Public release date: 29-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Sam Wong sam.wong@imperial.ac.uk 44-207-594-2198 Imperial College London A study published in Nature Genetics today has found new evidence for a link between the body clock hormone melatonin and type 2 diabetes. The study found that people who carry rare genetic mutations in the receptor for melatonin have a much higher risk of type 2 diabetes. The findings should help scientists to more accurately assess personal diabetes risk and could lead to the development of personalised treatments. Previous research has found that people who work night shifts have a higher risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Studies have also found that if volunteers have their sleep disrupted repeatedly for three days, they temporarily develop symptoms of diabetes. The body's sleep-wake cycle is controlled by the hormone melatonin, which has effects including drowsiness and lowering body temperature. In 2008, a genetic study led by Imperial College London discovered that people with common variations in the gene for MT2, a receptor for melatonin, have a slightly higher risk of type 2 diabetes. The new study reveals that carrying any of four rare mutations in the MT2 gene increases a person's … Continue reading →

LA JOLLA, Calif., Jan. 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Interest in adult stem cell therapies and their clinical applicability in treating and helping patients is growing, while accurate information remains difficult to access.  Cell Society International, a nonprofit organization, is dedicated to advancing the clinical applications of adult stem cell therapies worldwide through education and the collaboration of world thought leaders. According to Emerson C. Perin, MD, PhD, Director, Clinical Research for Cardiovascular Medicine and Medical Director, Stem Cell Institute, Texas Heart Institute, Houston, TX and member of the Board of Directors of Cell Society, "We obtained remarkable results from our study in which we injected stem cells derived from the bone marrow of a healthy donor into patients with heart failure. Heart function and exercise capacity improved in some cell-treated patients. Most importantly, cell therapy significantly reduced cardiac adverse events, including death. Three of 15 (20%) control patients died of cardiac causes, whereas only 1 of 45 (2%) cell-treated patients had a cardiac-related death. Despite the small numbers, our findings showed that cell therapy significantly improved cardiac mortality."  The 2nd Annual Clinical Meeting of Cell Society will be held at the Coronado Island Marriott Resort in San Diego, California on February 17 … Continue reading →

Celebrated adult stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka will deliver a lecture, ‘New era of medicine with iPS cells', here on Monday as part of a three-city lecture series. Prof. Yamanaka's scientific breakthrough was the creation of embryonic-like stem cells from adult skin cells. The lecture by this Japanese physician is the third edition of The Cell Press-TNQ India Distinguished Lectureship Series. He will also deliver it in Chennai on February 1 and New Delhi on February 3. The lecture series is co-sponsored by Cell Press and TNQ Books and Journals. Quantum leap The stated goal of Prof. Yamanaka's laboratory has been to generate pluripotent stem cells from human somatic cells. The ability to re-programme adult cells back into an earlier, undifferentiated state has helped to reshape the ethical debate over stem cell research by providing an approach to obtain pluripotent stem cells that need not be harvested from an embryo. Prof. Yamanaka, who was awarded the Albert Lasker Prize in 2009 and the Wolf Prize in 2011, is the director of the Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application and professor at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences at Kyoto University. He is also a senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated … Continue reading →

NEW YORK, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), an international biopharmaceutical company with a focus on cell-based therapeutic development, today announced that its Chief Medical Officer, the lead investigator for its PreSERVE Phase 2 clinical trial for AMR-001 for preservation of heart function in post acute myocardial infarction patients, and the President of its subsidiary, Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC, have been invited to present at the Seventh International Conference on Cell Therapy for Cardiovascular Disease held from January 25-27, 2012 in New York City. The event is being organized by the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and will be held at the Myrna L. Daniels Auditorium in the Vivien and Seymour Milstein Family Heart Center at NYPH/Columbia University Medical Center. According to the conference, the program will be dedicated to the evolving field of cell-based therapies being developed for the repair and regeneration of cardiac and vascular disease, as well as related diseases such as diabetes and stroke. This year's conference will focus on preclinical and clinical studies on the path to commercialization, highlighting the status of molecular, cell, and tissue products in addition to delivery systems. Leaders from the international community will convene to … Continue reading →

ALLENDALE, N.J., Jan. 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- NeoStem's cell therapy manufacturing division, Progenitor Cell Therapy ("PCT"), a NeoStem, Inc. company (NYSE Amex: NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), announced today an agreement whereby PCT will provide contract manufacturing and regulatory services related to the development of Islet Sciences – PTM, which will be an injectable suspension of microencapsulated insulin-producing, pancreatic islet cells which are harvested from designated pathogen free pigs. As part of this arrangement, PCT will perform microencapsulation for parsing beta pancreatic islets for xenotransplantation using piglet pancreata. Islet Sciences, Inc. ("Islet") is a biotechnology company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of patented technologies in the field of transplantation therapy for patients with diabetes and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of One E-Commerce Corporation (OTCBB: ONCE.OB - News).  A 2010 study by the CDC found that approximately 25.8 million Americans, more than 8% of the population, were affected by diabetes. 5% of this number, approximately 1.3 million, have type 1 diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is estimated to cost the US $14.4 billion total annually. "Given the robust market opportunity and the potential for cell therapy to alter the disease paradigm, NeoStem has agreed to this novel arrangement whereby PCT … Continue reading →

Cancer treatment in B.C. is about to get more personal — and more comfortable — after the announcement Monday of a groundbreaking medical project. Genome B.C. and the B.C. Cancer Foundation have started work to develop a genetic test over the next two years that researchers hope will take the guesswork out of cancer treatment. There are currently two types of treatment for cancer — chemotherapy and stem-cell transportation — said Dr. Aly Karsan, medical director for the Cancer Genetics Lab for the B.C. Cancer Agency. "In order to provide more effective treatment, we must first understand which course of treatment a patient will respond best to," said Karsan. "We can do this with information from the patients' genetic signature of their cancer and this can be identified through their genomic sequence," he said. A developed diagnostic test would help predict whether chemo or stem-cell treatment is the best choice for a patient, therefore helping alleviate a patient from excessive treatments, painful side-effects and wasting valuable time. Karsan is leading one jointly supported research project focusing on applying genomics to the management of a devastating and difficult-to-treat form of leukemia called acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with which around 200 British … Continue reading →