Category Archives: Cell Medicine

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dublin - Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/2fee68d4/progenitor_and_ste) has announced the addition of Woodhead Publishing Ltd's new book "Progenitor and Stem Cell Technologies and Therapies" to their offering. Progenitor and stem cells have the ability to renew themselves and change into a variety of specialised types, making them ideal materials for therapy and regenerative medicine. "Progenitor and stem cell technologies and therapies" reviews the range of progenitor and stem cells available and their therapeutic application. Part one reviews basic principles for the culture of stem cells before discussing technologies for particular cell types. These include human embryonic, induced pluripotent, amniotic and placental, cord and multipotent stem cells. Part two discusses wider issues such as intellectual property, regulation and commercialisation of stem cell technologies and therapies. The final part of the book considers the therapeutic use of stem and progenitor cells. Chapters review the use of adipose tissue-derived stem cells, umbilical cord blood (UCB) stem cells, bone marrow, auditory and oral cavity stem cells. Other chapters cover the use of stem cells in therapies in various clinical areas, including lung, cartilage, urologic, nerve and cardiac repair. With its distinguished editor and international team of contributors, "Progenitor and stem cell technologies and … Continue reading →

Washington, March 23 (ANI): Scientists have found that a specific type of cellular stress takes place in pancreatic beta cells before the onset of type 1 diabetes. In type 1 diabetes (T1D), pancreatic beta cells die from a misguided autoimmune attack, but how and why that happens is still unclear. Now, the JDRF-funded scientists from the Indiana University School of Medicine believe that this stress response in the beta cell may help ignite the autoimmune attack that leads to T1D. These findings shed an entirely new light into the mystery behind how changes in the beta cell may play a role in the earliest stages of T1D, and adds a new perspective to our understanding how T1D progresses, and how to prevent and treat the disease. In the study, the researchers, led by Sarah Tersey, Ph.D., assistant research professor of pediatrics, and Raghavendra Mirmira, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pediatrics and medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine, showed for the first time in a mouse model of T1D that beta cells become stressed early in the disease process, before the animal develops diabetes. In response to the stress, beta cells activate a cell death pathway leading to the loss … Continue reading →

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. & CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Merck (NYSE: MRK - News), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and ARIAD Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (NASDAQ:ARIA - News), announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations (FDA) Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) voted 13 to 1 against the use of the investigational agent ridaforolimus as maintenance therapy for patients with metastatic soft-tissue sarcoma or bone sarcoma whose disease has not progressed after at least four cycles of chemotherapy. The ODAC panels recommendation will be considered by the FDA when making its decision regarding the New Drug Application (NDA) for ridaforolimus, an investigational oral mTOR inhibitor under development for the treatment of metastatic soft-tissue or bone sarcomas. The FDA is not bound by the Committee's guidance, but takes its advice into account. Merck remains confident in the potential of the investigational agent ridaforolimus for an indication where patients have limited options, said Eric Rubin, M.D., vice president, Clinical Research Oncology, Merck. We remain committed to bringing forward this promising therapy for patients with metastatic sarcoma, and look forward to further discussions with the FDA regarding this application. Sarcomas are a group of cancers of connective tissue of the body for … Continue reading →

SACRAMENTO (KABC) -- Eight years ago voters agreed to fund California's stem cell agency, hoping it would yield new treatments for various conditions. Now the agency is running out of funds and any practical cures are still years away. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) is about to enter a crucial stage in stem cell research: going to clinical trials. The most promising experiments could cure diabetes, HIV, sickle-cell anemia and blindness in the elderly. "You don't really get to find out whether the potential of the treatment is really going to be effective until you start to treat the patients," said Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. CIRM's board is discussing how much to allocate for that trial phase. Through voter-approved bonds under Proposition 71 (The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act), it has already given out or spent half of the $3 billion, but despite the medical promise, there's little to show for it beyond basic research and several high-tech laboratories. But the agency says the breakthroughs will come over the next few years, way ahead of the rest of the world. "This would all be happening in California, all driven by … Continue reading →

For years, doctors have used high blood pressure and cholesterol numbers to be able to reasonably predict who is most at risk for a heart attack. But a new blood test being called the "holy grail of cardiovascular medicine" might be able to tell when a heart attack is imminent. [Republican Bites: Eating Habits on the Campaign Trail] In heart attack patients, the circulating cells which line blood vessels, called endothelial cells, were misshapen, abnormally large and sometimes have multiple nuclei, according to researchers at Scripps Health in San Diego, who published their study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The researchers say they can tell whether a patient is about to have a heart attack by gathering and isolating those endothelial cells in a blood test. "The ability to diagnose an imminent heart attack has long been considered the holy grail of cardiovascular medicine," Eric Topol, the study's lead, said in a statement. He called the test an "important discovery that may help to change the future of cardiovascular medicine." Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, killing about 1 million people each year. More than 900,000 people experience … Continue reading →

For years, doctors have used high blood pressure and cholesterol numbers to be able to reasonably predict who is most at risk for a heart attack. But a new blood test being called the "holy grail of cardiovascular medicine" might be able to tell when a heart attack is imminent. [Republican Bites: Eating Habits on the Campaign Trail] In heart attack patients, the circulating cells which line blood vessels, called endothelial cells, were misshapen, abnormally large and sometimes have multiple nuclei, according to researchers at Scripps Health in San Diego, who published their study in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The researchers say they can tell whether a patient is about to have a heart attack by gathering and isolating those endothelial cells in a blood test. "The ability to diagnose an imminent heart attack has long been considered the holy grail of cardiovascular medicine," Eric Topol, the study's lead, said in a statement. He called the test an "important discovery that may help to change the future of cardiovascular medicine." Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, killing about 1 million people each year. More than 900,000 people experience … Continue reading →

Public release date: 20-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Clare Weaver press@plos.org 44-122-344-2834 Public Library of Science Using data from the Collaboration of Observational HIV Epidemiological Research in Europe (COHERE), Jim Young and colleagues from The Opportunistic Infections Project Team of COHERE show in this week's PLoS Medicine that in successfully treated patients, the risk of a new AIDS event or death follows a CD4 cell count gradient in patients with viral suppression. An increase in CD4 cell count provides the greatest benefit for patients with a CD4 cell count below 200 cells/L but still provides some benefit for those with a CD4 cell count above 500 cells/L, report the authors. ### Funding: The COHERE study group has received generic funding from: Agence Nationale de Recherches sur le SIDA et les Hpatites Virales (ANRS), France; HIV Monitoring Foundation, The Netherlands; and the Augustinus Foundation, Denmark COHERE, which receives funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under EuroCoord grant agreement nu 260694. A list of the funders of the participating cohorts can be found on the Regional Coordinating Centre websites at http://www.cphiv.dk/COHERE/tabid/295/Default.aspx and http://etudes.isped.u-bordeaux2.fr/cohere. This project was funded by unrestricted grants from the Emile Dreyfuss Foundation, Basel, … Continue reading →

Written by Nannette Miranda, ABC7 SACRAMENTO, CA - The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, CIRM, is about to enter a crucial stage in stem cell research: going to clinical trials. The most promising experiments could cure: diabetes, HIV, sickle cell and blindness in the elderly. "You don't really get to find out whether the potential of the treatment is really going to be effective until you start with patients, the human subjects," CIRM's Alan Trounson said. CIRM's board is discussing how much to allocate for that trial phase. Through voter-approved bonds under Proposition 71, it has already given out or spent half of the $3 billion, but despite the medical promise, there's little to show for it beyond basic research and several high-tech labs. But the agency said the breakthroughs will come over the next few years, way ahead of the rest of the world. "This would all be happening in California, all driven by this Proposition 71 money," Trounson said. The bond money is expected to last only several more years. One option is to ask voters to approve more bonds, something taxpayer groups oppose. Read more: California institute fights to continue stem cell research … Continue reading →

Study in pregnant mice finds behavioral, brain deficits in offspring Web edition : Monday, March 19th, 2012 Round-the-clock cell phone radiation may harm growing brains, a mouse study suggests. Mice exposed to an active phone for the duration of a pregnancy gave birth to pups that displayed long-lasting behavioral and brain abnormalities, researchers write March 15 in Scientific Reports. Although the results indicate that chronic exposure to cell phone radiation can disrupt the fetal brain in mice, its unclear whether the same holds true for people. The paper is an interesting paper. There are no two ways around that, says Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Bethesda, Md., who has studied the effects of cell phone radiation. The issue is, ultimately, what is the significance to humans? In the study, reproductive endocrinologist Hugh Taylor of Yale School of Medicine and colleagues rigged up bare-bones cell phones (not smart phones) to pregnant mices cages. Half the phones were actively receiving a call on mute for the entirety of the mices pregnancies, which last about 17 days. The other phones were inactive. On average, offspring from the mothers exposed to cell phone radiation performed worse on a … Continue reading →

By Jon Cohen, ScienceNOW Michael Snyder has taken know thyself to the next level and helped heal thyself. Over a 14-month period, the molecular geneticist at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, analyzed his blood 20 different times to pluck out a wide variety of biochemical data depicting the status of his bodys immune system, metabolism, and gene activity. In todays issue of Cell, Snyder and a team of 40 other researchers present the results of this extraordinarily detailed look at his body, which they call an integrative personal omics profile (iPOP) because it combines cutting-edge scientific fields such as genomics (study of ones DNA), metabolomics (study of metabolism), and proteomics (study of proteins). Instead of seeing a snapshot of the body taken during the typical visit to a doctors office, iPOP effectively offers an IMAX movie, which in Snyders case had the added drama of charting his response to two viral infections and the emergence of type 2 diabetes. Clinicians at the front of the movement to personalize medicine see Snyders self-analysis as a landmark. Cardiologist Eric Topol, who runs the Scripps Translational Science Institute in San Diego, California, calls the work a tour de force N of 1 … Continue reading →