Category Archives: Stem Cell Human Trials

The answer appeared to be yes when the journal Nature published research results from Catherine Verfaillie of the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis and her team in January 2002. The researchers had isolated a rare cell in bone marrow from a mouse, rat and human, and when they injected the mouse cells into mouse embryos, they discovered that the cells descendants spread throughout the body, appearing in blood as well as brain, muscle, lung and liver tissues, according to Nature. The ability for a stem cell to grow into any type of tissue, a adaptability originally only attributed to early embryos, would mean cells from the patients own body could be used as a perfect match for tissue and even organ repairs. So in addition to clearing the ethical hurdle, adult stem cells have the potential to avoid another obstacle posed by embryonic stem cell use the possibility that a patients body could reject the foreign cells. But the apparent breakthrough did not put to rest the question of whether adult stem cells could become other cells. Some subsequent studies began to call into question the 2002 findings. As research continued, for every study that said the stem … Continue reading →

Read more: Click here to see the original, longer version of this article You will soon start the first ever human study using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Why is this such a big deal? Stem cells can become any other type of cell. If we can use them to replace damaged cells it has huge implications for treating degenerative diseases. Trials of embryonic stem cells are under way, but their use can be ethically controversial. Often, too, patients need to take drugs to prevent their immune systems from rejecting this type of cell. Since iPS cells are made from a patient's own body, it removes the ethical issues as well as the need for immunosuppressant drugs. How would treatment with iPS cells work? You create iPS cells by injecting adult cells taken from the body with "reprogramming" genes that make them rewind to an embryonic state. Then, by injecting certain proteins, we can make iPS cells differentiate into liver, retina or any other type of cell. These can be inserted in the body to replace damaged cells. We are still 20 years from clinical treatments, but the potential is exciting. Are there pitfalls with iPS cell treatments? We have … Continue reading →

In most cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, a toxin released by cells that normally nurture neurons in the brain and spinal cord can trigger loss of the nerve cells affected in the disease, Columbia researchers reported today in the online edition of the journal Neuron. The toxin is produced by star-shaped cells called astrocytes and kills nearby motor neurons. In ALS, the death of motor neurons causes a loss of control over muscles required for movement, breathing, and swallowing. Paralysis and death usually occur within 3 years of the appearance of first symptoms. The report follows the researchers' previous study, which found similar results in mice with a rare, genetic form of the disease, as well as in a separate study from another group that used astrocytes derived from patient neural progenitor cells. The current study shows that the toxins are also present in astrocytes taken directly from ALS patients. "I think this is probably the best evidence we can get that what we see in mouse models of the disease is also happening in human patients," said the study's senior author, Serge Przedborski, MD, PhD, the Page and William Black Professor of Neurology (in … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Feb-2014 Contact: Becky Lindeman journal.pediatrics@cchmc.org 513-636-7140 Elsevier Health Sciences Cincinnati, OH, February 6, 2014 -- Advances in neonatal care for very preterm infants have greatly increased the chances of survival for these fragile infants. However, preterm infants have an increased risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a serious lung disease, which is a major cause of death and lifelong complications. In a new study scheduled for publication in The Journal of Pediatrics, researchers evaluated the safety and feasibility of using stem cell therapies on very preterm infants to prevent or treat BPD. Won Soon Park, MD, PhD, and colleagues from Samsung Medical Center and Biomedical Research Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea, conducted a phase I, single-center trial of intratracheal transplantation of human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells to nine very preterm infants (24-26 weeks gestational age) who were at high risk of developing BPD. All patients who received the treatment tolerated the procedure well without any immediate serious adverse effects. Thirty-three percent of treated infants developed moderate BPD and none developed severe BPD, and 72 percent of a matched comparison group developed moderate or severe BPD. Another serious side effect of very preterm birth, retinopathy of … Continue reading →

Stem cells for human use are to be made in a university lab in the first medical program of its kind in Ireland. Scientists behind the new facility at the National University of Ireland (NUI) Galway will aim to produce adult cells to combat conditions like arthritis, heart disease and diabetes. Stem cells created at the lab will be used in clinical trials following regulatory approval - the first of which is to test their effects on critical limb ischemia, a common complication associated with diabetes which often results in amputation. The cells, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), will undergo safety tests after being isolated from bone marrow from donors and grown in the laboratory to generate sufficient quantities. The university said it will position it as a global player in regenerative medicine. NUI Galway's Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland is the first facility in Ireland to receive a licence from the Irish Medicines Board to manufacture culture-expanded stem cells for human use. And it is one of less than half a dozen in Europe authorised for the process. 'Developing Galway's role as med-tech hub of global standing, the Centre for Cell Manufacturing Ireland captures NUI Galway's commitment to bring bold … Continue reading →

Stem cells are the cellular putty from which all tissues of the body are made. Ever since human embryonic stem cells were first grown in the lab, researchers have dreamed of using them to repair damaged tissue or create new organs, but such medical uses have also attracted controversy. Yesterday, the potential of stem cells to revolutionise medicine got a huge boost with news of an ultra-versatile kind of stem cell from adult mouse cells using a remarkably simple method. This timeline takes you through the ups and downs of the stem cell rollercoaster. 1981, Mouse beginnings Martin Evans of Cardiff University, UK, then at the University of Cambridge, is first to identify embryonic stem cells in mice. 1997, Dolly the sheep Ian Wilmut and his colleagues at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh unveil Dolly the sheep, the first artificial animal clone. The process involves fusing a sheep egg with an udder cell and implanting the resulting hybrids into a surrogate mother sheep. Researchers speculate that similar hybrids made by fusing human embryonic stem cells with adult cells from a particular person could be used to create genetically matched tissue and organs. 1998, Stem cells go human James Thomson of the … Continue reading →

Free Sign Up CP Newsletter! Related Christian Physicians Hail New Breakthrough in Stem Cell Research FDA Approves First Human Trial of Embryonic Stem Cells October 11, 2010|3:06 pm The first-ever clinical trial of human embryonic stem cell-based therapy on a human patient is now underway, according to the first and presently only company in the United States with the license to use the controversial cells to treat people. The Calif.-based Geron Corporation announced Monday the enrollment of the first patient in its clinical trial at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, where the biopharmaceuticals company hopes to see the first major breakthrough for human embryonic stem cell research. "Initiating the clinical trial is a milestone for the field of human embryonic stem cell-based therapies," commented Dr. Thomas B. Okarma, Geron's president and CEO. We look forward to participating in clinical trials that may help people with spinal cord injury," added Dr. Donald Peck Leslie, medical director of the Shepherd Center, a 132-bed spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital and clinical research center. Less than three months ago, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave Geron approval to proceed with its trial on a therapy for patients with spinal-cord injury. The … Continue reading →

The first induced pluripotent stem cell human trialthat is, ethical stem cells made from skin or other tissuesis about to begin. Like the two (or is it three?) existing embryonic stem cell trials, it has to do with eye disease. From the Nature News story: On 1 August, researchers at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, will start recruiting patients for theworlds first clinical studyusing induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells.RIKENs endorsement, officially announced today, was the final stage in a long series of regulatory steps that included approval from the health ministry. Ophthalmologist Masayo Takahashi will be using sheets of retinal pigment epithelium cells, derived from iPS cells, to try to halt the progression of age-related macular degeneration. In the wet-type AMD targeted by Takahashi, abnormal vascularization invades and destabilizes the epithelium, which supports the photoreceptors, and causes loss of vision. IPScslike embryonic stem cellscarry a pronounced danger of causing tumors with rare exceptionssuch as in these eye diseases. But adult stem cells dont have that difficulty and are currently in thousands of human trials around the worldfor heart disease, paralysis, MS, etc.along with some already approved clinical applications. Remember when George Bushwas anti science forclaiming that … Continue reading →

Cofounder of Stem Cell Theranostics and StartX Med Divya Nag is attacking one of medicine's biggest problems: the fact that most types of human cellslike those in the heart or liverdie when you keep them in a petri dish. This makes testing new drugs a risky, costly and time-consuming business: 90% of medicines that start clinical trials turn out to be too unsafe or ineffective to market. But a new technology, the induced pluripotent stem cell, may help. Nag's company, Stem Cell Theranostics, was created from technology funded by a $20 million grant from the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine and is closing a venture round. It turns cellsusually from a piece of skininto embryonic-like stem cells, then uses them to create heart cells. These cells can live in petri dishes and be used to test new drugs. Someday they might even replace heart tissue that dies during a heart attack. Three large pharmaceutical companies are customers, though revenues are small. Nag, who was already publishing in prestigious scientific journals when she was an undergraduate, dropped out of Stanford to pursue her dream. No regrets: "Our technology was so promising and I was so passionate about it that nothing else … Continue reading →

17 hours ago This is Harvard Associate Professor Jeffrey Karp, Ph.D. (left), and James Ankrum, Ph.D. (right). Credit: Brigham and Women's Hospital Harvard stem cells scientists at Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT can now engineer cells that are more easily controlled following transplantation, potentially making cell therapies, hundreds of which are currently in clinical trials across the United States, more functional and efficient. Associate Professor Jeffrey Karp, PhD, and James Ankrum, PhD, demonstrate in this month's issue of Nature Protocols how to load cells with microparticles that provide the cells cues for how they should behave over the course of days or weeks as the particles degrade. "Regardless of where the cell is in the body, it's going to be receiving its cues from the inside," said Karp, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute Principal Faculty member at Brigham and Women's Hospital. "This is a completely different strategy than the current method of placing cells onto drug-doped microcarriers or scaffolds, which is limiting because the cells need to remain in close proximity to those materials in order to function. Also these types of materials are too large to be infused into the bloodstream." Cells are relatively simple to control in … Continue reading →