By C. Rajan, contributing writer The U.S. FDA has just granted BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics novel stem cell therapy, NurOwn, Fast Track status for the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the company announced via press release. "We are pleased that the FDA has granted Fast Track status for NurOwn as this will allow us greater and more frequent dialogue with the Agency as we continue the development of this ground-breaking cell therapy for the treatment of ALS," said Tony Fiorino, MD, PhD, CEO of BrainStorm. "We expect Fast Track designation, which recognizes the potential of NurOwn as to address an unmet medical need in ALS, to help speed and improve our development program." Israeli biotech company BrainStorm is developing novel adult stem cell technologies for neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS. The company licensed the exclusive rights to the NurOwn technology from Ramot, the technology transfer company of Tel Aviv University. NurOwn is a personalized stem cell product made from autologous mesenchymal stem cells. These adult stem cells are obtained from the patients bone marrow and are induced to secrete neurotrophic factors, which are growth factors that can stimulate the survival and maintenance of neurons that degenerate in neurologic disorders. NurOwn … Continue reading →

By Richard M. Cohen image courtesy Richard Cohen I am one of twenty struggling every day with multiple sclerosis to be included in an innovative, phase one stem cell clinical trial at the Tisch MS Research Center of New York. Now theres a mouthful. Please let me explain. Many of us read tidbits about cell therapy and think it simply is space-age medicine that will be launched in the future. In fact, we are at the starting line now, and the race has begun. A phase one trial tests safety. The group is small, and all are treated with the real thing. No placebos, sugar pills. The trial tests autologous cells, which mean our own. That eliminates rejection and alters risk. No new medical procedure comes risk-free, but the dangers are minimal. The stem cells are pulled from bone marrow harvested from our breast bones. Sounds hideous. It is not. In this trial, the stem cells are infused directly into the spinal column. Nope. Not painful at all. Then we watch and wait. Results, if there are to be any, can take many months to show themselves. This particular procedure has never been used before. I was the first in … Continue reading →

Seeing is definitely believing when it comes to stem cell therapy. A blind man has recovered enough sight to ride his horse. A woman who could see no letters at all on a standard eye test chart can now read the letters on the top four lines. Others have recovered the ability to see colour. All have had injections of specialised retinal cells in their eyes to replace ones lost through age or disease. A trial in 18 people with degenerative eye conditions is being hailed as the most promising yet for a treatment based on human embryonic stem cells. "We've been hearing about their potential for more than a decade, but the results have always been in mice and rats, and no one has shown they're safe or effective in humans long term," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the company that carried out the stem cell intervention. "Now, we've shown both that they're safe and that there's a real chance these cells can help people." Ten years ago, the team at Advanced Cell Technology announced that it had successfully converted human embryonic stem cells into retinal pigment epithelial cells. These cells help keep the … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 14-Oct-2014 Contact: David McKeon DMcKeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation @nyscf NEW YORK, NY (October 14, 2014) The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced today that Marius Wernig, PhD, Associate Professor in the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, is the 2014 recipient of the NYSCF Robertson Stem Cell Prize, which has been awarded since 2011 for extraordinary achievements in translational stem cell research by a young scientist. Dr. Wernig and his team discovered that human skin cells can be converted directly into functional neurons, termed induced neuronal (iN) cells, in a period of four to five weeks with the addition of just four proteins. "Dr. Wernig's groundbreaking research has the potential to accelerate all research on devastating neurodegenerative diseases," said Susan L. Solomon, CEO and Co-founder of NYSCF. "His work can impact and accelerate research on multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease, and autism among many other conditions." At Stanford, Dr. Wernig focuses on using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and iN cells for disease modeling and as potential cellular therapy. This new technique transformed the field of cellular reprogramming by eliminating the … Continue reading →