Genome sequencing holds great potential for diagnosing diseases, finding treatments and ultimately cutting medical costs, experts say, but insurance companies are leery of covering the still-new procedure, preventing it so far from becoming a routine part of medical care. Boston-based Partners HealthCare is one of just two systems in the country to offer full genome sequencing for clinical patients. The out-of-pocket cost of unlocking your full genetic code, though, is steep: $9,000. Cost is a barrier, said Heidi Rehm, chief laboratory director at the Partners Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine in Cambridge. The lab started offering full genome sequencing last August using blood samples to extract information from DNA but it has done the complex analysis for fewer than half a dozen patients since then. Insurance companies didnt cover the costs for any of those patients, Rehm said. For patients suffering from a range of diseases, from cancer to hearing loss, sequencing can help identify the gene causing the problem and help doctors determine which treatments will be most effective. Genetic sequencing can also tell patients if theyre at risk of developing certain conditions later in life. The challenge for scientists like Rehm is to prove that this kind of … Continue reading →

New genetic evidence strengthens the case that one well-known type of cholesterol is a likely suspect in causing heart disease, but also casts further doubt on the causal role played by another type. The findings may guide the search for improved treatments for heart disease. Most of us have heard of "good cholesterol" and "bad cholesterol" coursing through our bloodstream. In the conventional health wisdom of the past 30 years, having more of the "good" variety (high-density lipoprotein, or HDL) lowers your risk of heart disease, while more of the bad one (low-density lipoprotein, LDL) increases your risk. Indeed, over the years, clinical trials and other studies have found that drugs that lower LDL also lower your probability of heart disease. On the other hand, drug trials have not shown heart-health benefits to increasing HDL or to lowering triglycerides, a third type of blood lipid. Now a new study co-led by scientists at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Penn Medicine sheds light on the role of genes and blood lipid levels in cardiovascular health. Newer tools for gene analysis show how variations in DNA are underlying actors affecting heart disease -- a major worldwide cause of death and disability. … Continue reading →

MediVet Stem Cell Therapy For Pets MediVet is the company that created the technology to use stem cell therapy to treat pets with arthritis and hip dysplasia. By: Newman Veterinary Centers … Continue reading →

The demonstration that the technique, which was pioneered on mouse cells, also works on human skin cells raises the prospect of new treatments for incurable illnesses, from Parkinson's to heart disease, based on regenerating diseased organs in situ from a patient's own stem cells. Although there is no intention to create human embryos from skin cells, scientists believe that it could, theoretically, be possible to do so given that entire mouse embryos have already been effectively created from the re-engineered blood cells of laboratory mice. Creating the mouse embryos was the final proof the scientists needed to demonstrate that the stem cells were "pluripotent", and so capable of developing into any specialised tissue of an adult animal, including the "germ cells" that make sperm and eggs. Pluripotent stem cells could usher in a new age of medicine based on regenerating diseased organs or tissues with injections of tissue material engineered from a patient's own skin or blood, which would pose few problems in terms of tissue rejection. However, the technique also has the potential to be misused for cloning babies, although stem cell scientists believe there are formidable technical, legal and ethical obstacles that would make this effectively impossible. A … Continue reading →

Irvine, California (PRWEB) February 08, 2014 The Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center, PC, located in Irvine, California, announces a series of free public seminars on the use of stem cells for various degenerative and inflammatory conditions. They will be provided by Dr. Thomas A. Gionis, Surgeon-in-Chief. The seminars will be held on February 9th and 11th. On February 9th, the seminar will be held at 3500 Barranca Pkwy, Suite 315, Irvine, California at 2pm. On February 11th, the seminar will be held at the University of Claremont in the Padua Room of the Alexander Hughes Community Center, 1700 Danbury Road, Claremont, California at 11:30am. At the Irvine Stem Cell Treatment Center, utilizing investigational protocols, adult adipose derived stem cells (ADSCs) can be deployed to improve patients quality of life with a number of degenerative conditions and diseases. ADSCs are taken from the patients own adipose (fat) tissue (also called stromal vascular fraction (SVF)). Adipose tissue is exceptionally abundant in ADSCs. The adipose tissue is obtained from the patient during a 15 minute mini-liposuction performed under local anesthesia in the doctors office. SVF is a protein-rich solution containing mononuclear cell lines (predominantly autologous mesenchymal stem cells), macrophage cells, endothelial cells, red … Continue reading →