Public release date: 11-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Jenny Eriksen jenny.eriksen@bmc.org 617-638-6841 Boston University Medical Center (Boston) Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have pinpointed a genetic signature for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) from airway cells harvested utilizing a minimally invasive procedure. The findings provide a novel way to study COPD and could lead to new treatments and ways to monitor patient's response to those treatments. The study is published online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive lung disease that leads to the loss of lung function primarily caused by cigarette smoking. It causes coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, chest tightness and other symptoms that make it difficult to breathe. While there are treatments and lifestyle changes that can help people cope with COPD, there currently is no cure and there are no effective therapies to reduce the rate of lung function decline. According to the National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), which partially funded the study, COPD is the third leading cause of death in the United States, resulting in approximately 135,000 deaths each year. "There … Continue reading →

Public release date: 11-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Matt Fearer fearer@wi.mit.edu 617-452-4630 Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (April 11, 2013) In a surprising finding that helps explain fundamental behaviors of normal and diseased cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have discovered a set of powerful gene regulators dubbed "super-enhancers" that control cell state and identity. Healthy cells employ these super-enhancers to control genes responsible for cellular functions and developmental transitionssuch as that from embryonic stem cell to nerve cellbut cancer cells are able to assemble their own insidious super-enhancers to overproduce harmful oncogenes that lead to aggressive tumors. "We have been marveling at the complexity of cellular control, with millions of enhancers controlling tens of thousands of genes in the vast array of cells that comprise human beings," says Whitehead Member Richard Young. "So it was a surprise to find that only a few hundred super-enhancers control most key genes that give each cell its special properties and functions, and furthermore, that these special controls are hijacked in cancer and other diseases." The findings are described in dual papers from Young and collaborators at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute published together in the April 11 edition of the journal … Continue reading →

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 ROCHESTER, Minn. Translating a Mayo Clinic stem-cell discovery, an international team has demonstrated that therapy with cardiopoietic (cardiogenically-instructed) or "smart" stem cells can improve heart health for people suffering from heart failure. This is the first application in patients of lineage-guided stem cells for targeted regeneration of a failing organ, paving the way to development of next generation regenerative medicine solutions. Results of the clinical trial appear online of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. VIDEO ALERT: Audio and video resources are available on the Mayo Clinic News Network. The multi-center, randomized Cardiopoietic stem cell therapy in heart failure (C-CURE) trial involved heart failure patients from Belgium, Switzerland and Serbia. Patients in the control group received standard care for heart failure in accordance with established guidelines. Patients in the cell therapy arm received, in addition to standard care, cardiopoietic stem cells a first-in-class biotherapeutic. In this process, bone marrow was harvested from the top of the patient's hip, and isolated stem cells were treated with a protein cocktail to replicate natural cues of heart development. Derived cardiopoietic stem cells were then injected into the patient's heart. "The cells underwent an innovative treatment to optimize … Continue reading →

MONT-SAINT-GUIBERT, Belgium, April 11, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Trial Demonstrates Statistically Significant Improvements in Heart Function and Exercise Tolerance with Cardiopoietic Stem Cell Therapy Cardio3 BioSciences (C3BS) announces today the advanced publication of C-CURE (Phase II) trial results in the on-line edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC).1 The publication reported: The publication concluded that the therapy with C3BS-CQR-1 (previously C-Cure) was feasible and safe with signals of benefit in chronic heart failure, meriting further definitive clinical evaluation. The C-Cure trial was a prospective, multicenter, randomized study to evaluate the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of CQR-1 in the treatment of patients with chronic heart failure secondary to ischemic cardiomyopathy. CQR-1 consists of the patient's own stem cells harvested from the bone marrow and engineered to become progenitors of new functional cardiac cells. Those cells behave identically to the cells lost to heart disease. In the C-Cure trial, all patients received optimal standard-of-care for heart failure, while treated group also received an intra-myocardial injection of CQR-1. On the basis of these outcomes, C3BS has initiated a Phase III trial for CQR-1, called CHART-1 for Congestive Heart failure Cardiopoietic Regenerative Therapy. This is the first Phase III trial using … Continue reading →

The myriad efforts to translate Yale research into new therapies will be featured at the third annual Yale Talks About Drug Discovery and Translational Medicine symposium to be held April 13 from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at West Campus. The day-long event hosted by the Office of Cooperative Research focuses on presentations by Yale faculty whose research has great promise for translation to clinical use. Presenters this year are predominantly in the fields of molecular cardiology and nanomedicine, and from the Chemical Biology Institute. The symposium has been quite timely in introducing the Yale community to opportunities to commercialize their work at a time when government funding is increasingly difficult to secure, said Thomas Shrader, Yales director of strategic corporate partnerships. We have also had several new scientific collaborations between Yale faculty that were initiated at the meeting. In the first two years, more than 300 people attended the symposium, which was initially designed to identify and introduce the interested people at the university as a first step towards broader scientific exchange and future collaborations. During the second year, the event featured industry panels that were designed to help familiarize Yale faculty and students with the types of problems … Continue reading →