13th June 2013 George Freeman has tabled an adjournment debate on Genetic medicine and patients' rights. 10 years ago the UK was home to one of the great breakthroughs in the story of mankind. The first human genome was sequenced at the Sanger Centre a mile to the South of Cambridge. The code of life the sequence of DNA embedded in the nucleus of every human cell which codes for the proteins which assemble and control every function of the human body, was mapped for the first time. It took 100,000,000 and over ten years of focused scientific effort. Today the explosive breakthroughs in genetics and computing make it possible to achieve the same with 1000 in 24 hours. Now clinics are appearing around the world offering personalized cancer therapy with drugs tailored to your specific disease and condition. When Angelina Jolie bravely announced that she had a double mastectomy last month, she revealed that it was these breakthroughs in genetic science that not only identified that she was at high risk of having breast cancer, but empowered her to make this very personal decision. We need to ensure that these medical breakthroughs are available to all patients. The Government … Continue reading →

Mammals can regenerate the very tips of their fingers and toes after amputation, and now new research shows how stem cells in the nail play a role in that process. A study in mice, detailed online today (June 12) in the journal Nature, reveals the chemical signal that triggers stem cells to develop into new nail tissue, and also attracts nerves that promote nail and bone regeneration. The findings suggest nail stem cells could be used to develop new treatments for amputees, the researchers said. [Inside Life Science: Once Upon a Stem Cell] In mice and people, regenerating an amputated finger or toe involves regrowing the nail. But whether the amputated portion of the digit can regrow depends on exactly where the amputation occurs: If the stem cells beneath the nail are amputated along with the digit, no regrowth occurs, but if the stem cells remain, regrowth is possible. To understand why these stem cells are crucial to regeneration, researchers turned to mice. The scientists conducted toe amputations in two groups of mice: one group of normal mice, and one group that was treated with a drug that made them unable to make the signals for new nail cells to … Continue reading →

Newswise (New York, NY June 13, 2013) By transferring four genes into mouse fibroblast cells, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have produced cells that resemble hematopoietic stem cells, which produce millions of new blood cells in the human body every day. These findings provide a platform for future development of patient-specific stem/progenitor cells, and more differentiated blood products, for cell-replacement therapy. The study, titled, Induction of a Hemogenic Program in Mouse Fibroblasts, was published online in CELL STEM CELL on June 13. Mount Sinai researchers screened a panel of 18 genetic factors for inducing blood-forming activity and identified a combination of four transcription factors, Gata2, Gfi1b, cFos, and Etv6 as sufficient to generate blood vessel precursor cells with the subsequent appearance of hematopoietic cells. The precursor cells express a human CD34 reporter, Sca1 and Prominin1 within a global endothelial transcription program. The cells that we grew in a petri dish are identical in gene expression to those found in the mouse embryo and could eventually generate colonies of mature blood cells, said the first author of the study, Carlos Filipe Pereira, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow of Developmental and Regenerative Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine. … Continue reading →

June 13, 2013 By transferring four genes into mouse fibroblast cells, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have produced cells that resemble hematopoietic stem cells, which produce millions of new blood cells in the human body every day. These findings provide a platform for future development of patient-specific stem/progenitor cells, and more differentiated blood products, for cell-replacement therapy. The study, titled, "Induction of a Hemogenic Program in Mouse Fibroblasts," was published online in Cell Stem Cell on June 13. Mount Sinai researchers screened a panel of 18 genetic factors for inducing blood-forming activity and identified a combination of four transcription factors, Gata2, Gfi1b, cFos, and Etv6 as sufficient to generate blood vessel precursor cells with the subsequent appearance of hematopoietic cells. The precursor cells express a human CD34 reporter, Sca1 and Prominin1 within a global endothelial transcription program. "The cells that we grew in a petri dish are identical in gene expression to those found in the mouse embryo and could eventually generate colonies of mature blood cells," said the first author of the study, Carlos Filipe Pereira, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow of Developmental and Regenerative Biology at the Icahn School of Medicine. Other leaders of the … Continue reading →

PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Arrowhead Research Corporation (ARWR), a targeted therapeutics company, today announced that the company will present data on the Dynamic PolyConjugate (DPC) siRNA delivery system and the ARC-520 hepatitis B drug candidate at three upcoming scientific conferences. Scheduled conference presentations in June include the following: The 18th Annual Meeting of the RNA Society Davos, Switzerland, June 14, 2013 A workshop presentation titled, Development of Dynamic Polyconjugates for tissue-targeted delivery of siRNA, will be presented by Christine Wooddell, Ph.D., Senior Scientist; 4th RNAi Research & Therapeutics Conference San Francisco, CA, USA, June 21, 2013 A featured presentation titled, DPC Technology for siRNA Delivery: Moving from Platform to Pipeline, will be presented by David Lewis, Ph.D., Vice President, Biology; The European CLINAM and ETPN Summit, Clinical Nanomedicine and Targeted Medicine Basel, Switzerland, June 26, 2013 An oral presentation titled, A Novel Hepatitis B Treatment with RNAi, will be presented by Christopher Anzalone, Ph.D., President and CEO. About Arrowhead Research Corporation See original here: Arrowhead to Present at Upcoming Scientific Conferences … Continue reading →

Public release date: 13-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Alex Reid alexander.reid@tufts.edu 617-627-4173 Tufts University MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. - Qiaobing Xu, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering, was named a Pew Scholar in Biomedical Sciences by the Pew Charitable Trusts. The highly competitive program, whose past winners have included Nobel Prize winners, MacArthur Fellows and recipients of the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, identifies talented researchers in medicine or biomedical sciences. Xu's work focuses on nanotechnology for biomedical uses. He will receive $240,000 over four years to advance his research. Xu's research delves into tissue engineering and nanomedicine. His lab has pioneered the use of nature-derived nanostructured tissuedecellularized tendon as a source of biomaterials and works to engineer these materials through a combination of tissue sectioning, multilayer stacking and rolling into structures with innovative biomedical functions. Launched in 1985, the program has awarded over 500 Pew Scholars more than $120 million in funding. To be considered, applicants from all areas of physical and life sciences related to biomedical study must be nominated by an invited institution and demonstrate both excellence and innovation in their research. This year, 179 institutions were requested to nominate … Continue reading →

PARIS--(Marketwired - Jun 13, 2013) - NANOBIOTIX (EURONEXT PARIS: NANO), a clinical-stage nanomedicine company pioneering novel approaches for the local treatment of cancer, announces today that its lead compound NBTXR3 has received authorization from the French Medicine Agency, ANSM[1], to start a clinical trial in patients with locally advanced cancers of the oral cavity or oropharynx (head and neck cancer), at the Institut Curie, Paris, France, a French leading cancer treatment center. This represents a second indication for NBTXR3 which is also in clinical trials for soft tissue sarcoma. The phase I trial will be an open-label non-randomized, dose escalation study of safety and tolerability evaluation of NBTXR3. The product will be implanted by intra-arterial (IA) or intra-tumor (IT) injection, and activated by high precision radiation therapy (Intensity-modulated radiation therapy - IMRT) delivered as per current medical practice. Patients with locally advanced squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity or oropharynx constitute the targeted population which includes frail and elderly patients. Two different administration schedules of NBTXR3 will be investigated simultaneously in 2 different groups of patients. Allocation of patients to the intra-tumor injection or intra-arterial injection depends on the patient and tumor singularity. Based on the observed safety, the … Continue reading →