Pope descends Popemobile to bless disabled man before Inaugural Mass http://en.romereports.com. By: romereports … Continue reading →

Spot the Signs - Audio Described Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) can damage your sight in just three months. If you're over 50, you're most at risk. RNIB can help you spot the signs o... By: rnibuk … Continue reading →

Public release date: 21-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Lauren Woods Law2014@med.cornell.edu 646-317-7401 Weill Cornell Medical College NEW YORK (March 21, 2013) -- More than 50,000 stem cell transplants are performed each year worldwide. A research team led by Weill Cornell Medical College investigators may have solved a major issue of expanding adult hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) outside the human body for clinical use in bone marrow transplantation -- a critical step towards producing a large supply of blood stem cells needed to restore a healthy blood system. In the journal Blood, Weill Cornell researchers and collaborators from Memorial-Sloan Kettering Cancer Center describe how they engineered a protein to amplify adult HSCs once they were extracted from the bone marrow of a donor. The engineered protein maintains the expanded HSCs in a stem-like state -- meaning, they will not differentiate into specialized blood cell types before they are transplanted in the recipient's bone marrow. Finding a bone marrow donor match is challenging and the number of bone marrow cells from a single harvest procedure are often not sufficient for a transplant. Additional rounds of bone marrow harvest and clinical applications to mobilize blood stem cells are often required. … Continue reading →

MILWAUKEE - A Madison company said Thursday it has been awarded $16 million to manufacture stem cell lines for research. Cellular Dynamics International Inc. will receive the grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, which was established with a $3 billion fund approved by taxpayers in California to accelerate stem cell research in that state. Cellular Dynamics was awarded $16 million to create three stem cell lines -- called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPSCs -- that can be used for research on Alzheimer's disease, autism spectrum disorders, liver diseases, cardiovascular diseases and many other ailments. According to the National Institutes of Health, iPSCs -- although needing additional research -- already are useful tools for drug development and modeling of diseases, and scientists hope to use them in transplantation medicine. The institute also awarded almost $10 million to Coriell Institute for Medical Research, of Camden, N.J., to set up and "biobank" the iPSC lines. "The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is a world leader in funding stem cell research," Bob Palay, chairman and chief executive of Cellular Dynamics, said in a statement. "Their human iPSC banking initiative will create the world's largest human iPSC bank." Cellular Dynamics was founded … Continue reading →

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- There's no doubt that the science behind stem cell research can be complex. So, now the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine is launching a unique effort to help the public better understand it, all by getting researchers to rethink the way they communicate. Bettina Steffen, M.D., works for CIRM -- the taxpayer funded institute that pays for stem cell research. What exactly does she do? She'll explain it on an elevator ride. "I fund stem cell research, finding an interesting discovery in a laboratory model, and try to help them move that to clinics so it can be studied safely in humans," she said. Directors at the institute scored the videos on brevity, clarity, and creativity. Some of the researchers were born performers, while others looked as if they'd be slightly more comfortable in front of a microscope than a camera, and there were those whose mastery of cell biology was a bit stronger than their mastery of the 30 second deadline. While all the contestants were brilliant researchers and good sports on top of it, CIRM Science Officer Kevin Whittlesey believes their future often hinges on convincing the people paying the bills. "By and large … Continue reading →

CARLSBAD, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 21, 2013) - International Stem Cell Corporation ( OTCQB : ISCO ) (www.internationalstemcell.com) ("ISCO" or "the Company"), a California-based biotechnology company, today announced that the Company will host a conference call on Friday, March 22, 2013 to discuss results of its Parkinson's Disease studythat it presented at the American Academy of Neurology 65th Annual Meeting (AAN) on March 20, 2013. Dr. Ruslan Semechkin, Vice President of Research and Development for ISCO and Dr. Simon Craw, Executive Vice President will host the call. Date: March 22, 2013 Time: 11:00 a.m. ET Conference Line (U.S.): 1-888-846-5003 International Dial-In: 1-480-629-9856 Conference ID: 4610097 Webcast: http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=104002 Please log in at least 10-minutes before the start time to ensure timely participation. A slide deck accompanying the presentation is available through newsroom section on the Company's website: http://www.internationalstemcell.com/Company_Presentation. A playback of the call will be available from 2:00 p.m. ET on March 22, 2013 to 11:59 p.m. ET on April 4, 2013. To listen, call 1-877-870-5176 within the United States or 1-858-384-5517 when calling internationally. Please use the replay pin number 4610097. About International Stem Cell Corporation International Stem Cell Corporation is focused on the therapeutic applications of human parthenogenetic stem cells … Continue reading →