Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, in partnership with ViaCyte, Inc., a San Diego-based biotechnology firm specializing in regenerative medicine, have launched the first-ever human Phase I/II clinical trial of a stem cell-derived therapy for patients with Type 1 diabetes. The trial will assess the safety and efficacy of a new investigational drug called VC-01, which was recently approved for testing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The 2-year trial will involve four to six testing sites, the first being at UC San Diego, and will recruit approximately 40 study participants. The goal, first and foremost, of this unprecedented human trial is to evaluate the safety, tolerability and efficacy of various doses of VC-01 among patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus, said principal investigator Robert R. Henry, MD, professor of medicine in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at UC San Diego and chief of the Section of Endocrinology, Metabolism & Diabetes at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System. We will be implanting specially encapsulated stem cell-derived cells under the skin of patients where its believed they will mature into pancreatic beta cells able to … Continue reading →

013 Ninjas vs Superbugs Adventures in Nanomedicine By: Sophia Wight … Continue reading →

In 1966, scientists made a huge breakthrough in nanomedicine. They found they could miniaturise a submarine and its crew and inject it into a patients bloodstream. The sub then wound its way through the patients body till it reached the brain, where the crew could then destroy a blood clot using laser guns. Of course, this was pure science fiction. It was the plot of the movie Fantastic Voyage, a phantasmagorical thriller in which the intrepid crew of the Proteus had just one hour to save the life of a top scientist, while avoiding such dangers as voracious white blood cells, lymph nodes and enemy spies. As a kid, I was enthralled by the film: secret agents, giant man-eating antibodies, and Raquel Welch as a sexy scientist it was a boys own fantasy. In real life, were a long way from shrinking people and sending them inside someones body to carry out surgical procedures. But we are able to use nanoparticles as intravenous couriers to deliver drugs to specific parts of the body, or to sneak tiny Trojan horses into cancerous cells to destroy them from the inside. In Ireland, pioneering research into nanomed is being done at Crann, the … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 10-Sep-2014 Contact: Sally Stewart sally.stewart@cshs.org 310-248-6566 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center LOS ANGELES Researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute infused antibody-studded iron nanoparticles into the bloodstream to treat heart attack damage. The combined nanoparticle enabled precise localization of the body's own stem cells to the injured heart muscle. The study, which focused on laboratory rats, was published today in the online peer reviewed journal Nature Communications. The study addresses a central challenge in stem cell therapeutics: how to achieve targeted interactions between stem cells and injured cells. Although stem cells can be a potent weapon in the fight against certain diseases, simply infusing a patient with stem cells is no guarantee the stem cells will be able to travel to the injured area and work collaboratively with the cells already there. "Infusing stem cells into arteries in order to regenerate injured heart muscle can be inefficient," said Eduardo Marbn, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who led the research team. "Because the heart is continuously pumping, the stem cells can be pushed out of the heart chamber before they even get a chance to begin to heal the injury." In an attempt to target healing stem cells … Continue reading →