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PHYTOSCIENCE DOUBLE STEM CELL removes the apperance of age lines and restore smoth, radiant, youthful looking skin! LOOK YOUNGER REDUCE THE LOOK OF WRINKLES LINES ...

By: Emmanuel Villamor Jr

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IPS Stem Cells: New Ethical Quandaries By Sally Lehrman

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When scientists learned how to turn back the clock in a young skin cell, to bring it back to an early-stage cell that could become any other type in the body, both they and ethicists rejoiced. The reprogrammed cell was pluripotent, much like an embryonic stem cell. Maybe even better, it also might be prompted to jump from one cell type to another.

One day, these induced pluripotent stem cells -- iPS cells for short -- might be able to correct any number of life-threatening and disabling conditions. Much sooner, these cells will almost certainly serve as extremely useful models for studying disease.

The researchers used viruses to deliver three to four new genes into the cell nucleus. And with the new information, the skin cells reprogrammed themselves. They behaved almost exactly like embryonic stem cells, which are derived from fertilized eggs. But with these reprogrammed cells, people thought, there would be no moral and political controversy. No embryo would be destroyed.

Recently, new studies have taken the work a step further. Researchers used synthetic RNA instead of viruses to get new instructions into the cell nucleus. This sped up the process and lessened the possibility of side effects such as cancer when the cells finally become a treatment for patients. (They're called RNA-induced pluripotent cells.)

But as researchers and ethicists take a closer look at these iPS cells, they are realizing that the issues posed are as thorny as ever. In fact, the issues may be even more urgent because the new techniques are so much easier and cheaper. The concerns fall into three main areas.

First, the possibility of human cloning from one person's skin cells or human reproduction from cells made into sperm and egg. The possibility is far-off, but real. Scientists already have reported progress that could lead to either. One could become a parent at any age, using tissue from someone either living or dead.

More immediate concerns have to do with control of the original tissue donation and the purposes to which it is applied.

For instance, privacy. Because of the desire to use these cells to study or treat diseases such as Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes or Alzheimer's, it will be important to know the donor's health history. The donor's personal information and health history must always be linked to the cells. It may be impossible to maintain donor privacy.

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IPS Stem Cells: New Ethical Quandaries - Santa Clara ...

Using stem cells from blood, researchers have been able to grow blood vessels in a week.REUTERS

Researchers at Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Sweden have been successful in transplanting blood vessels made from three spoons of blood.

Two years ago two patients at the hospital received the blood vessels made from stem cellsin the blood.

Earlier, another patient too was treated using blood vessels made by her stem cells but in that case, the researchers had to drill into the bone marrow to obtain the stem cells.

In the later cases, all they needed was three spoons of the patient's blood and a waiting period of a week.

The children did not have the vein that goes from the gastrointestinal tract to the liver. This was rectified using the new blood vessels, a treatment that holds out promise for people with varicose veins and myocardial infarction.

The method also rules out rejection normally accompanying any foreign body transplant.

Professors Olausson and Sumitran-Holgersson have treated three patients so far. Two of the three patients are still doing well and have veins that are functioning well.

They now hope to be able to grow complete organs to overcome organ shortage from donors.

Use of embryonic stem cells to treat macular dystrophy and degeneration has been proven to be safewith low rejection rates.

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Blood Vessels Made from Three Spoons of Blood in a Week's Time

BarbaraHudson writes: The Globe and Mail is reporting the success of a procedure to implant a replacement retina grown from cells from the patient's skin. Quoting: "Transplant doctors are stepping gingerly into a new world, one month after a Japanese woman received the first-ever tissue transplant using stem cells that came from her own skin, not an embryo. On Sept. 12, doctors in a Kobe hospital replaced the retina of a 70-year-old woman suffering from macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. The otherwise routine surgery was radical because scientists had grown the replacement retina in a petri dish, using skin scraped from the patient's arm.

The Japanese woman is fine and her retinal implant remains in place. Researchers around the world are now hoping to test other stem-cell-derived tissues in therapy. Dr. Jeanne Loring from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., expects to get approval within a few years to see whether neurons derived from stem cells can be used to treat Parkinson's disease."

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Stem Cells Grown From Patient's Arm Used To Replace Retina

A man completely paralysed from the waist down after his spinal cord was sliced in half in a stabbing is able to walk again after undergoing pioneering surgery.

Darek Fidyka, who suffered the injury in 2010, is believed to be the first person in the world to recover from complete severing of the spinal nerves.

The 40-year-old Pole can now walk with a frame and has been able to resume an independent life, even to the extent of driving a car. Sensation has returned to his lower limbs.

Surgeons used nerve-supporting cells from Mr Fidykas nose to provide pathways along which the broken tissue was able to grow.

Despite laboratory success, it is the first time the procedure has worked in a human patient.

Geoffrey Raisman, whose team at University College Londons Institute of Neurology discovered the technique, said: We believe that this procedure is the breakthrough which, as it is further developed, will result in a historic change in the currently hopeless outlook for people disabled by spinal cord injury.

The research, funded by the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation and the UK Stem Cell Foundation, will be featured in a special Panorama programme on BBC One tonight.

A Polish team led by one of the worlds top spinal repair experts, Pawel Tabakow, from Wroclaw Medical University, performed the surgery.

The procedure involved transplanting olfactory ensheathing cells (OECs) from the nose to the spinal cord.

OECs assist the repair of damaged nerves that transmit smell messages by opening up pathways for them to the olfactory bulbs in the forebrain.

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Severed spinal cord regrown with nose cells

Dunmore, Pennsylvania (PRWEB) October 17, 2014

VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital is proud to announce the addition of Shannon Layne, DVM and her interest in stem cell therapy to their team. Credentialed in Regenerative Cell Therapy with Vet-Stem since January of 2011, Dr. Layne has proudly been treating pets with osteoarthritis and ligament injuries in north-east Pennsylvania with stem cell therapy for the last four years.

Dr. Layne graduated from North Carolina State University, College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010 and has taken a special interest in Regenerative Veterinary Medicine and stem cell therapy since. In contrast to widely used drug therapies for pain management, cell-based therapies (like stem cell therapy) can promote healing, reduce inflammation, and decrease pain. Dr Layne also offers traditional Chinese veterinary medicine including acupuncture and Chinese herbs if clients are interested in a more holistic approach.

Stem cells are regenerative cells that can differentiate into many tissue types (reducing pain and inflammation) thus helping to restore range of motion and regenerate tendon, ligament and joint tissues (Vet-Stem.com/science). In a study using Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy on dogs with osteoarthritis of the hip joint it was found that regenerative cell therapy (adipose-derived stem cells) decreases patient discomfort and increases patient functional ability.

Once Dr. Layne has identified a patient as a good candidate for stem cell therapy the procedure begins with a fatty tissue collection from the patient. The tissue sample is sent overnight to Vet-Stems lab in California for processing. Once processed the stem cells are extracted and fresh, injectable doses of the patients stem cells are sent overnight, back to Dr. Layne at VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital. Within 48hrs of collecting a fat sample from a patient Dr. Layne is able to inject stem cells into (arthritic or injured) affected areas and regeneration and healing can begin.

At VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Dr. Layne will be practicing in an 8,800 square foot, state of the art facility that includes two extensive surgery suites. For more information on VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital please visit their website at http://www.vcahospitals.com/dunmore.

About Vet-Stem, Inc.

Since its formation in 2002, Vet-Stem, Inc. has endeavored to improve the lives of animals through regenerative medicine. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells for horses, dogs, cats, and some exotics. In 2004 the first horse was treated with Vet-Stem Regenerative Cell Therapy for a tendon injury that would normally have been career ending. Ten years later Vet-Stem celebrated its 10,000th animal treated, and the success of establishing stem cell therapy as a regenerative medicine for certain inflammatory, degenerative, and arthritic diseases. As animal advocates, veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and cell biologists, the team at Vet-Stem tasks themselves with the responsibility of discovering, refining, and bringing to market innovative medical therapies that utilize the bodys own healing and regenerative cells.

For more information about Vet-Stem and Regenerative Veterinary Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

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Shannon Layne, DVM and VCA Dunmore Animal Hospital Now Offer Stem Cell Therapy to Pet Patients in Pain

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) - Macular degeneration is the leading cause of vision loss for people over the age of 50. Scientists have discovered a new therapy that may actually restore sight in those affected.

Scientists are excited not only because it worked, and helped some people see clearly again, but also because this study puts a focus on an new kind of stem cell therapy, using skin cells.

Macular degeneration causes a blurry or black area in the middle of your field of vision that grows over time, causing more sight loss.

There is no cure, but a new study published this week in the journal The Lancet, is giving patients hope.

Embryonic stem cells were turned into retinal cells and implanted into the eyes of 18 patients.

Vision improved for about half of them.

Dr. Andreas said, "This study was primarily to see if these cells would be safe, and the bonus was that some people started to see better."

Dr. Andreas Bratyy-Layal and Dr. Suzanne Peterson are stem cell scientists with the Scripps Research Institute.

They see this as a major breakthrough.

Although this sight study did do that, Dr. Peterson says labs around the country, including here in San Diego, are moving away from the practice.

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Retinal stem cell study shows promise for therapy

Powerful stem cells injected into the eyes of 18 patients with diseases causing progressive blindness have proven safe and dramatically improved the vision of some of the patients, scientists report.

Three years of follow up show that vision improved measurably in seven of the patients, the team at Advanced Cell Technology report in the Lancet medical journal. In some cases, the improvement was dramatic.

For instance, we treated a 75-year-old horse rancher who lives in Kansas, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief medical officer for the Massachusetts-based company. The rancher had poor vision 20/400 in one eye.

Once month after treatment his vision had improved 10 lines (20/40) and he can even ride his horses again. Other patients report similarly dramatic improvements in their lives, Lanza added. For instance, they can use their computers or read their watch. Little things like that which we all take for granted have made a huge difference in the quality of their life.

Not all the patients improved and one even got worse. But overall, Lanzas team reported, the patients vision improved by three lines on a standard vision chart.

"They can use their computers or read their watch. Little things like that which we all take for granted have made a huge difference in the quality of their life.

The researchers treated only one eye in each patient. There was no improvement in vision in the untreated eyes.

The patients had either Stargardts disease, a common type of macular degeneration, or dry macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of blindness in the developed world. There are no treatments for either condition, and patients gradually lose vision over the years until they are, often, blind.

Lanzas team used human embryonic stem cells, made using human embryos. They are powerful cells, each one capable of giving rise to all the cells and tissues in the body. The ACT team took one cell from embryos at the eight-cell stage to make batches of these cells.

They reprogrammed them to make immature retinal cells, which they injected into the eyes of the patients. The hope is that the immature cells would take up the places of the degenerated cells and restore vision.

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Vision Quest: Stem Cells Treat Blinding Disease

Health officials hit back at e-cig claims

Health professionals say more research is needed to prove using e-cigarettes is a good way to quit smoking.

According to new health figures, Australian women are far less likely to survive a heart attack than men.

Research says high factor sunscreen can't be relied on to protect against the deadliest skin cancer form.

A British study using skin electrodes has found men experience greater levels of emotion than women.

High protein diets may protect against stroke, especially if they contain a lot of fish, scientists say.

Driving too much is bad for your health, according to a study of 40-thousand middle-aged Australians.

Researchers say the financial crisis may have led to thousands of suicides in Europe and North America.

Biologists have devised a new weapon against malaria by genetically engineering mosquitoes.

Stomach-shrinking bariatric surgery beats other forms of treatment in bringing about remission of diabetes.

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Stem cells offer hope to vision impaired

Dr. Deepak Srivastava, a leading biomedical research policy expert, will discuss "Stem Cells, Regenerative Medicine and Policy Impediments to the New Future" at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy Oct. 21. The event is free and open to the public, but registration is required.

Who: Dr. Deepak Srivastava, the Baker Institute's nonresident scholar for biomedical research policy and the Younger Family Director and senior investigator at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease.

Neal Lane, the Malcolm Gillis University Professor, senior fellow in science and technology policy at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy and a professor of physics and astronomy, will give introductory remarks.

Stem cells and regenerative medicine are exciting and emerging fields of biomedical research, according to event organizers. Proposed applications include treating conditions such as blindness, diabetes and heart disease. Regenerative medicine could also help heal failing organ systems and replace damaged tissue. While these fields hold great promise for medicine, external factors limit and, in some cases, stall research, organizers said. Ethical controversies surrounding human embryonic stem cells, policy issues affecting federal and state funding and regulation, and economic pressures all play a role in determining the future of research.

In his presentation, Srivastava will explore the current and future potential of stem cells and regenerative medicine. Following the presentation, he will discuss policy challenges and opportunities with Lane.

The event is sponsored by the Baker Institute's Science and Technology Policy Program and the Health Policy Forum.

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Stem cell, regenerative medicine policies to be discussed at Rice's Baker Institute

Knee arthritis 2.5 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D.
Janet discusses her outcome three and a half years after bone marrow stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson for her arthritic knees http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Knee arthritis 2.5 years after stem cell therapy by Harry Adelson, N.D. - Video

A treatment based on embryonic stem cells clears a key safety hurdle, and might help restore vision.

When stem cells were first culled from human embryos sixteen years ago, scientists imagined they would soon be treating diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and many other diseases with cells manufactured in the lab.

Its all taken longer than they thought. But today, a Massachusetts biotech firm reported results from the largest, and longest, human test of a treatment based on embryonic stem cells, saying it appears safe and may have partly restored vision to patients going blind from degenerative diseases.

Results of three-year study were described today in the Lancet by Advanced Cell Technology and collaborating eye specialists at the Jules Stein Eye Institute in Los Angeles who transplanted lab-grown cells into the eyes of nine people with macular degeneration and nine with Stargardts macular dystrophy.

The idea behind Advanced Cells treatment is to replace retinal pigment epithelium cells, known as RPE cells, a type of caretaker tissue without which a persons photoreceptors also die, with supplies grown in laboratory. It uses embryonic stem cells as a starting point, coaxing them to generate millions of specialized retina cells. In the study, each patient received a transplant of between 50,000 and 150,000 of those cells into one eye.

The main objective of the study was to prove the cells were safe. Beyond seeing no worrisome side effects, the researchers also noted some improvements in the patients. According to the researchers half of them improved enough to read two to three extra lines on an eye exam chart, results Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer of Advanced Cell, called remarkable.

We have people saying things no one would make up, like Oh I can see the pattern on my furniture, or now I drive to the airport, he says. Clearly there is something going on here.

Lanza stressed the need for a larger study, which he said the company hoped to launch later this year in Stargardts patients. But if the vision results seen so far continue, Lanza says this would be a therapy.

Some eye specialists said its too soon to say whether the vision improvements were real. The patients werent examined by independent specialists, they said, and eyesight in patients with low vision is notoriously difficult to measure. That leaves plenty of room for placebo effects or unconscious bias on the part of doctors.

When someone gets a treatment, they try really hard to read the eye chart, says Stephen Tsang, a doctor at Columbia University who sees patients losing their vision to both diseases. Its common for patients to show quick improvements, he says, although typically not as large as what Advanced Cell is reporting.

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Stem Cells Seem Safe in Treating Eye Disease

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14-Oct-2014

Contact: Greg Williams newsmedia@mssm.edu 212-241-9200 The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine @mountsinainyc

A Mount Sinai-led research team has discovered a new kind of stem cell that can become either a liver cell or a cell that lines liver blood vessels, according to a study published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports. The existence of such a cell type contradicts current theory on how organs arise from cell layers in the embryo, and may hold clues to origins of, and future treatment for, liver cancer.

Thanks to stem cells, humans develop from a single cell into a complex being made up of more than 200 cell types. The original, single human stem cell, the fertilized embryo, has the potential to develop into every kind of human cell. Stem cells multiply (proliferate) and specialize (differentiate) until millions of functional cells result, including liver cells (hepatocytes), blood vessel cells (endothelial cells), muscle cells, bone cells, etc.

In the womb, the human embryo early on becomes three "germ" layers of stem cells the endoderm, mesoderm and ectoderm. The long-held consensus was that the endoderm goes on to form the liver and other gut organs; the mesoderm the heart, muscles and blood cells; and the ectoderm the brain and skin. Researchers have sought to determine the germ layer that yields each organ because these origins hold clues to healthy function and disease mechanisms in adults.

"We found a stem cell that can become either a liver cell, which is thought to originate in the endoderm, or an endothelial cell that helps to from a blood vessel, which was thought to derive from the mesoderm," said Valerie Gouon-Evans, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology and Black Family Stem Cell Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and lead author for the study. "Our results go against traditional germ layer theory, which holds that a stem cell can only go on to become cell types in line with the germ layer that stem cell came from. Endothelial cells may arise from both the endoderm and mesoderm."

Cell Growth Plusses and Minuses

Beyond the womb, many human organs contain pools of partially differentiated stem cells, which are ready to differentiate into specific replacement cells as needed. Among these are stem cells that "know" they are liver cells, but have enough "stemness" to become more than one cell type.

By advancing the understanding of stem cell processes in the liver, the study offers insights into mechanisms that drive liver cancer. The rapid growth seen in cells as the fetal liver develops is similar in some ways to the growth seen in tumors. Among the factors that make both possible is the building of blood vessels that supply nutrients and oxygen.

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Stem cell discovery challenges dogma on how fetus develops; holds insights for liver cancer and reg

Volume 9, Issue 1 Summary

A groundbreaking study on repairing damaged heart tissue through stem cell therapy has given patients hope that they may again live active lives. An international team of Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators has done it by discovering a way to regenerate heart tissue.

Clinical trial participant Miroslav Dlacic near his home in Belgrade.

Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., is the Michael S. and Mary Sue Shannon Family Director, Center for Regenerative Medicine, and the Marriott Family Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases Research at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

Miroslav Dlacic's heart attack changed his life drastically and seemingly forever. His damaged heart made him too tired to work in his garden or to spend much time at his leather-accessories workshop in Belgrade, Serbia. Like many patients with heart problems, Dlacic, who is 71, thought he would live his remaining years in a weakened condition.

Then, a groundbreaking Mayo Clinic trial of stem cell therapy to repair damaged heart tissue changed his life again this time for the better.

Dlacic agreed to participate in the Mayo Clinic stem cell trial through the hospital in Serbia where he is treated. Two years later, Dlacic is able to walk again without becoming worn out.

"I am more active, more peppy," he says. "I feel quite well."

"It's a paradigm shift," says Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., director of Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Medicine and senior investigator of the stem cell trial. "We are moving from traditional medicine, which addresses the symptoms of disease, to being legitimately able to cure disease."

For decades, treating patients with cardiac disease has typically involved managing heart damage with medication. It's a bit like driving a car without fixing a sluggish engine you manage the consequences as best you can and learn to live with them.

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Regenerating heart tissue through stem cell therapy ...

Updated: 10/12/2014 4:19 PM Created: 10/11/2014 11:51 PM WNYT.com By: Steve Flamisch

LOUDONVILLE Four years ago, Doris Calderon was diagnosed with a form of blood cancer called Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS). Doctors told her she needed a bone marrow transplant.

"They were looking for a donor because I had no siblings that could match, and my children are not a good match," said Calderon, of Halfmoon. "We didn't have anybody, so we just figured we'd wait."

More than 800 miles away, in Illinois, a total stranger made a fateful decision later that year. Chad LaMont wanted to donate blood to at his employers "Good Deed Day," but his iron was too low.

LaMont went over to the "Be The Match" table and signed up to be a marrow donor, instead. He turned out to be the match for Calderon, later donating the stem cells and T-cells that saved her life.

"Ive encouraged so many people to get on the list because you never know who you can save, and whose life you can change at the end of the day," LaMont said.

On Friday, Calderon and LaMont met for the first time at Albany International Airport. On Saturday, they took part in the Light the Night Walk at Siena College, raising money to fight blood cancer.

"To have the man responsible for saving my mother's life with us on such a momentous occasion is just such a blessing," said Calderons daughter, Lisa Calderon-Haun. "He couldn't be more wonderful."

Calderon has been in remission for more than two years and her prognosis is good. To learn more about how to become a bone marrow donor, visit "Be The Match."

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Saratoga Co. woman meets marrow donor who saved her life

MIAMI (PRWEB) October 13, 2014

Regenestem, one of the largest membership networks of regenerative medicine clinics worldwide, has announced the launch of a new stem cells clinic in Antofagasta, Northern Chile. The clinic, to be headed by renowned stem cell specialists DRA Maria G. Soledad Gonzalez and Angel Gallegos Freire, M.D., will provide the latest advancements in stem cell treatments and protocol for a variety of eye conditions and diseases including macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, as well as the latest anti-aging and aesthetic treatments and therapies.

Soledad Gonzalez specializes in opthamology at the Laser Surgery Clinic in Higher Vision of Antofagasta since 2003, where he focuses on refractive surgery to treat conditions like myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia. He incorporated minimally invasive aesthetic medicine protocols to his practice in 2012 and specializes in the harvest, preparation, activation and application of stem cell therapies for a number of chronic degenerative diseases.

Gallegos Freire, Medical Director, Policlinico Bhpbilliton M: BHP Billiton Spencea in Ubicacin, Chile, specializing in aesthetic and anti-aging stem cell medicine. Gallegos Freire in an active member of the Argentina Society of Aesthetic Medicine (SOARME), Institutional Member of the Medical Association of Argentina (AMA), the Pan-American Society of Aesthetic Medicine (PASAM) and the Antiaging & Aesthetic Medicine International Society (AAAMISO).

The Antofagasta Regenestem clinic is the companys third international stem cell treatment center opened since Global Stem Cells Group opened the Regenestem Asia Clinic in Manila, Philippines in June and the Regenestem Mexico Clinic in Villahermosa Tabasco. These new, state-of-the-art regenerative medicine facilities join the company's growing global presence that includes clinics in Miami, New York, Los Angeles and Dubai. Regenestem Asia facility marks the first Regenestem brand clinic in the Philippines.

The Global Stem Cells Group and Regenestem are committed to providing the highest of standards in service and technology, expert and compassionate care, and a philosophy of exceeding the expectations of their international patients.

For more information, visit the Regenestem website, email info(at)regenstem(dot)com, or call 305-224-1858.

About Regenestem:

Regenestem, a division of the Global Stem Cells Group, Inc., provides stem cell treatments for a variety of diseases and conditions including arthritis, autism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), diabetes and multiple sclerosis at various facilities worldwide. Each Regenestem clinic offers an international staff experienced in administering the leading cellular therapies available.

Regenestem is certified for the medical tourism market, and staff physicians are board-certified or board-eligible. Regenestem clinics provide services in more than 10 specialties, attracting patients from the United States and around the world.

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Regenestem Names Renowned Stem Cell Specialists to Launch New Regenerative Medicine Clinic in Antofagasta, Northern ...

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Newswise Four scientists from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director's New Innovator Award that will forward revolutionary stem cell and neuro-science in medicine. The four UCLA researchers were among only 50 scientists nationwide to receive the New Innovator Award, the most of any institution represented.

Each recipient received a $2.3M award for their respective projects. These included Dr. Reza Ardehali, assistant professor of cardiology, for his research investigating novel ways to use stem cells to regenerate heart tissue; Dr. Elissa Hallem, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, for her work studying interactions between animal parasites and their hosts to foster the further understanding of human parasitic diseases; Dr. Sririam Kosuri, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, for his project developing new biological system technologies to solve outstanding problems in gene regulation; and Dr. Lili Yang, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, for her work developing a new method to track special immune cells for use in new cellular therapies.

"These New Innovator Award grants are an important acknowledgement of our cutting-edge research and will help our faculty drive the revolutionary advances we are seeing in stem cell and neuro-science," said Dr. Owen Witte, professor and director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. "Every cellular therapy that reaches patients must begin in the laboratory with novel ideas and experiments that will lead us in new directions in medicine and ultimately improve human life. That makes these awards invaluable to our research effort."

The NIH Director'sNew Innovator Award is designed specifically to support unusually creative investigators with highly innovative research ideas at an early stage of their career. The award seeks to support exceptionally creative new scientists whose research complements ongoing efforts by NIH.

Dr. Reza Ardehali: Unlocking the Secrets to Regenerating Heart Tissue

Dr. Ardehali's cutting-edge work focuses on both human embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells, known as human pluripotent stem cells (hPSC), to provide insights into the mechanisms involved in the differentiation and specification of heart cells. hPSC have the unique ability to become any cell type in the body. His lab recently identified several novel surface markers that can highly enrich early cardiovascular progenitor cells. When delivered into functioning human hearts that are transplanted in laboratory conditions, the progenitor cells integrate structurally and functionally into the host myocardium. These studies established the basis for future hPSC-based cardiac therapy.

Dr. Ardehali and his colleagues were also the first to directly measure limited division in the cells that make up heart muscle (cardiomyocytes), proving that cardiomyocytes divide and that such cell division is rare. This discovery resolves an important controversy over whether the heart muscle has the power to regenerate and is critical for future research that may lead to regenerating heart tissue to repair damage caused by disease or heart attack.

His 2013, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state's stem cell research agency, New Faculty Physician Scientist Translational Research Award allowed Dr. Ardehali to initiate the preclinical studies on stem cell based therapies for heart disease that were pivotal for his success in the 2014 New Innovator Award competition. The NIH grant affirms the critical success of the project-to-date, and emphasizes the creativity of Dr. Ardehali's research and its potential to have a significant impact on the creation of novel regenerative approaches to treat heart disease.

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Four UCLA Scientists Receive Prestigious Innovator Award for Pioneering Research Using Stem Cells

96 Year Old Women gets Stem Cell Therapy
96 Year Old Women who suffered from Osteoarthritis uses Stem Cells and no longer needs to use her walker. Dr. Lox | http://www.drloxstemcells.com | 844-440-8503.

By: Dr. Lox

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96 Year Old Women gets Stem Cell Therapy - Video

October 8, 2014

Image Caption: New genetic barcoding technology allows scientists to identify differences in origin between individual blood cells. Credit: Camargo Lab

Provided by Joseph Caputo, Harvard University

New technology that tracks the origin of blood cells challenges scientific dogma

A 7-year-project to develop a barcoding and tracking system for tissue stem cells has revealed previously unrecognized features of normal blood production: New data from Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Boston Childrens Hospital suggests, surprisingly, that the billions of blood cells that we produce each day are made not by blood stem cells, but rather their less pluripotent descendants, called progenitor cells. The researchers hypothesize that blood comes from stable populations of different long-lived progenitor cells that are responsible for giving rise to specific blood cell types, while blood stem cells likely act as essential reserves.

The work, supported by a National Institutes of Health Directors New Innovator Award and published in Nature, suggests that progenitor cells could potentially be just as valuable as blood stem cells for blood regeneration therapies.

This new research challenges what textbooks have long read: That blood stem cells maintain the day-to-day renewal of blood, a conclusion drawn from their importance in re-establishing blood cell populations after bone marrow transplantsa fact that still remains true. But because of a lack of tools to study how blood forms in a normal context, nobody had been able to track the origin of blood cells without doing a transplant.

Boston Childrens Hospital scientist Fernando Camargo, PhD, and his postdoctoral fellow Jianlong Sun, PhD, addressed this problem with a tool that generates a unique barcode in the DNA of all blood stem cells and their progenitor cells in a mouse. When a tagged cell divides, all of its descendant cells possess the same barcode. This biological inventory system makes it possible to determine the number of stem cells/progenitors being used to make blood and how long they live, as well as answer fundamental questions about where individual blood cells come from.

Theres never been such a robust experimental method that could allow people to look at lineage relationships between mature cell types in the body without doing transplantation, Sun said. One of the major directions we can now go is to revisit the entire blood cell hierarchy and see how the current knowledge holds true when we use this internal labeling system.

People have tried using viruses to tag blood cells in the past, but the cells needed to be taken out of the body, infected, and re-transplanted, which raised a number of issues, said Camargo, who is a member of Childrens Stem Cell Program and an associate professor in Harvard Universitys Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology. I wanted to figure out a way to label blood cells inside of the body, and the best idea I had was to use mobile genetic elements called transposons.

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Scientists Develop Barcoding Tool For Stem Cells

Michael Scott, a ViaCyte vice president, holds the VC-01 device that holds progenitor cells that will mature to make insulin and other hormones.

More than ever before, stem cell therapies appear poised to transform medicine potentially curing heart disease, diabetes and paralyzing injuries, among other ailments.

But its also clear that such innovations will be very expensive.

How the government, insurers and patients will pay for what could be a flood of these new treatments drew the attention of more than 700 biomedical and health-care executives Tuesday at the 2014 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa.

The annual conference, held on La Jolla's Torrey Pines Mesa, will run through Thursday. It brings together the business and academic worlds of cell therapy, including but not limited to stem cell treatments.

In California alone, 131 clinical trials are taking place with stem cells, according to Clinicaltrials.gov, a government website that tracks clinical trials. Patients are being treated for conditions such as blindness from retinal diseases, HIV, leukemia, sickle cell disease, stroke and aging of skin.

The recent proliferation of clinical trials marks great progress toward the ultimate goal of getting new treatments to patients, said stem cell researcher Jeanne Loring, who directs the Center for Regenerative Medicine at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla.

Its been a sea change from last year, said Loring, who is working with some colleagues in planning their own stem cell trial to treat Parkinsons disease.

Theyre developing replacement neurons grown from artificial embryonic stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells. The process begins with cells derived from the skin of patients to be treated.

Home-grown milestone

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Stem cell treatments surging into clinic