Two scientists who upended fundamental beliefs about biology by demonstrating that every cell in the body has the potential to grow into every other type of cell have won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. Sir John Gurdon and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka were honored Monday for "the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed" to return to a very early state of development, the Nobel committee said in its citation. Their research is still years away from yielding a clear breakthrough in medical treatment. But the work has upended the study of intractable conditions including heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer's by allowing scientists to grow disease-specific and even patient-specific cells for experimentation in the laboratory, experts said. "It's nothing short of a revolution in how we think of a cell," said Dr. Deepak Srivastava, director of the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, where Yamanaka works one week each month. Gurdon, 79, performed his seminal work at Oxford University in the late 1950s and early 1960s a good deal of it before Yamanaka was born. Working with frogs, he showed in 1962 that replacing the nucleus of an egg cell … Continue reading →

Mariselle Lancero, a research associate II, and research scientist Kiichiro Tomoda, PhD, work in the Yamanaka Lab at the Gladstone Institutes on the day Shinya Yamanaka won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, reached in Kyoto shortly after being named winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, said he was doing some housecleaning when the call came in, and was very surprised. But at UCSF, where Yamanaka joined the faculty in 2007, splitting his time between Kyoto University and the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes, his winning the Nobel Prize was considered virtually inevitable. The only surprise, colleagues say, was that the honor came so quickly. Often the Nobel Committee waits decades before awarding the prize to make sure the discovery stands the test of time. Its rare for a scientists influence on scientific thought and experimentation to spread as fast as it did in this case. Yamanaka discovered keys to the developmental destiny of cells, and how these keys can be used to manipulate cell fate in ways that offer hope to scientists who seek new methods of providing tissues for organ transplantation and for other medical applications. His seminal … Continue reading →

Kyodo / Reuters Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka (left) and John Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, England, at a symposium on induced pluripotent stem cells in Tokyo in April 2008 In a testament to the revolutionary potential of the field of regenerative medicine, in which scientists are able to create and replace any cells that are at fault in disease, the Nobel Prize committee on Monday awarded the 2012 Nobel in Physiology or Medicine to two researchers whose discoveries have made such cellular alchemy possible. The prize went to John B. Gurdon of the University of Cambridge in England, who was among the first to clone an animal, a frog, in 1962, and to Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan who in 2006 discovered the four genes necessary to reprogram an adult cell back to an embryonic state. Sir John Gurdon, who is now a professor at an institute that bears his name, earned the ridicule of many colleagues back in the 1960s when he set out on a series of experiments to show that the development of cells could be reversed. At the time, biologists knew that all cells in an embryo had the potential to … Continue reading →

Fresno, CA (PRWEB) October 08, 2012 Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD), the worlds largest provider of state-of-the-art, early intensive behavioral intervention for individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), announces The Central California Autism Center (CCAC) at California State University, Fresno, has recently completed the Introduction to Skills Training and has now begun using the Skills curriculum, an online autism solution, to help maximize their treatment services for 40 children. CCAC is a center-based program that provides behavioral treatment for children 2 to 4 years of age. We are excited to begin using Skills, says Amanda Adams, PhD, BCBA-D, Founding Clinical Director of CCAC. The ability to employ such a comprehensive, online curriculum allows us to create individual treatment programs for children more easily than ever before while knowing that what we create is evidence-based and state of the art. Skills provides much more than a simple curriculum tool. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 1 in every 88 children in the U.S. is diagnosed with an ASD, making it more prevalent than juvenile diabetes, pediatric cancer and childhood AIDS combined. CARD develops and utilizes technology to increase access to training for professionals who work … Continue reading →

ScienceDaily (Oct. 8, 2012) Eating tomatoes and tomato-based foods is associated with a lower risk of stroke, according to new research published in the October 9, 2012, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Tomatoes are high in the antioxidant lycopene. The study found that people with the highest amounts of lycopene in their blood were 55 percent less likely to have a stroke than people with the lowest amounts of lycopene in their blood. The study involved 1,031 men in Finland between the ages of 46 and 65. The level of lycopene in their blood was tested at the start of the study and they were followed for an average of 12 years. During that time, 67 men had a stroke. Among the men with the lowest levels of lycopene, 25 of 258 men had a stroke. Among those with the highest levels of lycopene, 11 of 259 men had a stroke. When researchers looked at just strokes due to blood clots, the results were even stronger. Those with the highest levels of lycopene were 59 percent less likely to have a stroke than those with the lowest levels. "This study adds to … Continue reading →

Public release date: 7-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Nadia Daniell-Colarossi nadia.daniell-colarossi@uhn.ca 416-603-5294 University Health Network A team of Canadian scientists and clinicians, led by Dr. Michael Hill of the Calgary Stroke Program at Foothills Medical Centre and University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute (HBI), have demonstrated that a neuroprotectant drug, developed by Dr. Michael Tymianski at the Krembil Neuroscience Centre, located at the Toronto Western Hospital, protects the human brain against the damaging effects of stroke. The study, "Safety and efficacy of NA-1 for neuroprotection in iatrogenic stroke after endovascular aneurysm repair: a randomized controlled trial," published online today in The Lancet Neurology, was conducted concurrently with a laboratory study published in Science Translational Medicine, that predicted the benefits of the stroke drug. This landmark clinical trial was a randomized, double blinded, multi-centre trial that was conducted in Canada and the USA. The study evaluated the effectiveness of NA-1[Tat-NR2B9c] when it was administered after the onset of small strokes that are incurred by patients who undergo neurointerventional procedures to repair brain aneurysms. This type of small ischemic stroke occurs in over 90% of aneurysm patients after such a procedure, but usually does not cause overt neurological disability. … Continue reading →

TORONTO - A Canadian effort to develop a drug to limit the brain damage caused by strokes has made an important step forward. Scientists involved in the project reported Sunday that in a trial conducted on patients undergoing repair of brain aneurysms, the drug, called NA-1, reduced the number of post-procedure strokes by about half. This is rare good news in the quest to develop a neuroprotective drug, a field where over 1,000 compounds have been tested, and all failed. The researchers themselves have founded a biotechnology company NoNO Inc. to finance the work, because the pharmaceutical industry has essentially left the field. NoNO means "no nitric oxide," the free radical produced during a stroke that damages brain tissues. "The issue with Pharma is that stroke has been such a wasteland for them that no one's willing to invest," said Dr. Michael Hill, a stroke neurologist with the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute and the Calgary Stroke Program at Foothills Hospital. Hill is first author on the scientific paper outlining the findings, published in the journal Lancet Neurology. The paper reports the results of a Phase II trial, which is the first level in the hierarchy of clinical trials … Continue reading →

Newswise Saskatoon: Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability and brings a significant cost to the Saskatchewan health care system. Research is the key to unlocking new ways to treat and prevent stroke, and three Saskatchewan organizations - the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF) and the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF) and the University of Saskatchewan (U of S) - today announced a significant advance for stroke research in our province. Saskatoon brain surgeon and medical researcher Dr. Michael Kelly has been awarded the Saskatchewan Research Chair in Clinical Stroke Research to pursue his work in the operating room and at the Canadian Light Source synchrotron to advance understanding of strokes and improve prevention and treatment. The creation of this Chair in Clinical Stoke Research increases our health research capacity and enables collaboration toward Saskatchewan solutions in dealing with strokes, which have a devastating effect on individuals and their families, said Rob Norris, Saskatoon Greystone MLA on behalf of Health Minister Dustin Duncan. The chair will provide $1 million over five years, jointly funded by SHRF and HSF. The U of S will provide an additional $200,000 for equipment and personnel costs, as well as providing protected research … Continue reading →

HealthierMe: Downside of Hand Sanitizers HealthierMe: Downside of Hand Sanitizers Slather on sanitizer. Wipe down surfaces. Repeat. It's become a familiar ritual in our battle against germs, but the dirty little secret is that most germs are harmless and, in fact, many are good for Slather on sanitizer. Wipe down surfaces. Repeat. It's become a familiar ritual in our battle against germs, but the dirty little secret is that most germs are harmless and, in fact, many are good for In tonight's HealthierMe, those of us who need a lot of coffee to jump start the day may be at an increased risk of developing glaucoma. Researchers have found that drinking three or more cups of caffeinated In tonight's HealthierMe, those of us who need a lot of coffee to jump start the day may be at an increased risk of developing glaucoma. Researchers have found that drinking three or more cups of caffeinated coffee a day was associated with a 66% higher risk of exfoliation glaucoma when compared to people who don't drink coffee. There was no such link with caffeinated sodas, teas, or even chocolate. In tonight's HealthierMe, an outbreak of fungal meningitis caused by contaminated steroid shots … Continue reading →

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/thirdage.oao/health_wellness/heart_health;pos=1;dcopt=ist;sz=728x90;KW=null;tile=1;ord= Possible New Treatment for Stroke Patients Researchers have identified a possible way to minimize brain-tissue damage in patients who have suffered a stroke and undergone surgery for the condition. A study conducted at the University of Calgarys Hotchkiss Brain Center found that the drug NA-1 seems to be safe for use in humans. Until now, the substance has been tested solely on animals. In the study, 92 patients were given the drug, while 93 patients got a placebo. The participants were given brain MRI scans three days after they began to take NA-1, as well as a 30-day followup assessment. The researchers said that they patients who were given the drug had fewer lesions (negative changes in brain tissue) than those who got the placebo. The researchers stressed that NA-1 isnt effective in all cases of stroke. Researcher Michael Hill said that the study suggests that intravenous infusion of NA-1 reduces tissue damage in patients who suffer a small stroke after an operation to repair a brain aneurysm. Further studies were needed, he said. The findings were published in the journal The Lancet. Copyright 1997 - 2012 ThirdAge Media, LLC. All rights reserved. Originally posted here: Stroke Patients May … Continue reading →