Category Archives: Cell Medicine

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is rethinking its rules in the wake of a recent breakthrough involving the creation of stem cell lines from a cloned human embryo OHSU Photos The announcement last month of a long-awaited breakthrough in stem-cell research the creation of stem-cell lines from a cloned human embryo has revived interest in using embryonic stem cells to treat disease. But US regulations mean that many researchers will be watching those efforts from the sidelines. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which distributes the majority of federal funding for stem-cell research, prohibits research on cells taken from embryos created solely for research a category that includes the six stem-cell lines developed by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive-biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, and his colleagues. The team used cloning techniques to combine a donor cell with an unfertilized egg whose nucleus had been removed, creating a self-regenerating stem-cell colony that is genetically matched to the cell donor. Mitalipovs cell lines are also off limits to researchers funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which was created in part to support stem-cell work that is restricted by the NIH. CIRM funds … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Mar-2014 Contact: Gina DiGravio gina.digravio@bmc.org 617-638-8480 Boston University Medical Center (Boston)--While acknowledging the potential of genomics to prevent and treat disease, researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) believe it is long past due to use current scientific data and technical advances to reduce the burden of sickle cell disease (SCD), one of the most common serious single gene disorders. The work, reported as a Viewpoint in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), highlights the gaps in knowledge and care in terms of SCD and the need to address this issue expeditiously. The inexpensive identification of the mutated hemoglobin and the technical capacity to screen populations have been known and operative for decades. Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) is estimated to affect 3 million people in the US: approximately 8 percent of African Americans and .5-3 percent of Hispanics. While the screening indications and contexts for life limiting diseases such as cancer, Down syndrome and SCD differ, timely knowledge of genetic vulnerability and genetic counseling are necessary for informed decision making in all screening contexts. According to the researchers few individuals of child-bearing age born in the United States … Continue reading →

University of Virginia Health System Press Release CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 6, 2014 -- Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered a specific type of immune cell in the bone marrow of mice responsible for an aggressive, poorly understood form of leukemia. The type of leukemia examined in the study proved particularly hardy and resourceful. After the cancer killed a mouse with the responsible mutation, the researchers placed the leukemic cells in a lab dish, where they continued to survive and even thrive. People have been trying to grow leukemia cells in culture, even from patients, and they require other factors to survive. But not these, said UVA researcher Maria Luisa S. Sequeira-Lopez, MD. Her co-researcher, Ariel Gomez, MD, marveled at the cells ability to tolerate even the least hospitable conditions. These are extremely aggressive in that they have developed a system to grow and survive no matter what, he said. They have immortalized themselves. B-Cell Leukemia The research provides important insight into B-cell leukemia, the causes of which are poorly understood, and could lead to new and better treatments. In this case, the loss of a key cellular signaling molecule through mutation appears to trigger the … Continue reading →

See Inside Mar 19, 2013 |By Christine Gorman Richard Clark, NIH Researchers are now experimenting with stem cellsprogenitor cells that can develop into many different types of tissueto coax the bodies of a few individuals to heal themselves. Some of the most advanced clinical trials so far involve treating congestive heart disease and regrowing muscles in soldiers who were wounded in an explosion. But new developments are happening so quickly that investigators have come up with a new nameregenerative medicineto describe the emerging field. Many of the stem cells being studied are referred to as pluripotent, meaning they can give rise to any of the cell types in the body but they cannot give rise on their own to an entirely new body. (Only the earliest embryonic cells, which occur just after fertilization, can give rise to a whole other organism by themselves.) Other stem cells, such as the ones found in the adult body, are multipotent, meaning they can develop into a limited number of different tissue types. One of the most common stem cell treatments being studied is a procedure that extracts a few stem cells from a person's body and grows them in large quantities in the … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Mar-2014 Contact: Donna Dubuc donna.M.Dubuc@Dartmouth.edu 603-653-3615 The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Researchers at Norris Cotton Cancer Center have found an antibody that may be used in future treatments for recurrent small-cell lung cancer, which currently has no effective therapy. The mouse monoclonal antibody they have developed, MAG-1, targets the ProAVP surface marker. When given alone, it significantly slows the growth of tumor xenografts of human recurrent small-cell lung cancer in mice. The study, "Growth Impairment of Small-Cell Cancer by Targeting Pro-Vasopressin with MAG-1 Antibody," was recently published online in Frontiers in Oncology. "We are developing methods of antibody-targeted treatment for recurrent small-cell lung cancer," said lead author William G. North, PhD, professor of Physiology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth and a member of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center. "Targeting with a humanized MAG-1 can likely be effective, especially when given in combination with chemotherapy, for treating a deadly disease for which there is no effective therapy." North says his group has already generated a human chimeric form of MAG-1 that is equally effective as mouse MAG-1, and they are now generating a humanized form for use in patients. ### This work was … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 3-Mar-2014 Contact: Sid Dinsay laura.newman@mountsinai.org 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine New York, NY Prevention and reversal of chronic kidney disease is an urgent public health need. The disease affects 1 in 10 Americans, is debilitating and deadly, and existing drugs, at best, offer only mild delay in progression to end-stage kidney failure. New research led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai investigators has uncovered abnormal molecular signaling pathways from disease initiation to irreversible kidney damage, kidney failure, and death. Results from their preclinical and human research are published online March 3 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "Our group is the first to show that endothelial mitochondrial oxidative stress [damage to blood vessel lining that affects the energy-producing part of the cell caused by oxidative stress] regulates the passage of proteins from blood to urine and filtration of waste products in the kidney," said Erwin Bottinger, MD, Director of the Charles Bronfman Institute for Personalized Medicine, and the study's senior author. Specifically, the researchers found albuminuria (protein in the urine) and depletion of the cells that form the kidney's glomerular filtration barrier. "These findings were unexpected and open the … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 2-Mar-2014 Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego Using technologies and computational modeling that trace the destiny of single cells, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time the earliest stages of fate determination among white blood cells called T lymphocytes, providing new insights that may help drug developers create more effective, longer-lasting vaccines against microbial pathogens or cancer. The findings are published in the March 2, 2014 online issue of Nature Immunology. Nave T lymphocytes patrol the front lines of the human bodys defense against infection, circulating in blood and tissues, searching for invasive microbes and other foreign antigens. Theyre called nave because they have not yet encountered an invader. When they do, these T cells activate and divide, giving rise to two types of daughter cells: effector lymphocytes responsible for immediate host defense and memory lymphocytes that provide long-term protection from similar infections. Researchers have been trying for a very long time to understand when and how T lymphocytes give rise to effector and memory cells during an infection, said John T. Chang, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine and the … Continue reading →

Stars, diamonds, circles. Rather than your average bowl of Lucky Charms, these are three-dimensional cell cultures generated by an exciting new digital microfluidics platform, the results of which have been published in Nature Communications this week by researchers at the University of Toronto. The tool, which can be used to study cells in cost-efficient, three-dimensional microgels, may hold the key to personalized medicine applications in the future. "We already know that the microenvironment can greatly influence cell fate," says Irwin A. Eydelnant, recent doctoral graduate from IBBME and first author of the publication. "The important part of this study is that we've developed a tool that will allow us to investigate the sensitivity of cells to their 3D environment." "Everyone wants to do three-dimensional (3D) cell culture," explains Aaron Wheeler, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), the Department of Chemistry, and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (DCCBR) at the University of Toronto. "Cells grown in this manner share much more in common with living systems than the standard two-dimensional (2D) cell culture format," says Wheeler, corresponding author of the study. More naturalistic, 3D cell cultures are … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 26-Feb-2014 Contact: Erin Vollick comm.ibbme@utoronto.ca 416-946-8019 University of Toronto Stars, diamonds, circles. Rather than your average bowl of Lucky Charms, these are three-dimensional cell cultures generated by an exciting new digital microfluidics platform, the results of which have been published in Nature Communications this week by researchers at the University of Toronto. The tool, which can be used to study cells in cost-efficient, three-dimensional microgels, may hold the key to personalized medicine applications in the future. "We already know that the microenvironment can greatly influence cell fate," says Irwin A. Eydelnant, recent doctoral graduate from IBBME and first author of the publication. "The important part of this study is that we've developed a tool that will allow us to investigate the sensitivity of cells to their 3D environment." "Everyone wants to do three-dimensional (3D) cell culture," explains Aaron Wheeler, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), the Department of Chemistry, and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (DCCBR) at the University of Toronto. "Cells grown in this manner share much more in common with living systems than the standard two-dimensional (2D) cell culture format," says … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 26-Feb-2014 Contact: Erin Vollick comm.ibbme@utoronto.ca 416-946-8019 University of Toronto Stars, diamonds, circles. Rather than your average bowl of Lucky Charms, these are three-dimensional cell cultures generated by an exciting new digital microfluidics platform, the results of which have been published in Nature Communications this week by researchers at the University of Toronto. The tool, which can be used to study cells in cost-efficient, three-dimensional microgels, may hold the key to personalized medicine applications in the future. "We already know that the microenvironment can greatly influence cell fate," says Irwin A. Eydelnant, recent doctoral graduate from IBBME and first author of the publication. "The important part of this study is that we've developed a tool that will allow us to investigate the sensitivity of cells to their 3D environment." "Everyone wants to do three-dimensional (3D) cell culture," explains Aaron Wheeler, Professor and Canada Research Chair in Bioanalytical Chemistry at the Institute of Biomaterials & Biomedical Engineering (IBBME), the Department of Chemistry, and the Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research (DCCBR) at the University of Toronto. "Cells grown in this manner share much more in common with living systems than the standard two-dimensional (2D) cell culture format," says … Continue reading →