Axcella Health Inc. (NASDAQ:AXLA) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) compete against each other in the Biotechnology sector. We will compare them and contrast their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitability, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Valuation & Earnings

Table 1 shows gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation of the two companies.

Profitability

Table 2 provides the net margins, return on equity and return on assets of the two firms.

Analyst Recommendations

In next table is delivered Axcella Health Inc. and Neuralstem Inc.s ratings and recommendations.

Axcella Health Inc.s average price target is $22.5, while its potential upside is 330.21%.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Roughly 0% of Axcella Health Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors while 4.9% of Neuralstem Inc. are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, insiders own roughly 1% of Neuralstem Inc.s shares.

Performance

Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

For the past year Axcella Health Inc. has stronger performance than Neuralstem Inc.

Summary

Axcella Health Inc. beats on 8 of the 10 factors Neuralstem Inc.

Neuralstem, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the research and development of nervous system therapies based on its proprietary human neuronal stem cells and small molecule compounds. The companys stem cell based technology enables the isolation and expansion of human neural stem cells from various areas of the developing human brain and spinal cord enabling the generation of physiologically relevant human neurons of various types. It is developing products include NSI-189, a chemical entity, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of major depressive disorder, as well as is in preclinical programs for the MCAO stroke, type 1 and 2 diabetes related neuropathy, irradiation-induced cognition, long-term potentiation enhancement, and angelman syndrome. The company is also developing NSI-566, which has completed Phase II clinical trial for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease, as well as is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of chronic spinal cord injury and motor deficits due to ischemic stroke. Neuralstem, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland.

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Comparing of Axcella Health Inc. (AXLA) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) - MS Wkly

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Comparing of Axcella Health Inc. (AXLA) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) – MS Wkly | October 17th, 2019

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:ALDX) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) compete against each other in the Biotechnology sector. We will compare them and contrast their profitability, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Valuation and Earnings

Table 1 demonstrates Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. and Neuralstem Inc.s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Profitability

Table 2 hightlights the net margins, return on assets and return on equity of the two companies.

Risk and Volatility

Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc.s 0.5 beta indicates that its volatility is 50.00% less volatile than that of S&P 500. Neuralstem Inc.s 94.00% more volatile than S&P 500 which is a result of the 1.94 beta.

Liquidity

The Current Ratio and a Quick Ratio of Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. are 9.2 and 9.2. Competitively, Neuralstem Inc. has 3.8 and 3.8 for Current and Quick Ratio. Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc.s better ability to pay short and long-term obligations than Neuralstem Inc.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Institutional investors held 69.9% of Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. shares and 4.9% of Neuralstem Inc. shares. Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc.s share held by insiders are 2.2%. Insiders Competitively, held 1% of Neuralstem Inc. shares.

Performance

Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

For the past year Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. was less bearish than Neuralstem Inc.

Summary

On 9 of the 9 factors Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. beats Neuralstem Inc.

Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on the development of products for inflammation, inborn errors of metabolism, and other diseases in the United States and internationally. It is developing ADX-102, a small molecule designed to trap and allow for the degradation of aldehydes, as well as ADX-103 and ADX-104 novel candidates for the treatment of noninfectious anterior uveitis, allergic conjunctivitis, dry eye syndrome, sjgren-larsson syndrome, and succinic semi-aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency. The company was formerly known as Aldexa Therapeutics, Inc. and changed its name to Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc. in March 2014. Aldeyra Therapeutics, Inc. was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Lexington, Massachusetts.

Neuralstem, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the research and development of nervous system therapies based on its proprietary human neuronal stem cells and small molecule compounds. The companys stem cell based technology enables the isolation and expansion of human neural stem cells from various areas of the developing human brain and spinal cord enabling the generation of physiologically relevant human neurons of various types. It is developing products include NSI-189, a chemical entity, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of major depressive disorder, as well as is in preclinical programs for the MCAO stroke, type 1 and 2 diabetes related neuropathy, irradiation-induced cognition, long-term potentiation enhancement, and angelman syndrome. The company is also developing NSI-566, which has completed Phase II clinical trial for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease, as well as is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of chronic spinal cord injury and motor deficits due to ischemic stroke. Neuralstem, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland.

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Reviewing Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (ALDX)'s and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR)'s results - MS Wkly

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Reviewing Aldeyra Therapeutics Inc. (ALDX)’s and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR)’s results – MS Wkly | October 17th, 2019

1 VIDEO: Alternative animal testing device may soon be available to the cosmetics industry

The team behind an alternative animal testing device, skin-on-a-chip, is forming new start-up to commercialise the product and offer its services to the cosmetic industry.

At this years Society of Comstics Scientists (SCSS) Suppliers Day, we sat down with Dr. Massimo Alberti, from Polaris Science to learn more about the innovation, which is backed by The Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech).

Alberti and his colleagues successfully reconstructed human skin on a compact, microfluidic device which can reduce or eventually replace animal testing.

The device is a system where you can stimulate blood flow, recreate the microenvironment in which the skin or the tissue you want to study is absolutely close to the physiological condition, said Alberti, who believes will be a game-changer for the industry.

[The cosmetic industry] is constantly struggling with the cost of R&D and need to bring products on the market as fast as they can. At the same time, the whole supply chain is affected because the ingredient providers and research organisations that have to follow those needs and also be able to provide those kinds of service rapidly and reliably, he said.

2 Dior collaborates with leading Japanese lab to study the mechanism of skin metabolism

The research arm of LVMH is collaborating with the Centre for iPS Cell Research and Application of Kyoto University (CiRA) to study the mechanism of skin metabolism for Parfums Christian Dior.

The aim of the joint project is to explore how oxidative metabolism affects skin keratinocyte self-renewal or differentiation capabilities.

The effects of age on mitochondrial status, skin regeneration and differentiation will be investigated with the hope of contributing to major therapeutic discoveries in the skin and cutaneous rejuvenation, said CiRA in a press statement.

Under the direction of Nobel Prize laureate Shinya Yamanaka, CiRA is a leading centre for induced pluripotent stem cell research.

According to CiRA, iPS cells are cells generated by introducing a small number of factors into body cells such as skin cells and blood cells.

3 Super hydrator: Kao develops new formulation that targets rough and dry skin

Kao Corporation has developed a novel formulation which it claims can smooth away roughness caused by dry skin.

Developed by the Japanese firms Skin Care Laboratory, Material Science Laboratory, and Analytical Science Laboratory, the formulation is a combination of large water-content alpha-gel and an OXP-SI polymer.

The combined formula was found to be absorbed into regions with micro-scaling. According to Kao, micro-scaling is a condition in which the horny layer skin is thinly exfoliated in pieces.

According to a survey conducted by Kao, an increasingly large number of Japanese women now suffer from dry skin. Among them, more than 90% were found to have micro-scaling on the skin surface.

4 Moisture-retaining membrane: Kao develops new formula with fine fibre tech to reduce moisture-loss on skin

Further research on Kaos fine fibre technology has revealed its effects on protein expression in the stratum corneum and potential to improve skin condition with what the firm claims is a unique formula.

Kao Corporation first announced the development of its fine fibre technology in 2018. The technology creates a barely-visible film on the skins surface, creating an ultra-thin membrane on looks and feels natural.

Since then, the companys Skincare Research Laboratory and Analytical Science Laboratory have developed a novel formula based on fine fibre tech which claims to control water evaporation on the surface of skin.

Futher research found that controling the moisture premaebility affects the expression of the proteins that were linked to healthy skin conditions.

5 Base notes with benefits: Down Under expands wood oils portfolio to meet APAC consumer demands

Australian ingredient provider Down Under Enterprises has launched a collection of native Aussie wood oils to cater to the increasingly complex demands of APAC beauty consumers.

The collection consists of locally-scoured Australian blue cypress oil, Australian buddha wood oil, Australian sandalwood oil, Indian sandalwood oil and Australian white cypress wood oil.

Phil Prather, head of marketing and operations at Down Under Enterprises, told CosmeticsDesign-Asia that the firm believed there was a need for more variety of oils that offer functional benefits.

For instance, Prather elaborated, buddha wood oil and blue cypress oil have anti-inflammatory properties while white cypress oil has demonstrated skin brightening properties.

What we want formulators to understand is that these oils are more than just a base note. These oils can provide functional properties for their formulations. Properties that are based on clear science that has been published in clinical papers, he said.

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Top 5 stories on cosmetic formulation and science - CosmeticsDesign-Asia.com

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Top 5 stories on cosmetic formulation and science – CosmeticsDesign-Asia.com | October 17th, 2019

We know we're not alone when we say that we could easily spend a large chunk of our salaries on skincare. Between the constant new launches and those OG holy grails, there are just too many opportunities to shop. As beauty editors, we're lucky enough to have access to the most luxurious products on the market, but we're well aware that it's not always feasible to shell out so much money on lotions and potionsespecially on a polarizing product like eye cream.

Some folks swear by the stuff for refining fine lines and keeping puffiness at bay, while others just don't see the point. We happen to identify with the former and as such are quite looped into the formulas that perform best. On the other hand, we're committed to bringing you the affordable options that still get the job done. Luckily, there are plenty of lower-costproducts that can help mitigate the effects that aging has on the delicate orbital skin.

Here, find nine iconic eye creams beauty insiders swear by and the similar, more affordable dupes that will help you leave tired eyes in 2019. Just because there are bags under your eyes doesn't mean you have to pay designer prices to get rid of them. (Unless you want to, in which case, you also have our blessing.)

MZ Skin Soothe & Smooth Collagen Activating Eye Complex ($149)

Beautycounter Countertime Ultra Renewal Eye Cream ($69)

Savings: $80

How they're similar:The hero ingredient in both of these potent eye treatments is albizia bark, otherwise known as Persian silk tree. This extract can help eliminate toxic collagen inhibitors likeglycogens. On top of reducing the appearance of crow's-feet and other fine lines, you can also expect either of these products to de-puff and brighten the eye area.

IS Clinical Youth Eye Complex ($98)

Image Skincare Ageless Total Eye Lift Crme ($48)

Savings: $50

How they're similar:You can thank a number of exfoliating and hydrating acids and highly efficacious stabilized vitamin C for the lifting and plumping effects you'll see when using these science-backed formulations. Both are highly respected among skincare professionals, so you really can't go wrong here.

Royal Fern Phytoactive Anti-Aging Eye Cream ($190)

Miracle Age Miracle Age Repair Eye Cream ($56)

Savings: $134

How they're similar:While the Royal Fern option is beloved for its ultra-clean approach to effective, result-oriented skincare, the price tag certainly says a lot about the barrier of entry for experiencing the products. While you're saving up, try the similarly natural select by Korean label Miracle Age, which boasts cooling aloe, moisturizing shea butter, and plumping ceramides.

Tata Harper Restorative Eye Creme ($105)

Youth to the People Superfood Peptide Eye Cream ($35)

Savings: $70

How they're similar:Aloe barbadensis leaf extract is at the forefront of both of these plant-based products. Each of their ingredient lists is densely populated with organic, botanical ingredients that deliveryouth-preserving results.

PCA Skin Ideal Complex Restorative Eye Cream ($88)

Boots No7 Protect Perfect Advanced Intense Eye Cream ($22)

Savings: $66

How they're similar: While the PCA Skin version is admittedly more advanced in its formulation (hello, orange stem cells!), each of these formulas contains wrinkle-reducing peptides as well as light-reflecting titanium dioxide.

Goop by Juice Beauty Perfecting Eye Cream ($90)

Mario Badescu Olive Eye Cream ($18)

Savings: $72

How they're similar: It's no surprise that the Goop option is cleaner than the Mario Badescu cream (and most others on the market, honestly), but oliveleaf drives the hydration factor in both formulas. You'll get a luxurious-feeling, deeply hydrating cream either way.

SkinCeuticals A.G.E. Eye Complex ($98)

Yes To Blueberries Age Refresh Eye Firming ($29)

Savings: $69

How they're similar:Powerful, yet natural, blueberry is the antioxidant that helps each of these creams reverse the signs of damage while also preventing new lines and wrinkles from setting in.

SkinMedica TNS Eye Repair ($102)

Olay Regenerist Retinol 24 Night Eye Cream ($39)

Savings: $63

How they're similar:Retinoids are at play here, with SkinMedica's use of vitamin A and Olay's implementation of retinol. In addition to smoothing out the delicate eye area, both formulas visibly firm and brighten while also working to even out the skin tone.

Dermalogica AGE Smart Age Reversal Eye Complex ($80)

First Aid Beauty Eye Duty Triple Remedy A.M. Gel Cream ($36)

Savings: $44

How they're similar:Both of these lightweight gel creams absorb quickly and offer skin-firming effects from tree barks and peptides. The Dermalogica utilizes retinol to encourage cell turnover, while red algae and seaweed help the First Aid Beauty select deliver similar results.

Up next,I have access to free beauty products, and I still choose these drugstore buys.

This article originally appeared on Who What Wear

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9 Iconic Anti-Aging Eye Creams, and Their More Affordable Dupes - Yahoo Lifestyle

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on 9 Iconic Anti-Aging Eye Creams, and Their More Affordable Dupes – Yahoo Lifestyle | October 17th, 2019

Humans diverged from chimpanzees and other great apes roughly 6m years ago. But despite us being closely related, human brains are vastly different enabling us to engage in complex language, science, art, morality and much more. But what exactly was it that enabled our brains to reach such mindboggling heights?

We know that the human brain has dramatically expanded in size over the past 6m years. Humans are in fact the mammals with the largest brain relative to body size. But which specific evolutionary genetic changes enabled larger and more complex brains has long remained a bit of a mystery. Now a new study, published in Nature, offers clues.

One important reason why it has been so hard to study primate brain development is that, until relatively recently, scientists did not have access to living, developing brain tissue. This is what can ultimately allow us to functionally test theories of brain evolution as we can essentially watch how a brain develops over time in a dish and manipulate biological pathways to see what role they play in brain development.

But in the last few years, scientists have worked out how to make lab-grown models of developing brain tissue so-called brain organoids to begin to address these questions.

Organoids are clusters of cells that organise themselves into mini versions of our organs, such as the brain or the liver. Thats because they are made by culturing stem cells, which have the potential to develop into any tissue of the body. These stem cells can be generated directly from cells of adult origin, such as skin or blood cells. They are then grown in a gel that allows them to develop three dimensionally. And thats exactly what the researchers behind the new study did.

So what kind of genetic changes do we think contributed to human brain evolution? Only about 1.5% of our DNA actually consists of genes with instructions for making proteins. Proteins are the molecules that do most of the work in cells and determine the cells structure and function. It was once thought that the remaining 98.5% of DNA was junk with no clear purpose. However, it is now known that some of this DNA may play an important role in controlling which genes are expressed meaning determining how they are turned on and off.

The number of changes in protein-coding regions of DNA are far too few to explain the striking differences observed between humans and other primates. In fact, of the genetic regions that have changed the most since our divergence from chimpanzees, 92% do not overlap with protein-coding DNA.

It is predicted that at least a third of these regions play a role in controlling the expression of genes. It has long been hypothesised that the majority of differences observed between the brains of great apes and us are due to changes in the timing and expression of genes, rather than changes to the gene itself. The vast majority of our genes are therefore identical.

The main focus of the new study was to identify how genes are regulated differently in humans compared to other primates. The authors did this by generating brain organoids from human, chimpanzee and macaque stem cells and compared these at various points over the course of four months. This mimics how a brain forms in the womb, with organoids consisting of multiple growing buds of brain tissue that first consist largely of neural progenitor cells that in later stages begin to make neurons.

From the outside, brain organoids look more like small popcorn than a mini brain and do not reach sizes larger than around five or six millimetres due to a lack of blood supply.

The authors observed that human brain development occurs at a slower pace than the other two primates. This delayed maturation of the human brain makes sense as, given more time, the cells that generate neurons will have a longer period to expand their population, giving rise to more neurons and a bigger brain later on.

The researchers were also able to look at the expression of genes in individual cell types of the brain organoids. They measured the expression of a gene by looking at the levels of a messenger molecule that is made from reading DNA and is necessary to direct the formation of proteins. By comparing gene expression in cells that were developing to become the cerebral cortex which plays an important role in advanced cognitive processes such as awareness, thought, memory, language and consciousness they detected 98 genes that were differently expressed in humans.

Gene expression doesnt tell the whole story though. Its rate is ultimately controlled by a process called gene regulation. In order to identify potential regulatory mechanisms, the authors pinpointed regions of DNA that are accessible or open at the various stages in particular cells. These accessible regions of DNA have the potential to interact with proteins and can regulate gene expression.

By comparing organoids between human and chimpanzee, the researchers were able to identify regions of DNA that were differently accessible in humans potentially playing a regulatory role. Regulatory regions of DNA are more likely to be found in close proximity to the genes they are regulating the expression of. More than 60% of the genes that were expressed differently in humans were also in close proximity to differently accessible regions. This suggests that human-specific development and gene expression is a result of evolutionary changes in regions of DNA that are capable of regulating gene expression.

A significant proportion of the regions of DNA that we already know have changed the most since our divergence from chimps were found to overlap with those being different in terms of accessibility suggesting the team has indeed highlighted key regulatory processes responsible for making us humans.

This study takes the first steps in pinpointing interesting candidate genetic regions responsible for human brain complexity. The authors do not dive deeper into the mechanisms of what the altered expression of a specific gene actually means in terms of how the brain grows and functions. It does, however, provide an excellent resource and starting point to direct future research in this direction.

This research is not only important in understanding what makes us human, but also in working out how certain human disorders may arise. Several studies have found that mutations in regions of DNA with human-specific changes are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders.

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Lab-grown mini brains shed light on how humans split from great apes - The Conversation UK

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Lab-grown mini brains shed light on how humans split from great apes – The Conversation UK | October 17th, 2019

This Stem Cell Therapy Market research report is a careful investigation of current scenario of the market and future estimations which spans several market dynamics such as websites, annual reports of the companies, journals, and others.

Stem Cell Therapy Market is expected to reach USD 15.63 billion by 2025, from USD 7.72 billion in 2017 growing at a CAGR of 9.2% during the forecast period of 2018 to 2025. The Stem Cell Therapy market report contains data for historic year 2016, the base year of calculation is 2017 and the forecast period is 2018 to 2025 (Updated values listed in sample report).

Get Sample of This Research Report:https://databridgemarketresearch.com/request-a-sample/?dbmr=global-stem-cell-therapy-market

Stem cell therapy is the therapy which uses stem cells for the treatment or prevention of a disease. Bone marrow transplant is the widely applicable therapy which is followed by umbilical cord blood. Research is going on to develop various sources (such as cord blood cells, bone marrow and skin) to use these cells for treatment of various disorders like neurodegenerative diseases and conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and other conditions. Some of the major players operating in the global stem cell therapy market are

Others: ViaCyte, Inc, AbbVie, Mesoblast Ltd., Roslin Cells, Regeneus Ltd, ReNeuron Group plc,, International Stem Cell Corporation, Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., Advanced Cell Technology, Cryo Cell International, Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., Geron Corporation, and Invitrogen and others. The global stem cell therapy market is highly fragmented and the major players have used various strategies such as new product launches, expansions, agreements, joint ventures, partnerships, acquisitions, and others to increase their footprints in this market. The report includes market shares of the global stem cell therapy market for global, Europe, North America, Asia Pacific and South America.

Get TOC For Full Analysis Of Report:https://databridgemarketresearch.com/toc/?dbmr=global-stem-cell-therapy-market

Major Market Drivers and Restraints:

Drivers:

Restraints:

Segmentation:

The global stem cell therapy market is segmented based on

Type

Product

Application

End Users

Geographical Segments

On the basis of type, the market is segmented into

Allogeneic stem cell therapy

Autologous stem cell therapy

The allogeneic stem cell therapy segment is expected lead the market because of commercialization of allogeneic stem cell therapy products and wide application with easy scale up process.

Based on products, the market is segmented into

Adult stem cells

Human embryonic stem cells

Induced pluripotent stem cells and others

The adult stem cells accounts highest share in market due to ability to generate trillions of specialized cells which may lower the risks of rejection and repair tissue damage.

Based on application, the market is segmented into

Musculoskeletal disorders

Wounds and injuries

Cardiovascular diseases

Surgeries

Gastrointestinal diseases, and other applications

The musculoskeletal disorders segment leads the market due to availability of stem cell-based products for the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders, high prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders and bone & joint diseases.

Based on end users, the market is segmented into

Therapeutic companies

Cell and tissues banks

Tools and reagent companies

Service companies

The growing number of stem cell donors, improved stem cell banking facilities and because of the research and development therapeutic companies held the largest share in stem cell therapy.

By Geography

North America (U.S., Canada, Mexico)

South America (Brazil, Argentina, Rest of South America)

Europe (Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Rest of Europe)

Asia-Pacific ( Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Rest of Asia Pacific)

Middle East & Africa (South Africa, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Rest of Middle East & Africa)

The rest is here:
Stem Cell Therapy Market By 2026 Industrial Analysis, Global Research With Geron Corporation, Vericel Corporation, Pluristem Therapeutics, Cytori...

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Stem Cell Therapy Market By 2026 Industrial Analysis, Global Research With Geron Corporation, Vericel Corporation, Pluristem Therapeutics, Cytori… | October 17th, 2019

WHEN teacher Matt Meads started suffering with stomach pains, night sweats and tiredness - he quickly dismissed it as end of school year fatigue.

He was fit and healthy, and avoided drinking and smoking.

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But just three weeks after first falling ill, Matt died - aged just 33 - and after just three chemo sessions.

He and his wife Abi were devastated when they discovered his symptoms were actually a sign ofleukaemia.

Heartbroken Abi, 27, from Nottingham, is now sharing his story to raise awareness and to urge others to be vigilant for signs of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, a rare and aggressive form of blood cancer.

"I've got so many people around me offering help and support but I still feel really lonely because I've lost my best mate, my husband, my soulmate," Abi said.

It comes as blood cancer charity Bloodwise warns thousands of people are dying of the disease because it's diagnosed too late.

Matt and Abi first suspected something was wrong on July 6, when he began feeling more and more fatigued.

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And when he started vomiting to the point of being unable to keep ice cubes down, Abi urged him to go to the doctor.

At first he was told by his GP he had gastroenteritis or constipation but he soon returned to the hospital for a second time where they did a blood test.

Abi, who works as a teacher too, said: "Obviously I wish it was spotted sooner.

"I don't feel any anger towards to the hospital.

"I genuinely believe they did everything they could for him.

"He would say he was feeling sick."He would send a text saying he wasn't feeling well so was going to bed. I was out with some friends.

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"He said something about feeling hot as well, but we didn't put that down to anything because it was the middle of summer and everyone was feeling hot.

"He was sleeping a lot, particularly at weekends which he would spend mostly asleep.

"But we're both teachers, it was coming up to the end of the school year and we had both got a lot of work on.

"We put it down to the job, and just tried to keep going because we had five weeks off soon.

"We thought it was the usual fatigue that we feel at the end of the year.

"There were sickness bugs going around at both of our schools so it wasn't anything out of the ordinary.

"He was referred to A&E for the second time thinking it was gallstones.

I've got so many people around me offering help and support but I still feel really lonely because I've lost my best mate, my husband, my soulmate

"They did some blood tests on him, sent him for a CT scan. The doctor came back and basically said that it was leukaemia."

Despite the devastating diagnosis, Abi said her brave husband remained positive as he came to terms with what was really happening.

She added: "Matt was a really positive person and was always somebody who believed what would be would be, it is what it is and all that stuff.

"So when the doctor told him he was quite composed.

"He didn't really give anything away about what he was feeling.

"It was obviously a massive shock for him but he didn't really respond in the way I would have done. He was listening to the doctor.

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"The doctor actually stopped at one point because he was explaining what would happen next.

"He actually stopped at one point to ask him if he was okay, it was really big news and is he taking it all in?

"Matt's response was, 'yes, but there's nothing I can do about it. It is what it is'.

"He was definitely really brave."

And Abi says the diagnosis came as even more of a shock given how healthy he was.

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She was forced to watch her husband go from happy and sporty to intensive care within days, before he passed away from a pulmonary embolism after just three chemotherapy sessions.

She said: "We knew he was poorly, but maybe not quite how poorly he was.

"I certainly wasn't expecting a phone call from the hospital.

"I don't know how I am now. It's hard. I don't think I really started to grieve until after the funeral.

"It's hard to think ahead for anything. It's a case of taking everything one day at a time.

"Some days are better than others. Some days are horrific and I don't want to get out of bed.

What is Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia?

Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a type of blood cancer that starts from young white blood cells called lymphocytes in the bone marrow.

Adults and children can get it but it is most often diagnosed in younger people.

It'svery rare, with around 650 people diagnosed with the condition each year in the UK.

Many symptoms of ALL are vague and non specific. It may feel like the flu as symptoms are caused by too many abnormal white blood cells and not enough normal white cells, red cells and platelets.

Symptoms can include:

Recently blood cancer charity Bloodwise warned thousands of patients in England could be unnecessarily dying from blood cancer because they are diagnosed too late.

Experts analysed NHSdata and found 28 per cent of patients are told they have the disease after needing emergency treatment for their symptoms.

Figures show there are around 40,000 cases of blood cancer - a group of diseases including leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma - each year in the UK.

Around 77 per cent of patients will survive for three years if they are diagnosed after visiting their GP, Bloodwise says.

In contrast, the same survival rate plummets to just 40 per cent for patients who are diagnosed as an emergency.

This is because symptoms develop over a few weeks and become more severe as the number of immature white blood cells increases.

"Matt was a really happy person. He was really positive.

"He was kind, caring, loving, wicked sense of humour. He would make a joke about anything and was very quick-witted.

"As a teacher he would have done anything for his students. He would have done anything for his family.

"He was just a really positive person who would have done anything for anybody.

"He loved his sport. He would go to the gym, he loved being outside and walking. He liked cycling. He was careful about what he ate.

"Everything the doctors warn you about, he didn't do. He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, he had a good diet, he exercised.

If you've got any of the symptoms which are lasting or you can't explain why you've got them, you need to go to the doctor and get checked out and be persistent in asking for a blood test

"He always put sun-cream on because he was paranoid he might catch skin cancer or something.

"He did everything he could to try and prevent anything from happening to him.

"As the doctors said there was nothing he could have done to prevent this."

Abi is now speaking out to urge others to get checked out and insist for a blood test if they have persistent symptoms of blood cancer.

She said: "If you've got any of the symptoms which are lasting or you can't explain why you've got them, you need to go to the doctor and get checked out and be persistent in asking for a blood test.

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"You know your own body. It's as simple as having a blood test.

"If you've got it for days and it's not getting any better, if you're in any doubt, get it checked.

"We didn't know what the symptoms were.

"The only one I knew was bruising, but Matt didn't have any bruises until he was in hospital. So the one thing I knew wasn't relevant.

"I didn't realise about the night sweats, fatigue or heavy breathing.

"We never expected it would be that.

"We had thought worst case scenario it was gallstones or an impacted bowel, so when he came and said leukaemia it was just unexpected.

"When you're poorly you have all these possibilities going through your head but you never think it's going to be that.

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"I had a really good chat with Matt's consultant where I questioned whether I should have done more, if I had spotted things sooner, whether if I had been more pushy in getting him to hospital.

"But the symptoms are vague and it can come on within days. It doesn't have to be something that has been happening for weeks or months."

You can donate on Abi's fundraising page in memory of Matt here.

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Fit and healthy teacher dies 20 days after discovering he had leukaemia at 33 - The Sun

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Fit and healthy teacher dies 20 days after discovering he had leukaemia at 33 – The Sun | October 17th, 2019

New York City, NY: Oct 16, 2019 Published via (Wired Release) MarketResearch. Biz has a big history of serving detail research reports that help to create business opportunities through competitive study. One of the report we provide is Anti-Aging Drugs market analyzing market latest trends, identifying your rivals, validating opportunities, examining threats to your company, and changing your go-to-market and positioning strategy respectively.

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La Roche-Posay, DermaFix, Nu Skin, Allergan, Procter & Gamble, BIOTIME Inc, Elysium Health Inc, Solta Medical, LORAL and Johnson and Johnson

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Anti-Aging Drugs Market Innovations, And Top Companies - Forecast To 2028| Allergan, Johnson and Johnson, Nu Skin - Healthcare News

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Anti-Aging Drugs Market Innovations, And Top Companies – Forecast To 2028| Allergan, Johnson and Johnson, Nu Skin – Healthcare News | October 17th, 2019

RenovaCare (OTCMKTS:RCAR) and Haemonetics (NYSE:HAE) are both medical companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, risk, earnings, profitability, dividends, valuation and institutional ownership.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for RenovaCare and Haemonetics, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

Haemonetics has a consensus price target of $144.40, suggesting a potential upside of 15.46%. Given Haemonetics higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Haemonetics is more favorable than RenovaCare.

Risk and Volatility

RenovaCare has a beta of 2.42, suggesting that its share price is 142% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Haemonetics has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its share price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares RenovaCare and Haemonetics revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

Haemonetics has higher revenue and earnings than RenovaCare.

Profitability

This table compares RenovaCare and Haemonetics net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

99.1% of Haemonetics shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.9% of RenovaCare shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.3% of Haemonetics shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Haemonetics beats RenovaCare on 9 of the 10 factors compared between the two stocks.

RenovaCare Company Profile

RenovaCare, Inc., a development-stage company, focuses on the acquisition, development, and commercialization of autologous cellular therapies for use in medical and aesthetic applications. It is developing CellMist System for spraying a patient's own skin stem cells onto burns and wounds for self-healing; and SkinGun, a solution sprayer device for delivering the cells to the treatment area. The company was formerly known as Janus Resources, Inc. and changed its name to RenovaCare, Inc. in January 2014. RenovaCare, Inc. is based in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Haemonetics Company Profile

Haemonetics Corporation, a healthcare company, provides hematology products and solutions. The company operates through five segments: North America Plasma; Americas Blood Center and Hospital; Europe, Middle East and Africa; Asia Pacific; and Japan. It offers automated plasma collection devices and related disposables, including NexSys PCS plasmapheresis system and PCS2 equipment and disposables, plasma collection containers, and intravenous solutions, as well as information technology platforms for plasma customers to manage their donors, operations, and supply chain; and NexLynk DMS donor management system. The company also provides automated blood component and manual whole blood collection systems, such as MCS brand apheresis equipment to collect specific blood components from the donor; disposable whole blood collection and component storage sets; SafeTrace Tx and El-Dorado Donor donation and blood unit management systems; Hemasphere software that provides support for blood drive planning; and Donor Doc and e-Donor software to enhance the donor recruitment and retention. In addition, it offers hospital products comprising TEG diagnostic systems that enables clinicians to assess the coagulation status of a patient at the point-of-care or laboratory setting; TEG Manager software, which connects various TEG analyzers throughout the hospital, providing clinicians remote access to active and historical test results that inform treatment decisions; Cell Saver Elite +, a surgical blood salvage system for cardiovascular, orthopedic, trauma, transplant, vascular, obstetrical, and gynecological surgeries; OrthoPAT, a perioperative autotranfusion system for orthopedic procedures; and BloodTrack, a suite of blood management and bedside transfusion solutions that combines software with hardware components, as well as an extension of the hospital's blood bank information system. Haemonetics Corporation was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Braintree, Massachusetts.

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Contrasting RenovaCare (OTCMKTS:RCAR) and Haemonetics (OTCMKTS:HAE) - Covington Journal

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Contrasting RenovaCare (OTCMKTS:RCAR) and Haemonetics (OTCMKTS:HAE) – Covington Journal | October 17th, 2019

BALTIMOREand PHILADELPHIA and IRVINE, Calif., Oct. 15, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WindMIL Therapeutics and the University of California, Irvine (UCI) today announced that the first patients have been identified in an investigator-sponsored study for the collection of bone marrow from patients with gliomas. The study will evaluate generating marrow infiltrating lymphocytes (MILs) for these patients through WindMILs proprietary cellular activation and expansion process. The study is being conducted at UCI.

Patients suffering with glioblastoma are in great need of new, promising treatments that might advance the current standard of care, said Daniela A. Bota, MD, PhD, director of theUCI Health Comprehensive Brain Tumor Program,seniorassociate dean for clinical research, UCI School of Medicine and clinical director, UCI Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell ResearchCenter. The University of California, Irvine is excited toplay a key role in research that may lead to a clinical trial that enlists the immune system in novel ways to fight this terrible disease.

Gliomas are the most common of the malignant brain tumors. Glioblastoma, the most common glioma, has a five-year survival of less than 5 percent. Additional treatment options are urgently needed for these patients. Adoptive immunotherapy is a possible approach for gliomas and the use of MILs, a cell therapy that is naturally tumor-specific, is one such treatment option.

The bone marrow is a unique niche in the immune system to which antigen-experienced memory T cells traffic and are then maintained. WindMIL has developed a proprietary process to select, activate and expand these memory T cells into MILs. Because memory T cells in bone marrow occur as a result of the immune systems recognition of tumor antigens, MILs are specifically suited for adoptive cellular immunotherapy and are able to directly eradicate or facilitate eradication of each patients unique cancer. WindMIL is currently studying MILs in multiple myeloma, non-small cell lung cancer and squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, and plans to expand into other solid tumors.

WindMIL is looking forward to working with the University of California, Irvine on this exciting project and is optimistic that MILs may offer the potential to help patients with these hard-to-treat diseases, said Monil Shah, PharmD, MBA, Chief Development Officer at WindMIL.

About WindMIL Therapeutics

WindMIL Therapeutics is a clinical-stage company developing a novel class of autologous cell therapies based on marrow infiltrating lymphocytes (MILs) for cancer immunotherapy. As the leader in cellular therapeutics emanating from bone marrow, WindMIL translates novel insights in bone marrow immunology into potentially life-saving cancer immunotherapeutics for patients. WindMIL believes that Cell Source Matters and the companys proprietary process to extract, activate and expand these cells offers unique immunotherapeutic advantages, including inherent poly-antigen specificity, high cytotoxic potential and long persistence. For more information, please visit: http://www.windmiltx.com.

About UCI Health

UCI Healthcomprises the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. Patients can access UCI Health at primary and specialty care offices across Orange County and at its main campus, UCI Medical Center in Orange, California. The 417-bed acute care hospital provides tertiary and quaternary care, ambulatory and specialty medical clinics and behavioral health and rehabilitation services. UCI Medical Center features Orange Countys only National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center and regional burn center. UCI Health serves a region of nearly 4 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us onFacebookandTwitter.

About the University of California, Irvine

Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 222 degree programs. Its located in one of the worlds safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange Countys second-largest employer, contributing $5 billion annually to the local economy. For more on UCI, visitwww.uci.edu.

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WindMIL Therapeutics and University of California, Irvine Announce Collaboration to Collect Bone Marrow from Patients with Gliomas to Develop Marrow...

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on WindMIL Therapeutics and University of California, Irvine Announce Collaboration to Collect Bone Marrow from Patients with Gliomas to Develop Marrow… | October 16th, 2019

A case study published in Leukemia and Lymphoma described a patient with a diagnosis of Waldenstrm Macroglobulinemia (WM) that had subsequently undergone histological transformation to refractory high grade B-cell lymphoma and was successfully treated with CD19-targeted chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy.1

WMis a type of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma(NHL), typically characterized by overproduction of monoclonal immunoglobulinM, as well as infiltration of malignant lymphoplasmacytic cells into the bonemarrow.

Although considered incurable, WM often follows an indolent course andsome patients can be asymptomatic for long periods. Rarely, the diseasetransforms into a more aggressive form of NHL that has been associated with apoor prognosis.

The patient described in the case studywas a 71-year-old man who was first diagnosed with WM in 1998. The patient wasmonitored without undergoing active treatment for a period of 12 years, atwhich time he developed anemia and splenomegaly. At that time, he underwenttreatment with 6 cycles of fludarabine and rituximab and achieved a partial response totreatment. Following a worsening of symptoms 4 years later, the patient wastreated with 6 cycles of bendamustine and rituximab.

Biopsyof an enlarged cervical lymph node performed at that time revealed high-gradeB-cell lymphoma that was clonally related to the previously seenlymphoplasmacytic infiltrate, consistent with transformation.

Thepatient subsequently achieved a complete response to 6 cycles of rituximab,cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, prednisone (R-CHOP) plus ibrutinibfollowed by 6 months of ibrutinib maintenance therapy that lasted for 18months.

Salvagetherapy included 2 cycles of rituximab, dexamethasone, cytarabine, cisplatin(R-DHAP) followed by 1 cycle of rituximab plus high-dose cytarabine, followedby autologous stem cell transplantation several months later.

Asthe patients disease was considered to be chemorefractory based on subsequent imagingand pathological analyses, he was treated with axicabtagene ciloleucel, aCD19-targeted CAR-T cell therapy currently approved for the treatment of adultpatients with relapsed or refractory large B-cell lymphoma, including high gradeB-cell lymphoma, after 2 or more lines of systemic therapy.2

Althoughthe patient experienced pancytopenia, grade 1 cytokine release syndrome, andgrade 1 neurotoxicity following CAR-T therapy, he achieved a complete response1 month following treatment.

Notably,there was no evidence of either underlying WM or transformed disease at 6 and 12months follow-up.

Thestudy authors noted that longer term follow up in this patient will beinformative, as late relapses have occurred even in patients who achieve a deepresponse after transplant. CAR-T cell therapy may be an effective treatment forrelapsed or refractory WM that has not yet undergone histologicaltransformation, as CD19 is almost universally expressed on lymphoplasmacyticlymphoma cells. The researchers concluded that further analysis of this iswarranted in the context of clinical trials.

References

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Benefit of CD19-Targeted CAR-T Therapy in Patients With Transformed Waldenstrm Macroglobulinemia - Cancer Therapy Advisor

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Benefit of CD19-Targeted CAR-T Therapy in Patients With Transformed Waldenstrm Macroglobulinemia – Cancer Therapy Advisor | October 16th, 2019

Organizers of this years Light the Night, which is held in support of blood cancer research, hope members of the community can join them Oct. 19 as they take to the Rotary Trail to raise awareness and funds for the eradication of various blood cancers.

Leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkins lymphoma and myeloma can all be beat, but for every inspirational tale of perseverance and survival, there are even more about those who could not hang on long enough and died as a result of the fast moving diseases that affect blood cells, bone marrow and lymph nodes to name a few.

I lost my niece to leukemia 11 years ago, she was 19, said Westlock organizer Joanne Rimmer, with tears in her eyes as fresh as the day she lost her niece.

I had positive thoughts the whole time, I thought she was going to get over it and everything was going to be back to normal and it didnt work out. I didnt want other families to go through that, so I thought it was a good thing to help raise money.

It has been 11 years and Im still crying. Its one way we can do something to say we really miss her.

Rimmer also has a close friend who was able to survive leukemia after a donation of stem cells from her brother saved her life. She also has another friend in Manitoba who is currently fighting off leukemia, with some success. These are her reasons for lighting up the night, so called because participants often hold lanterns of different colours that denote how thatindividual has been affected.

White lanterns are carried by survivors, gold is in remembrance and red is in support, which together makes for quite a sea of colour moving through the town.

Rimmer, who has been taking part in the event in one form or another for 11 years and helping to organize the Westlock event for the last six years is a proponent of having a bare-bones event with little flash or overhead to make sure as much money as possible is donated to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada.

Any sponsors or potential contributors are asked to donate directly to the cause instead of providing other supports, which are appreciated, but ultimately unneeded.

I want every dollar that gets raised to actually go towards what were actually raising money for. I dont want to waste it on silly things.

Rimmer is urging those who want to participate to start collecting sponsors, and to register at http://www.lightthenight.ca. Participants should meet at the Rotary Spirit Centre after 6:30 p.m. Oct. 19 for the walk that will begin at 7 p.m., winding it way east on the Rotary Trail to the healthcare centre, then eventually on to the pool. All are welcome to join, from babies in strollers to their great-great parents, said Rimmer, who also noted the event will take place rain or shine.

Link:
Light the Night Oct. 19 - Westlock News

Bone Marrow Stem Cells Comments Off on Light the Night Oct. 19 – Westlock News | October 16th, 2019

This article, written byKatharine Sedivy-Haley, University of British Columbia, originally appeared on The Conversation and is republished here with permission:

When I was applying to graduate school in 2012, it felt like stem cells were about to revolutionize medicine.

Stem cells have the ability to renew themselves, and mature into specialized cells like heart or brain cells. This allows them to multiply and repair damage.

If stem cell genes are edited to fix defects causing diseases like anemia or immune deficiency, healthy cells can theoretically be reintroduced into a patient, thereby eliminating or preventing a disease. If these stem cells are taken or made from the patient themselves, they are a perfect genetic match for that individual, which means their body will not reject the tissue transplant.

Because of this potential, I was excited that my PhD project at the University of British Columbia gave me the opportunity to work with stem cells.

However, stem cell hype has led some to pay thousands of dollars on advertised stem cell treatments that promise to cure ailments from arthritis to Parkinsons disease. These treatments often dont help and may harm patients.

Despite the potential for stem cells to improve medicine, there are many challenges as they move from lab to clinic. In general, stem cell treatment requires we have a good understanding of stem cell types and how they mature. We also need stem cell culturing methods that will reliably produce large quantities of pure cells. And we need to figure out the correct cell dose and deliver it to the right part of the body.

Embryonic, 'induced and pluripotent

Stem cells come in multiple types. Embryonic stem cells come from embryos which makes them controversial to obtain.

A newly discovered stem cell type is the induced pluripotent stem cell. These cells are created by collecting adult cells, such as skin cells, and reprogramming them by inserting control genes which activate or induce a state similar to embryonic stem cells. This embryo-like state of having the versatile potential to turn into any adult cell type, is called being pluripotent.

However, induced pluripotent and embryonic stem cells can form tumours. Induced pluripotent stem cells carry a particularly high risk of harmful mutation and cancer because of their genetic instability and changes introduced during reprogramming.

Genetic damage could be avoided by using younger tissues such as umbilical cord blood, avoiding tissues that might contain pre-existing mutations (like sun-damaged skin cells), and using better methods for reprogramming.

Stem cells used to test drugs

For now, safety concerns mean pluripotent cells have barely made it to the clinic, but they have been used to test drugs.

For drug research, it is valuable yet often difficult to get research samples with specific disease-causing mutations; for example, brain cells from people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Researchers can, however, take a skin cell sample from a patient, create an induced pluripotent stem-cell line with their mutation and then make neurons out of those stem cells. This provides a renewable source of cells affected by the disease.

This approach could also be used for personalized medicine, testing how a particular patient will respond to different drugs for conditions like heart disease.

Vision loss from fat stem cells

Stem cells can also be found in adults. While embryonic stem cells can turn into any cell in the body, aside from rare newly discovered exceptions, adult stem cells mostly turn into a subset of mature adult cells.

For example, hematopoietic stem cells in blood and bone marrow can turn into any blood cell and are widely used in treating certain cancers and blood disorders.

A major challenge with adult stem cells is getting the right kind of stem cell in useful quantities. This is particularly difficult with eye and nerve cells. Most research is done with accessible stem cell types, like stem cells from fat.

Fat stem cells are also used in stem cell clinics without proper oversight or safety testing. Three patients experienced severe vision loss after having these cells injected into their eyes. There is little evidence that fat stem cells can turn into retinal cells.

Clinical complications

Currently, stem cell based treatments are still mostly experimental, and while some results are encouraging, several clinical trials have failed.

In the brain, despite progress in developing treatment for genetic disorders and spinal cord injury, treatments for stroke have been unsuccessful. Results might depend on method of stem cell delivery, timing of treatment and age and health of the patient. Frustratingly, older and sicker tissues may be more resistant to treatment.

For eye conditions, a treatment using adult stem cells to treat corneal injuries has recently been approved. A treatment for macular degeneration using cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells is in progress, though it had to be redesigned due to concerns about cancer-causing mutations.

A path of cautious optimism

While scientists have good reason to be interested in stem cells, miracle cures are not right around the corner. There are many questions about how to implement treatments to provide benefit safely.

In some cases, advertised stem cell treatments may not actually use stem cells. Recent research suggests mesenchymal stem cells, which are commonly isolated from fat, are really a mixture of cells. These cells have regenerative properties, but may or may not include actual stem cells. Calling something a stem cell treatment is great marketing, but without regulation patients dont know what theyre getting.

Members of the public (and grad students) are advised to moderate their excitement in favour of cautious optimism.

Katharine Sedivy-Haley, PhD Candidate in Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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BEYOND LOCAL: Expert recommends 'path of cautious optimism' about the future of stem cell treatment - TimminsToday

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on BEYOND LOCAL: Expert recommends ‘path of cautious optimism’ about the future of stem cell treatment – TimminsToday | October 16th, 2019

It hurt Margaret Godfrey to see daughter Rachel Carter in pain, so she painted.

And once the worst pain had passed, Carter needed a way to move forward, so she wrote.

In 2000, at age 24, Carter was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a disease where the immune system eats away at the lining of nerves and impairs or disables the brain and central nervous system.

Carter is now a married 43-year-old mother of three who lives in Ridgefield. But when she was diagnosed with MS, it marked a significant shift in her life. The woman who ran marathons, rode a motorcycle to high school and was once a deckhand on a small riverboat cruise ship to prove a point because she was told a woman couldnt hold that job, slowly morphed as her disease altered life.

It started with a fall on vacation during a run. Then falling on runs became more frequent. Gone went the marathons. In came the treadmill. Slowly, over the course of 12 years, the MS progressed and symptoms became debilitating. Running left completely. Neuropathic pain caused her to feel like she was sunburned in the morning, and by the afternoon or evening it felt like third degree burns. Carter left her job in sales in 2013.

I would always end up in tears in the bed, Carter said.

Carter has chronicled her battle with MS, and a stem cell treatment she credits with turning her prognosis around, in a new book called Enduring the Cure: My MS Journey to the Brink of Death and Back. Her mother helped her edit the book, and provided the books cover art. Adrienne van Der Valk also edited the book.

Through pain, Carter and her mother have created art. About five years ago, Carter underwent an experimental stem cell transplant in Seattle to help her rebuild her immune system. Carter lived in Seattle for about three months, while her parents watched two of her children, and the other child lived with an aunt.

As part of the procedure, Carters own stem cells were harvested and then reintroduced to her body after chemotherapy depleted most of her immune system. Its what she described as a rebooting of her whole immune system, in hopes that it would stop attacking her brain and spinal cord. Carter still has her previous brain damage, which impacts her memory and brain power; but so far, the stem cell transplant has improved her condition greatly, she said.

Carter has more energy she used to sometimes not be able to leave bed some days. She also can stand upright and walk easily she used to rely on a walker. And her pain is minimal now, the biggest improvement.

Carters family kept notes during her treatment, and Carter decided to use those, and the memories of her family, to help her write the book with van Der Valk.

Thinking was very fatiguing for Carter, since she still has the brain damage from MS. She could only work about one to two hours on the book at a time. She said writing was frustrating and hard in many ways. Parts of my brain are gone, Carter explained. She said it requires her about 10 times as much brain matter as the average person to process something simple.

Its so much pressure to have something you feel like you have to do, and then you cant do it. I had so little energy, Carter said. I cant explain very well because so many words dont come to me.

In spite of the challenges, Carter feels like sharing her experience will help others because, in life, we all have hard situations, she said.

Godfrey, a 70-year-old painter who lives in Blue River, Ore., found art in the familys experience. She drew inspiration from Gustav Klimt, an Austrian symbolist, who painted in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and created symbolic paintings of her daughter. Godfrey said art makes her an intellectual because of how she has to think about what shes painting. This time she was researching her own child.

Godfrey did a painting of Carter surrounded by old running shoes, a life she had to give up. She did a painting of Carter without her hair, which centered on Carters worries. She did a painting of Carter covered by a quilt with her three kids on it, what kept her going and allowed her to recover. She did a painting of Carter lying in a hospital bed, looking exhausted and resigned, which is the books cover. The final painting in the series, called The Journey Is Not Done, features Carter with hair, months after treatment. It has an unfinished mosaic because Carters journey isnt over.

Creating art is a very meditative thing, Godfrey said. Rather than getting wrapped up in emotions, once I start painting the world is me and paper. All the worries of life disappear. It was a way to enjoy that experience of just being able to throw out my expression, without getting too emotionally tangled up.

More:
Ridgefield woman, her mother write book about battle with MS - The Columbian

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Ridgefield woman, her mother write book about battle with MS – The Columbian | October 16th, 2019

ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (NASDAQ:ZIOP) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) compete against each other in the Biotechnology sector. We will compare them and contrast their analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation.

Earnings and Valuation

In table 1 we can see ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. and Neuralstem Inc.s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Profitability

Table 2 has ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. and Neuralstem Inc.s return on equity, return on assets and net margins.

Volatility and Risk

ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. has a 2.55 beta, while its volatility is 155.00% which is more volatile than S&P 500. Neuralstem Inc. on the other hand, has 1.94 beta which makes it 94.00% more volatile compared to S&P 500.

Liquidity

ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. has a Current Ratio of 8.9 and a Quick Ratio of 8.9. Competitively, Neuralstem Inc.s Current Ratio is 3.8 and has 3.8 Quick Ratio. ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc.s better ability to pay short and long-term obligations than Neuralstem Inc.

Analyst Recommendations

The Recommendations and Ratings for ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. and Neuralstem Inc. are featured in the next table.

ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. has an average price target of $6.5, and a 51.52% upside potential.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

Roughly 45.3% of ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. shares are owned by institutional investors while 4.9% of Neuralstem Inc. are owned by institutional investors. ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc.s share owned by insiders are 0.5%. Competitively, Neuralstem Inc. has 1% of its share owned by insiders.

Performance

In this table we show the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

For the past year ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. has 271.12% stronger performance while Neuralstem Inc. has -64.87% weaker performance.

Summary

ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. beats Neuralstem Inc. on 10 of the 11 factors.

ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on acquiring, developing, and commercializing a portfolio of cancer therapies that address unmet medical needs through synthetic immuno-oncology. The company, through its collaboration agreement with Intrexon Corporation, holds certain rights to Intrexons synthetic immuno-oncology platform for use in the field of oncology, which includes a clinical stage product candidate, Ad-RTS-IL-12 evaluated for the treatment of metastatic melanoma, unresectable recurrent or metastatic breast cancer, and Grade III malignant glioma (GBM). Its synthetic immuno-oncology platform employs an inducible gene-delivery system that enables controlled in vivo expression of genes that produce therapeutic proteins to treat cancer. The company, under its license agreement with The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, along with Intrexon hold license to certain technologies relating to novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies, non-viral gene transfer systems, genetic modification and/or propagation of immune cells and other cellular therapy approaches, Natural Killer cells, and T cell receptors. It also has a research and development agreement with the National Cancer Institute utilizing Sleeping Beauty System to generate T cells receptors for the treatment of solid tumors. ZIOPHARM Oncology, Inc. is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

Neuralstem, Inc., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the research and development of nervous system therapies based on its proprietary human neuronal stem cells and small molecule compounds. The companys stem cell based technology enables the isolation and expansion of human neural stem cells from various areas of the developing human brain and spinal cord enabling the generation of physiologically relevant human neurons of various types. It is developing products include NSI-189, a chemical entity, which is in Phase II clinical trial for the treatment of major depressive disorder, as well as is in preclinical programs for the MCAO stroke, type 1 and 2 diabetes related neuropathy, irradiation-induced cognition, long-term potentiation enhancement, and angelman syndrome. The company is also developing NSI-566, which has completed Phase II clinical trial for treating amyotrophic lateral sclerosis disease, as well as is in Phase I clinical trials for the treatment of chronic spinal cord injury and motor deficits due to ischemic stroke. Neuralstem, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is headquartered in Germantown, Maryland.

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Contrasting of ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (ZIOP) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) - MS Wkly

Spinal Cord Stem Cells Comments Off on Contrasting of ZIOPHARM Oncology Inc. (ZIOP) and Neuralstem Inc. (NASDAQ:CUR) – MS Wkly | October 16th, 2019

The Duchess of York, affectionately known by British royal fans as Fergie, shared the cover of The Perfect World Magazine, where she can be seen giving Sir David Attenborough an honorary award. Fergie, who turns 60 today, revealed in an Instagram post that moment is one of the best of her life.

She wrote on Instagram: "Thank you all for the birthday messages! This is one of the highlights of my life."

In the cover, Fergie can be seen smiling as she hands the award, shaped like a rhino, toSir Attenborough, the world-famousEnglish broadcaster and natural historian.

Fergie andSir Attenborough attended together last September thePerfect World Foundation gala dinner, where she will present him the award.

The same award has been previously given toMark Shand, the late brother of the Duchess of Cornwall, and primatologist Dr Jane Goodall.

In the early afternoon, the Duchess of York published on Instagram another picture, showing her wearing a colourful sari.

She added in the caption: "Colourful moments"

Fergie's Instagram messages come after her former husband Prince Andrew celebrated her birthday on social media.

Earlier this morning, the Duke of Yorkpublished two identical messages dedicated to Fergie on both Instagram and Twitter.

READ MORE:How Fergie was 'forced to cancel birthday party due to crisis'

The messages read: "Wishing Sarah Ferguson a very Happy 60th Birthday!"

On Instagram, the message was accompanied by three pictures, one depicting Sarah surrounded by members of the York family, including Princess Eugenie's husband Jack Brooksbank and Princess Beatrice's fiancee Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi.

The second picture shows Fergie surrounded by children supported by the charity she is a patron of, Street Child UK.

And the third snap depicts Eugenie, Beatrice and Fergie together while carrying out an engagement.

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Fergie has previously spoke with enthusiasm about her approaching 60th birthday.

Speaking at a charity event held onbehalf of Street Child and hosted by Hello, the Duchess said:"I think it's really important that my life is beginning at 60, I'm so excited by it."

Outspoken Fergie also revealed she has undertaken laser treatment to her skin to look her best for her milestone birthday.

Similarly, the Duchess had laser also before the wedding of her youngest daughter Princess Eugenie, which helped to make her skin glow.

But these haven't been the only beauty treatments Fergie has undertaken in the past years.

In March this year, Fergie travelled to the Bahamas toundergo stem cell therapy - an alternative to surgery which is yet to be proven fully safe and effective on humans and is therefore not widely available in the UK.

This therapy helped her solving a painful problem related to her feet, which eventually forced her to stop wearing high heels.

I went to the Bahamas in March to have the treatment.

I think my toes were ruined by all the riding I did when I was young.

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Sarah Ferguson reveals highlight of my life as she celebrates 60th birthday - Express

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Sarah Ferguson reveals highlight of my life as she celebrates 60th birthday – Express | October 16th, 2019

Medical skin care products are used for beautifying or to address some other skin care problems. The cosmetic industry is booming and skin care forms a very huge part of this industry. The aesthetic appearance is so important that people spend a lot on skin care products and treatment. People being more technologically aware of the various new skin care products trending in the market. In addition to the aesthetic application, the medical skin care products are also used to address issues such as acne, pimples or scars.

Medical Skin Care Products Market: Drivers and Restraints

The medical skin care products is primarily driven by the need of natural based active ingredients products which are now trending in the market. Consumers demand medical skin care products which favor health and environment. Moreover, the consumers are updated with the trends so that various companies end up providing such products to satisfy the customers. For instance, a single product face mask has thousands of different variants.

This offers consumers different options to select the product depending on the skin type. Moreover, the market players catering to the medical skin care products are offering products with advanced technologies. For instance, Santinov launched the CICABEL mask using stem cell material based on advanced technologies. The stem cells used in the skin care product helps to to protect and activate the cells and promote the proliferation of skin epidermal cells and the anagenesis of skin fibrosis.

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Medical Skin Care Products Market: Segmentation

On the basis of product type the medical skin care products market can be segmented as:

On the basis of application, the medical skin care products market can be segment as:

On the basis of distribution channel, the medical skin care products market can be segment as:

Medical Skin Care Products Market: Overview

Medical skin care products are used to address basic skin problems ranging from acne to scars. There are various advancements in the ingredients used to offer skin care products to the consumers. For instance, the use of hyaluronic acid and retinoids is the latest development in the industry. The anti-aging creams are at the forefront as the help treating issues such as wrinkles, scars, acne, and sun damage. Another, product in demand is the probiotic skincare which include lactobacillus and bifidobacterium.

Medical Skin Care Products Market: Region-wise Outlook

In terms of geography, medical skin care products market has been divided into five regions including North- America, Asia- Pacific, Middle-East & Africa, Latin America and Europe. North America dominated the global medical skin care products market as international players are acquiring domestic companies to make their hold strong in the U.S. LOral is accelerating its U.S. market by signing a definitive agreement with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. to acquire CeraVe, AcneFree and Ambi skin-care brands for US$ 1.3 billion. The acquisition is expected LOreal to get hold of the brands in the price-accessible segment. Asia Pacific is expected to be the fastest growing region owing to the increasing disposable income and rising awareness towards the skin care products.

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Medical Skin Care Products Market: Key Market Participants

Some of the medical skin care products market participants are Avon Products Inc., Beiersdorf AG, Colgate-Palmolive Company, Kao Corporation, LOral S.A., Procter & Gamble, Shiseido Company, The Estee Lauder Companies Inc., Unilever PLC, Revlon, Clinique Laboratories, llc., Murad, LLC., SkinCeuticals, RMS Beauty, J.R. Watkins and 100% PURE.

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Medical Skin Care Products Market Promising Growth Opportunities over 2017 2025 - Lake Shore Gazette

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Medical Skin Care Products Market Promising Growth Opportunities over 2017 2025 – Lake Shore Gazette | October 15th, 2019

Ray almost missed it, the message that would change his life. On a Saturday in March 2018, just as he was about to take his dog for an afternoon walk, he pulled his phone from his pocket and discovered a string of voicemails. Eight years had passed since the bomb had blown up underneath him while he was on patrol in Afghanistan, five since hed first met his doctor. Hed been on the waiting list a year. He was getting impatient.

He dialed back. This is it, he thought. It has to be.

A nurse picked up. Ray needed to come to the hospital immediately, she said. They had a donor. He was getting a new penis.

Ray had carried his unseen injury for yearsalways furtive, always anxious, always wondering how anyone who found out might react. Having lost both legs in the blast didnt bother him that much; Ray often left the house in the summertime wearing shorts, his prosthetics shining in the sun. But his other injury? Aside from his parents, hardly anyone knewnot even the guys he went to war with.

For men like Ray who lose their genitals, the usual treatmentif there was anywas phalloplasty: a rolled tube of tissue, blood vessels, and nerves taken from the forearm or thigh and transplanted to the groin, an ersatz penis that needs an external pump to get erect. When he first met with plastic surgeon Richard Redett, an expert in genital reconstruction at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, phalloplasty was what he was offered. But soon after, Redett decided Ray could be a candidate for one of the worlds first full penis transplants. Not a crude substitute; the real thing.

This was actually something that could fix me, says Ray. I could go back to being normal again.

Penis transplantation is a radical frontier of modern medicine: extremely rare, expensive, and difficult to perform. Replacing a major organ like a damaged liver is one thing: it contains just one type of tissue. But grafting a penis from a deceased donor onto a living recipient is a chaotic amalgamation that entails stitching millimeters-wide blood vessels and nerves with minuscule sutures.

In 2013, when Ray first went to Johns Hopkins, there was no precedent for such a transplant. Since then, only four patients have had one.

South African urologist Andre Van der Merwe completed the first-ever successful transplant in 2014, sewing a donor penis onto a 21-year-old whose own had turned gangrenous after a grisly circumcision. In 2016, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital transplanted a donor organ onto 64-year-old Thomas Manning, who had lost his penis to cancer. A year later, Van der Merwe and his team at Tygerberg Academic Hospital in Cape Town repeated their procedure on a 41-year-old victim of another circumcision gone wrong. Ray became patient number four.

After getting off the phone with the nurse that Saturday afternoon, he went into action. With military precision, Ray called his parents, packed the items he would need, boarded his dog, and made his way to the hospital. He checked in, as requested, at 1:30 on Sunday morning. At 2 a.m. Monday, he lay anesthetized on an operating table. And 14 hours after that, Redett and his team had completed the procedure. It was the most extensive penis transplant ever performed, and the first for a military veteran anywhere in the world.

Ray had been a US Navy corpsman trudging through Afghanistan when Taliban fighters ambushed his squad in 2010. As he rushed to give first aid to a downed soldier, he stepped on a roadside bomb. I remember everything froze and I was upside down, he says. I remember thinking a quick thought: This isnt good. And then I was on my back. The butchers bill was steep: both of his legs up to and including the thigh were blasted off, along with his penis, his scrotum, and an upside-down-U-shaped chunk of his abdominal wall. Only a handful of people know the full extent of his injuries.

Two years later, while he was learning to walk on prosthetic legs, his urologist at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center referred him to the reconstructive surgery group at Johns Hopkins.

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At the time, Hopkins was a leader in vascularized composite allotransplantation, more commonly called VCA surgery. Its used in face, hand, armand penis transplants, taking multiple types of tissue from a donor and hooking up blood vessels and nerves so they work for the recipient. In December 2012, Hopkins surgeons completed their first bilateral arm transplant, on an infantryman who had lost both his arms and legs to a roadside bomb. If anyone could help Ray, it was these surgeons.

At their first meeting, Redett talked about phalloplasty, which didnt excite Ray much. He resolved to go through with it, thinking it was the only choice. Yet Redett soon changed course, deciding that Ray was a better candidate for a transplant.

In fact, it was probably the only surgical fix given the extent of the damage. Van der Merwe calls Rays procedure the most complex to date, largely because of the scope of his injury. To repair it, Hopkins doctors didnt just transplant the penis itself. They also transplanted the donors scrotum and extensive amounts of tissue from the thigh and lower abdomen.

When I heard they wanted to do it, I felt this huge sigh of relief, says Ray.

For him, it was almost either you do this transplant, or you live the rest of your life with your defect, Redett says.

Jared Soares

Ray, who is now in his mid-30s, is a thin man of average height, with touches of gray in his beard and a wobbly gait, a result of the prosthetics he now calls his legs. He hasnt discussed his surgery since April 2018, when he gave a short interview to the New York Times. But this March, one year after his surgery, he agreed to talk to me so long as MIT Technology Review protected his identity. (His name has been changed in this article.) He did so, he says, because he wants other veterans to know about their options.

And many others are affected. A total of 1,367 American infantrymen sustained significant genital injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2001 and 2013. Such hidden wounds of war represent a relatively new problem. Bombs from below used to be a death sentence, but better body armor and modern casualty care ensure that more wounded soldiers surviveand more of them with devastating genital-urinary trauma. In a report last year, military urologists wrote that groin injuries have increased to a level never before reported in the history of war.

The US Department of Defense recognized the problem as long ago as 2008, when it set up an institute to research various reconstructive transplants. Eventually, the TOUGH ProjectTrauma Outcomes and Urogenital Healthplaced a figure on it: among infantrymen with genital urinary injuries from Iraq and Afghanistan, 502 were injured so severely that a penis transplant might be their only recourse.

Quantifying the number of such injuries is easy. Outlining the psychological toll they take on guys in their 20s and 30s is much harder.

Even those closest to the trauma, like Timothy Tausch, have to use anecdotes to explain. Hes an Army lieutenant colonel and director of trauma and male reconstructive urology at Walter Reed. As soon as they wake up, theyre not asking about where their legs are, he says. Theyre asking where the testicles and the penis are. You cant put a number on how significantly this affects one of these wounded warriors lives.

Yet some experts wonder if the procedure is really necessary. Kidney and heart transplants save lives, but someone who lost a penis isnt going to die without a new one. Getting one may even be inviting a different set of psychological issues. (It bears mentioning that a poorly documented transplant attempt happened in 2006 in China, but the 44-year-old recipient apparently demanded reversal after his wife panicked, shocked at the idea he had someone elses penis.) In the months following Rays surgery, Hiten Patel, a chief resident at the Johns Hopkins Brady Urological Institute, wrote that a penis transplant lacks both life-saving and life-enhancing properties when compared to a readily available alternative in phalloplasty.

Others argue that for young men devastated by their wounds a transplant is, in fact, both life-saving and life-enhancing. Suicide risk among US veterans is already high: one study found that those deployed between 2001 and 2007 were 41% more likely to take their lives than civilians. Ray himself entertained thoughts of suicide after his injury. The idea gradually faded once he realized he could have gone to war and died; instead he was alive, on the first step of a long climb back.

Even though we do a pretty good job with phalloplasty reconstruction, its still a quantum leap to put on a real penis, says Curtis Cetrulo, one of the surgeons who operated on Thomas Manning in 2016. Phalloplasty recipients, for example, may regain some erotic sensation, but they must use a pump to achieve an erection or have intercourse.

Ray wouldnt say the transplant saved his life, exactly, but it has improved it.

This surgery was a way for me to overcome that little subconscious voice or whatever it was that would always keep me feeling different from everyone else, he says. It was one of those injuries that really stresses you out and you think, Why would I keep going? I guess I always just kept this real hope that theres an answer out there.

Several hours before the hospital contacted Ray, Richard Redett had received a phone call of his own. He had gotten it enough times before to know the words by heart: We may have a donor.

Usually such calls were dead ends: the potential transplant almost never met Redetts strict criteria. For Rays surgery to stand a chance, the donor had to be a young, healthy guy; the organ had to be a good color match and average in size; and, crucially, it had to be no more than two hours away, so that once it had been removed from the donors brain-dead but still living body, it could be brought to Johns Hopkins before it started decaying.

If you do an arm transplant, we know exactly how long that will hold up on ice. But nobody really knows that for a penis, he says.

I remember everything froze and I was upside down.

This particular call on that Saturday in March was more promising. There was a brain-dead patient nearby who was donating his organs, including his penis. Over a rapid string of conversations, Redett evaluated the patients medical history and determined when his team could get there. By the afternoon, Redett knew he had his donor.

Still, no doctor had ever worked with a graft as large as the one Ray required. To transplant a penis, you need the two dorsal arteries and the two dorsal veins from the donor. Fortunately, Rays two penis nerves were intact. But to transplant the abdominal wall and scrotum, even more veins are necessary. Fail to take those, and the new scrotum and abdominal tissue will die, along with much of the skin of the penis.

Over five years, Redett and his team had deciphered the topography of penis transplantation with cadavers and food coloring. It was basically a grand perfusion experiment: inject dye into the blood vessels of a dead man, and watch for blush on the skin to know which vessels are required as part of the transplant. We were injecting every blood vessel we could find down in the region with blue and red food color, he says. We just needed to know which vessels, and we needed to get very quick, very efficient, and very safe. We knew this had the potential to be a very long operation.

On the Sunday afternoon, his team boarded a chartered jet to meet their donor (the donors identity and the state hes from cant be disclosed). At 6 p.m., they entered the procurement room. Other doctors and medical staff, 25 in all, were there grabbing solid organs: lungs, heart, kidneys, liver. Its a bloody choreography, finding your place in an organ procurement. Redett and his team sliced into and isolated the lower abdominal wall, thigh tissue, scrotum, and penis, dissected out the requisite arteries and veins, and let the other doctors take what organs they needed before finishing.

Once they had removed and packed Rays graft, nothing else mattered except speed. Bodily tissue begins to break down the instant its deprived of blood. If enough toxins are released, the tissue can swell so much it asphyxiates. Its why you throw transplants on ice, as Redetts crew did for their Learjet flight back to Baltimoreit delays the breakdown process.

Its also why surgeons train, practice, and visualize their maneuvers. Redetts team had already run dry rehearsals of their procedure. In the operating room, they had set up the table where Ray would lie, figured out where the ice machine went, placed the optical microscope Redett would use, and even tested every power outlet to make sure they wouldnt short a circuit.

As the team ate snacks from their go-bags on the plane back to Hopkins, other surgeons wheeled Ray into the operating theater. By this time it was 11 p.m. on Sunday, almost 24 hours after he had arrived at the hospital. They prepared him by removing all the diseased tissue and exposing the blood vessels, nerves, urethra, and penile stump. At 2 a.m. Monday, Redett and his fellow surgeons took their placessome standing above Ray, the rest tending to the graft at another tableand steeled themselves. The gravity of his mission consumed Redetts thoughts.

We felt very confident we could do it, but we had never done it, he says. If youre not anxious for something like that, youre not thinking hard enough.

In the Johns Hopkins operating room, a surgical microscope with a craned neck like a brachiosaurus magnified the view by up to 20 times, enabling Redett to see the very tip of the needle-point instruments that hold the sutures for stitching together vessels barely two millimeters thick.

The threads are smaller than a human hair, he says. Unless youre under a scope, you cant really even see it.

They began by sewing Rays urethra onto the donors. Then came the arteries and veins that bring blood to the skin of the abdominal wall, scrotum, and penis shaft. Next they sutured Rays penile nerves, which were buried deep underneath his pelvic bone, to the nerves of the donor penis. Finally, Redetts team stitched together the skin.

You know how to do it, but until that last blood vessel is hooked up and you release the clamps and blood flows through itI mean, thats a huge sigh of relief, says Redett.

A kidney transplant usually takes three hours. The first penis transplant surgery in 2014 took nine. Redetts team needed an additional five hours to complete Rays transplant. In a surgery that long, doctors are allowed to take bathroom breaks, and even slug some coffee. Redett did neither.

Ray's first memory after he came out of the anesthesia was the heat. His room was warm to help keep his transplant at body temperature. It wasnt until two days later that Ray looked down and saw his new penis for the first time.

It was swollen and still had a lot of healing to do, he says. In the back of your mind, you know this is a transplant, and you wonder if its going to be too much for you to handle. Once I went through with the surgery, all of those concerns just went away.

The surgery wasnt just technically complex; it also required weighing various ethical questions. For example: if they were giving Ray a scrotum, should they give him testicles too? The answer was no: transferring sperm-generating tissue might have made it possible for Ray to have the donors genetic kids. (In the end, the donor had not given consent to use his sperm.)

Another matter was the prospect of lifelong immunosuppression. In penis transplant surgeries, its critical: Van der Merwe had to cut off half of the penis he transplanted in 2014 because the patient stopped taking his medication and rejection set in.

The world is not designed for a guy like me, says Ray.

The team came up with a novel answer to this problem. In a procedure spearheaded by Gerald Brandacher, scientific director of the reconstructive transplantation program at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, bone marrow and stem cells from the donors vertebral bones were isolated in the lab. Two weeks after his transplant, Ray was injected with a large amount of the donors bone marrow cells.

In organ transplants of any type, recipients are typically given a cocktail of immunosuppressant drugs every day. Ray, on the other hand, requires just one pill.

Its kind of like reeducating the immune system, says Brandacher. It allows us to minimize the need for immunosuppression but not completely stop it.

Minimizing the drugs needed after a transplant, in fact, may be what really got the US military interested in surgery like Rays. Immunosuppressants ensure that the body doesnt attack a new organ, but they also weaken the immune system and can lead to toxic complications like kidney failure. For a heart or lung, the trade-off is obvious: immune problems versus death. For a penis, the question is more muddled.

If we can get to a point where we have therapy that doesnt require that level of toxicity, the calculus changes completely, says Lloyd Rose, a former program manager for rehabilitative medicine research in the US Army. Then a transplant can become a surgery for anybody whos missing a hand or a foot or a face or a penisor anything.

If vets with transplants have to take fewer pills, it means fewer complications as they get older, and an easier life. It also saves the government money in the long term. The issue is so important to the military that the $12 million Congress appropriates each year for the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine is now spent primarily on immunosuppressive researchnot on paying for things like penis transplants.

On a hot afternoon last April, a year after his surgery, I met Ray for the first time. He balanced his modest frame on his partmetal, part-polymer prosthetic legs, and in his left hand he carried a cane. Even with the support, he picked his way gingerly along the sidewalks until we made our way over to a public bench near a coffee shop.

When I got hurt, one thing I did realize is that the world is not designed for a guy like me, being blown up, he told me matter- of-factly. I knew then I would have to change myself to fit the world.

While he doesnt hide his prosthetics when we met, he wore gym shortshis unseen injury still causes him some consternation. Its not that he hasnt accepted his new penis. On the contrary, Ray doesnt seem to think about it as a donor organ at all. Its just that so few people know what happened to him, and hes not quite ready, and may never be ready, to identify himself.

It may not necessarily be that people are going to say bad things about it, he says. But its just one of those things. Its a private thing.

Jared Soares

Still, those around him recognized a change. A close friend of Rays, one of the few who know, says she noticed a little boost following the procedure. It was such a profound wound, there was a no-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel kind of feeling, she says. Now hes much more confident Its this feeling of being whole again.

In some ways, Ray is still figuring out how his transplanted organ will shape the contours of his life. Hes not dating at the moment, and knowing that he cant be a biological father, he wonders if that will deter women who may want to start a family.

In other ways, the surgery has made a huge difference to his daily emotional state. Hes more outgoing, less afraid to meet new people, and more fit, mentally and physically, piecing back together a life interrupted. Important questionssuch as whether hes able to pee standing up (he can), whether he gets erections (he does)already have answers.

He told me, which was the best news I could hear, that it feels normal, says Redett.

It took six months before the nerves of his transplanted penis started firing. Stitching nerves together isnt like splicing a wire; a nerve cells axons, the long threads along which impulses are sent from one cell to another, have to grow all the way out to the organ theyre supplying. Now, more than a year removed from surgery, those nerve signals have grown only stronger. Im still getting sensation back. Its pretty close, Ray says. This is not going to be a quick fix, but Ive seen improvement over time.

Where penis transplant surgery for wounded veterans goes is still up in the air. South Africas Van der Merwe, the originator of the transplant, says the VCA procedure itself is now proven; its future depends on other matters. Theres the problem of who pays, and of finding appropriate donors. And then theres the immunosuppression issue that the military is trying to solve.

The risks of immunosuppression in many peoples minds also outweigh the benefit of doing an arm, or a face, or a genital transplant, Redett says. We disagree, but that will slow down progress.

Ray barely blinked when I asked him some of these questions at our second meeting, in July. Dealing with immunosuppression, he says, is easy: he takes a pill and washes his hands frequently. Guys who need it and can handle it, he says, should get a transplant. He feels no ambivalence about that phone call, when doctors told him they were ready to sew on the donor penis for which he had waited five years.

I dont regret it, Ray says. It was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Andrew Zaleski, a writer based near Washington, DC, covers science, technology, and business.

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Meet the wounded veteran who got a penis transplant - MIT Technology Review

Skin Stem Cells Comments Off on Meet the wounded veteran who got a penis transplant – MIT Technology Review | October 15th, 2019

In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka shook stem cell research with his discovery that mature cells can be converted into stem cells, relieving a longstanding political-ethical blockage and throwing open medical research on everything from curbing eye degeneration to organ printing.

But that process still has pitfalls, including in risk and scalability, and some researchers are exploring another way first hinted at years ago: new technology to convert mature cells directly into other mature cells without the complex and time-consuming process of first making them into stem cells.

One of those companies, Mogrify, just raised $16 million in Series A financing to bring its overall funding to over $20 million since its February launch. Led by CEO Darrin Disley, the funding will help expand their new base in Cambridge to a 60-strong staff and push forward their direct-conversion approach to cell therapy through research and licensing. Investors include Parkwalk Advisors and Ahren Innovation Capital.

They list potential applications as treatments for musculoskeletal and auto-immune disorders, cancer immunotherapy, and therapies for ocular and respiratory diseases. For example, you could use it regenerate cartilage in arthritis patients.

If you could take a cell from one part of the body and turn it into any other cell at any other stage of development for another part of the body, you effectively have the Holy Grail of regenerative medicine, Disley told Labiotech.eu in April.

Mogrifys advantage over the Yamanaka method called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS), is that in theory it can be more scalable and avoid the problems associated with iPS. These include instabilities arising from the induced immature state and an increased risk of cancer if any pluripotent cells remain in the body.

The concept behind Mogrify actually predates, by nearly 19 years, Yamanakas discovery, which fast won him the 2012 Nobel Prize in Medicine. A 2017 Nature study on transdifferentiation, as the process is called, of fibroblasts into cardiac tissue traced the idea to a 1987 findingthat a master gene regulator could convert mice fibroblasts into skeletal muscle.

The problem though, according to Mogrify, is that most current efforts rely on an exhausting guess-and-check process. With hundreds of cell types and an even greater number of transcription factors the program that recodes the cell finding the right factor for the right cell can be like a custodian with a jangling, unmarked key ring trying to get into a building with thousands of locks.

Mogrifys key tech is a computer model they say can predict the right combination. The scientists behind the platform published a 2016 study in Nature applying the model to 173 human cell types and 134 tissues.

Before Mogrify, Disley led the Cambridge-based gene-editing company Horizon Discovery.

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Cell therapy startup raises $16 million to fund its quest for the Holy Grail in regenerative medicine - Endpoints News

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New research links a genetic anomaly and some forms of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, which claims the lives of more than 3,000 infants a year.

The research, published in Nature Communications, focuses on mitochondrial tri-functional protein deficiency, a potentially fatal cardiac metabolic disorder caused by a genetic mutation in the gene HADHA.

Newborns with this genetic anomaly cant metabolize the lipids found in milk, and die suddenly of cardiac arrest when they are a couple months old. Lipids are a category of molecules that include fats, cholesterol, and fatty acids.

There are multiple causes for sudden infant death syndrome, says Hannele Ruohola-Baker, professor of biochemistry at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who is also associate director of the Medicine Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine.

There are some causes which are environmental. But what were studying here is really a genetic cause of SIDS. In this particular case, it involves defect in the enzyme that breaks down fat.

Lead author Jason Miklas, who earned his PhD at the University of Washington and is now a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University, says he first came up with the idea while researching heart disease and noticed a small research study that had examined children who couldnt process fats and who had cardiac disease that was not readily explained.

So he and Ruohola-Baker started looking into why heart cells, grown to mimic infant cells, died in the petri dish where they were growing.

If a child has a mutation, depending on the mutation the first few months of life can be very scary as the child may die suddenly, Miklas says. An autopsy wouldnt necessarily pick up why the child passed but we think it might be due to the infants heart stopping to beat.

Were no longer just trying to treat the symptoms of the disease, Miklas says. Were trying to find ways to treat the root problem. Its very gratifying to see that we can make real progress in the lab toward interventions that could one day make their way to the clinic.

In MTP deficiency, the heart cells of affected infants dont convert fats into nutrients properly, resulting in a build-up of unprocessed fatty material that can disrupt heart functions. More technically, the breakdown occurs when enzymes fail to complete a process known as fatty acid oxidation. It is possible to screen for the genetic markers of MTP deficiency; but effective treatments remain a ways off.

Ruohola-Baker says the latest laboratory discovery is a big step towards finding ways to overcome SIDS.

There is no cure for this, she says. But there is now hope, because weve found a new aspect of this disease that will innovate generations of novel small molecules and designed proteins, which might help these patients in the future.

One drug the group is focusing on is Elamipretide, used to stimulate hearts and organs that have oxygen deficiency, but barely considered for helping infant hearts, until now. In addition, prospective parents can undergo screening to see if there is a chance that they could have a child who might carry the mutation.

Ruohola-Baker has a personal interest in the research: one of her friends in Finland, her home country, had a baby who died of SIDS.

It was absolutely devastating for that couple, she says. Since then, Ive been very interested in the causes for sudden infant death syndrome. Its very exciting to think that our work may contribute to future treatments, and help for the heartbreak for the parents who find their children have these mutations.

The National Institutes of Health, the Academy of Finland, Finnish Foundation for Cardiovascular Research. Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Cooperative Research Center, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research of Canada, an Alexander Graham Bell Graduate Scholarship, and the National Science Foundation funded the work.

Source: University of Washington

Original Study DOI: 10.1038/s41467-019-12482-1

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