Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

BEVERLY, MA and TORONTO--(Marketwired - May 28, 2013) - Hamilton Thorne Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: HTL), a leading provider of precision laser devices and advanced image analysis systems for the fertility, stem cell and developmental biology research markets, today reported operational and financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2013. In the first quarter of 2013, Hamilton Thorne's revenues increased to $1.74 million, exceeding the prior year by 10.6%, led by another strong quarter for its CASA image analysis products and the continued growth in sales of new LYKOS laser system, supported by stable sales of its established products.Operating expenses were $1.13 million for the quarter-ended March 31, 2013, reduced 19.6%, or $275,000, from $1.40 million in the previous year, and reduced significantly as a percentage of sales, down to 65% from 89% for the prior year. The net loss for the quarter-ended March 31, 2013 was reduced to $121,000 from $530,000 due to revenue and gross profit growth, reduced spending and reduced interest expense. "We are pleased to report that our efforts at managing the fundamentals of the business and our cost containment strategies have led to improvement across a number of important business metrics," said David Wolf, … Continue reading →

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Survival rates have increased significantly among patients who received blood stem cell transplants from both related and unrelated donors, according to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology today. The study authors attribute the increase to several factors, including advances in HLA tissue typing, better supportive care and earlier referral for transplantation. The study analyzed outcomes for more than 38,000 transplant patients with life-threatening blood cancers and other diseases over a 12-year period capturing approximately 70 to 90 percent of all related and unrelated blood stem cell transplants performed in the U.S. It was led by Theresa Hahn, Ph.D., of Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI), in collaboration with the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), the research arm of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and Be The Match. This study shows that we are making significant progress, on a national level, in survival after transplantation. Patients across the country have benefited from the collaborative efforts of the CIBMTR, the NMDP and clinical researchers at individualtransplant centers, said Dr. Hahn, anAssociate Member and Associate Professor of Oncology in RPCI'sDepartment of Medicine and first author on the study.Our results demonstrate that these efforts have … Continue reading →

The study published by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of Oregon Health & Science University and colleagues in the journal Cell included inaccurate information such as duplicate images of "scatterplot" data and has sparked debate over whether the study received sufficient review before publishing, according to Nature. However, Mitalipov says the errors don't affect the substance of the study. He says the problem was a simple matter of bad editing, failing to catch errors that stemmed from a colleague's handling of digital images. "It was an honest mistake," he said, adding that the substance of the study remains correct. "We didn't fake it." The unique stem cell lines the group created are being shared with other researchers and will be easily verified as the real thing, Mitalipov added. The publisher of Cell agreed, calling them "minor errors" in a comment obtained by the blog Retraction Watch. The errors have drawn extra attention because of the sensitivity of the study's subject. A South Korean researcher claimed to have cloned stem cells using a similar method nearly a decade ago, but was found to have fabricated the data. The OHSU study, which focused on providing higher-quality embryonic stem cells for gene therapies of conditions like … Continue reading →

A lawsuit challenging U.S. funding for human embryonic stem-cell research was rejected by a federal appeals court in Washington, which upheld a lower courts ruling dismissing the case. A three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington today said that U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth committed no error when he threw out the lawsuit filed by James Sherley, a researcher at Boston Biomedical Research Institute, and Theresa Deisher, founder of AVM Biotechnology in Seattle. Lamberth, in his July 2011 dismissal ruling, cited an earlier appeals court finding that the government-backed research is probably lawful. The two doctors sought to block the U.S. Health and Human Services Department and the National Institutes of Health from spending federal funds on research involving human embryonic stem cells, arguing it violates a law known as the Dickey-Wicker Amendment. The 1996 statute bars government spending on research that damages or destroys a human embryo. In a 2-1 decision in April 2011, the appeals court let the funding continue while Lamberth considered a final ruling. The appellate panel said the language of the statute wouldnt support a funding cutoff. The case is Sherley v. Sebelius, 11-5241, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District … Continue reading →

Stem cell research: is storing your baby's umbilical cord a sound investment or a pricey frill? Umbilical cord blood holds precious stem cells and at some Swiss university hospitals, mothers can freely donate their baby's supply to research. But, some l... By: swissinfo.ch videos … Continue reading →

A blockbuster study in which US researchers reported that they had turned human skin cells into embryonic stem cells contained errors, its lead author has acknowledged. Shoukhrat Mitalipov nevertheless adamantly stood by the conclusions of the study published last week in journal Cell, which reported that human stem cell lines for the first time had been created via cloning. The journal Nature contacted Mitalipov after an anonymous online critic on PubPeer spotted four separate problems in the paper. In an interview with Nature, Mitalipov confirmed that three errors were made in the rush to publish -- but denied the fourth issue raised was an error and said the overall conclusions were unaffected. "The results are real, the cell lines are real, everything is real," said Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton. "I personally made the cells," he said. "I saw them grow into colonies." He blamed the errors on his rush to publish the research, which he hoped to present next month at the International Society for Stem Cell Research meeting. "Maybe it was rushed," he said. "It was my mistake." Mitalipov said his research team will be issuing an erratum correcting … Continue reading →

Once again, controversy is swirling around a paper describing human embryonic stem cells created by cloning. Just over a week ago, researchers led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Center in Beaverton announced their success in achieving the feat. It was the culmination of a quest that had frustrated the field since 2005, when a previous claim to have produced cloned human stem cells, made by a team led by Woo Suk Hwang of Seoul National University in South Korea, was shown to be fraudulent. Now Mitalipov's work is itself under scrutiny, after anonymous scientists noted online that his paper contains duplicated and mislabelled images and plots. "This is really like dj vu all over again," says Arnold Kriegstein, a stem cell researcher at the University of California, San Francisco. To be clear, no one is suggesting that Mitalipov's group is guilty of fraud. But given that the paper was accepted for publication by the journal Cell within four days of being submitted, the incident is drawing attention to the errors that can occur when scientists and journals race to get exciting research findings into print. "In my view, this is a typical problem when you rush … Continue reading →

The researchers claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells from human skin tissue The lead author of what has been described as milestone stem cell research published last week has admitted mistakes were made in the rush to get the paper published. The researchers claimed to have created human embryonic stem cells from human skin tissue. Allegations were made by a contributor to scientific peer review website PubPeer. It was claimed that there were issues of concern with a number of images in the presentation of the study in the respected international academic journal Cell. The claim was subsequently brought to the attention of the Massachusetts-based biology biweekly publication, which responded on Twitter by saying its editorial team was currently assessing the allegations. However, the paper's lead author, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, has told the science journal Nature that there are three innocent mistakes in the paper made during the rush to publish. He said he takes responsibility for the mistakes. However, questions are now being raised about the journal's three-day time scale from submission to acceptance of the paper, given the controversy that surrounds the issue of cloning. Dr Mitalipov, from the Oregon Health and Science University, admitted to Nature … Continue reading →

Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov stands outside the monkey enclosure at his lab in Oregon. He says the mistakes in his recent paper were caused by the rush to publish quickly. Biologist Shoukhrat Mitalipov stands outside the monkey enclosure at his lab in Oregon. He says the mistakes in his recent paper were caused by the rush to publish quickly. This feels a bit like deja vu. Scientists report a major breakthrough in human stem-cell research. And then just a week later, the findings come under fire. Biologists at Oregon Health & Science University said May 15 that they had cloned human embryos from a person's skin cell. Researchers have been trying to do this for more than a decade. Many scientists in the field were heralding the announcement as discovery of the Holy Grail because now they could make personalized stem cells for treating an array of diseases. But several images in the paper aren't quite right, a commenter said Wednesday on the website PubPeer. Specifically, three pairs of photos are duplicated and then labeled as different results. There are also some questions about data demonstrating that the scientists had created stem cells. The lead author on the study, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, … Continue reading →

Shoukhrat Mitalipov says honest mistakes were made in a push to get cloning results published quickly. Richard Clement/Reuters A blockbuster paper that reported the creation of human stem cell lines via cloning has come under fire. An anonymous online commenter found four problems in the paper, which was published online 15 May in the journal Cell1. The lead author of the Cell paper, Shoukhrat Mitalipov, told Nature that three were innocent mistakes made while assembling the data in what was to many in the field an unfathomable rush to publication: just three days from submission to acceptance and another 12 days to publication. The fourth, Mitalipov said, was not a problem at all. The results are real, the cell lines are real, everything is real, says Mitalipov, a reproductive biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton. Mitalipov said he had just returned from Europe on Wednesday and found himself swamped with emails and calls from editors at Cell, as well as from journalists. I just got home a couple hours ago. The editors, everyone was going crazy, he says. Mitalipov says he consulted with first author Masahito Tachibana, who compiled the data for the paper, and … Continue reading →