Part 2 Stem Cell Therapy By: Tiffany Vinson … Continue reading →

By: Jet Villa, InterAksyon.com July 31, 2013 8:46 AM InterAksyon.com The online news portal of TV5 MANILA, Philippines - Filipino physicians are now divided over the controversial stem cell therapy. Doctors from the Philippine College of Physicians, Philippine Society of General Internal Medicine (PSGIM), Philippine Society of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (PSHBT), and Philippine College of Chest Physicians (PCCP) have lambasted their colleagues from the Philippine Society for Stem Cell Medicine (PSSCM) for performing unproven procedures. The groups also lamented that PSSCM even charges exorbitant fees when it is the patients who should be paid as these procedures are still under experimental stage. We are here to inform the public that they may be being deceived now. There are doctors who are making it appear that stem cell therapy is a panacea, the cure for all diseases when, in fact, there are limited indication where it can be used for, said PCP Vice President Dr. Anthony Leachon in a health forum. In a separate interview, PSSCM spokesman Dr. Leo Olarte admitted that there is still limited use for the therapy but PSSCM members just go by the guidelines of the DOH. We follow the DOH guidelines and what is allowed … Continue reading →

SAN DIEGO, CA--(Marketwired - Jul 31, 2013) - Medistem, Inc. (PINKSHEETS: MEDS), announced today it's President and Chief Scientific Officer, Thomas E. Ichim, Ph.D., presented at the CRYO 2013 Conference held in Bethesda, Maryland on Monday July 29th. The CRYO 2013 Conference was sponsored by the Society for Cryobiology, which, this year, is celebrating 50 years of member accomplishments.The Society for Cryobiology, founded in1964, attracts experts from biological, medical and physical sciences and its mission is to promote scientific research in low temperature biology, to improve scientific understanding in this field, and to disseminate and apply this knowledge to the benefit of mankind. Dr. Ichim presented the Company's cryopreservation process in the manufacturing and shipment of its ERC-124 product, an allogeneic universal donor stem cell derived from the endometrium (lining of the uterus). "Through the use of cryopreservation we have been able to ship our ERC-124 product internationally with no loss of therapeutic potency.This has allowed us to centralize our ERC-124 manufacturing process and ship to point of care sites worldwide," said Dr. Ichim."We are honored to have been selected by the Society for Cryobiology to present details of our processes at its 50th Annual Meeting." Medistem is the only … Continue reading →

The war against Alzheimer's disease is getting another round of stem cell research thrown at it. While this involves a public company, the reality is that Alzheimer's is truly a holy grail for any company that can make progress against the degenerative brain disease. StemCells, Inc. (STEM) has formally launched its Alzheimer's disease program under support of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Alzheimer's disease has no cure and all drug efforts to date have only delayed or slowed the progression of the disease. Most drug studies have ended before even making it to the formal U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) application process because the efficacy has been so limited. The Alzheimer's Association indicates that roughly 5.4 million Americans have the disease, and the situation will worsen as our population continues to age. The annual cost is projected to be from $150 billion to $200 billion per year in the United States alone to treat the patients with Alzheimer's disease. The Most Corrupt Countries in the World Why today's study launch matters is that its stated goal is to file an Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA within four years. It will evaluate StemCells' proprietary HuCNS-SC product … Continue reading →

IRVINE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- California Stem Cell, Inc. (CSC) has announced the completion of an internal study demonstrating that the companys proprietary immunotherapy manufacturing process can be applied to multiple cancer types. Originally developed for late stage metastatic melanoma, the platform tissue culture technology has also been shown to work with tumor tissues from hepatocellular carcinoma, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, and other solid tumor cancers. The unique principle supporting CSCs cancer immunotherapeutic approach is purification of tumor stem cells isolated from a patients own tumor tissue, to use as an antigenic source. While prior companies processes typically took months and often yielded unreliable or unusable materials, CSC has standardized its platform technology for reproducibility, resulting in optimized high cell yields, and efficient and scalable manufacturing. The companys proprietary stem cell culturing technologies, performed under cGMP conditions, have resulted in a consistent production time of less than 8 weeks, with a 100% success rate in generating lines with potential applicability to a broad range of cancer types. Such significant improvements in the manufacturing time and success rate are critical when working with late stage cancers that typically have a short window for treatment, said Gabriel Nistor, M.D., CSC Vice President of Research … Continue reading →

By Jeannette I. Andrade Philippine Daily Inquirer Researcher Shruti Dave (right) and assistant Chetan Patel work on stem cell cultures at the Transplantation Biology Research Centre at The Institute of Kidney Disease and Research Centre (IKDRC), Civil Hospital campus in Ahmedabad on February 6, 2013. The Philippine College of Physicians wants the Food and Drug Administration to more strictly regulate the use of stem cell therapy, which was being wrongfully projected as a cure-all. AFP FILE PHOTO MANILA, PhilippinesThe Philippine College of Physicians (PCP) wants the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to more strictly regulate the use of stem cell therapy, which was being wrongfully projected as a cure-all. At a press conference in Quezon City on Tuesday, PCP vice president Dr. Anthony Leachon said the use of stem cell therapy to treat almost all medical conditions was becoming rampant even though the treatment has been tested and approved only for some blood and bone marrow cancers and primary immune deficiencies. This poses serious safety issues, he warned. Leachon said the use of the treatment to cure other diseases or even slow down aging has not been scientifically proven in clinical studies. He said current government regulations were centered on … Continue reading →

The group of neurological disorders known as epilepsy not only cause disruptive, alarming seizures, but those seizures also tend to increase in frequency and severity over time. While the majority of patients can gain some control of their condition via medication or surgery, approximately 30 percent cannot. Now, however, help may be on the way ... in the form of tiny pieces of silk implanted in the brain. The silk is designed to store and subsequently release adenosine, a nucleoside that has been shown to decrease neuronal excitability and thus decrease seizures studies have suggested that epileptics may have abnormally low adenosine levels. The substance is continuously released from the implant over the course of 10 days, after which the biodegradable silk harmlessly dissolves into the body. A team of scientists from Portand, Oregons Legacy Research Institute, Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) and Tufts University in Boston experimented with placing the implants in the brains of rats that were already in the early stages of epilepsy. Although the animals werent completely cured of their disorder, they did proceed to experience a four-fold reduction in seizures. One specific type of epilepsy involves the formation of new excitatory circuits in an … Continue reading →