Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Medidata Solutions (MDSO) continues to lead the market with its cloud-based clinical development platform through a new customer commitment from Mesoblast Limited, a world leader in developing biologic products for the broad field of regenerative medicine. Mesoblast will implement Medidata Rave, including Rave Safety Gateway and Rave Targeted SDV, and Medidata Coder across its clinical studies to support the development of treatments based on its proprietary adult stem cell technology. Medidatas platform is seen as a cost-efficient solution to improve Mesoblasts clinical trial efficiencies across multiple therapeutic areas, to effectively monitor and control risks, and to streamline trial execution to meet tight deadline goals. Medidata Rave, a leading electronic data capture (EDC) and clinical data management (CDM) solution, enables real-time visibility into clinical trial data. The flexibility of Rave allows Mesoblast to proactively adjust a trials data validation plan and management processes, and also apply learnings to other studies in a timely fashion to improve trial quality and efficiency. Mesoblast selected Rave for its superior user experience and comprehensive functionality. The context-sensitive, on-screen help minimizes the dependence on calling help desks and eliminates delays in entering and cleaning data. Moreover, research sites familiarity with Rave will help … Continue reading →

Public release date: 12-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Heather Buschman, Ph.D. hbuschman@sanfordburnham.org 858-795-5343 Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute LA JOLLA, Calif., September 12, 2012 The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded a $1.58 million grant to Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, Ph.D., associate professor at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham). Chen's proposal was one of 28 new projects funded as part of CIRM's Basic Biology IV awards program, which supports basic research aimed at increasing our understanding of stem cells and how to work with them. This new funding will allow Chen and his team to develop personalized models of inherited heart conditions using stem cells derived from patients' own skin cells. They will also use these models to develop new therapies. "Most heart conditions that cause sudden death in young peoplethose under age 35are caused by inherited genetic mutations. But doctors have a hard time treating these types of heart conditions because not much is known about how genetic mutations cause them and because they're usually diagnosed late in the disease process," Chen said. "At the moment, the only way to treat these inherited heart diseases is to implant a heart-shocking device to prevent sudden death. More … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Sep. 11, 2012) A novel set of custom-designed "molecular beacons" allows scientists to monitor gene expression in living populations of stem cells as they turn into a specific tissue in real-time. The technology, which Brown University researchers describe in a new study, provides tissue engineers with a potentially powerful tool to discover what it may take to make stem cells transform into desired tissue cells more often and more quickly. That's a key goal in improving regenerative medicine treatments. "We're not the inventors of molecular beacons but we have used it in a way that hasn't been done before, which is to do this in long-term culture and watch the same population change in a reliable and harmless way," said graduate student Hetal Desai, lead author of the paper published online Sept. 5, 2012, in the journal Tissue Engineering Part A. In their research, Desai and corresponding author Eric Darling, assistant professor of biology in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology, Physiology, and Biotechnology, designed their beacons to fluoresce when they bind to mRNA from three specific genes in fat-derived stem cells that are expressed only when the stem cells are transforming into bone cells. Throughout 21 days of their … Continue reading →

Public release date: 11-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Kim Polacek kim.polacek@moffitt.org 813-745-7408 H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have published a study describing the greater difficulty in finding matched, unrelated donors for non-Caucasian patients who are candidates for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The study appeared in the August issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation. The success of HCT depends on finding cell donors who are closely matched genetically; as the degree of mismatching increases, the success of unrelated donor HCT falls accordingly. A patient's ideal donor is a genetically matched sibling. The search for a perfectly matched donor for all groups takes time and affects the progression to transplantation. The National Marrow Donor Program estimates that the genetically matched donor rate is 90 percent for Caucasian patients, 70 percent for Hispanics and Asians, and 60 percent for those of African ancestry. "Using unrelated adult donors to facilitate HCT has provided major opportunities for patients without a matched sibling donor. In fact, the rate of unrelated donors now exceeds the rate of related donor HCT," said Joseph Pidala, M.D., M.S., assistant member of Moffitt's Blood & Marrow Transplant Department and … Continue reading →

Newswise Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a subpopulation of cells that display cancer stem cell properties and resistance to chemotherapy, and participate in tumor progression. This breakthrough could lead to the development of new tests for early cancer diagnosis, prognostic tests, and innovative therapeutic strategies, as reported in Cancer Cell. Resistance to chemotherapy is a frequent and devastating phenomenon that occurs in cancer patients during certain treatments. Unfortunately, tumors that initially respond to chemotherapy eventually become resistant to it, contributing to tumor progression and death. The study reveals that these new cancer stem cells, which have not been differentiated into more specific cell types, are capable of multiplying despite being exposed to chemotherapy, while differentiated cells die. Led by Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, Chair of Pathology, and Josep Domingo-Domenech, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Mount Sinai, the research team generated cellular models of drug resistance by treating prostate tumor cell lines with increasing doses of the common chemotherapy drugs, including docetaxel. They identified a cell population expressing markers of embryonic development. In addition, these cells displayed cancer stem cell functions, including the capacity to initiate tumor cell growth. Next, the team evaluated human tissue … Continue reading →

Public release date: 10-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Mount Sinai Press Office newsmedia@mssm.edu 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a subpopulation of cells that display cancer stem cell properties and resistance to chemotherapy, and participate in tumor progression. This breakthrough could lead to the development of new tests for early cancer diagnosis, prognostic tests, and innovative therapeutic strategies, as reported in Cancer Cell. Resistance to chemotherapy is a frequent and devastating phenomenon that occurs in cancer patients during certain treatments. Unfortunately, tumors that initially respond to chemotherapy eventually become resistant to it, contributing to tumor progression and death. The study reveals that these new cancer "stem" cells, which have not been differentiated into more specific cell types, are capable of multiplying despite being exposed to chemotherapy, while differentiated cells die. Led by Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, Chair of Pathology, and Josep Domingo-Domenech, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Mount Sinai, the research team generated cellular models of drug resistance by treating prostate tumor cell lines with increasing doses of the common chemotherapy drugs, including docetaxel. They identified a cell population expressing markers … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Sep. 10, 2012) Scientists at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a subpopulation of cells that display cancer stem cell properties and resistance to chemotherapy, and participate in tumor progression. This breakthrough could lead to the development of new tests for early cancer diagnosis, prognostic tests, and innovative therapeutic strategies, as reported in Cancer Cell. Resistance to chemotherapy is a frequent and devastating phenomenon that occurs in cancer patients during certain treatments. Unfortunately, tumors that initially respond to chemotherapy eventually become resistant to it, contributing to tumor progression and death. The study reveals that these new cancer "stem" cells, which have not been differentiated into more specific cell types, are capable of multiplying despite being exposed to chemotherapy, while differentiated cells die. Led by Carlos Cordon-Cardo, MD, PhD, Chair of Pathology, and Josep Domingo-Domenech, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Mount Sinai, the research team generated cellular models of drug resistance by treating prostate tumor cell lines with increasing doses of the common chemotherapy drugs, including docetaxel. They identified a cell population expressing markers of embryonic development. In addition, these cells displayed cancer stem cell functions, including the capacity to initiate tumor cell growth. Next, the team … Continue reading →

SEOUL, South Korea, Sept. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Jeong-Chan Ra, founder and largest shareholder of RNL Bio (www.rnl.co.kr),an international biotechnology research and development firm, has pledged to give away 90% of his personal wealth over the next 10 years to promote social causes consistent with the values of human life. Dr. Ra will donate 90% privately owned equity, equity-related bonds, warrants and other assets of RNL Bio Co. and RNL Bio affiliates to the following four non-profit organizations: Bethesda Life Foundation, Yesung Medical Corporation, Academia Christiana of Korea, and Central Christian Academy. Since 2009, Dr. Ra, based on the value of respect for human life, has supported various causes that promote social justice, access to health care, and wellness across the lifespan. A donation of $1M from Dr. Ra established the Bethesda Life Foundation (http://www.bethesdalife.org/index.php/donate), a nonprofit organization for social welfare, committed to providing patients with chronic rare diseases with access to medical care and life-saving therapies. Through his donation, Dr. Ra wants to continue his healthcare support for those with retractable diseases as well as support for educating children of underprivileged patients with such diseases. Dr. Ra "hoped that this donation becomes the turning point for RNL Bio … Continue reading →

Two teams including UC Irvine scientists will receive $37 million to push stem-cell treatments toward human testing one for a condition that leads to blindness, another for Alzheimers disease. The awards, made Wednesday by the states stem-cell funding agency, include $17.3 million for a team that will cultivate retinal progenitor stem-cells to treat a disease known as retinitis pigmentosa. Human neural stem cell. COURTESY STEMCELLS, INC. ADVERTISEMENT The team includes Henry Klassen, a UC Irvine associate opthalmology professor, as well as researchers from UC Santa Barbara and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. The UC Irvine share of that award is about $6 million. The disease is often diagnosed when patients are in their teens or young adulthood, and progresses into middle age. First theres night blindness, Klassen said. Then tunnel vision, and eventually, complete blindness. The treatment hes developing relies on retinal stem cells that have matured enough to be specific to eye function. In previous testing, it has restored vision in rats. The funding will allow more preliminary work in preparation for human testing. Food and Drug Administration approval, Klassen said, could come as soon as the end of next year. See the original post: UCI stem-cell researchers to share in … Continue reading →

Newswise The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has announced that six investigators from the University of California, San Diego Stem Cell Research program have received a total of more than $7 million in the latest round of CIRM funding. This brings UC San Diegos total to more than $128 million in CIRM funding since the first awards in 2006. UC San Diego scientists funded by the newly announced CIRM Basic Biology Awards IV include Maike Sander, MD, professor of Pediatrics and Cellular and Molecular Medicine; Miles Wilkinson, PhD, professor, Division of Reproductive Endocrinology; Gene Yeo, PhD, MBA, assistant professor with the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and the Institute for Genomic Medicine; George L. Sen, PhD, assistant professor of cellular and molecular medicine; David Traver, PhD, associate professor with the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine and Ananda Goldrath, PhD, associate professor in the Division of Biological Sciences. Sander was awarded nearly $1.4 million for her proposal to define and characterize the key transcription factors necessary to promote maturation of human embryonic stem cell (hESC)-derived pancreatic progenitors into mature insulin-secreting beta cells. The loss of pancreatic beta cells in type 1 diabetes results in … Continue reading →