DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/xf5djc/plasma_medicine_a) has announced the addition of the "Plasma Medicine. Applications of Low-Temperature Gas Plasmas in Medicine and Biology" report to their offering. The introduction of low temperature plasma technology to medical research and to the healthcare arena in general is set to revolutionise the way we cure diseases. This innovative medium offers a valid and advantageous replacement of traditional chemical-based medications. Its application in the inactivation of pathogens in particular, avoids the recurrent problem of drug resistant microorganisms. This is the first book dedicated exclusively to the emerging interdisciplinary field of plasma medicine. The opening chapters discuss plasmas and plasma chemistry, the fundamentals of non-equilibrium plasmas and cell biology. The rest of the book is dedicated to current applications, illustrating a plasma-based approach to wound healing, electrosurgery, cancer treatment and even dentistry. The text provides a clear and integrated introduction to plasma technology and has been devised to answer the needs of researchers from different communities. It will appeal to graduate students and physicists, engineers, biologists, medical doctors and biochemists. Key Topics Covered: Foreword Part I. Introduction to Non-equilibrium Plasma, Cell Biology, and Contamination: 1. Introduction 2. Fundamentals of non-equilibrium plasmas 3. Non-equilibrium plasma sources … Continue reading →

Public release date: 25-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Scott LaFee slafee@ucsd.edu 619-543-6163 University of California - San Diego Five scientists from the University of California, San Diego and its School of Medicine have been awarded almost $12 million in new grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to conduct stem cell-based research into regenerating spinal cord injuries, repairing gene mutations that cause amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and finding new drugs to treat heart failure and Alzheimer's disease. The awards mark the third round of funding in CIRM's Early Translational Awards program, which supports projects that are in the initial stages of identifying drugs or cell types that could become disease therapies. More than $69 million in awards were announced yesterday, including funding for first-ever collaboratively funded research projects with China and the federal government of Australia. "With these new awards, the agency now has 52 projects in 33 diseases at varying stages of working toward clinical trials," said Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD and CIRM governing board chair. "Californians should take pride in being at the center of this worldwide research leading toward new cures. These projects represent the best of California stem cell science and the … Continue reading →

Five UC San Diego scientists have received almost $12 million combined from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to pay for stem cell-based research, the university announced today. A team led by Lawrence Goldstein, of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program, was given $1.8 million to continue looking for new methods to find and test possible medications for Alzheimer's disease, according to UCSD. They use reprogrammed stem cells in their work. Dr. Mark Tuszynski, professor of neurosciences and director of the Center for Neural Repair, received $4.6 million to develop more potent stem cell-based treatments for spinal cord injuries. Gene Yeo, assistant professor in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, was awarded $1.6 million to continue research into treatments for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. His research hopes to take advantage of recent discoveries about ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, which center on mutations in RNA-binding proteins that cause dysfunction and death in neurons. Dr. Eric David Adler, an associate clinical professor of medicine and cardiologist, was granted $1.7 million to screen potential drugs for Danon disease, a type of inherited heart failure that frequently kills patients by their 20s. … Continue reading →

DUARTE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- City of Hope was granted a $5,217,004 early translational research award by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support the development of a T cell-based immunotherapy that re-directs a patients own immune response against glioma stem cells. City of Hope has been awarded more than $49.7 million in grant support from CIRM since awards were first announced in 2006. City of Hope is a pioneer in T cell immunotherapy research, helping to develop genetically modified T cells as a treatment for cancer. This strategy, termed adoptive T cell therapy, focuses on redirecting a patients immune system to specifically target tumor cells, and has the potential to become a promising new approach for treatment of cancer. In this research, we are genetically engineering a central memory T cell that targets proteins expressed by glioma stem cells, said Stephen J. Forman, M.D., Francis and Kathleen McNamara Distinguished Chair in Hematology and Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and director of the T Cell Immunotherapy Research Laboratory. Central memory T cells have the potential to establish a persistent, lifelong immunity to help prevent brain tumors from recurring. The American Cancer Society estimates that more than 22,000 people in the U.S. will … Continue reading →