VIDEO | Ateneo graduate dies after undergoing stem cell therapy

By: Ina Zara, News5 April 7, 2014 9:05 PM

Contributed file photo of Katherine Grace Tan.

InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5

MANILA, Philippines A cum laude graduate from the Ateneo de Manila University, who was suffering from Hodgkin's lymphoma, died last year after undergoing embryonic stem cell therapy that was allegedly administered by Antonia Park, the alternative medicine doctor of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Bernard Tan claimed that Park had promised that within three months, his 23-year-old daughter, Katherine Grace Tan, would be cured of her disease, which according to the doctor was not cancer but just hormonal imbalance.

But after undergoing treatment and strictly following a juice diet, Katherine got weaker and died.

Earlier this month, it was reported that Park, of the Green & Young Health & Wellness Center,admitted that she wasnt licensed to practice in the Philippines.

Records from the theProfessional Regulatory Commission as of August 2013 showed that Park was not on the list of physicians authorized to practice medicine in the country.

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VIDEO | Ateneo graduate dies after undergoing stem cell therapy

Stem Cell Research – Pros and Cons – explorable

The debate of the pros and cons of stem cell research clearly illustrate the difficult ethics evaluations researchers sometimes must do.

All scientists must consider whether the positive effects from their research are likely to be significantly higher than the negative effects.

Stem Cells are crucial to develop organisms. They are nonspecialized cells which have the potential to create other types of specific cells, such as blood-, brain-, tissue- or muscle-cells.

Stem cells are in all of our body and lives, but are far more potent in a fetus (also spelled foetus, ftus, faetus, or ftus) than in an adult body.

Some types of stem cells may be able to create all other cells in the body. Others have the potential to repair or replace damaged tissue or cells.

Embryonic Stem Cells are developed from a female egg after it is fertilized by sperm. The process takes 4-5 days.

Stem cell research is used for investigation of basic cells which develop organisms. The cells are grown in laboratories where tests are carried out to investigate fundamental properties of the cells.

There are stem cells in the both placenta and blood contained in the placenta. Also the primary source of stem cells is from blastocysts. These are fertilized human eggs that were not implanted into a woman.

The controversy surrounding stem cell research led to an intense debate about ethics. Up until the recent years, the research method mainly focused on Embryonic Stem Cells, which involves taking tissue from an aborted embryo to get proper material to study. This is typically done just days after conception or between the 5th and 9th week.

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Stem Cell Research - Pros and Cons - explorable

Royal Engineer's bungee jump to boost Enzo stem cell appeal

Royal Engineer's bungee jump to boost Enzo stem cell appeal

12:50pm Sunday 6th April 2014 in News

A SOLDIER has undertaken a bungee jump off Middlesbroughs Transporter Bridge to raise funds for stem cell treatment for a toddler who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy after being starved of oxygen during labour.

Ripon-based Royal Engineer Stephen Maher said he wanted to boost the 60,000 appeal to enable 18-month-old Enzo Thompson to develop basic physical skills.

The 27-year-old said he hoped the 160ft leap would also raise awareness of the fundraising campaign for the toddler from Hampshire.

Enzos mother, Caroline, said the damage caused to Enzo's brain meant he is unable to process the signals that his brain is sending to his body.

She said: Stem cell treatment is a way of repairing and replacing these damaged cells.

In the long run we hope that the treatment will offer our son a better quality of life and the chance to be free and independent.

To donate, visit Justgiving.com/Enzostemcell or text ENZO55 followed by your donation to 70070.

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Royal Engineer's bungee jump to boost Enzo stem cell appeal

Radio Personality: Remarkable Response to Stem Cell Treatment

Posted on: 7:45 pm, April 5, 2014, by Darcie Loreno, updated on: 07:53pm, April 5, 2014

CLEVELAND, Ohio Two months after undergoing an experimental new stem cell procedure, a popular Cleveland on-air personality is speaking out about her progress.

WZAKs Kym Sellers, who has multiple sclerosis, became in February the first person in Ohio to have the procedure, which extracts millions of stem cells from body fat, then deploys them back into the body through an IV.

The outpatient procedure was performed at the Ohio Stem Cell Treatment Center in Beachwood by a team of surgeons including the centers founders Dr. Mark Foglietti and Dr. Michael Kellis.

Kym still comes to tears thinking about it. The procedure isnt FDA approved and is considered patient-funded research.

Since the procedure, Kym said shes noticed improvements in her breathing, pain levels, edema and mobility. She said she can tell her body is trying to fight the disease.

Her doctors call it a remarkable response and are already planning to treat her again.

For much more on Kym and her procedure, click here.

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Radio Personality: Remarkable Response to Stem Cell Treatment

Stem cell research in Alabama gets anonymous $1 million boost

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A new organization looking to stimulate stem cell research got a shot in the arm last month with an anonymous $1 million donation.

The Alabama Institute of Medicine wants to use the money to help fund four to five pilot studies which typically cost about $100,000 to $300,000 a piece, said Tory Williams co-founder of the private, nonprofit organization.

On Monday AIM will ask Alabama scientists to begin submitting their applications for funding, a process called a Request For Application (RFA). The applications will be reviewed on a double-blind basis -- meaning the grantee not knowing the reviewer and vice versa.

"We want to raise money for pilot studies aimed at treating such diseases as cancer, diabetes, cardiac, sports injury and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's," she said.

She said she feels good about raising their goal of $10 million this year. A longer term goal is to develop a hospital where regenerative medical treatments can be administered.

She said 90 percent of the funds will go toward research. All donations are placed in AIMs scientific trust fund and are recognized as tax- deductible donations.

In 2012 she worked to help pass a law for spinal cord injury research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. During that time she saw how scientists were not being encouraged to engage in advanced stem cell research like hESCs -- human embryonic stem cells.

She acknowledged that Alabama has a segment of the population that is opposed to such research on religious grounds but she said she has been amazed by the support.

"Research involving embryos has been controversial," she said. "But over 500,000 embryos are thrown away every year from fertility clinics. It almost like recycling. Take something that is being thrown away every year and treat people dying of these diseases."

Williams was recently featured in a Q&A in the Knoepfer Lab Blog at the University of California-Davis School of Medicine.

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Stem cell research in Alabama gets anonymous $1 million boost

Scientists smash barrier to growing organs from stem cells

8 hours ago by Josh Barney U.Va. scientists Bernard and Chris Thisse have created a zebrafish embryo by instructing stem cells.

(Phys.org) Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have overcome one of the greatest challenges in biology and taken a major step toward being able to grow whole organs and tissues from stem cells. By manipulating the appropriate signaling, the U.Va. researchers have turned embryonic stem cells into a fish embryo, essentially controlling embryonic development.

The research will have dramatic impact on the future use of stem cells to better the human condition, providing a framework for future studies in the field of regenerative medicine aimed at constructing tissues and organs from populations of cultured pluripotent cells.

In accomplishing this, U.Va. scientists Bernard and Chris Thisse have overcome the most massive of biological barriers. "We have generated an animal by just instructing embryonic cells the right way," said Chris Thisse of the School of Medicine's Department of Cell Biology.

The importance of that is profound. "If we know how to instruct embryonic cells," she said, "we can pretty much do what we want." For example, scientists will be able one day to instruct stem cells to grow into organs needed for transplant.

Directing Embryonic Development

The researchers were able to identify the signals sufficient for starting the cascade of molecular and cellular processes that lead to a fully developed fish embryo. With this study came an answer to the longstanding question of how few signals can initiate the processes of development: amazingly, only two.

The study has shed light on the important roles these two signals play for the formation of organs and full development of a zebrafish embryo. Moreover, the Thisses are now able to direct embryonic development and formation of tissues and organs by controlling signal locations and concentrations.

The embryo they generated was smaller than a normal embryo, because they instructed a small pool of embryonic stem cells, but "otherwise he has everything" in terms of appropriate development, said Bernard Thisse of the Department of Cell Biology.

Their next steps will be to attempt to reproduce their findings using mice. They expect molecular and cellular mechanisms will be extremely similar in mice and other mammals including humans.

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Scientists smash barrier to growing organs from stem cells

FDA Approves CardioCell's Phase 2A Trial For CHF Stem Cell Therapy

By Estel Grace Masangkay

CardioCell LLC announced that it has received FDA approval for its investigational new drug (IND) application for a U.S.-based Phase IIA clinical study evaluating its allogeneic stem-cell therapy for patients with chronic heart failure (CHF).

Dr. Sergey Sikora, CardioCells president and CEO, said, With the FDAs IND approval, CardioCell is pleased to proceed with a Phase 2a CHF clinical trial based on the safety data reported in previous clinical trials using our unique, hypoxically grown stem cells. At the studys conclusion we will understand if our therapy produces signs of improvement in a population of patients with dilated CHF, a condition largely unaddressed by current therapies. Dilated CHF is characterized by a viable but non-functioning myocardium in which cardiomyocytes are alive but are not contracting as they should. We hope that unique properties of our itMSCs will transition patients cardiomyocytes from viable to functioning, eventually improving or restoring heart function.

The company has developed an ischemic tolerant mesenchymal stem cells (itMSC) treatment for the type of dilated CHF that is not related to coronary artery disease. The treatment could potentially apply to about 35 percent of CHF patients. Only CardioCells CHF therapies feature itMSCs, exclusively licensed from CardioCells parent company Stemedica Cell Technologies Inc. The company said Stemedicas bone marrow-derived, allogeneic MSCs are different from other MSCs because they are grown under hypoxic conditions that closely resemble the environment in which they thrive on in the body.

Dr. Stephen Epstein, CardioCells Scientific Advisory Board Chair, said Although past trials have tested the efficacy of different stem cells in patients with DCM, CardioCells itMSCs, grown under chronic hypoxic conditions, are unique. As compared to stem cells grown under normoxic conditions, they express higher levels of factors that could exert beneficial effects on the mechanisms contributing to myocardial dysfunction and disease progression. This study, therefore, provides an exciting opportunity to test the potential of these itMSCs to attenuate or eliminate these mechanisms and, in so doing, improve patient outcomes.

The trial entitled A Phase 2a, Single-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Crossover, Multi-Center, Randomized Study to Assess the Safety, Tolerability, and Preliminary Efficacy of a Single Intravenous Dose of Ischemia-Tolerant Allogeneic Mesenchymal Bone Marrow Cells to Subjects With Heart Failure of Non-Ischemic Etiology, will be conducted at Emory University, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania in May this year.

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FDA Approves CardioCell's Phase 2A Trial For CHF Stem Cell Therapy

Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Therapy Clinical Trial for Multiple Sclerosis Gets Green Light

Dallas, TX (PRWEB) April 03, 2014

Translational Biosciences, a subsidiary of Medistem Panama, has received the green light for a phase I/II clinical trial using human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSC) for multiple sclerosis from the Comit Nacional de Biotica de la Investigacin (CNEI) Institutional Review Board (IRB) in Panama.

According to the US National Multiple Sclerosis Society, in Multiple Sclerosis (MS), an abnormal immune-mediated T cell response attacks the myelin coating around nerve fibers in the central nervous system, as well as the nerve fibers themselves. This causes nerve impulses to slow or even halt, thus producing symptoms of MS that include fatigue; bladder and bowel problems; vision problems; and difficulty walking. The Cleveland Clinic reports that MS affects more than 350,000 people in the United States and 2.5 million worldwide.

Mesenchymal stem cells harvested from donated human umbilical cords after normal, healthy births possess anti-inflammatory and immune modulatory properties that may relieve MS symptoms. Because these cells are immune privileged, the recipients immune system does not reject them. These properties make UC-MSC interesting candidates for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune disorders.

Each patient will receive seven intravenous injections of UC-MSC over the course of 10 days. They will be assessed at 3 months and 12 months primarily for safety and secondarily for indications of efficacy.

The stem cell technology being utilized in this trial was developed by Neil Riordan, PhD, founder of Medistem Panama. The stem cells will be harvested and processed at Medistem Panamas 8000 sq. ft. ISO-9001 certified laboratory in the prestigious City of Knowledge. They will be administered at the Stem Cell Institute in Panama City, Panama.

From his research laboratory in Dallas, Texas, Dr. Riordan commented, Umbilical cord tissue provides an abundant, non-controversial supply of immune modulating mesenchymal stem cells. Preclinical and clinical research has demonstrated the anti-inflammatory and immune modulating effects of these cells. We look forward to the safety and efficacy data that will be generated by this clinical trial; the first in the western hemisphere testing the effects of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells on patients with multiple sclerosis.

The Principle Investigator is Jorge Paz-Rodriguez, MD. Dr. Paz-Rodriguez also serves as the Medical Director at the Stem Cell Institute.

For detailed information about this clinical trial visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov . If you are a multiple sclerosis patient between the ages of 18 and 55, you may qualify for this trial. Please email trials (at) translationalbiosciences (dot) com for more information about how to apply.

About Translational Biosciences

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Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Therapy Clinical Trial for Multiple Sclerosis Gets Green Light

TiGenix : licenses exclusive marketing and distribution rights for ChondroCelect to Sobi

Regulated information 3 April, 2014

TiGenix licenses exclusive marketing and distribution rights for ChondroCelect to Sobi

Sobi to assume responsibility for the commercialisation of ChondroCelect in existing and new markets in Europe and beyond

Sobi's considerable expertise and resources will enhance the availability of ChondroCelect to many more patients in many more countries

TiGenix to focus its resources on developing its pipeline of allogeneic treatments using expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASC's)

Leuven (BELGIUM) - 3 April, 2014 -TiGenix NV (Euronext Brussels: TIG), the European leader in cell therapy, announced today that it has licensed the marketing and distribution of ChondroCelect, the cell-based medicinal product for the repair of cartilage defects of the knee, to the international specialty healthcare company dedicated to rare diseases, Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB ('Sobi', NASDAQ OMX Stockholm: SOBI).

ChondroCelect was the first cell-based product to be approved in Europe. It is currently available for patients and reimbursed in Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain. Sales of ChondroCelect in 2013 were Euro 4.3 million, a growth of 25% on a like-for-like basis over 2012.

Sobi will continue to market and distribute the product where it is currently available and has also acquired the exclusive rights to expand the product's availability to patients in multiple additional territories, including the rest of the European Union, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, and Russia, plus the countries of the Middle East and North Africa.

TiGenix will receive a royalty of 22% of the net sales of ChondroCelect in the first year of the agreement, and 20% of the net sales of ChondroCelect thereafter. There will be no upfront or milestone payments. The agreement will take effect on 1 June 2014, and has a duration of 10 years.

"We are delighted to reach this agreement with Sobi", said Eduardo Bravo, CEO of TiGenix. "With its experience of marketing and distributing specialty products, and with its human and financial resources, Sobi has the ability to bring ChondroCelect to a far greater number of patients in many more countries. This then allows TiGenix to focus its human and financial resources on the development of its platform and pipeline of allogeneic treatments using expanded adipose-derived stem cells (eASC's) for the benefit of patients suffering from a range of inflammatory and immunological conditions."

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TiGenix : licenses exclusive marketing and distribution rights for ChondroCelect to Sobi

Patient stem cells help identify common problem in ALS

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Apr-2014

Contact: B.D. Colen bd_colen@harvard.edu 617-413-1224 Harvard University

Harvard stem cell scientists have discovered that a recently approved medication for epilepsy may possibly be a meaningful treatment for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)Lou Gehrig's disease, a uniformly fatal neurodegenerative disorder. The researchers are now collaborating with Massachusetts General Hospital to design an initial clinical trial testing the safety of the treatment in ALS patients.

The investigators all caution that a great deal needs to be done to assure the safety and efficacy of the treatment in ALS patients, before physicians should start offering it.

The work, laid out in two related papers in the April 3 online editions of Cell Stem Cell and Cell Reports, is the long-term fruition of studies by Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Principal Faculty member Kevin Eggan, PhD, who, in a 2008 Science paper, first raised the possibility of using ALS patient-derived stem cells to better understand the disease and identify therapeutic targets for new drugs.

Now Eggan and HSCI colleague Clifford Woolf, MD, PhD, have found that the many independent mutations that cause ALS may be linked by their ability to trigger abnormally high activity in motor neurons. Using neurons derived from stem cells made from ALS patient skin cells, the two research teams conducted clinical trials of the anti-epilepsy medication on neurons in laboratory dishes, finding that it reduced the hyperexcitability of the cells.

ALS is a devastating and currently untreatable degradation of motor neurons, the long nerve cells that connect the spinal cord to the muscles of the body. While several potential treatments have looked promising in mice, all proved disappointing in the clinic.

"The big problem in ALS is that there are more than a hundred mutations in dozens of genes that all cause the disease, but almost all of the therapeutics that have gone forward in the clinic have done so for just one of those mutations, SOD1, which almost everyone studies in mice," said Eggan, a professor in Harvard's Department of Stem and Regenerative Biology.

"And so," he continued, "the key question that we really wanted to address wasare clinical efforts failing because the mouse is taking us on a wild goose chase, or is it simply that people haven't had the opportunity to pre-test whether their ideas are true across lots of forms of ALS?"

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Patient stem cells help identify common problem in ALS