Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Doctors say a breakthrough in stem cell research from over a decade ago could someday replace traditional medicine. A procedure using a patients own fat stem cells has already helped many people across the world, but these types of procedures havent been approved in the U.S. Thats why one Sioux Falls man and some Sanford doctors traveled to Munich, Germany last year. Imagine a more natural way of treating pain or even a more advanced treatment for cancer. What if I told you common ailments like chronic back pain or arthritis could be healed? Thats what doctors say treatments using a patients own stem cells could do. One of those doctors is German Doctor Eckhard Alt. The next generation of medicine would be to learn how we can heal ourselves, without artificial implants, without drugs, that we use the regenerative power of our own body, said Dr. Alt. This might sound like something out of a Sci-Fi movie, but Dr. Alt says this type of practice is already being brought to clinical practice. In nature, tells you there is a regenerative potential in all of us. If you look at the lizard, you cut off the tail, … Continue reading →

Physicist Stephen Hawking is perhaps the most famous sufferer of motor neuron disease, a crippling degenerative condition that affects an estimated 150,00 people around the world. Karwai Tang / Getty In news that may bring hope to Stephen Hawking and hundreds of thousands of others around the world, British scientists have used reprogrammed skin cells to study the development of motor neuron disease. Its like changing the postcode of a house without actually moving it, explains neuroscientist Rickie Patani, referring to research offering startling new insights into the progress and treatment of the crippling degenerative condition, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Patani, together with colleague Sonia Gandhi, both from the Francis Crick Institute and University College London, in the UK, led a team of researchers investigating how the disease destroys the nerve cells that govern muscle movement. The results, published in the journal Cell Reports, comprise the most fine-grained work to date on how ALS operates on a molecular level and suggest powerful new treatment methods based on stem cells. Indeed, so exciting are the implications of the research that Ghandi and Patani are already working with pharmaceutical companies to develop their discoveries. The neurologists uncovered two key … Continue reading →

L awmakers in Austinhave approved a billauthorizing unapproved stem cell therapies, puttingTexas on track to become the first state to explicitly recognize the experimental treatments. The measure now heads to Governor Greg Abbott, who has signaled his support for it. For years, clinics across the country have been offeringexperimentalstem cell therapies for patients with chronic conditions or terminal illnesses, but no state has given them legal validation. Instead, clinics have largely operated under the radar of regulatory authorities, toutingtreatments for a range of injuries and diseases. advertisement Many scientists, meantime, have warnedthat unapproved stem cell therapies can be not only ineffective but harmful outside limited and closely watched clinical trials. Infant gets experimental stem cell injection to try to repair his heart The Texas measure was finalized Monday before the end of the Legislatures session. Senators added amendments that would require the treatments to be delivered by a doctor at a hospital or ambulatory medical center and with the approval of an institutional review board, which reviews research that involves human participants. Another amendment would allow patients to sue should the treatment go awry. Advocates who opposed the measure as it was introduced said they were still uneasy with aspects … Continue reading →

Calgary aviation engineer Don Adamson endured a dozen surgeries to keep him alive after a car fire burned 50 per cent of his body. Adamson remembers paramedics thinking he was dead that day 12 years ago. But he fought back, survived and today is one of the biggest advocates for stem cell researchresearch he believes will eventually improve the quality of life of burn survivors. Skin grafts just patch you up, and stop the bleeding, he says. Using stem cells potentially enable skin regeneration that will help future burn patients both function and look better. Adamsons confidence in the research being done into potential clinical applications of stem cells foundation cells for every body organ and tissue that also work to maintain and repair the body throughout life comes, in large part, from his association with University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) researcher Jeff Biernaskie. Biernaskie, who is an associate professor in UCVMs Department of Comparative Biology and Experimental Medicine, is the Calgary Firefighters Burn Treatment Society Chair in Skin Regeneration and Wound Healing. He holds a joint appointment in the Cumming School of Medicine Department of Surgery and is a member of the Alberta Childrens Hospital Research … Continue reading →

Jason Lee/Reuters Former Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping had Parkinsons disease, one of the first targets of embryonic-stem-cell therapies being tested in China. In the next few months, surgeons in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou will carefully drill through the skulls of people with Parkinsons disease and inject 4 million immature neurons derived from human embryonic stem cells into their brains. Then they will patch the patients up, send them home and wait. This will mark the start of the first clinical trial in China using human embryonic stem (ES) cells, and the first one worldwide aimed at treating Parkinsons disease using ES cells from fertilized embryos. In a second trial starting around the same time, a different team in Zhengzhou will use ES cells to target vision loss caused by age-related macular degeneration. The experiments will also represent the first clinical trials of ES cells under regulations that China adopted in 2015, in an attempt to ensure the ethical and safe use of stem cells in the clinic. China previously had no clear regulatory framework, and many companies had used that gap as an excuse to market unproven stem-cell treatments. It will be a major new direction for China, says … Continue reading →

A bill may soon grant Texans greater access to unapproved but promising stem cell therapies, Stat News reports. Its passage would make Texasthe first state to back the technology, which has not been approved by federal regulators and many experts consider risky. The bill, HB 810, is intended to give people with chronic diseases or terminal illnesses access to investigational stem cell treatments those that are being evaluated in clinical trials or that has in general not been approved by the FDA. With a doctors approval, patients who have had not had success withconventional treatments would be allowedto seek stem cell therapiesat any clinic that offers it, as long as the treatment is givenby a licensed physician and approved by an institutional review board. Already, hundreds of largely unregulated clinics around the country are quietly operatingunder regulatory loopholes; few states have taken legal steps to advance or hinder patient access to them. Texas has welcomed these clinics for years. In 2011, then-governor Rick Perry received an injection of stem cells intended to help heal his spine after spinal fusion surgery. Lets get Texas in on the ground floor and invest in adult stem cell research, the one area of that … Continue reading →

Bioinformant Littleton, MA (PRWEB) May 30, 2017 Provia Laboratories LLC (Provia), a leader in cGMP autologous cell and tissue services, announced the launch of a comprehensive library of stem cell material available for researchers. The library includes ready to ship mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from dental pulp (DPSC) found in human third molars or human exfoliated deciduous teeth, as well as from follicular tissue, adipose tissue, placental tissue, and umbilical cord tissue. Provia is currently developing inventory of MSCs from bone marrow, chorionic villi, and amniotic fluid. MSCs are a significant source of stem cells that are known to express important developmental and pluripotency transcription factors such as oct4, sox2, klf4, nanog, and c-myc. Flow cytometric analysis shows that these cells are positive for CD73, CD90, CD105, and negative for CD34 and CD45. Under appropriate culture conditions, MSCs have been shown to differentiate into osteogenic, adipogenic, and chondrogenic cells. MSCs have also been shown under specific published conditions to have neuromuscular and endocrine differentiation capabilities. Based on our current understanding these cells have the potential for use in regenerative medicine - for tissue repair, tissue replacement, and are capable of regulating immune response. MSCs are currently the most published type … Continue reading →

These photomicrographs show the initial scratches created with a pipette tip compared with the same scratch 36 hours later and at end of study, at 72 hours, for each experimental group. ac show the control group, from left, at the start, after 36 hours, and after 72 hours. df show the results for the same horse with use of the supernatant solution; and gi show the results for the same horse from the stem cell group. Images: Sherman et al DOI: 10.1186/s13287-017-0577-3 Stem cells taken from bone marrow may substantially improve corneal wound healing in horses, evidence from a study suggests. Eye injuries are common in horses, most likely because of the size of their eyes and their prominent position in the head. Researchers from the North Carolina State University College of Veterinary Medicine conducted a laboratory experiment to assess the performance of stem cells taken from bone marrow in the breast bone of five horses. Amanda Sherman and her colleagues, writing in Stem Cell Research & Therapy, described the process by which they collected and isolated the autologous bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells for their study. Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent connective-tissue cells that can change into a variety … Continue reading →

News by DAVID JENSEN posted 05.23.2017 C. Randal Mills, the 45-year-old CEO of Californias $3 billion stem cell research program, is a man who loves his milestones. A private pilot, he charts his course in the air from one specific point to the next. Three years ago, Mills brought that same sort of navigation to the state stem cell agency. Miss one of the agencys milestones, and if youre a stem cell scientist you may not crash and burn, but you could lose millions of dollars in research funding from the state. Since the agencys inception, it has spent money at the rate of $22,000 an hour. But it has yet to finance a stem cell therapy that is available to the general public. Mills has left an indelible stamp on the agency with his emphasis on concrete, measurable results. But he is resigning from the research program at the end of June in the midst of what some say is its last stage. His surprise departure to head the worlds largest bone marrow donor organization shocked many in Californias stem cell community. And it added to the unease about its future along with the future of possible stem cell … Continue reading →

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. Some of the greatest minds in stem cell research came together in Sioux Falls today. One of them is German Doctor Eckhard Alt, for the Cellular Therapies Conference at Sanford Health. Alt has been working in stem cell research for 15 years focusing on using the healing power of stem cells from the patients own body. He says the cells can be used for common ailments like chronic back pain or knee arthritis and because stem cells are produced naturally, they often work better than traditional medicine. If you take the early stem cells, which you find in every organ, you dont need to do artificial modification. You just let nature do what the teaching is and the microenvironment that means the side where you inject the cells will tell the new stem cells hey guys, here is heart, here is muscle, here is kidney And they will do the right job, said Dr. Eckhard Alt. Alt is no stranger to Sanford, in 2015, he was named the leader of the Sanford project, which aims to find a cure for type one diabetes. Read the original: Stem Cell Research Experts Meet for Cellular Therapies Conference - KDLT … Continue reading →