local Denver Skin Care Company Releases Safer Alternative to Botox

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Treatment

Denver, CO (PRWEB) July 23, 2014

Daily Face & Body is excited to announce that they have released a cheaper and safer alternative to Botox called Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum.

Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum is an anti-aging product used to help people smooth, tone, and rejuvenate dead skin cells..

Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum can be used as a safe alternative to Botox, a popular cosmetic injection, because the Stem Cell does not have any toxins or health risks as opposed to Botox. In addition, it is Alcohol, Ammonia, Paraben, Perfume, and Sulfate free, and it has not been tested on Animals.

According to the Daily Face & Body website, their Stem Cell Technology Facial Serum uses 100% active plant stem cell ingredient (All Even Sweet Iris) which has been clinically tested to reduce wrinkles with overall anti-aging effects.

Jason Palmer, a representative of Daily Face & Body, says that the clinical test results showed that after 28 days of treatment, 84% of women noted their wrinkles seem to have decreased. It also decreased the total surface by 35%, decreased the number of wrinkles by 26%, and decreased the length of wrinkles by 33%.

Ingredients The ingredients in Stem Cell Technology Facial serum are as follows:

Active ingredient: All Even Sweet Irs (Iris pallida). The other ingredients are: Water, Cyclomethicone, Avena sativa (Oat) Kernel Extract, Cichorium Intybus (Chicory) Root, Oligosaccharides (and) Glycerin (and) Caesalpinia Spinosa Gum, Dimethicone, Iris Pallida Leaf Cell Extract, Lauramidoyl Inulin, Oleth-10, Carbomer, Phenoxyethanol (and) Ethylhexylglycerin, Potassium Sorbate, Tromethamine.

About Daily Face & Body is a locally owned Denver company that has been operating since 2012. They sell Skin Care products and accessories as well as home Spa therapy products and weight loss supplements. To receive more information about Daily Face & Body please visit their website http://www.dailyfaceandbody.com.

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Local Denver Skin Care Company Releases Safer Alternative to Botox

Justice minister won't interfere with Stamina court decision

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Treatment

'Ministry can't interfere with judges' Orlando tells Senate

(ANSA) - Rome, July 23 - Justice Minister Andrea Orlando told the Senate health committee Wednesday that the ministry can't interfere with a court ruling that forced a hospital to administer the controversial Stamina stem-cell treatment to an ailing boy. His statement came after a court ordered the treatment administered to a child suffering from muscular dystrophy at a hospital in northern Italy on Tuesday, despite the fact that it has been discredited by many in the scientific community. The Stamina treatment was administered on the orders of a Sicilian court after the hospital in Brescia decided to suspend the procedure because it had been called into doubt. The justice ministry "cannot interfere with the court's decisions. The judge has freedom of interpretation," Orlando told MPs. "However, no amount of court rulings can fill what is a legislative void on this issue," he added. The credibility of the Stamina treatment - which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient - has long been suspect, and last autumn the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found the treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell biology". However some local judges have ruled in favor of its application amid heavy pressure from advocates and the families of patients. So far only courts in Genoa and Turin have denied access to the treatment, the justice minister pointed out. Also on Wednesday, privacy watchdog agency director Antonello Soro testified at the same committee hearing that sensationalized media reports featuring prominently displayed images of terminally ill children have clouded the issue of whether or not the treatment is scientifically valid. "Media have too often given in to the temptation of...exploiting the image of sick children," Soro said. "The right of ill minors not to have their disease put on display has been violated...especially by online media," he added.

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Justice minister won't interfere with Stamina court decision

ASH honors Scott Armstrong, M.D., Ph.D., with 2014 William Dameshek Prize

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Medical Center

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

22-Jul-2014

Contact: Amanda Szabo aszabo@hematology.org 202-552-4914 American Society of Hematology

(WASHINGTON, July 22, 2014)The American Society of Hematology will present the 2014 William Dameshek Prize to Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center for his exceptional work in leukemia research and cancer stem cell biology.

This prize, named after the late William Dameshek, MD, a renowned hematologist, past president of ASH, and the first editor of the Society's journal Blood, recognizes an individual who has made a recent, outstanding contribution to the field of hematology. Dr. Armstrong will accept his award at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, December 9, during the 56th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Francisco.

Dr. Armstrong is the Director of the Leukemia Center at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), where he also serves as Vice Chair for Basic and Translational Research in Pediatrics and as a full member of the MSK Cancer Biology and Genetics Program. His research focuses on the biology and epigenetics of a class of leukemias initiated by mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene translocations. Throughout his career, Dr. Armstrong has sought to uncover unique insights into the origin and properties of cancer stem cells, the signaling pathways sustaining cancer cell self-renewal, and the epigenetic mechanisms dependent on MLL-fusion oncogenes.

In 2002 Dr. Armstrong published a seminal paper in Nature Genetics demonstrating that MLLs exhibited a unique expression signature. In subsequent papers published in Cancer Cell in 2003 and Blood in 2004, Dr. Armstrong described how the FMS-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) is highly expressed and often mutated in MLLs. Dr. Armstrong's findings, in conjunction with the work of others, have led to clinical trials of FLT3 in various forms of leukemia. Over the past several years, Dr. Armstrong has extended his elegant study of MLL-rearranged leukemic stem cells in several publications, including Nature, Science, Cancer Cell, and Blood, all while taking advantage of rapidly developing technologies in the fields of genomics, epigenetics, and stem cell biology in a quest to yield new therapies for leukemia.

Dr. Armstrong began his medical career in 1996 after earning his MD and PhD from the University of Texas Southwestern, where he trained with Nobel Laureates Joseph Goldstein, MD, and Michael Brown, MD. After completing a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children's Hospital and a clinical fellowship at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital, Dr. Armstrong held a postdoctoral fellowship in the laboratory of the late Stanley Korsmeyer, MD, at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, where he studied the molecular basis of infant leukemias instigated by MLL gene translocations. Following his postdoctoral training, Dr. Armstrong served as an attending and principal investigator in the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute pediatric hematology/oncology program, launching an independent laboratory to study the molecular genetics and therapeutics of leukemia and particularly MLL-rearranged disease, where he remained until he was recruited to MSK in 2012.

In addition to his membership to ASH, Dr. Armstrong is a member of the Society of Pediatric Research, the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, the Society for Hematology and Stem Cells, and the American Society for Clinical Investigation. His recent awards include the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research E. Mead Johnson Award for Research in Pediatrics, the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, and the International Society of Experimental Hematology McCulloch and Till Award. Earlier this year, Dr. Armstrong was awarded the Frank A. Oski Memorial Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology and was elected to the Association of American Physicians.

"ASH is pleased to honor Dr. Armstrong for his pioneering research in the fields of genomics and stem cell biology that is helping to fuel new therapies for patients diagnosed with devastating leukemias," said ASH President Linda J. Burns, MD, of the University of Minnesota. "His leadership and landmark discoveries in the fields of cancer stem cells and leukemia will undoubtedly leave a lasting imprint on contemporary cancer research."

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ASH honors Scott Armstrong, M.D., Ph.D., with 2014 William Dameshek Prize

Controversial Staminia treatment carried out on sick boy

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Treatment

Brescia hospital ordered to let discredited therapy resume

(ANSA) - Brescia, July 22 - A controversial stem-cell treatment was administered to a child suffering from muscular dystrophy at a hospital in northern Italy on Tuesday despite having been discredited. The Stamina treatment was administered on the orders of a Sicilian court after the hospital in Brescia decided to suspend the procedure on the boy suffering from Duchenne muscula dystrophy because it had been called into doubt. The child "will remain in observation for a few hours and we will carry out a few tests," said Giuseppe Morfino, the court-appointed doctor leading the external team that performed the treatment. Morfino added that the atmosphere at the hospital had been cooperative. The credibility of the Stamina treatment, which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient, has long been suspect, and last autumn the health ministry ruled that the Stamina Foundation would no longer be allowed to test the treatment on humans. The foundation was also stripped of its non-profit status after a study found its treatment was "ignorant of stem-cell biology". Recent investigations have shown risks of the treatment range from nausea to cancer, and reported that as many as one-quarter of all patients treated have experienced "adverse effects". In April, after study results became known, hospitals in Italy announced they had suspended the stem-cell treatment program. However, some local judges have ruled in favor of its application, despite the bans, amid heavy pressure from advocates and the families of patients.

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Controversial Staminia treatment carried out on sick boy

Arthritis Alleviated: MetroMD Introduces Latest in Stem Cell Therapy in LA; Promises to be Especially Helpful for …

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stem Cell Treatment

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) July 22, 2014

MetroMD, one of the leading names in regenerative medicines in all of California and one of the greatest proponents of holistic health services, now brings a reason to rejoice for individuals long suffering from debilitating arthritis. As per a report published on March 6 2013, by The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery on The US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health (Ref: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3748969/), on an average, around 500,000 revision of knee replacement surgeries were recorded in the US - with the prime reason being osteoarthritis in majority of these cases. And If Mr. Devin Stone, MetroMDs Operations Director is to be believed, the cumulative cost of the treatment is estimated to be around $50 billion every year.

The cost covers hospitals bills, doctors visits, medicine, etc and makes arthritic treatment, which often requires a repeat procedure, a hugely burdensome endeavor. But the fact is, even after spending so much of money, one is not sure about getting fully relieved from the agony that arthritis brings to ones life. Arthritis appears in many forms and the expresses itself as joint pain, stiffness and limited body movement in a patient, says Dr Alex Martin, MD, MetroMDs Director of Medicines. MetroMD, ensures that patients can put aside all these concerns and enjoy complete healing that only an advanced Stem cell therapy for arthritis can promise, says Dr. Martin highlighting the fact regarding how pocket-friendly the treatment is. One can regain a healthy knee, while retaining the health of his/her money bag now with MetroMDs stem cell therapy.

How does MetroMDs Stem cell therapy Work?

MetroMDs stem cell treatment process includes extraction of healthy bone marrow out of the patients body by experts and placing it in a centrifuge. After segregating various elements of blood, the stem cell is isolated and placed with cellular growth promoters (found in platelets). All of these are then inserted into the part of the body, ensuring a quicker tissue-based healing.

Mr. Devin Stone exuded confidence in mentioning that MetroMDs stem cell therapies come as a great alternative to invasive surgeries - making way for easier and quicker knee replacements and arthritic treatment.

Is the stem cell therapy safe?

Dr. Alex Martin says, If you are suffering from chronic joint paint due to arthritis, surgery is not anymore the only answer. Stem Cell Therapy can provide an amazing alternative, where your own cells are used to promote healing inside your body. Medicine has advanced significantly in the last 15 years and persistence with the techniques that were pioneered over two decades ago is illogical- and newer and less invasive procedures are the future of medicine.

Backed by the fact that stem cell treatment is a minimally invasive procedure requiring little or no hospitalization, Dr Martins and MetroMDs stance towards propagating stem cell therapy looks only logical. The procedure is legal and the therapy rendered by MetroMD is in compliance with CFR 21 part 1271 standards. Being a non surgical process, evidently, its the safest and totally side-effect free process.

Dr. Martin welcomes the residents of LA suffering from debilitating arthritic condition to consult an expert at its branches spread across in several parts of Los Angeles - and enjoy an improved quality of life.

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Arthritis Alleviated: MetroMD Introduces Latest in Stem Cell Therapy in LA; Promises to be Especially Helpful for ...

3-D-printed tissues advance stem cell research — ScienceDaily

By adminJuly 23, 2014Stell Cell Research

Tissue engineering and vascular biology expert Guohao Dai, assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, recently won a Faculty Early Career Development Award (CAREER) from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Dai will use the five-year, $440,000 grant to advance his research into bio-fabricating human tissues with 3-D cell printing technology. Adult neural stem cells are known to hold a great potential for treating disease and damage to the nervous system. However, these cells are both rare and difficult to use in a laboratory setting. The cells lose their potency quickly upon being removed from their native environment, making it difficult to study them.

With his CAREER Award, Dai seeks to design and develop a new way of using 3-D cell printing technology to create a "vascular niche" that replicates the native environment of adult neural stem cells. With the ability to prolong the potency of the cells and precisely control the parameters and components of its vascular niche, researchers would be better positioned to study the cells and their role in treating treat spinal cord injury and neurodegenerative diseases.

"Adult neural stem cells hold so much promise for treating injury and disease, but they are extremely difficult to work with," Dai said. "We believe that we can apply 3-D tissue printing technology to create a vascular niche that will prolong the life of the cells and, in turn, enable new opportunities for studying how they may be used to treat injury and fight disease."

The CAREER Award is given to faculty members at the beginning of their academic careers and is one of NSF's most competitive awards, placing emphasis on high-quality research and novel education initiatives. Dai will collaborate on his CAREER project with two stem cells experts, Rensselaer Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Deanna Thompson and Neural Stem Cell Initiative Scientific Director Sally Temple.

Most laboratory cell cultures are 2-D. This is significantly different from the human body, where most cells are in a 3-D environment. A major challenge in creating and studying 3-D tissues is the diffusion limit in the tissues, which quickly lose potency or die without a flow of blood to provide oxygen and nutrients.

To help overcome this challenge, Dai and his collaborators have spent years developing a 3-D tissue printer -- both the hardware and the software. The unique device prints biological tissue by carefully depositing cells, hydrogels, and other materials one layer at a time. Using this platform, Dai developed the technology to create perfused vascular channels, which provide nutrients and oxygen to the printed tissues.

"Blood vessels run throughout almost every part of our bodies, bringing the oxygen and nutrients that allow our cells to survive. The same is true of 3-D cell cultures. They need a vascular system in order to survive," Dai said. "Our device can print 3-D tissues with small channels that function as blood vessels. This enables us to print cells with extracellular matrices that closely replicate those found within the body."

Dai's research team used the 3-D tissue printing technology to help study how the functions of the vascular endothelium -- a thin layer of cells that line entire circulatory system -- are affected by environmental factors such as interactions with blood and smooth muscle cells. A dysfunctional endothelium is known to be a contributor to many vascular diseases including inflammation, thrombosis, and atherosclerosis.

With his CAREER Award, Dai is applying his expertise and unique 3-D tissue printing technology to replicate the native environment of adult neural stem cells. If successful, the project could significantly expand the potency and life span of the cells in laboratory settings, and lead to a better understanding of how this extracellular environment influences the behavior of the cells.

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3-D-printed tissues advance stem cell research -- ScienceDaily

ViaCyte asks FDA for go-ahead with human trials of cell replacement therapy for diabetes

By adminJuly 22, 2014Uncategorized

ViaCyte, a privately held regenerative medicine company developing a cell replacement therapy for the treatment of diabetes, has filed an Investigational New Drug application with the United States Food and Drug Administration, seeking to start a Phase 1/2 clinical trial in patients with type 1 diabetes, it was reported on Friday.

The trial will assess the safety and efficacy of ViaCyte's VC-01 product candidate, a stem cell-derived, encapsulated cell replacement therapy. The company has also submitted a Medical Device Master File to the United States Food and Drug Administration in support of the Encaptra drug delivery system, the device component of the VC-01 product candidate. The company's VC-01 product candidate includes pancreatic progenitor cells, called PEC-01 cells, which are derived from a proprietary human embryonic stem cell line.

Paul Laikind, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer of ViaCyte, said, 'The filing of this IND represents the culmination of many years of research and development by a dedicated team focused on developing a cell replacement therapy for patients with type 1 diabetes and advancing our VC-01 product candidate to human clinical trials. The ViaCyte team has been assisted and supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) a leading organisation focused on advancing the field of stem cell-based technologies, and JDRF, the leading advocacy organisation for patients with type 1 diabetes.'

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Motoneuron-like cell transplantation and GDNF delivery for repair of SCI

By adminJuly 22, 2014Uncategorized

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

18-Jul-2014

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research

Adipose-derived stem cells-transdifferentiated motoneurons after transplantation can integrate in the host cord. However, cell survival has been restricted by a lack of ideal environment for nerve cell growth. Taki Tiraihi, Shefa Neuroscience Research Center at Khatam Al-Anbia Hospital, Iran developed rat models of spinal cord injury (SCI) and injected adipose-derived stem cells-transdifferentiated motoneurons into the epicenter, rostral and caudal regions of the impact site and simultaneously transplanted glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)-gelfoam complex into the myelin sheath. Motoneurons-like cell transplantation combined with GDNF delivery reduced cavity formations and increased cell density in the transplantation site. The combined therapy exhibited superior promoting effects on recovery of motor function to transplantation of GDNF, adipose-derived stem cells or motoneurons alone. These findings suggest that motoneuron-like cell transplantation combined with GDNF delivery holds a great promise for repair of spinal cord injury. Related results were published in Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 9, No. 10, 2014).

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Article: "Intraspinal transplantation of motoneuron-like cell combined with delivery of polymer-based glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor for repair of spinal cord contusion injury" by Alireza Abdanipour, Taki Tiraihi, Taher Taheri (Shefa Neuroscience Research Center at Khatam Al-Anbia Hospital, Tehran, Iran) Abdanipour A, Tiraihi T, Taheri T. Intraspinal transplantation of motoneuron-like cell combined with delivery of polymer-based glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor for repair of spinal cord contusion injury. Neural Regen Res. 2014;9(10):1003-1013.

Contact: Meng Zhao eic@nrren.org 86-138-049-98773 Neural Regeneration Research http://www.nrronline.org/

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Motoneuron-like cell transplantation and GDNF delivery for repair of SCI

Montreal woman with leukemia desperately seeks Vietnamese stem cell donors

By adminJuly 22, 2014Stem Cell Treatment

Leukemia patient Mai Duong is in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant -- something doctors say the Montreal resident requires within a matter of weeks.

While finding a well-matched stem cell donor is already a difficult task, the 34-year-old mother of one faces an added challenge: shes Vietnamese.

Duong was first diagnosed with acute leukemia in 2013, when she was 15 weeks pregnant with her second child. She was forced to terminate the pregnancy as she underwent seven months of chemotherapy, putting her cancer into remission for seven months.

But it returned in May, and doctors gave her two months to find a stem cell match.

"The only option for me to get cured is with the generosity of people," she says.

Duongs case is raising the alarm about a need for stem cell donors among Canada's minority groups, as those in need of transplants are more likely to find a donor from the same ethnic background.

Canadian Blood Services says less than 25 per cent of individuals in need of a stem cell transplant will be able to find a match within their own families and will have to turn to the public inthe hopes of finding a suitable donor.

But ethnic minorities are under-represented on donor lists in North America.

Less than one per cent of registered stem cell donors in Quebec are of South Asian descent, according to Hema-Quebec, the provinces blood services agency. The statistics are similar across Canada and in the international donor database.

"There is a cultural effect and religious effect," spokesperson Susie Joron told CTV News. "The other issue is that the biggest registries are in America and Germany, which has a big Caucasian population."