Category Archives: Cell Medicine

Andrew Huxley in 1963. CAMBRIDGE, England, June 6 (UPI) -- Andrew Huxley, who shared a 1963 Nobel Prize for his discoveries involving how nerve impulses are transmitted through cells, has died in Britain. His death May 30 was announced by the University of Cambridge, where he served as master of Trinity College from 1984 to 1990, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. Huxley, who died at age 94, shared the 1963 prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering how nerves generate the electrical impulses that control muscle activities. 2000 Nobel laureate Eric R. Kandel said the discovery "did for the cell biology of neurons what the structure of DNA did for the rest of biology." Working with fellow Nobel laureate Alan Hodgkin, Huxley concluded current was carried by electrically charged atoms called ions, and when the current reached a cell it caused a channel known as a sodium gate to open, allowing sodium ions to flow into the cell. Another gate on the opposite side of the cell would then open, allowing more ions to escape and move the current along to the next cell. Huxley and Hodgkin, who were both knighted in 1974, shared their Nobel with John Eccles … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Leading stem cell therapeutic and regenerative medicine company, AuxoCell Laboratories, Inc., today announced an agreement with CordVida, a Brazilian stem cell cryopreservation company, which will allow CordVida to expand its services. Families who select CordVida to store umbilical cord blood will now have the opportunity to bank stem cells from an additional source cord tissue. With this agreement, AuxoCell broadens its international reach to South America. At AuxoCell, we are pleased by the opportunity to provide this groundbreaking technology to families around the globe, said Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of AuxoCell Laboratories, Inc. CordVida is Brazils premier cord blood bank and adheres to the highest quality standards. It is for that reason that we have selected them as our exclusive partner in Brazil. Cord tissue has an abundant source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Currently, there is a significant amount of research underway focused on mesenchymal stem cells extracted from cord tissue. MSCs are rapidly becoming the leading stem cell in regenerative medicine studies, and MSCs from a variety of sources are in use in over 150 clinical trials. The AuxoCell cord tissue technology represents the gold standard in the industry, as its technology … Continue reading →

BOULDER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Biodesix, Inc., a fully integrated molecular diagnostics company dedicated to personalizing medicine, today announced that Paul Beresford, Ph.D., Vice President of Business Development and Strategic Marketing, will join industry veterans on a panel discussing the recipe for the successful commercialization of personalized medicine at the 2012 BIO International Conference being held in Boston, Mass. June 18-21, 2012. The panel, Commercialization of Personalized Medicine: Stakeholders' Recipe For Success, will take place on Tuesday, June 19th from 3:45-5:00 p.m. EDT. Beresford joins Mara Aspinall, president and CEO of Ventana Medical Systems, a Roche Group; Glenn Miller, Vice President and Head of Personalized Medicine at AstraZeneca; and Ron Andrews, President, Medical Sciences at Life Technologies on the panel. With help from the panelists, who are successfully pioneering diagnostic products for personalized medicine, this session will gauge the power of collaboration to fuel personalized medicine and novel diagnostics, detail early successes, identify major challenges and debate the most attractive models for commercialization. As personalized therapies continue to see rapid growth from the research side, this is the ideal time to create new business models that optimize the delivery of personalized medicine to patients by providing appropriate incentives to the businesses developing … Continue reading →

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merck (MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a complete response letter regarding the New Drug Application (NDA) for ridaforolimus. Ridaforolimus is an investigational oral mTOR inhibitor under development for maintenance therapy for patients with metastatic soft tissue or bone sarcoma who have stable disease or better after four or more cycles of chemotherapy. The complete response letter states that FDA cannot approve the application in its present form, and that additional clinical trial(s) would need to be conducted to further assess safety and efficacy. Merck also is in ongoing discussions with health authorities in Europeandother countries as part of their application procedures for ridaforolimus for the treatment of metastatic soft-tissue or bone sarcomas in patients who had a favorable response to chemotherapy. Additionally, Merck is studying ridaforolimus in combination with other mechanisms in several tumor types. Merck remains confident in the potential of ridaforolimus, said Eric Rubin, M.D., vice president, Clinical Research Oncology, Merck. We will continue to work closely with the FDA to define potential paths forward for this investigational therapy. Sarcomas are a group of cancers of connective … Continue reading →

Public release date: 4-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: David Eve Celltransplantation@gmail.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair Tampa, Fla. (June 4, 2012) When autologous (self-donated) lung-derived mensenchymal stem cells (LMSCs) were transplanted endoscopically into 13 adult female sheep modeled with emphysema, post-transplant evaluation showed evidence of tissue regeneration with increased blood perfusion and extra cellular matrix content. Researchers concluded that their approach could represent a practical alternative to conventional stem cell-based therapy for treating emphysema. The study is published in Cell Transplantation (21:1), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/. "Mensenchymal stem cells are considered for transplantation because they are readily available, highly proliferative and display multi-lineage potential," said study corresponding author Dr. Edward P. Ingenito of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. "Although MSCs have been isolated from various adult tissues - including fat, liver and lung tissues - cells derived from bone marrow (BM) have therapeutic utility and may be useful in treating advanced lung diseases, such as emphysema." However, according to the authors, previous transplantation studies, many of which used an intravenous delivery method, have shown that BM-MSCs have been only marginally successful in treating … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Foundation Medicine, Inc., a molecular information company that brings comprehensive cancer genomic analysis to routine clinical care, today announced results from two studies using next-generation sequencing (NGS) to provide actionable information about genomic tumor alterations in individual patients cancers across all solid tumor types. The studies, being presented this week in an oral and poster session at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), provide new evidence of the important role and clinical impact of NGS in cancer treatment. These data follow Foundation Medicines recent launch of FoundationOne, the first pan-cancer, fully informative genomic profile for all solid tumors. These studies, along with other results previously presented and published, provide unequivocal evidence of the significant clinical value of NGS-based comprehensive genomic analysis, said Michael J. Pellini, president and chief executive officer, Foundation Medicine. One test, using a very small amount of tissue, can enable physicians to tailor treatment to a patients molecular subtype. With our pan-cancer genomic profile now commercially available, physicians will have a critical decision-making tool to assist them in making the most appropriate therapeutic choices for their patients with cancer. The first study, Discovery of Recurrent KIF5B-RET … Continue reading →

CLEARWATER, FL--(Marketwire -06/01/12)- Biostem U.S., Corporation (HAIR) (HAIR) (Biostem, the Company), a fully reporting public company in the stem cell regenerative medicine science sector, has made its Scientific and Medical Board of Advisors publications available on the company website, http://www.biostemus.com. Chief Executive Officer Dwight Brunoehler stated, "The company is very proud of the many contributions its SAMBA members have made, and continue to make, to the medical community. As their publications and credentials show, this is a very prestigious and influential group. Having worked with them in past projects and now at Biostem, I know them all to be active participants in the development and guidance of the company's objectives. Their diversified areas of expertise and backgrounds are already playing a major role in assisting the company as it moves forward into the expanding field of regenerative medicine." About Biostem U.S., Corporation Biostem U.S., Corporation is a fully reporting Nevada corporation with offices in Clearwater, Florida. Biostem is a technology licensing company with proprietary technology centered on providing hair re-growth using human stem cells. The company also intends to train and license selected physicians to provide Regenerative Cellular Therapy treatments to assist the body's natural approach to healing tendons, ligaments, … Continue reading →

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- A CHOC Childrens research project, under the direction of Philip H. Schwartz, Ph.D., senior scientist at the CHOC Childrens Research Institute and managing director of the facilitys National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource, has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The grant will be used to develop a stem cell-based therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS I), a fatal metabolic disease that causes neurodegeneration, as well as defects in other major organ systems. Based on a number of medical and experimental observations, children with inherited degenerative diseases of the brain are expected to be among the first to benefit from novel approaches based on stem cell therapy (SCT). Dr. Schwartz explains, While uncommon, pediatric genetic neurodegenerative diseases account for a large burden of mortality and morbidity in young children. Hematopoietic (bone marrow) stem cell transplant (HSCT) can improve some non-neural symptoms of these diseases, but does not treat the deadly neurodegenerative process. Our approach targeting the effects of the disease on organs besides the brain with HSCT and neurodegeneration with a second stem cell therapy specifically designed to treat the brain is a strategy for whole-body treatment of … Continue reading →

XALKORI NOW AVAILABLE IN CANADA KIRKLAND, QC, May 30, 2012 /CNW/ - Pfizer Canada is pleased to announce that XALKORI (crizotinib) is now available in Canada. Recently approved with conditions by Health Canada, XALKORI is an oral monotherapy for patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1 XALKORI is Pfizer Canada's first example of personalized medicine for people with ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer. Lung cancer has been one of the most difficult cancers to treat because symptoms typically do not appear until the disease has already reached an advanced stage.2 Even when symptoms appear, they are often mistaken for other health problems further delaying patients from receiving the care they may need.3 As a percentage of all cancer deaths, lung cancer kills more Canadians (27%) than breast cancer (7%), colorectal cancer (12%) and prostate cancer (5%).4 Approximately 70 Canadians are diagnosed with lung cancer every day and 55 die of lung cancer every day.5 "Little has changed in the way lung cancer has been treated in the past 40 years6," says Dr. Normand Blais, Hemato-Oncologist at CHUM - Hpital Notre-Dame in Montreal. "Previously lung cancer was considered a single disease. With the discovery … Continue reading →

TORRANCE, Calif., May 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Emmaus Medical, Inc., a pharmaceutical company developing a new treatment for sickle cell disease, and subsidiary of Emmaus Life Sciences, Inc., announced today that its investigational L-glutamine treatment for sickle cell disease has received a positive opinion recommending orphan medicinal product designation by the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products (COMP). The designation allows Emmaus ten years of marketing exclusivity in EU member countries after the product obtains marketing authorization, as well as streamlined regulatory review processes and registration and other fee reductions. "We are very pleased with the EMA's recognition of our L-glutamine therapy as an orphan medicinal product for the treatment of sickle cell disease in Europe," said Yutaka Niihara, M.D., MPH, founder and CEO of Emmaus. "This designation is an important milestone in our effort to make this treatment available to millions of patients around the world who currently have very few therapies available to them." Emmaus Medical has already received orphan drug and fast track designations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its patented L-glutamine drug, and is seeking FDA approval for L-glutamine as a treatment of sickle cell disease.The drug was originally developed … Continue reading →