Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Public release date: 11-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Kim Irwin kirwin@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences UCLA stem cell scientists purified a subset of stem cells found in fat tissue and made from them bone that was formed faster and was of higher quality than bone grown using traditional methods, a finding that may one day eliminate the need for painful bone grafts that use material taken from the patient during invasive procedures. Adipose, or fat, tissue is thought to be an ideal source of cells called mesenchymal stem cells - capable of developing into bone, cartilage, muscle and other tissues - because they are plentiful and easily attained through procedures such as liposuction, said Dr. Chia Soo, vice chair for research at UCLA Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The co-senior authors on the project, Soo and Bruno Pault, are members of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Traditionally, cells taken from fat had to be cultured for weeks to isolate the stem cells which could become bone, and their expansion increases risk of infection and genetic instability. A fresh, non-cultured cell composition called stromal … Continue reading →

Newswise UCLA stem cell scientists purified a subset of stem cells found in fat tissue and made from them bone that was formed faster and was of higher quality than bone grown using traditional methods, a finding that may one day eliminate the need for painful bone grafts that use material taken from the patient during invasive procedures. Adipose, or fat, tissue is thought to be an ideal source of cells called mesenchymal stem cells - capable of developing into bone, cartilage, muscle and other tissues - because they are plentiful and easily attained through procedures such as liposuction, said Dr. Chia Soo, vice chair for research at UCLA Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The co-senior authors on the project, Soo and Bruno Pault, are members of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Traditionally, cells taken from fat had to be cultured for weeks to isolate the stem cells which could become bone, and their expansion increases risk of infection and genetic instability. A fresh, non-cultured cell composition called stromal vascular fraction (SVF) also is used to grow bone. However, SVF cells taken from adipose tissue are a highly heterogeneous population that … Continue reading →

BEVERLY, MA and TORONTO--(Marketwire -06/08/12)- Hamilton Thorne Ltd. (HTL.V) ("Hamilton Thorne" or the "Company"), a leading provider of precision laser devices and advanced image analysis systems for the fertility, stem cell and developmental biology research markets, today announced the Company's Annual General and Special Meeting ("AGM") will be held on Tuesday, June 12, 2012. The Management Information Circular and 2011 Annual Report, and all relating financial year-ended December 31, 2011 information, have been posted to shareholders and are available for download on the Company's Website http://www.hamiltonthorne.com/. The AGM will take place at the offices of Hamilton Thorne, located at 100 Cummings Center, Suite 465 E in Beverly, MA at 10:00 a.m. The Company also announced that it has extended the closing deadline for its non-brokered private placement (the "Offering") of units (each, a "Unit") of the Company, announced on April 23, 2012, to July 7, 2012 (the "Closing Deadline"). Each Unit has an offering price of $0.1125 per Unit (the "Offering Price") and is comprised of one common share (each a "Common Share") and one half of one common share purchase warrant (each whole warrant, a "Warrant"). Each Warrant entitles the holder thereof to acquire an additional Common Share at … Continue reading →

Editor's Choice Main Category: Cardiovascular / Cardiology Article Date: 08 Jun 2012 - 12:00 PDT Current ratings for: 'Scientists Say They Found A Stem Cell That Causes Heart Disease' 5 (3 votes) 4 (1 votes) The research is profound because it contradicts much of the generally accepted theories of what causes arterial hardening, and the concept may also relate to many other diseases could the associated stem cells be pinpointed. What senior author Song Li, a bioengineering professor at UC Berkeley and a researcher at the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, and his team have uncovered is a dormant stem cell in blood vessel walls, that seems to sit inactive for most of a person's lifetime, before coming to life and causing less functional cells to begin to grow. Li says these new types of cells that start growing in later life, are the root cause of arterial hardening and clogging that are associated with deadly strokes and heart attacks. Originally, it was thought that the smooth muscle cells in the arteries lining become scarred over time, and this leads to the narrow and brittle arteries that play a major part in causing cardiovascular disease. Not so says Liu: Essentially, what … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5f455z/errorproof_entry) has announced the addition of the "Error-Proof Entry, Expert Positioning, and Exploding Growth in Embryonic Stem Cell Products" report to their offering. Companies interested in developing human embryonic stem cell products have to navigate a risky product environment. Due to the long-standing and controversial patents held by the University of Wisconsins Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), companies have been largely hindered by the intellectual property (IP) environment restricting the development of embryonic stem cell products. However, going where competitors fear to tread means tremendous financial rewards are available for the companies that move boldly forward. Human embryonic stem cells offer tremendous therapeutic potential, as they can develop into over 200 different cell types. However, up until now, WARF has had the power to largely control what companies can develop embryonic stem cell products and on what terms. With the release of BioInformants report Error-Proof Entry, Expert Positioning, and Exploding Growth in Embryonic Stem Cell Products, published June 2012, research supply companies can now receive clear guidance for navigating the hazards of embryonic stem cell product development. The report reveals critical alternatives to traditional WARF licensing, such as moving research overseas, establishing collaborations with companies that … Continue reading →

Public release date: 7-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Candice Debleu eularpressoffice@cohnwolfe.com 44-789-438-6425 European League Against Rheumatism Berlin, Germany, June 7 2012: Initial results from an international, investigator-initiated, open label phase III trial were presented at EULAR 2012, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism. Data indicate that haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) results in better long term survival than conventional treatment for patients with poor prognosis early diffuse cutaneous systemic sclerosis. The ASTIS (Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation International Scleroderma) trial enrolled more than 150 patients between 2001 and 2009, and randomised patients to the HSCT arm or to intravenous pulse cyclophosphamide treatment. As of May 1, 2012, significantly more deaths have occurred in the conventional treatment group. Half of the deaths in the HSCT group occurred early and were deemed treatment-related according to an independent data monitoring committee. In the conventional treatment group in contrast, none of the deaths were deemed to be treatment-related; but more deaths occurred later and most were related to progressive disease. "Systemic sclerosis is a debilitating disease that can lead to heart, lung or kidney failure and premature death, especially in patients who have the diffuse cutaneous form of the … Continue reading →

A newly discovered type of stem cell may be one of the major driving forces behind heart attacks and other killer vascular diseases, according to a new study. The finding may provide a brand new target for future heart disease treatments, the researchers said. While doctors have long thought that it was the smooth muscle cells within the blood vessel walls that combined with cholesterol and fat to clog the arteries--and developed treatments accordingly--the new research indicates the guilty party may actually be a previously unknown type of stem cell, called a multipotent vascular stem cell. In a study conducted in mice, researchers found it was these stem cells, rather than muscle cells, that formed the scar tissue that blocks the flow of blood in the arteries and causes them to harden. According to the researchers, because multipotent stem cells are capable of becoming multiple types of cells, including smooth muscle, nerve, cartilage, bone and fat cells, the ability of the stem cells to form bone or cartilage could explain how a soft artery calcifies and hardens. We are very confident that vascular stem cells play a much more important role than what was thought previously, principal investigator Dr. Song … Continue reading →

UC Berkeley scientists have discovered a type of stem cell that appears to lie dormant in blood vessel walls for decades before waking up and causing the arterial hardening and clogging that are associated with deadly strokes and heart attacks. The findings, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, go against the prevailing theory on the cause of heart disease - that the smooth muscle cells that line blood vessels become damaged over time and are triggered to proliferate. Those smooth muscle cells were thought to build up like scar tissue and cause the blood vessels to become narrow or brittle. The new theory suggests that the smooth muscle cells found in the blood vessel walls aren't to blame, but rather a small cluster of stem cells is. It's those stem cells that proliferate and cause damage, and they should be the target of drug therapies to treat, and potentially cure, heart disease, the UC Berkeley scientists say. "We call them sleeping beauty or sleeping evil cells, because they don't do anything when they're dormant. The stem cells stay quiescent for decades before they start to grow and they make the blood vessels harden," said senior author Song Li, a … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (June 6, 2012) One of the top suspects behind killer vascular diseases is the victim of mistaken identity, according to researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, who used genetic tracing to help hunt down the real culprit. The guilty party is not the smooth muscle cells within blood vessel walls, which for decades was thought to combine with cholesterol and fat that can clog arteries. Blocked vessels can eventually lead to heart attacks and strokes, which account for one in three deaths in the United States. Instead, a previously unknown type of stem cell -- a multipotent vascular stem cell -- is to blame, and it should now be the focus in the search for new treatments, the scientists report in a new study appearing June 6 in the journal Nature Communications. "For the first time, we are showing evidence that vascular diseases are actually a kind of stem cell disease," said principal investigator Song Li, professor of bioengineering and a researcher at the Berkeley Stem Cell Center. "This work should revolutionize therapies for vascular diseases because we now know that stem cells rather than smooth muscle cells are the correct therapeutic target." The finding that a stem … Continue reading →

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Leading stem cell therapeutic and regenerative medicine company, AuxoCell Laboratories, Inc., today announced an agreement with CordVida, a Brazilian stem cell cryopreservation company, which will allow CordVida to expand its services. Families who select CordVida to store umbilical cord blood will now have the opportunity to bank stem cells from an additional source cord tissue. With this agreement, AuxoCell broadens its international reach to South America. At AuxoCell, we are pleased by the opportunity to provide this groundbreaking technology to families around the globe, said Rouzbeh R. Taghizadeh, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of AuxoCell Laboratories, Inc. CordVida is Brazils premier cord blood bank and adheres to the highest quality standards. It is for that reason that we have selected them as our exclusive partner in Brazil. Cord tissue has an abundant source of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). Currently, there is a significant amount of research underway focused on mesenchymal stem cells extracted from cord tissue. MSCs are rapidly becoming the leading stem cell in regenerative medicine studies, and MSCs from a variety of sources are in use in over 150 clinical trials. The AuxoCell cord tissue technology represents the gold standard in the industry, as its technology … Continue reading →