Category Archives: Stem Cell Human Trials

The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine voted Thursday to adopt a $70-million plan to develop a network of clinics for conducting trials of experimental stem-cell therapies. The vote authorizes CIRM to begin accepting applications from academic institutions interested in hosting clinics. Ultimately, the Alpha Stem Cell Clinics Network will include up to five clinics as well as a coordinating center to shoulder some of their load, such as enrolling patients and handling the paperwork involved in clinical trials. The board approved the plan by a vote of 19 to 1, according to David Jensen, publisher of the California Stem Cell Report. The one dissenter was Joan Samuelson, founder of the Parkinson's Action Network, "who questioned whether the plan was premature and whether existing scientific research justified development of the clinics," Jensen reported. The Alpha network reflects CIRM's recent focus on helping researchers convert stem-cell discoveries from the lab into useful treatments for patients with a range of conditions, including Parkinson's, Type 1 diabetes and spinal cord injuries. Scientists value stem cells because they are capable of growing into a variety of cell types in the body. That means that -- under the right conditions -- they … Continue reading →

A US company that promoted its stem cell discovery in partnership with the Vatican has come under fresh scrutiny by independent scientists who said Wednesday the cells do not exist. Scientists at Stanford University said in the journal Stem Cell Reports they could not replicate NeoStem's findings of very small embryonic-like cells (VSELs) in the bone marrow of lab mice. These cells have been touted by the New York-based company as an ethical alternative to stem cells requiring the destruction of human embryos, with the same regenerative ability to transform into other cell types in the body. Earlier this year, NeoStem announced plans to launch the first human trials of the cells for bone growth. "We tried as hard as we could to replicate the original published results using the methods described and were unable to detect these cells in either the bone marrow or the blood of laboratory mice," said lead author Irving Weissman, who directs Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Weissman's study is the first to evaluate the biological potency of the cells, and it found they could not transform into blood cells and contained very little DNA. Instead, researchers found that what purported … Continue reading →

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Eye Health / Blindness Also Included In: Stem Cell Research Article Date: 22 Jul 2013 - 7:00 PDT Current ratings for: Future blindness cure? Stem cell success in lab 3.5 (6 votes) Scientists are one step closer to curing blindness, after they carried out the first successful transplant of light-sensitive photoreceptor cells from a synthetic retina that was grown from embryonic stem cells. Researchers from University College London (UCL) and Moorfields Eye Hospital in the UK, transplanted the photoreceptor cells in to night-blind mice and found that the cells developed normally. The cells integrated into the existing retina in the mice and formed the required nerve connections that transmit visual information to the brain. The study, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, shows embryonic stem cells could potentially be used to provide an "unlimited supply of healthy photoreceptors for retinal cell transplantations to treat blindness in humans." Photoreceptors are light-sensitive nerve cells found in the retina of the eye. There are two types of photoreceptors - rods and cones. The cones provide the eye's color sensitivity. The rods are not sensitive to color, but are more sensitive to light than the cones and are … Continue reading →

Scientists turn embryonic stem cells into photoreceptors that can integrate into a live retina. Transplanted photoreceptors derived from embryonic stem cells (green) integrate into the damaged retina of an adult mouse and touch the next neuron in the retinal circuit (red). Scientists in the U.K. have produced rod-like photoreceptors from embryonic stem cells, and successfully transplanted them into the retinas of mice. The work suggests that embryonic stem cells could perhaps one day be used as a treatment for patients who have lost their vision to retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, or other degenerative conditions in which the light-detecting rods and cones of the retina die over time. Currently, there are few treatment options for these conditions; electronic implanted devices are available for some patients in some countries, but their efficacy is limited (see A Second Artificial Retina Option for the E.U. and What Its Like to See Again with an Artificial Retina).The new work,reported in Nature Biotechnology on Sunday, offers hope for a more effective, comprehensive treatment. The researchers used a new method for growing embryonic stem cells that enables them to turn into immature eye cells and self-organize into three-dimensional structures similar to those seen in a developing retina … Continue reading →

21 July 2013 Last updated at 21:32 ET The prospect of reversing blindness has made a significant leap, according to scientists in the UK. An animal study in the journal Nature Biotechnology showed the part of the eye which actually detects light can be repaired using stem cells. The team at Moorfields Eye Hospital and University College London say human trials are now, for the first time, a realistic prospect. Experts described it as a "significant breakthrough" and "huge leap" forward. Photoreceptors are the cells in the retina which react to light and convert it into an electrical signal which can be sent to the brain. However, these cells can die off in some causes of blindness such as Stargardt's disease and age-related macular degeneration. There are already trials in people to use stem cells to replace the "support" cells in the eye which keep the photoreceptors alive. Now the London-based team have shown it is possible to replace the light-sensing cells themselves, raising the prospect of reversing blindness. They have used a new technique for building retinas in the laboratory. It was used to collect thousands of stem cells, which were primed to transform into photoreceptors, and injected them … Continue reading →

19 July 2013 Last updated at 06:28 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News The first trial of stem cells produced from a patient's own body has been approved by the Japanese government. Stem cells can become any other part of the body - from nerve to bone to skin - and are touted as the future of medicine. Researchers in Japan will use the cells to attempt to treat a form of blindness - age-related macular degeneration. The announcement was described as "a major step forward" for research in the field. There are already trials taking place using stem cells taken from embryos. But this is ethically controversial and the cells will not match a patient's own tissues, so there is a risk of rejection. Induced pluripotent stem cells, however, are made by coaxing a sample of the patient's skin to become stem cells, so there should be no risk of rejection. Japan's health minister, Norihisa Tamura, has ruled that the cells can now be tested in patients. The trial will by run by the Riken Center for Developmental Biology and the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation Hospital in Kobe. Initially, six patients will receive … Continue reading →

With embryonic stem cells in clinical trials in the U.S. and the U.K., France looks to keep up. ScienceInsider reports that the French National Assembly approved a new law on Tuesday that could facilitate researchers ability to work with human embryos and embryonic stem cells. The existing law did allow French researchers to do some work with embryos, but was restrictive and required researchers to apply for permission to work with embryos; scientists had to show regulators that there was no other source of cells for their experiments and that the work could yield important medical discoveries. Proponents of the new law say the existing permit process enabled opponents of embryonic work to block research proposals; critics argue that the 190 approved applications between 2004 and 2012 demonstrate the old law was not a real hindrance, reports ScienceInsider. An American company, Advanced Cell Technology, is currently testing retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells as a treatment for degenerative eye diseases in the U.S. and the U.K. View original post here: New law in France could facilitate human embryo research … Continue reading →

Turning human cells into stem cells without changing their genes could lead to therapies that do not carry a risk of generating mutations. Andrew Brookes/Corbis Scientists have demonstrated a new way to reprogram adult tissue to become cells as versatile as embryonic stem cells without the addition of extra genes that could increase the risk of dangerous mutations or cancer. Researchers have been striving to achieve this since 2006, when the creation of so-called induced pluripotent (iPS) cells was first reported. Previously, they had managed to reduce the number of genes needed using small-molecule chemical compounds, but those attempts always required at least one gene, Oct42, 3. Now, writing in Science, researchers report success in creating iPS cells using chemical compounds only what they call CiPS cells1. Hongkui Deng, a stem-cell biologist at Peking University in Beijing, and his team screened 10,000 small molecules to find chemical substitutes for the gene. Whereas other groups looked for compounds that would directly stand in for Oct4, Deng's team took an indirect approach: searching for small-molecule compounds that could reprogram the cells in the presence of all the usual genes except Oct4. Then came the most difficult part. When the group teamed the … Continue reading →

Translational medicine is said to reflect a need to harness the huge wealth of scientific knowledge in biomedicine. In fact, it is a direct consequence of the globalized outsourcing of research and development by the pharmaceutical industry, resting on the creation of commercial enterprises within academia. A commercial drive in academia can, however, significantly alter scientific concepts in biology and medicine. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) provide a prime example of this. Decades of research on these cells, found in the bone marrow, show that they go on to form skeletal tissues such as bone, fat and cartilage, which they can also help to regrow and repair in the clinic. Yet companies have already emerged that market MSCs for a much broader range of applications. Against mainstream scientific evidence, these firms argue that the cells are veritable injectable drug stores. This commercial creep has reached the pages of authoritative scientific journals, with articles suggesting that intravenously infused MSCs can be used as a single agent to mute or cure a long list of unrelated diseases in multiple organs, regardless of their cause and nature. Notably, these include terminal neurodegenerative diseases, strokes and heart attacks. These are extraordinary claims that would require … Continue reading →

With embryonic stem cells in clinical trials in the U.S. and the U.K., France looks to keep up. ScienceInsider reports that the French National Assembly approved a new law on Tuesday that could facilitate researchers ability to work with human embryos and embryonic stem cells. The existing law did allow French researchers to do some work with embryos, but was restrictive and required researchers to apply for permission to work with embryos; scientists had to show regulators that there was no other source of cells for their experiments and that the work could yield important medical discoveries. Proponents of the new law say the existing permit process enabled opponents of embryonic work to block research proposals; critics argue that the 190 approved applications between 2004 and 2012 demonstrate the old law was not a real hindrance, reports ScienceInsider. An American company, Advanced Cell Technology, is currently testing retinal cells derived from human embryonic stem cells as a treatment for degenerative eye diseases in the U.S. and the U.K. Read the original here: France Eases Restrictions on Human Embryo Research … Continue reading →