Lung Disease Stem Cell Treatment By: Stem Cell U.S. … Continue reading →

Public release date: 1-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Thana Dharmarajah dharmar@mcmaster.ca 905-525-9140 x22196 McMaster University Hamilton, ON (August 1, 2013) McMaster University researchers have revealed the location of human blood stem cells that may improve bone marrow transplants. The best stem cells are at the ends of the bone. It is hoped this discovery will lead to lowering the amount of bone marrow needed for a donation while increasing regeneration and lessening rejection in the recipient patients, says principal investigator Mick Bhatia, professor and scientific director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute. In a paper published online today by the journal Cell Stem Cell, his team reports that human stem cells (HSC) residing in the end (trabecular region) of the bones display the highest regenerative ability of the blood and immune system. "Like the best professional hockey players, our findings indicate blood stem cells are not all equal," said Bhatia. "We now reveal the reason why -- it's not the players themselves, but the effect the arena has on them that makes them the highest scorers." Bone marrow transplants have been done for more than 50 years and are routine in most hospitals, providing … Continue reading →

Mike Martin needed a medical miracle. Diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, the Houston man tried to find help in what authorities said was a scheme to illegally harvest and sell stem cells. On Wednesday, 42-year-old Vincent Dammai of South Carolina pleaded guilty in federal court in Houston for his role in the scheme. Prosecutors said he processed stem cells at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston without approval from the Food and Drug Administration or the university. Martin, the owner of a Houston-based landscaping business, was among the victims of the scam, prosecutors said. Martin was diagnosed in 2009 and died two years later. He paid $47,000 after hearing of a treatment based on stem cell injections and a cocktail of herbs and vitamins that promised to reverse the terminal illness. "I told him it was a glorified spa treatment," said Martin's sister, Katie Martin. "But he said, 'No. It's my only hope.' So I shut my mouth." The charges against Dammai were the result of an FBI and FDA investigation into the manufacture and distribution of stem cells in the treatment of human autoimmune diseases such as Parkinson's. "Mike needed a … Continue reading →

Aug. 1, 2013 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report a simple, easily reproducible RNA-based method of generating human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in the August 1 edition of Cell Stem Cell. Their approach has broad applicability for the successful production of iPSCs for use in human stem cell studies and eventual cell therapies. Partially funded by grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the methods developed by the UC San Diego researchers dramatically improve upon existing DNA-based approaches -- avoiding potential integration problems and providing what appears to be a safer and simpler method for future clinical applications. The generation of human iPSCs has opened the potential for regenerative medicine therapies based on patient-specific, personalized stem cells. Pluripotent means that these cells have the ability to give rise to any of the body's cell types. The human iPSCs are typically artificially derived from a non-pluripotent adult cell, such as a skin cell. They retain the characteristics of the body's natural pluripotent stem cells, commonly known as embryonic stem cells. Because iPSCs are developed from a patient's own cells, it was first thought that treatment … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, NY and PETACH TIKVAH, ISRAEL--(Marketwired - Aug 1, 2013) - BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics (OTCQB: BCLI), a leading developer of adult stem cell technologies for neurodegenerative diseases, today announced that it has submitted a favorable safety report to the hospital Helsinki Committee (IRB) for the second group of patients in its ongoing Phase IIa ALS clinical trial at the Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem, Israel. The treatment was well tolerated and no serious adverse events were observed. The company will release the preliminary efficacy data at the conclusion of the trial. In this Phase IIa dose-escalating trial, currently underway at Hadassah under the direction of Principal Investigator Professor Dimitrios Karussis, 12 ALS patients are receiving combined intramuscular (IM) and intrathecal (IT) administration of NurOwn cells, in three cohorts, with increasing doses. The study participants will be monitored for six months following transplantation to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of NurOwn. "This second group of patients received 50% more NurOwn cells than the first group in this trial," explained Professor Karussis. "Given the fact that they were treated both IM and IT, they received significantly more cells than in the previous Phase I study completed in our clinic," … Continue reading →