Stem Cell Clinic

BrainStorm Featured on CNBC

NEW YORK & PETACH TIKVAH, Israel--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc. (OTCBB: BCLI.OB - News), a developer of innovative stem cell technologies for neurodegenerative disorders, announced that NurOwn™, its autologous stem cell therapy for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's Disease, was profiled yesterday on CNBC. In the Feature Story about the impact of Iran's nuclear threat, Israeli business and scientific leaders were interviewed about Israel's thriving economy and cutting edge technologies. Among those leaders that met with CNBC were Brainstorm’s President Mr. Chaim Lebovits and Prof. Dimitrios Karussis, Principal Investigator of Brainstorm's Phase I/II clinical trial currently underway at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Brainstorm recently announced positive initial results from the clinical trial, resulting in approval from Hadassah's Helsinki committee to proceed with the trial. Accordingly, additional patients have been enrolled in the study, and Brainstorm will announce additional results in the coming months.

To see the video online, follow the link at: http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000074883

To read the Feature Story online, follow the link at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/46484576

Safe Harbor Statement
Statements in this announcement other than historical data and information constitute "forward-looking statements" and involve risks and uncertainties that could cause BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc.'s actual results to differ materially from those stated or implied by such forward-looking statements. The potential risks and uncertainties include risks associated with BrainStorm's limited operating history, history of losses; minimal working capital, dependence on its license to Ramot's technology; ability to adequately protect the technology; dependence on key executives and on its scientific consultants; ability to obtain required regulatory approvals; and other factors detailed in BrainStorm's annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q available at http://www.sec.gov. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements made by us.

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BrainStorm Featured on CNBC

Maven Semantic: Embryonic Stem Cells Research Database

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Maven Semantic (http://www.mavensemantic.com) announces updates to their Embryonic Stem Cells research database.

The new database is now available to marketing, business development, competitor intelligence, KOL, medical affairs and related departments in the life sciences sector.

The database currently tags 27,000 individuals working in Embryonic Stem Cells. http://bit.ly/zc0cU4.

Top 10 Countries for Embryonic Stem Cells Research (ranked by number of senior researchers)

Leading organisations in Embryonic Stem Cells research include:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine Baylor College of Medicine Brigham and Women's Hospital California Institute of Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Cornell University Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Duke University Medical Center Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Genome Institute of Singapore Harvard Medical School Howard Hughes Medical Institute Hubrecht Laboratory Indiana University School of Medicine Institut Pasteur Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences Institute of Human Genetics Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Karolinska Institute Keio University School of Medicine Lund University Mount Sinai Hospital New York University School of Medicine Seoul National University University College London University of Cambridge University of Chicago University of Massachusetts Medical School University of Michigan University of Pennsylvania University of Toronto University of Tsukuba Weill Medical College of Cornell University Zhejiang University

The database also includes pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, CROs, hospitals, government labs and other organisations active in the Embryonic Stem Cells research field.

Sample companies in database include:

AgResearch Ltd Amgen Inc Axiogenesis AG Cellartis AB Cellular Dynamics International, Inc Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd DNAVEC Corporation ES Cell International Pte Ltd F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd Genentech, Inc GENPHARM INTERNATIONAL, INC Geron Corporation Hayashibara Biochemical Laboratories, Inc Illumina, Inc Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG Invitrogen Corporation Japan Science and Technology Corp KENNEDY KRIEGER, INC Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc

What is Maven:

- Largest database of international medical professionals, with over 6,000,000 people and over 500,000 medical organisations;

- All records are downloadable to excel or in-house database, with email, postal address and phone contacts;

- Profile and segment the entire database using over 47,000 diseases and therapeutic areas

For more information visit http://www.mavensemantic.com/

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Maven Semantic: Embryonic Stem Cells Research Database

Memory formation triggered by stem cell development

Public release date: 23-Feb-2012
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Contact: RIKEN Brain Science Promotion Division
pr@brain.riken.jp
81-484-679-757
RIKEN

Researchers at the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics have discovered an answer to the long-standing mystery of how brain cells can both remember new memories while also maintaining older ones.

They found that specific neurons in a brain region called the dentate gyrus serve distinct roles in memory formation depending on whether the neural stem cells that produced them were of old versus young age.

The study will appear in the March 30 issue of Cell and links the cellular basis of memory formation to the birth of new neurons -- a finding that could unlock a new class of drug targets to treat memory disorders.

The findings also suggest that an imbalance between young and old neurons in the brain could disrupt normal memory formation during post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and aging. "In animals, traumatic experiences and aging often lead to decline of the birth of new neurons in the dentate gyrus. In humans, recent studies found dentate gyrus dysfunction and related memory impairments during normal aging," said the study's senior author Susumu Tonegawa, 1987 Nobel Laureate and Director of the RIKEN-MIT Center.

Other authors include Toshiaki Nakashiba and researchers from the RIKEN-MIT Center and Picower Institute at MIT; the laboratory of Michael S. Fanselow at the University of California at Los Angeles; and the laboratory of Chris J. McBain at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

In the study, the authors tested mice in two types of memory processes. Pattern separation is the process by which the brain distinguishes differences between similar events, like remembering two Madeleine cookies with different tastes. In contrast, pattern completion is used to recall detailed content of memories based on limited clues, like recalling who one was with when remembering the taste of the Madeleine cookies.

Pattern separation forms distinct new memories based on differences between experiences; pattern completion retrieves memories by detecting similarities. Individuals with brain injury or trauma may be unable to recall people they see every day. Others with PTSD are unable to forget terrible events. "Impaired pattern separation due to the loss of young neurons may shift the balance in favor of pattern completion, which may underlie recurrent traumatic memory recall observed in PTSD patients," Tonegawa said.

Neuroscientists have long thought these two opposing and potentially competing processes occur in different neural circuits. The dentate gyrus, a structure with remarkable plasticity within the nervous system and its role in conditions from depression to epilepsy to traumatic brain injury -- was thought to be engaged in pattern separation and the CA3 region in pattern completion. Instead, the MIT researchers found that dentate gyrus neurons may perform pattern separation or completion depending on the age of their cells.

The MIT researchers assessed pattern separation in mice who learned to distinguish between two similar but distinct chambers: one safe and the other associated with an unpleasant foot shock. To test their pattern completion abilities, the mice were given limited cues to escape a maze they had previously learned to negotiate. Normal mice were compared with mice lacking either young neurons or old neurons. The mice exhibited defects in pattern completion or separation depending on which set of neurons was removed.

"By studying mice genetically modified to block neuronal communication from old neurons -- or by wiping out their adult-born young neurons -- we found that old neurons were dispensable for pattern separation, whereas young neurons were required for it," co-author Toshiaki Nakashiba said. "Our data also demonstrated that mice devoid of old neurons were defective in pattern completion, suggesting that the balance between pattern separation and completion may be altered as a result of loss of old neurons."

###

The work was supported by the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Otsuka Maryland Research Institute, Picower Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.

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Memory formation triggered by stem cell development

Carrboro man to get stem cell transplant

Published: Feb 22, 2012 02:00 AM
Modified: Feb 20, 2012 10:41 PM

Carrboro man to get stem cell transplant
Treatment a first at UNC

BY ELIZABETH SWARINGEN, Special to The Chapel Hill News

CHAPEL HILL - Three infusions of your own stem cells - each infusion over a 21-day hospitalization - can seem daunting. But, when it's your best chance for beating a recurrence of testicular cancer, you look forward to it."It doesn't seem intimidating to me at all," said David Alston, 42, of Carrboro. "You don't normally think of stem cell bone marrow transplants as treatment for testicular cancer, but it has been done in New York with success. I'm pleased it's available to me here at UNC Hospitals."This month Alston is having the first triple-tandem transplant done in an adult at UNC Hospitals.The process involves harvesting and freezing his own stem cells, receiving high-dose chemotherapy to attack the cancer, then having the stem cells infused over three back-to-back hospitalizations."He's young and otherwise healthy, and we think this is the right thing for him," said Dr. Paul M. Armistead, assistant professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology, a member of the UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and leader of Alston's transplant team. "This is his best chance for being cured."Alston, a Charlotte native, was diagnosed with aggressive testicular cancer in March 2011 after experiencing an "avalanche of symptoms.""I didn't have a lump, but I had some weird back pain and loss of feeling in one leg," David said. "By the time I had some scans, we found lymph node involvement in a lot of places. Essentially, the cancer had gone on vacation all over my body."Testicular cancer is one of the more curable cancers, often cured in the first round of chemotherapy, said Dr. Kim Rathmell, associate professor of medicine, a member of UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and Alston's medical oncologist.Aggressive chemotherapy sent the cancer into remission, and by August Alston returned to his long-time job at Weaver Street Market in Chapel Hill's Southern Village.Routine blood test results in December surprised everyone: the cancer was back."Because of the way David's cancer came back, a more aggressive approach than chemotherapy alone was needed," said Rathmell, adding how hard it was knowing Alston faced treatment again. "I shop that store, and I had seen him back at work."Dr. Matthew Milowsky, who participated in the development of the triple-tandem transplant for testicular cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering in New York City, joined UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center last fall as co-director of UNC's urologic oncology program. Rathmell quickly recruited him to Alston's team."We have everything we need here at UNC to treat David," Rathmell said. "Had David come to us five years ago, when this recommended treatment was newer and we didn't have local expertise, I would likely have referred him elsewhere. Today, we are very comfortable doing this transplant here. And it's a total team approach."In January, Alston began receiving two types of chemotherapy to mobilize his stem cells in preparation for collection.This chemotherapy featured one less drug than what he endured after initial diagnosis and yielded fewer side effects."It was night and day difference," he said, remembering the physical and mental side effects that sent him into the ICU last spring. "By comparison, what I'm doing in preparation for the transplant has been rather effortless."But the process is complicated and has many moving parts."David will have five chemotherapy infusions administered by two separate medical teams that have to work together through a lot of logistics about what happens when," said Armistead. "That David is organized and intelligent and sends a lot of questions to Dr. Rathmell and me via email, he's helping himself stay on top of things. Having a patient who is fully aware of what's going on has kept us on our toes and helped us develop and coordinate a more fool-proof system."Still, as a single, stubbornly independent man, Alston needed help and support. Luckily, his mother, Barbara Alston, a retired medical professional from Concord, is by his side.Both are staying at SECU Family House, the 40-bedroom hospital hospitality house minutes from UNC Hospitals for seriously ill adult patients and their family member caregivers.The Alstons will stay at Family House during the nine weeks total that David is expected to be hospitalized. He will join her between transplants and for post-transplant monitoring."It's a comfort being here at Family House," Barbara Alston said. "If we need something, it's taken care of, both here and at the hospital. I'm assured David's getting the care he needs. I'm helping him whenever and wherever I can."SECU Family House will play an even larger role in Alston's recovery post-transplant, both Rathmell and Armistead agreed."This treatment is intense, and David will be more in the hospital than out," Rathmell said. "He will need a solid support system, and he has that with his mother. It's a fragile time, and she has his best interest at heart.""Post-transplant David will need to be monitored closely because his immune system will be very weak," Armistead said. "His mother's medical background is a bonus. The Family House folks are used to immune-suppressed patients and can get them to the hospital quickly if needed."Alston has kept himself swimming in information to minimize the fear and mystery. Barbara has been the great translator when his own efforts didn't yield the level of detail he needed."The constant learning gives it all a degree of routine that took some of the scariness away," Alston said. "But you can't be too independent or too brainy when you have cancer."Cancer blows you out of the water, but it leaves you with valuable insight," he said. "How you deal with cancer is self-guided and you learn things about yourself and your personality that you never knew. It's the ultimate in snatching the silver lining from a cloud."

Elizabeth Swaringen wrote this article for UNC Health Care.

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Carrboro man to get stem cell transplant