Monthly Archives: February 2012

13-02-2012 12:31 Sridhar Ramaswamy, MD, Tucker Gosnell Investigator and Associate Professor of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, and Harvard Stem Cell Institute, discusses ongoing research into drug tolerance and resistance, specifically the roll of dormant cancer cells. If a tumor goes into remission as a result of a cancer drug and then recurs it is likely that the tumor will still respond to the initial treatment. In the dormant state the cells are resistance, in the original they are sensitive. The exact mechanism behind this has yet to be discovered. In some cases giving a course, stopping, and then continuing later on can create an additive effect, an idea that Ramaswamy calls a drug holiday. A comparison is underway between drug and non-drug induced dormant cells in order to find the mechanism that causes resistance. The ultimate goal of the research is to be able to predict and stop drug resistance. Continued here: Dr. Ramaswamy on Dormant Tumor Cells and Resistance - Video … Continue reading →

To: EDUCATION, MEDICAL AND NATIONAL EDITORS Line is first from U-M accepted to the U.S. National Institutes of Health registry, now available for federally-funded research ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 14, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The University of Michigan's first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry. The line, known as UM4-6, is a genetically normal line, derived in October 2010 from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That embryo was created for reproduction but was no longer needed for that purpose and was therefore about to be discarded. "This is significant, because acceptance of these cells on the registry demonstrates our attention to details of proper oversight, consenting, and following of NIH guidelines established in 2009," says Gary Smith, Ph.D., who derived the line and also is co-director of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, part of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. "It … Continue reading →

Public release date: 14-Feb-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Mary F. Masson mfmasson@umich.edu 734-764-2220 University of Michigan Health System ANN ARBOR, Mich. ? The University of Michigan's first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry. The line, known as UM4-6, is a genetically normal line, derived in October 2010 from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That embryo was created for reproduction but was no longer needed for that purpose and was therefore about to be discarded. "This is significant, because acceptance of these cells on the registry demonstrates our attention to details of proper oversight, consenting, and following of NIH guidelines established in 2009," says Gary Smith, Ph.D., who derived the line and also is co-director of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, part of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute. "It now makes the line available to researchers who … Continue reading →

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - Cutting-edge arthritis treatment for our four-legged family members is now available in Columbia. Banks Animal Hospital is the first in the area to offer in-house Stem Cell therapy. It uses your pets own body to heal itself. Take 13-year-old Maggie, for example. The energetic pup has a limp that usually keeps her from jumping or going up stairs. "Today when everybody's out there filming her little limp it's not as pronounced because she wants to please," said Maggie's owner, Beth Phibbs. "She's just a great dog." But a great attitude wasn't enough to repair a bad case of cervical spine arthritis. So Monday, Beth brought Maggie to Banks Animal Hospital for the Stem Cell therapy. Like many, Beth had never heard of Stem Cell work in animals. "Until Dr. Banks mentioned it to me I was like, beg your pardon?" "There's no down side, no side effects because you're using your own cells," said Dr Ken Banks. Banks and his staff first gather some of Maggie's blood and fat. Both are good places to find the repair cells they're after. Adult stem cells, not the controversial embryonic kind, are then separated and spun down. "The repair … Continue reading →

Heart-Attack Damage Heals After Stem Cell Treatment Feb. 13, 2012 -- A new stem cell treatment resurrects dead, scarred heart muscle damaged by a recent heart attack. The finding, just in time for Valentine's Day, is the clearest evidence yet that literally broken hearts can heal. All that's needed is a little help from one's own heart stem cells. "We have been trying as doctors for centuries to find a treatment that actually reverses heart injury," Eduardo Marban, MD, PhD, tells WebMD. "That is what we seem to have been able to achieve in this small number of patients. If so, this could change the nature of medicine. We could go to the root of disease and cure it instead of just work around it." Marban, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, led the study. He invented the "cardiosphere" culture technique used to create the stem cells and founded the company developing the treatment. It's the first completed, controlled clinical trial showing that scarred heart tissue can be repaired. Earlier work in patients with heart failure, using different stem cells or bone-marrow stem cells, also showed that the heart can regenerate itself. "These findings suggest that this … Continue reading →

WALKER, Mich. (WOOD) - Dogs who received the first in-clinic stem cell therapy in West Michigan returned to the vets who treated them Monday morning. Boris and Natasha returned to Kelley's Animal Clinic for their 60-day checkup after receiving stem cell treatment in December 2011. Dr. James Kelley and his staff of vets removed fat tissue from the dogs and activated it with an enzyme before injecting it into their back legs. This adult animal stem cell technology is different from the controversial embryonic stem cell therapy. Kelley said both dogs are doing amazingly well and that the procedure has done more than just help their arthritis. "We're finding that not only the joints are affected, the rest of the animal is affected as well," said Kelley. "The skin is better. The attitude in these dogs is much improved." Kelley and his staff have done 16 stem cell treatments since the first on Boris and Natasha, and he said all the dogs are showing signs of improvement after a short period of time. Read the original here: Dogs who got stem cell therapy are well … Continue reading →

A promising stem cell therapy approach could soon provide a way to regenerate heart muscle damaged by heart attacks. Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and The Johns Hopkins University harvested stem cells from the hearts of 17 heart attack patients and after prepping the cells, infused them back into the patients' hearts. Their study is published in the current issue of The Lancet. The patients received the stem cell infusions about three months after their heart attacks. Researchers found that six months after treatment, patients had significantly less scarring of the heart muscle and also showed a considerable increase the amount of healthy heart muscle, compared to eight post-heart attack patients studied who did not receive the stem cell infusions. One year after, scar size was reduced by about 50 percent. "The damaged tissue of the heart was replaced by what looks like healthy myocardium," said Dr. Peter Johnston, a study co-author and an assistant professor of medicine at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "It's functioning better than the damaged myocardium in the control subjects, and there's evidence it's starting to contract and generate electrical signals the way healthy heart tissue does." While this research is an early … Continue reading →