Marla Dansky is scheduled for two rounds of surgery this summer, shortly after she completes chemotherapy treatments for a tumor in her left breast. Her first operation at Duke Cancer Center will remove both breasts. A second will take out her ovaries and uterus, which are not cancerous but are likely to develop the disease, based on genetic tests that show she carries a faulty BRCA1 gene. "It's the best pre-emptive strike that I have," Dansky, 40, said of her decision to undergo a complete hysterectomy in addition to bilateral breast surgery. "My plan is to 'do cancer' once, and do it right the first time." The strong link between the BRCA1 gene and cancer, as well as the option to sidestep much of the risk through elective surgery, grabbed headlines recently when actress Angelina Jolie made public her decision to undergo a double mastectomy. But the procedure isn't only available to movie stars. More than a third of women who test positive for BRCA1 are choosing preventative surgeries -- largely because the gene mutation raises the typical 10 percent risk of female breast cancer to something closer to 80 percent, according to the National Cancer Institute. Screening for breast … Continue reading →

Public release date: 6-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Robert Perkins perkinsr@usc.edu 213-740-9226 University of Southern California Scientists at USC have unlocked the mystery of why new cases of the genetic disease Noonan Syndrome are so common: a mutation that causes the disease disproportionately increases a normal father's production of sperm carrying the disease trait. When this Noonan syndrome mutation arises in a normal sperm stem cell it makes that cell more likely to reproduce itself than stem cells lacking the mutation. The father then is more likely to have an affected child because more mutant stem cells result in more mutant sperm. The longer the man waits to have children the greater the chance of having a child with Noonan syndrome. Noonan Syndrome is among the most common genetic diseases with a simple inheritance pattern. About one of every 4,000 live births is a child with a new disease mutation. The disease can cause craniofacial abnormalities, short stature, heart defects, intellectual disability and sometimes blood cancers. By examining the testes from 15 unaffected men, a team led by USC molecular and computational biologists Norman Arnheim and Peter Calabrese found that the new mutations were highly clustered in … Continue reading →

In the wake of her aunt's death due to cancer and her recent double mastectomy, Angelina Jolie is sure to generate more headlines after her first public appearance since her bombshell announcement. Jolie's revelation that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy due to her high risk for developing both breast and ovarian cancer shone a spotlight on genetic testing for inherited diseases. What's not so clear is whether your health insurance company will cover all of the costs. Mutations in the BRCA1 gene -- which Jolie carries -- and the BRCA2 gene elevate the risk of a woman developing breast and ovarian cancer. According to FORCE, a nonprofit focused on those with inherited breast and ovarian cancers, a woman with a BRCA mutation faces a 55% to 85% of developing breast cancer, and a 10% to 60% risk for developing ovarian cancer. In Jolie's case, she had an 87% risk of developing breast cancer and 50% risk of ovarian cancer, she wrote in an Op-Ed article, "My medical choice," for The New York Times. While some health insurance companies clearly spell out the criteria they use for covering the cost of BRCA1 and BRCA2 testing, that isn't always the case, … Continue reading →

More therapy S W model 13. By: rbchern … Continue reading →

Treatment for copd using stem cells: Video Ripped Off http://www.regenestem.com/ We want you to know that the technology exists that has proven to not only manage your COPD but to possibly reverse the effects of... By: Jason Ratzlaff … Continue reading →

Newswise Liver transplantation is the mainstay of treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, but new research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell today, suggests that it may one day become possible to regenerate a liver using cell therapy in patients with liver disease. Investigators discovered that a human embryonic stem cell can be differentiated into a previously unknown liver progenitor cell, an early offspring of a stem cell, and produce mature and functional liver cells. The discovery of the novel progenitor represents a fundamental advance in this field and potentially to the liver regeneration field using cell therapy, said the studys senior author, Valerie Gouon-Evans, PharmD, PhD, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Until now, liver transplantation has been the most successful treatment for people with liver failure, but we have a drastic shortage of organs. This discovery may help circumvent that problem. In conjunction with the laboratory of Matthew J. Evans, PhD, from the Department of Microbiology at Icahn School … Continue reading →

June 6, 2013 Liver transplantation is the mainstay of treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, but new research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell today, suggests that it may one day become possible to regenerate a liver using cell therapy in patients with liver disease. Investigators discovered that a human embryonic stem cell can be differentiated into a previously unknown liver progenitor cell, an early offspring of a stem cell, and produce mature and functional liver cells. "The discovery of the novel progenitor represents a fundamental advance in this field and potentially to the liver regeneration field using cell therapy," said the study's senior author, Valerie Gouon-Evans, PharmD, PhD, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Until now, liver transplantation has been the most successful treatment for people with liver failure, but we have a drastic shortage of organs. This discovery may help circumvent that problem." In conjunction with the laboratory of Matthew J. Evans, PhD, from the Department of Microbiology at … Continue reading →

Public release date: 6-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Renatt Brodsky newsmedia@mssm.edu 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine Liver transplantation is the mainstay of treatment for patients with end-stage liver disease, the 12th leading cause of death in the United States, but new research from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, published in the online journal Cell Stem Cell today, suggests that it may one day become possible to regenerate a liver using cell therapy in patients with liver disease. Investigators discovered that a human embryonic stem cell can be differentiated into a previously unknown liver progenitor cell, an early offspring of a stem cell, and produce mature and functional liver cells. "The discovery of the novel progenitor represents a fundamental advance in this field and potentially to the liver regeneration field using cell therapy," said the study's senior author, Valerie Gouon-Evans, PharmD, PhD, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, Black Family Stem Cell Institute, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. "Until now, liver transplantation has been the most successful treatment for people with liver failure, but we have a drastic shortage of organs. … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/kg4rfw/nanobiotechnology) has announced the addition of Jain PharmaBiotech's new report "Nanobiotechnology Applications, Markets and Companies" to their offering. Nanotechnology is the creation and utilization of materials, devices, and systems through the control of matter on the nanometer-length scale (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter. Nanobiotechnology, an integration of physical sciences, molecular engineering, biology, chemistry and biotechnology holds considerable promise of advances in pharmaceuticals and healthcare. The report starts with an introduction to various techniques and materials that are relevant to nanobiotechnology. It includes some of the physical forms of energy such as nanolasers. Some of the technologies are scaling down such as microfluidics to nanofluidic biochips and others are constructions from bottom up. Application in life sciences research, particularly at the cell level sets the stage for role of nanobiotechnology in healthcare in subsequent chapters. Some of the earliest applications are in molecular diagnostics. Nanoparticles, particularly quantum dots, are playing important roles. In vitro diagnostics, does not have any of the safety concerns associated with the fate of nanoparticles introduced into the human body. Numerous nanodevices and nanosystems for sequencing single molecules of DNA are feasible. Various nanodiagnostics that have been reviewed will … Continue reading →