An estimated 200,000 patients a year have acute respiratory failure in the U.S. and mortality is about 30 to 40 percent, according to Michael Matthay, MD, a critical care specialist and professor of medicine and anesthesia at UC San Francisco. Matthay is working with Jae-Woo Lee, MD, Kathleen Liu, MD, MAS, PhD, and Carolyn Calfee, MD, MAS, associate professors of medicine and anesthesia, on developing cell-based therapies that he hopes will make a major difference in reducing mortality in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, a major cause of acute respiratory failure in critically-ill patients. The research teams experience translating these therapies from scientific concept to clinical practice is featured in a series of videos on LaunchPad, a new online resource for translational researchers that is managed by UCSFs Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI). Moving a novel treatment into clinical trials requires an "Investigational New Drug" (IND) approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As Liu describes in the video, Preparing the entire IND application for this project was going to be an enormous undertaking that I think we hadnt really appreciated. Up until the IND process, the team of investigators had worked over many years on … Continue reading →

Ankle arthritis treatment... what are thre options? http://www.stemcellsarthritistreatment.com Ankle arthritis is increasing in prevalence. The most common causes are trauma and ligamentous laxity. Conservativ... By: Nathan Wei … Continue reading →

Stem cell research is surrounded by loaded controversy over the bioethical issues that itposes. What many peopledont understand is that there are two different types of stem cells currentlybeing used for research:embryonic and adult.Adult stem cell use isnot the causefordiscussion, allowingresearch to continue with the hopes of changing the treatment of disease. Researchers worldwide, whohave alreadydeveloped varioustherapies to treat leukemia, alsohope to treat cancer, Parkinsons disease and spinal cord injuriesone day. Now, Boston-based researchers have made the next development in stem cellstudies, whichwill reap exciting benefitsfor a large population ofpatients suffering from inflammatory diseases. A group of researchers from Brigham and Womens Hospital, theHarvard Stem Cell Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technologyand Massachusetts General Hospital have uncovered a wayforstem cellstoact as a drug factory at thesite of inflammation in the body, according to a study published Oct. 4 on EurekAlert. Oren Levy,the head researcher, said he isoptimistic about the discoverys potential to treat diseases such as myocardialinfarction, multiple sclerosisand even certain types of cancer. Its important not to create false hope, but we do see a lot of progress to be made,Levy said. What did they do? Levy,with the help ofcollaborators Jeffrey Karp,WeianZhao,MehmetFatihYanikand Charles Lin,began the researchas a proof-of-concept studyto determine … Continue reading →

Oct. 14, 2013 Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have identified a protein expressed by human bone marrow stem cells that guides and stimulates the formation of blood vessels. Their findings, which could help improve the vascularization of engineered tissues, were reported online on October 12 in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology. "Some stem cells actually have multiple jobs," says Dr. Jalees Rehman, associate professor of cardiology and pharmacology at the UIC College of Medicine and lead author of the paper. For example, stem cells in the bone marrow, he said, differentiate into bone or cartilage, but also have a secondary role in helping to support other cells in the bone marrow. Rehman and his colleagues, who are developing engineered tissues for use in cardiac patients, observed that certain stem cells in bone marrow, called mesenchymal stem cells, seemed crucial for organizing other cells into functional blood vessels. The researchers demonstrated that when they mixed mesenchymal stem cells from human bone marrow with the endothelial cells that line blood vessels, the stem cells elongated to form scaffolds and the endothelial cells organized around them to form tubes. "But without the stem cells, the endothelial cells just … Continue reading →