Indian clinic's stem cell therapy real? STORY HIGHLIGHTS For more of CNN correspondent Drew Griffin's investigation of India's experimental embryonic stem cell therapy, watch "CNN Presents: Selling a Miracle," at 8 and 11 p.m. ET Sunday on CNN. New Delhi (CNN) -- Cash Burnaman, a 6-year-old South Carolina boy, has traveled with his parents to India seeking treatment for a rare genetic condition that has left him developmentally disabled. You might think this was a hopeful mission until you learn that an overwhelming number of medical experts insist the treatment will have zero effect. Cash is mute. He walks with the aid of braces. To battle his incurable condition, which is so rare it doesn't have a name, Cash has had to take an artificial growth hormone for most of his life. His divorced parents, Josh Burnaman and Stephanie Krolick, are so driven by their hope and desperation to help Cash they've journeyed to the other side of the globe and paid tens of thousands of dollars to have Cash undergo experimental injections of human embryonic stem cells. The family is among a growing number of Americans seeking the treatment in India -- some at a clinic in the heart … Continue reading →

Newswise About 3 percent of the babies born in the United States have a birth defect. Children without a birth defect are also susceptible to injury or disease. At The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), regenerative medicine researchers are exploring innovative ways to treat these conditions. The Department of Pediatric Surgery at the UTHealth Medical School operates a research program devoted to childhood conditions that is seeking to harness the bodys regenerative powers to repair malformed organs and to mitigate injury from illness or trauma. It is called the Childrens Regenerative Medicine Program. Kevin Lally, M.D., chairman of the Department of Pediatric Surgery at the UTHealth Medical School and surgeon-in-chief at Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital, announced the recruitment of four stem cell scientists to the program. The researchers are associate professor Yong Li, M.D., Ph.D., and assistant professors Scott Olson, Ph.D., Fabio Triolo, M.Phil., D.d.R., Ph.D., and Pamela Wenzel, Ph.D. We were able to recruit outstanding investigators thanks in part to the generous support of Mrs. Clare Glassell and Mrs. Evelyn Griffin, said Lally, who is the A.G. McNeese Chair in Pediatric Surgery and the Richard Andrassy, M.D., Endowed Distinguished Professor at UTHealth. Our program in … Continue reading →

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) and its subsidiary LifeMap Sciences, Inc. today announced that they have completed the acquisition of XenneX, Inc. through a merger of XenneX into LifeMap Sciences. The definitive merger agreement was previously announced on April 20, 2012. LifeMap Sciences now holds the exclusive, worldwide licenses to market GeneCards and PanDaTox from Yeda Research and Development Company Ltd, the technology transfer arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. Developed by a leading bioinformatics team at the Weizmann Institute of Science, GeneCards is an online database that provides concise genomic, transcriptomic, genetic, proteomic, functional and disease-related information on all known and predicted human genes. With over 12 million page visits per year from hundreds of thousands of unique users worldwide, GeneCards is used by academia, research hospitals, patent offices, and leading biotech and pharma companies. PanDaTox is a recently developed, searchable database that can aid in the discovery of new antibiotics and biotechnologically beneficial products. LifeMap Sciences goal is to be the leading resource for the emerging field of regenerative medicine, by providing access to GeneCards, and its LifeMap database of embryonic development and stem cells, and by also marketing research products manufactured … Continue reading →

SARATOGA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- The Myelin Repair Foundation (MRF) today announced the results of a new peer-reviewed research study published in Nature Neuroscience that demonstrates functional improvement in immune response modulation and myelin repair with factors derived from mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) treatment in animal models of multiple sclerosis (MS). Funded by the Myelin Repair Foundation, this research conducted by Case Western Reserve University scientists showed positive results with human mesenchymal stem cells in animal models of MS by not only successfully blocking the autoimmune MS response, but also repairing myelin, demonstrating an innovative potential myelin repair treatment for MS. Multiple sclerosis is a disease of the immune system that attacks the myelin, causing exposed nerves or lesions which block brain signals, causing loss of motor skills, coordination and cognitive ability. Compared to the controls, this research study showed fewer and smaller lesions found on the nerves in the MSC treatment group. MSCs were found to block the formation of scar tissue by suppressing the autoimmune response, which would otherwise cause permanent damage to the nerves. Furthermore, the research showed that MSC treatment also repaired myelin, enhancing myelin regeneration of the damaged axon and the rewrapping of the myelin around the … Continue reading →

Stem cells have the potential for becoming different kinds of tissue, but certain characteristics -- stiffness, viscosity, size -- are telltale signs of what they're optimized to become. Credit: Darling Lab/Brown University To become better healers, tissue engineering need a timely and reliable way to obtain enough raw materials: cells that either already are or can become the tissue they need to build. In a new study, Brown University biomedical engineers show that the stiffness, viscosity, and other mechanical properties of adult stem cells derived from fat, such as liposuction waste, can predict whether they will turn into bone, cartilage, or fat. That insight could lead to a filter capable of extracting the needed cells from a larger and more diverse tissue sample, said Eric Darling, senior author of the paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Imagine a surgeon using such a filter to first extract fat from a patient with a bone injury and then to inject a high concentration of bone-making stem cells into the wound site during the same operation. In the paper, the researchers report that the stiffest adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells tended to become bone, the ones that were biggest and … Continue reading →

Public release date: 21-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: David Orenstein david_orenstein@brown.edu 401-863-1862 Brown University To become better healers, tissue engineering need a timely and reliable way to obtain enough raw materials: cells that either already are or can become the tissue they need to build. In a new study, Brown University biomedical engineers show that the stiffness, viscosity, and other mechanical properties of adult stem cells derived from fat, such as liposuction waste, can predict whether they will turn into bone, cartilage, or fat. That insight could lead to a filter capable of extracting the needed cells from a larger and more diverse tissue sample, said Eric Darling, senior author of the paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Imagine a surgeon using such a filter to first extract fat from a patient with a bone injury and then to inject a high concentration of bone-making stem cells into the wound site during the same operation. In the paper, the researchers report that the stiffest adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells tended to become bone, the ones that were biggest and softest tended to become fat, and those that were particularly viscous were most likely to … Continue reading →

Public release date: 20-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Jessica Studeny jessica.studeny@case.edu 216-368-4692 Case Western Reserve University A substance in human mesenchymal stem cells that promotes growth appears to spur restoration of nerves and their function in rodent models of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found. Their study is embargoed until published in the online version of Nature Neuroscience at 1 p.m. U.S. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday, May 20. In animals injected with hepatocyte growth factor, inflammation declined and neural cells grew. Perhaps most important, the myelin sheath, which protects nerves and their ability to gather and send information, regrew, covering lesions caused by the disease. "The importance of this work is we think we've identified the driver of the recovery," said Robert H. Miller, professor of neurosciences at the School of Medicine and vice president for research at Case Western Reserve University. Miller, neurosciences instructor Lianhua Bai and biology professor Arnold I. Caplan, designed the study. They worked with Project Manager Anne DeChant, and research assistants Jordan Hecker, Janet Kranso and Anita Zaremba, from the School of Medicine; and Donald P. Lennon, a research assistant from the university's … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (May 21, 2012) A substance in human mesenchymal stem cells that promotes growth appears to spur restoration of nerves and their function in rodent models of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found. In animals injected with hepatocyte growth factor, inflammation declined and neural cells grew. Perhaps most important, the myelin sheath, which protects nerves and their ability to gather and send information, regrew, covering lesions caused by the disease. "The importance of this work is we think we've identified the driver of the recovery," said Robert H. Miller, professor of neurosciences at the School of Medicine and vice president for research at Case Western Reserve University. Miller, neurosciences instructor Lianhua Bai and biology professor Arnold I. Caplan, designed the study. They worked with Project Manager Anne DeChant, and research assistants Jordan Hecker, Janet Kranso and Anita Zaremba, from the School of Medicine; and Donald P. Lennon, a research assistant from the university's Skeletal Research Center. In MS, the immune system attacks myelin, risking injury to exposed nerves' intricate wiring. When damaged, nerve signals can be interrupted, causing loss of balance and coordination, cognitive ability and other functions. Over time, intermittent losses … Continue reading →