Harvard Stem Cell Institute Sees Growth

At its founding eight years ago, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute had fewer than ten principal faculty members, according to Benjamin D. Humphreys, co-director of the HSCI Kidney Program. Today, that number has ballooned to more than 80. In the past decade, Harvard has increasingly poured resources into groundbreaking research in one of the largest collections of stem cell research labs in the country. According to HSCI co-director Douglas A. Melton, a professor in the stem cell and regenerative biology department, there are more than 800 Harvard affiliates in stem cell science scattered throughout roughly 80 laboratories. The largest concentration of stem cell researchers are located in Harvard’s Sherman Fairchild Building, which reopened in August…

New Use for Autologous Stem Cell Transplant?

Transplanted gene-modified blood stem cells protect brain cancer patients from toxic side effects of chemotherapy Study is first to show feasibility and efficacy of a new use for autologous stem cell transplant SEATTLE – May 9, 2012 – For the first time, scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have transplanted brain cancer patients’ own gene-modified blood stem cells in order to protect their bone marrow against the toxic side effects of chemotherapy. Initial  results of the ongoing, small clinical trial of three patients with  glioblastoma showed that two patients survived longer than predicted if they had not been given the transplants, and a third patient remains alive with no disease progression almost three years…

Texas Adopts Controversial Stem Cell Rules

Texas Medical Board Approves Adult Stem Cell Guidelines The Texas Medical Board has approved guidelines for the use of adult stem cells. The new rules say that the procedure must be part of a clinical trial and have the approval of the Food and Drug Administration or an institutional review board. Leigh Hopper, a spokesperson for the Texas Medical Board says these institutions will make sure the use of adult stem cells is safe, ethical and that patients give informed consent. Hopper says board members felt that since patients already have access to adult stem cells, the procedure needs to be regulated. “Since this is occurring right now, the majority of the board felt that…

Experts Divided on Texas Stem Cell Treatment Regulation

Concerns Draft Rule’s Requirements for IRB Review are “weak”  Tomorrow the Texas Medical Board will decide whether to sign off on what’s said to be the first state-level policy imposing oversight on the medical use of experimental treatments using adult stem cells. The hotly debated plan has drawn mixed views from the scientific community over whether it’s a good way to raise standards—and has generated confusion in the media. Some experts say the rule will allow unscrupulous doctors to evade review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) because it may clear methods that haven’t been rigorously examined. But others say the rule, while imperfect, is a good-faith effort to bring oversight to these controversial,…

Teaching Old Drugs New Tricks for Rare Diseases

Sam Berns of Boston is a ninth-grader stuck in an 80-year-old man’s body. He has progeria, a rare disease that has aged his body faster than his mind. Although his condition limits him physically, he says there’s nothing he puts his mind to that he can’t do. “When there is something I really want to do that Progeria gets in the way of, like marching band or umpiring, we always find a way to do it,” Sam told a crowd of nearly 1,500 people at the annual TedMed conference today in Washington, D.C. So don’t think for a second that you can tell Sam there’s no treatment for his condition. Although research for any treatment…

New Fund for Early Stage Drug Discovery

A new program, jointly funded by the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) and the Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research at Temple University, will help researchers identify and test chemical compounds that could be candidates for new drugs. The $500,000 fund, called the Drug Discovery Pilot Award Program, represents the next stage in a complementary relationship that was formed between URMC and the Moulder Center last year. The collaboration enables URMC scientists to combine their knowledge of the underlying biology of disease with the ability of the medicinal chemists and pharmacologists at the Moulder Center to identify and create compounds suitable for medical research and eventual use in humans. “The partnership we have formed with the Moulder Center…

NIH Renews Support to 7 Sites Nationwide

From bench to bedside: NIH grant establishes cardiac clinical research center at UofL University of Louisville among 7 sites nationwide for Cardiac Cell Therapy Research Network To paraphrase Yogi Berra: It’s déjà vu all over again – with a twist. A University of Louisville researcher known for his prowess at winning competitive grants from the National Institutes of Health has won another one – his first for clinical research. During his 18-year tenure at UofL, Dr. Roberto Bolli has generated more than $100 million in grants for basic research from the NIH. Today, Bolli joined with University of Louisville President James R. Ramsey to announce a new NIH grant he has won for clinical research,…

Unravelling bipolar disorder using stem cell lines

$1-million gift will advance U-M Depression Center’s stem cell research into bipolar disorder Steven M. Schwartzberg Memorial Fund to support ongoing stem cell research for bipolar disorder With the help of a recent $1 million commitment, the University of Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center will continue its mission to unravel the unknowns about bipolar disorder using stem cell lines developed from skin cells. The donation establishes the Steven M. Schwartzberg Memorial Fund at the Depression Center, and the initial funds will help promote stem cell research just beginning at U-M. Al and Florence Schwartzberg named the fund after their son Steven, who died three years ago after a long struggle with bipolar disorder. “Steven was a…

Knowledge gained paves way for future of cell therapy

  Stem cell, heart heath study Stem cells from someone’s bone marrow could help repair heart damage Doctors from the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital have found that patients with heart failure may be able to repair the damaged areas of the heart with stem cells from the patient’s own bone marrow. Doctors presented the findings at the American College of Cardiology’s 61st Annual Scientific Session Saturday. The results are from a multi-center clinical study that measured the possible benefits of using a patient’s own bone marrow cells to repair damaged areas of the heart suffering from severe heart failure, a condition that affects millions of Americans.     The study, which…

Cell therapy to improve quality of life

In this three-minute video interview conducted at the American College of Cardiology’s (ACC’s) 61st Annual Scientific Session & Expo in Chicago, GetInsideHealth talked to Dr Timothy Henry after his presentation at Thought Leader Theater of the Heart of Innovations. In the interview, Dr Henry discusses: • Over 12 million of patient have refractory angina despite optimal medical therapy and no option for revascularization • Therapeutic angiogenesis with cell therapy is a promising new approach in these patients • Phase II trial with adult CD34+ stem cells showed that injection of these cells directly into the heart by NOGA catheter resulted in reduced reports of angina episodes and improved exercise tolerance time in refractory angina patients • A phase III,…

Stem cells for cardiac repair; an active area of research

A two-part Series published in Lancet gives insight into the use of stem cells in the new discipline of regenerative medicine. Stem cells are widely researched for their therapeutic use. An important potential application of human stem cells, through a more complete understanding of the genetic and molecular controls of cell division and differentiation, is the generation of cells and tissues that could be used for cell-based therapies. The use of embryonic and adult-derived stem cells for cardiac repair is a particularly active area of research. The first Series paper highlights insights gained from clinical trials of adult stem cells, together with fundamental scientific advances in cardiac stem cell and regenerative biology. New targets and…

Genetic manipulation boosts growth of brain cells

Genetic manipulation boosts growth of brain cells linked to learning, enhances antidepressants UT Southwestern Medical Center investigators have identified a genetic manipulation that increases the development of neurons in the brain during aging and enhances the effect of antidepressant drugs. The research finds that deleting the Nf1 gene in mice results in long-lasting improvements in neurogenesis, which in turn makes those in the test group more sensitive to the effects of antidepressants. “The significant implication of this work is that enhancing neurogenesis sensitizes mice to antidepressants – meaning they needed lower doses of the drugs to affect ‘mood’ – and also appears to have anti-depressive and anti-anxiety effects of its own that continue over time,”…

UTSW Molecular Biologist wins Passano Award

DALLAS – March 6, 2012 – Dr. Eric Olson, founding chairman of the molecular biology department at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has won the 2012 Passano Award for identifying major genetic pathways that control the development of the heart and other muscles. In announcing the award, Passano Foundation officials noted that Dr. Olson’s discoveries at the interface of developmental biology and medicine “have profoundly influenced our understanding of the mechanisms responsible for development and dysfunction of the heart.” His laboratory has used a sophisticated combination of biochemistry and genetics to expose networks of genes that control the formation of the heart and cardiovascular system. In so doing, Dr. Olson “unveiled the molecular underpinnings of congenital…

Flatworms reveal new insights into stem cell biology

Planarian flatworms reveal new insights into stem cell biology Devising a novel method to identify potential genetic regulators in planarian stem cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have determined which of those genes affect the two main functions of stem cells. Three of the genes are particularly intriguing because they code for proteins similar to those known to regulate mammalian embryonic stem cells. Such genetic similarity makes planarians an even more attractive model for studying stem cell biology in vivo. RELEVANCE: Stem cells may hold the promise to regrow damaged, diseased, or missing tissues in humans, such as insulin-producing cells for diabetics and nerve cells for patients with spinal cord injuries. With its renowned powers of regeneration and…

“Friend of the Court” Brief Filed Supporting Funding

This week the Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) joined the Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research (CAMR) in filing an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, supporting federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. GPI previously filed amicus briefs in the United States District Court and in the Court of Appeals, the latter in collaboration with CAMR and the State of Wisconsin. Both earlier briefs focused on the preliminary injunction in the case. Bernard Siegel, GPI’s executive director, stated, “Our brief supports the District Court’s ruling on behalf of the government upholding federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research. We…

Reality check for stem cell research?

Hard cell  Heart-disease patients. The paralyzed. Families of people struggling with Alzheimer’s disease. So many had hoped cures were just around the corner. But three years after the Obama administration’s easing of restrictions on embryonic stem-cell research, advocates for this young field are facing a reality check: Rather than seeing an avalanche of breakthroughs for all that ails mankind, patients find themselves waiting in the wings for a science that is in some ways still theoretical and often prohibitively expensive. Among the many challenges that drive up the cost of human embryonic stem-cell research is the fact that the FDA puts up tremendous hurdles for anyone entering into the pioneering science. Drug companies and venture capitalists are…

Match.com of Clinical Trials

It was in her ninth year of working in the sales, trading and asset management divisions of Goldman Sachs that Debi Brooks, now 52, got the itch. “I was maturing in my professional career and in my life,” she says. “I paused.” Intent on making a difference, she left Goldman to head towards the nonprofit sector, taking a quick side trip to earn a master’s in marriage and family therapy. Not long after, when Brooks heard from former colleagues that award-winning actor Michael J. Fox, who had been diagnosed with young-onset Parkinson’s disease in 1991, was looking for a partner to build a foundation that would change the game for PD research, it didn’t require…

Real benefits for biologists—if they do it right

Stem-Cell Blogger October 2009 was a tough month for Paul Knoepfler. First, Nature shut down one of his favorite blogs, the Niche, which he had followed avidly in his work as a stem-cell researcher at UC Davis. Worse, he was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer at the age of 42. Paul wrote a fascinating editorial in Nature about how his battle with cancer gave him the courage to start blogging about stem cells. “After all, how hard can blogging be when compared with facing cancer?” he asked. It turns out that biologists are often extremely reluctant to blog about their work. They fret that they’ll antagonize adversaries, court needless controversy, publish errors that have to…

Stem Cell Line Placed On National Registry for Researchers

The University of Michigan’s first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry. The line, known as UM4-6, is a genetically normal line, derived in October 2010 from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That embryo was created for reproduction but was no longer needed for that purpose and was therefore about to be discarded. U-M is among just a handful…

More Results in for Autologous Heart Cells

Cardiac stem-cells increase viable myocardium post-MI: CADUCEUS Authors of a small study using cardiac-derived stem cells in “convalescent” MI patients say they’ve uncovered some of the first true evidence that the heart can regenerate, describing a new method that, they say, led to “unprecedented” improvements in viable heart muscle . Results of the CADUCEUS study, published online February 13, 2012 in the Lancet, showed not only that scar size was reduced on MRI at six months—something also seen in previous research—but also that the amount of viable heart mass and regional contractility were also improved. Dr Raj R Makkar (Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, CA) and colleagues used a proprietary technique to harvest autologous heart…