LEUVEN, BELGIUM and MADRID, SPAIN--(Marketwire - Mar 12, 2013) - TiGenix NV ( EURONEXT BRUSSELS : TIG ), the European leader in cell therapy, announced today that it was informed by the Spanish Health Authority that its innovative cartilage repair therapy ChondroCelect will obtain national reimbursement in Spain. "We are delighted with the decision of the Spanish health authorities to reimburse ChondroCelect, and look forward to working with Spanish orthopedic centers of excellence to routinely make this breakthrough therapy available to the right patients in Spain," said Eduardo Bravo, CEO of TiGenix. "After obtaining national reimbursement in the Netherlands last year, this constitutes another major step in improving patient access to this innovative therapy. We keep working to obtain national reimbursement in other European countries later this year." About TiGenix TiGenix NV ( EURONEXT BRUSSELS : TIG ) is a leading European cell therapy company with a marketed product for cartilage repair, ChondroCelect, and a strong pipeline with clinical stage allogeneic adult stem cell programs for the treatment of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. TiGenix is based out of Leuven (Belgium) and has operations in Madrid (Spain), and Sittard-Geleen (the Netherlands). For more information please visit http://www.tigenix.com. About ChondroCelect ChondroCelect is … Continue reading →

SUNRISE, FL--(Marketwire - Mar 12, 2013) - Bioheart Inc. ( OTCQB : BHRT ) announced that Bioheart's Chief Science Officer, Kristin Comella was named to the 50 most influential people on stem cells.The World Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine Congress asked the international stem cell community to compile a comprehensive list of the top 50.These personalities were picked based on their career achievements and dedication to the field of regenerative medicine.Ms. Comella debuted at #24 on the list. Bioheart's president and CEO, Mike Tomas, said, "Bioheart is honored to have Kristin Comella leading our exciting platform of regenerative medicine products.Her dedication and accomplishments in the field are justifiably recognized by her peers." About Bioheart, Inc. Bioheart is committed to maintaining its leading position within the cardiovascular sector of the cell technology industry delivering cell therapies and biologics that help address congestive heart failure, lower limb ischemia, chronic heart ischemia, acute myocardial infarctions and other issues.Bioheart's goals are to cause damaged tissue to be regenerated, when possible, and to improve a patient's quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations. Specific to biotechnology, Bioheart is focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies … Continue reading →

BONITA SPRINGS A state judge has recommended Bonita Springs cardiologist Zannos Grekos lose his medical license, saying he committed medical malpractice when he performed an unproven stem cell treatment on a patient that had no chance of success, records showed Monday. In issuing a 25-page recommended order Monday that now goes to the state Board of Medicine, administrative law judge J. Lawrence Johnston said the case finding supports the imposition of a penalty at the top of the ranges, namely revocation and a $20,000 fine. The case involves Grekos unorthodox stem-cell therapy in 2010 on 69-year-old Domenica Fitzgerald, who suffered a stroke and was taken off life support. She died April 4, 2010. She had gone to Grekos for what she believed was going to be a stem cell treatment using her own stem cells to repair tingling in her legs that was a side-effect from chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment several years earlier. Grekos had developed a following in Southwest Florida when he arranged for people to have their cultivated stem cells injected into their body at the site of damaged heart or lung tissue. He would extract a sample of their blood and send it to a laboratory … Continue reading →

Mar. 12, 2013 Walking is the obvious goal for individuals who have a chronic spinal cord injury, but it is not the only one. Regaining sensation and continence control also are important goals that can positively impact an individual's quality of life. New hope for reversing the effects of spinal cord injury may be found in a combination of stem cell therapy and physical therapy as reported in Cell Transplantation by scientists at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "Our phase one/two clinical trial had one goal: to give patients who have no other treatment options some hope," said Hatem E. Sabaawy, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine in the molecular and regenerative medicine program at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. "Early findings have concluded that we have met our goal and can improve the quality of life for individuals with spinal cord injuries by providing a safe treatment that restores some neurological function." Dr. Sabaawy led a clinical trial that included 70 patients who had cervical or thoracic spinal cord injuries and were previously treated for at least six months without response. The patients were randomized into two groups, both of … Continue reading →

The finding could fundamentally change how we look at human stem cell tech: If chimeric monkeys require totipotent cells before they can come into being, it stands to reason that human embryonic stem cell therapy might also require totipotent stem cells to render cures. Indeed, the find suggests that testing human therapies on mice and other mammalian species may have sent us down the garden path. The Chimeric Advantage The ability to create chimera from stem cells not only in mice but in other animals, including primates, could prove to be a major advance in biomedical science. In a 2009 study, University of Georgia at Athens cloning expert Steve Stice created 29 chimeric piglets by injecting pluripotent stem cells into pig embryos before implanting them into a surrogate womb. Although it wasnt the first time chimeric pigs were created, it was the first time they came about using cloned pluripotent cells. And because pigs are genetically closer to humans than mice are, success in creating chimeric pigs from stem cells offered renewed hope that the technology could lead to better pharmaceutical testing or stem cell therapies. Mitalipov couldnt agree more. Stem cell therapies hold great promise, he says, from possible … Continue reading →

Newswise LOS ANGELES (March 10, 2013) Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will commemorate Brain Awareness Week, March 11-17, with educational programs featuring robotic technology that enables doctors to check on their patients from home, stem cell research that may revolutionize many medical therapies, and some of the top experts in nanotechnology including Roger Tsien, PhD, who received the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Brainworks, 10 a.m. to 1:10 p.m., March 11, Harvey Morse Auditorium A robotic assistant will be a special guest at the Brainworks program for 130 seventh- and eighth-graders. Dependable, focused and able to perform tasks at any time, 24 hours a day, Robot-Doc has become a key member of the Neuroscience Critical Care Unit. The InTouch Health RP-7i robot enables several doctors to teleconference, bringing them together by remote presence to collaborate in the Critical Care Unit. Students attending Brainworks part of Cedars-Sinais commemoration of Brain Awareness Week March 11 to 17 will be able to drive and interact with the RP-7i and learn more about these devices from neurointensive care experts and a representative of InTouch Health. Brainworks came about because we wanted to expose as many young minds as possible to how exciting science is and especially … Continue reading →

Adult Stem Cell Treatment for Toddler with Cerebral Palsy A WCBS news report by health correspondent, Dr. Max Gomez. Dr. Gomez tells the story of little Chloe, who suffers from cerebral palsy and could barely crawl ... By: StemForLife … Continue reading →

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Mar 11, 2013) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. ( OTCQB : VSTA ), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism assays, today announces it will feature key developments involving CardioSafe 3D, its pluripotent stem cell-based bioassay system for heart toxicity, in a poster presentation at the Society of Toxicology's 52nd Annual Meeting, the world's premier toxicology conference, in San Antonio, Texas, on March 11, 2013, at 7:30 am PDT. Dr. Hai-Qing Xian, Senior Scientist, will present VistaGen's poster titled "Development of Improved hESC-Based High-Throughput Screening Assays for Cardiotoxicity Assessment," which will detail the following expanded functional and electrophysiological results: H. Ralph Snodgrass, PhD, VistaGen's President and Chief Scientific Officer, stated, "I am very pleased with these results, because they confirm that our stem cell-based human cardiomyocyte screening systems will provide improved capabilities and resolution for our cardiac drug rescue programs, which we believe will contribute to the efficient and rapid identification of safer and highly effective new drug therapies." About VistaGen Therapeutics VistaGen is a biotechnology company applying human pluripotent stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism screening. VistaGen's drug rescue activities combine its … Continue reading →

Neural stem cells (NSCs) have the capacity to differentiate into neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Accordingly, NSCs hold great promise in drug screening and treatment of several common diseases. However, a major obstacle in applied stem cell research is the limitation of synthetic matrices for culturing stem cells. The objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of recombinant spider silk (4RepCT) matrices for growth of NSCs. NSCs isolated from the cerebral cortices of mid-gestation rat embryos were cultured on either 4RepCT matrices or conventional poly-L-ornithine and fibronectin (P + F) coated polystyrene plates. From 48 h of culture, no significant differences in cell proliferation or viability were detected in NSC cultures on 4RepCT compared to control matrices (polystyrene plates coated with P + F). The NSCs retained an undifferentiated state, displaying low or no staining for markers of differentiated cells. Upon stimulation NSCs grown on 4RepCT differentiated efficiently into neuronal and astrocytic cells to virtually the same degree as control cultures, but a slightly less efficient oligodendrocyte differentiation was noted. We suggest that recombinant spider silk matrices provide a functional microenvironment and represent a useful tool for the development of new strategies in neural stem cell research. This paper … Continue reading →