The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is rethinking its rules in the wake of a recent breakthrough involving the creation of stem cell lines from a cloned human embryo OHSU Photos The announcement last month of a long-awaited breakthrough in stem-cell research the creation of stem-cell lines from a cloned human embryo has revived interest in using embryonic stem cells to treat disease. But US regulations mean that many researchers will be watching those efforts from the sidelines. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which distributes the majority of federal funding for stem-cell research, prohibits research on cells taken from embryos created solely for research a category that includes the six stem-cell lines developed by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive-biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, and his colleagues. The team used cloning techniques to combine a donor cell with an unfertilized egg whose nucleus had been removed, creating a self-regenerating stem-cell colony that is genetically matched to the cell donor. Mitalipovs cell lines are also off limits to researchers funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which was created in part to support stem-cell work that is restricted by the NIH. CIRM funds … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 6-Mar-2014 Contact: Gina DiGravio gina.digravio@bmc.org 617-638-8480 Boston University Medical Center (Boston)--While acknowledging the potential of genomics to prevent and treat disease, researchers from Boston Medical Center (BMC) and Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) believe it is long past due to use current scientific data and technical advances to reduce the burden of sickle cell disease (SCD), one of the most common serious single gene disorders. The work, reported as a Viewpoint in this week's Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), highlights the gaps in knowledge and care in terms of SCD and the need to address this issue expeditiously. The inexpensive identification of the mutated hemoglobin and the technical capacity to screen populations have been known and operative for decades. Sickle Cell Trait (SCT) is estimated to affect 3 million people in the US: approximately 8 percent of African Americans and .5-3 percent of Hispanics. While the screening indications and contexts for life limiting diseases such as cancer, Down syndrome and SCD differ, timely knowledge of genetic vulnerability and genetic counseling are necessary for informed decision making in all screening contexts. According to the researchers few individuals of child-bearing age born in the United States … Continue reading →

University of Virginia Health System Press Release CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 6, 2014 -- Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered a specific type of immune cell in the bone marrow of mice responsible for an aggressive, poorly understood form of leukemia. The type of leukemia examined in the study proved particularly hardy and resourceful. After the cancer killed a mouse with the responsible mutation, the researchers placed the leukemic cells in a lab dish, where they continued to survive and even thrive. People have been trying to grow leukemia cells in culture, even from patients, and they require other factors to survive. But not these, said UVA researcher Maria Luisa S. Sequeira-Lopez, MD. Her co-researcher, Ariel Gomez, MD, marveled at the cells ability to tolerate even the least hospitable conditions. These are extremely aggressive in that they have developed a system to grow and survive no matter what, he said. They have immortalized themselves. B-Cell Leukemia The research provides important insight into B-cell leukemia, the causes of which are poorly understood, and could lead to new and better treatments. In this case, the loss of a key cellular signaling molecule through mutation appears to trigger the … Continue reading →

See Inside Mar 19, 2013 |By Christine Gorman Richard Clark, NIH Researchers are now experimenting with stem cellsprogenitor cells that can develop into many different types of tissueto coax the bodies of a few individuals to heal themselves. Some of the most advanced clinical trials so far involve treating congestive heart disease and regrowing muscles in soldiers who were wounded in an explosion. But new developments are happening so quickly that investigators have come up with a new nameregenerative medicineto describe the emerging field. Many of the stem cells being studied are referred to as pluripotent, meaning they can give rise to any of the cell types in the body but they cannot give rise on their own to an entirely new body. (Only the earliest embryonic cells, which occur just after fertilization, can give rise to a whole other organism by themselves.) Other stem cells, such as the ones found in the adult body, are multipotent, meaning they can develop into a limited number of different tissue types. One of the most common stem cell treatments being studied is a procedure that extracts a few stem cells from a person's body and grows them in large quantities in the … Continue reading →