Bone marrow transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

WINTER HAVEN For 14 years, Dr. Christopher Miller has been treating patients at Bond Clinic where he specializes in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. Many local people have met him at Bonds diabetes clinic or in nearby Eloise where he volunteers at Angel Cares free clinic.

Organizers of a Be The Match drive are hoping that those who have benefited from his care, including families and friends of patients, will turn out to honor him Saturday by volunteering to be a bone marrow donor.

He received a shocking, out-of-the-blue diagnosis and is in need of a bone marrow match, said Ashley Scanlan, marketing director for Bond Clinic.

Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside bones where blood cells are produced. Transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

Be The Match, a national nonprofit organization that is part of the National Marrow Donor Program, is the largest registry matching donors with those in need of a marrow transplant, said Marc Silver, community engagement representative for Be The Match. It also provides support for patients and donors, information for health care professionals and conducts research.

Nearly 70 percent of people needing a marrow transplant do not have a match within their families so the registry was set up to provide a resource for matches.

The event is from 8to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Bond Clinic Main Campus, 500 E. Central Ave., Winter Haven.

Registering to be a donor is a simple process, filling out some paperwork and taking a mouth swab, Scanlan said.

Volunteers should be between 18 and 44 years old, generally in good health and be willing to donate to any patient in the future, Scanlan said.

People are asking why the cutoff is 44, but they have found that age group has the best success in transplants, Scanlan said.

People of other ages are invited to come Saturday and write a note toMiller or make a financial donation, which would go either to the American Cancer Society or to the local Angel Care clinic, she said.

Bobbie Skukowski, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who leads Bonds diabetes clinic, said, Dr. Miller is an excellent physician and an excellent teacher. He was a fellow at Emory University and has taught us all so much; he has brought up the level of diabetes care at Bond Clinic and in the Winter Haven area in general.

"He is very good with his patients and right-on in his care, she said.

If a person is later selected as a potential match, there is no cost to the donor, Scanlan said. And the potential donor can later decide to withdraw from the registry.

The paperwork will ask several questions, including whether the potential donor is willing to donate to any patient in need, willing to donate to a stranger, and willing to donate 20 to 30 hours if found to be a perfect match.

If the potential donor meets the criteria, a mouth swab is taken and later analyzed for a match.

While years ago, being a bone marrow donor was a complicated procedure, now it typically is simple, handled much like a blood donation, Scanlan said.

Over 80 percent of the donations are non-invasive, said Be The Matchs spokesman Silver.

Be The Match literature explains that the donor is given injections of a drug, filgrastim, for five days leading up to the donation to increase the number of stem cells in the blood.

Then, on the day of the donation, the donor goes through a procedure similar to donating blood platelets at a blood center. Blood is taken out of one arm, passed through a machine that collects the blood-forming stem cells, and then the red and white blood cells are returned to the donors other arm through a needle. Typically it takes eight hours.

Donors often have a headache or muscle aches for a few days 22 percent recover within two days, 53 percent within a week, 93 percent within a month, 99 percent within three months and a very few people can take as long as a year to recover, according to Be The Match.

Less than 20 percent of the time, we do a hip aspiration, which is a more complicated procedure and involves having anesthesia in an operating room, Silver said.

Be The Match literature explains that, in those cases, needles are used to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of the pelvic bone. Typically, the donor stays at the hospital from early morning to late afternoon, or occasionally overnight for observation.

Be The Match helped match 6,200 patients for marrow and cord blood transplants last year and added 472,000 new potential donors to the registry, according to the organization.

Marilyn Meyer can be reached at marilyn.meyer@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @marilyn_ledger.

Excerpt from:
Be The Match donor drive to help, honor Bond Clinic physician who needs bone marrow transplant - The Ledger

Researchers have created a method to kill cancerous tissue without causing the harmful side effects of chemotherapy.

Medical researchers at the University of California, Irvine have created a stem cell-based method to zero in on cancerous tissue. This method kills the cancerous tissue without causing the nasty side effects of chemotherapy. Such side effects are avoided by treating the disease in a more localized manner. The advancement was spearheaded by associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences Weian Zhao. The details of the stem cell therapy were recently published in Science Translational Medicine.

About the new Stem Cell Therapy

Zhao's team programmed stem cells derived from human bone marrow to pinpoint the specific properties of cancerous tissue. They implemented a portion of code to these engineered cells to identify stiff cancerous tissue, lock onto it and implement therapeutics. The researchers safely used this new stem cell therapy in mice to kill metastatic breast cancer that had moved to the lungs. They transplanted these engineered stem cells in order for the teamto pinpoint and settle in the site of the tumor.

Once the stem cells reached the tumor, they released enzymes referred to as cytosine deaminase. The mice were then provided with an inactive chemotherapy known as prodrug 5-flurocytosine. The tumor enzymes stimulated the chemotherapy into action. Zhao stated his team zeroed in on metastatic cancer that occurs when the disease moves to additional parts of the body. Metastatic tumors are especially dangerous. They are responsible for90 percent of all cancer deaths.

Why the new Stem Cell Therapy is Important

Zhao is adamant his stem cell therapy represents an important newparadigm in the context of cancer therapy. Indeed, Zhao has blazed a trail in a new direction that others will likely follow in the years to come. It is possible his new stem cell therapy serves as an alternative and more effective means of treating cancer. This stem cell therapy will serve as an alternative to numerous forms of chemotherapy that typically have nasty side effects. Chemotherapy certainly kills plenty of growing cancer cells yet it can also harm healthy cells. The new type of treatment keys in on metastatic tissue that allows for the avoidance of the undesirable side effects produced by chemotherapy.

Though the published piece describing this stem cell therapy is centered on breast cancer metastases within thelungs, the method will soon be applicable to additional metastases. This is due to the fact that numerous solid tumors are stiffer than regular tissue. The new system does not force scientists to invest time and effort to pinpoint and create a brand new protein or genetic marker for each kind of cancer.

The Next Step

At this point in time, Zhao's team has performed pre-clinical animal studies to show the treatment is effective and safe. They plan to segue to human studies in the coming months and years. Zhao's team is currently expanding to additional types of cells such as cancer tissue-sensing and engineered immune system CAR-T (T cells) to treat metastasizing colon and breast cancers. Their goal is totransform this technology for the treatment of additional diseases ranging from diabetes to fibrosis and beyond.

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Stem Cell Therapy Selectively Targets and Kills Cancerous Tissue - Anti Aging News

The LA Galaxy Foundation has teamed up with Gift of Life Marrow Registry, a club community partner curing blood cancer through marrow and stem cell donation, to co-host Kick Blood Cancer at The Grove in Los Angeles on Sunday, Aug. 13 from 1-4p.m. The event will feature family-friendly games, activities and LA Galaxy appearances in the effort to recruit potential donors to the worldwide marrow registry.

LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jon Kempin, LA Galaxy Star Squad and LA Galaxy mascot Cozmo will be in attendance. Kempin joined LA Galaxy in the off-season and is one of the brightest young talents in the organization, who earned his first MLS shutout earlier this season. He signed his first MLS contract with Sporting Kansas City at the age of 17.

Gift of Life believes every person battling blood cancer deserves a second chance at life and they are determined to make it happen. They are singularly passionate about engaging the public to help get everyone involved in curing blood cancer, whether as a donor, a volunteer or a financial supporter. It all begins with one remarkable person, one life-changing swab and one huge win finding a match and a cure.

For many patients who suffer from leukemia, lymphoma, or other types of blood cancer, transplantation of bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells donated by unrelated volunteers offers the hope of a cure.

WHAT

Kick Blood Cancer

WHEN

Sunday, Aug. 13

1-4 p.m.

WHERE

The Grove

189 The Grove Drive

Los Angeles, CA 90036

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Join Jon Kempin, LA Galaxy Foundation and Gift of Life Marrow Registry for Kick Blood Cancer on August 13 - LA Galaxy

Los Angeles Police Officer Matthew Medina. AJPRESS

LOS ANGELES Its been almost five months since Matthew Medina first learned about his rare blood disease and how his Filipino heritage is affecting his chances of being cured.

Earlier this year, the 40-year-old police officer was going about his normal duties as part of the Los Angeles Police Departments (LAPD) Harbor Division gang unit. By his side was his close friend, Dante Pagulayan, also an officer with the department.

The two have known each other since they were about 14 years old in high school and ended up going to Cal State Long Beach together, before eventually joining the LAPD. It was at the college, Pagulayan shared, where Medina met his wife Angelee with whom the latter now has two beautiful daughters.

Matt is one of the funniest guys I know, Pagulayan said about his friend during a recent interview with the Asian Journal. If you want to have a good time, hes going to be your guy.

Currently, Medina remains in quarantine after having been diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a rare disease that claims 600-900 people in the United States each year, according to the Aplastic Anemia and MDS International Foundation (AA/MDS). The fact that hes Filipino presents a larger challenge.

Finding a donor

Aplastic anemia, or bone marrow failure, is a blood disease in which bone marrow fails to make enough blood cells for the body.

According to AA/MDS, it can affect anyone regardless of race or gender but is diagnosed more often in children, young adults, and older adults. It also appears more often in Asian Americans.

For Medina, the disease seemed to come out of nowhere. Matt was a very precautious guy, said Pagulayan about Medinas health habits. He always took care of himself, took vitamins, went to the doctor He was that kind of guy.

Radiation and chemotherapy, toxic chemical exposure, use of certain drugs, and autoimmune disorders are some factors known to injure bone marrow, thus affecting blood cell reproduction. But for the most part, theres no telling what causes aplastic anemia.

Getting a bone marrow transplant is the only cure for aplastic anemia. However, finding a match is a major obstacle that those diagnosed are forced to face.

In order for a transplant to be successful, both the donor and beneficiary need to share eight human leukocyte antigens (HLA), or cell markers. This explains why more chances of success happen between a donor and receiver of the same ethnic background.

Chances of recovery

For Medina and many others, chances of recovery are greatly reduced simply due to the number of minority-group members registered to be potential bone marrow matches.

Out of the 12 million people registered, only 0.5 percent were Filipino, said Pagulayan. It was quite a surprise.

As of 2016, the number of Asians recorded in Be The Matchs registry made up only six percent of the total registered, shared Ayumi Nagata, Recruitment Manager of Asians for Miracle Marrow Matches (A3M).

The lowest percentage came from those who identified as Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander their percentage hovered at 0.1 percent. The largest group at 57 percent with 7.8 million comprise of those who are white.

While transplants between family members have worked, its rarely the case, according to Mixed Marrow, a foundation dedicated to increasing bone marrow and blood cell donors for patients of multi-ethnic descent. Finding a match within the family is only successful 30 percent of the time, leaving 70 percent searching elsewhere.

Nagata has encountered a number of cultural and religious reasons that explain the low number of Asian registrants, but the lack of familiarity and awareness remain the biggest culprits.

Organizations like Mixed Marrow and A3M are working together to disprove these misconceptions by focusing on increasing awareness through outreach within cultural contexts.

One common misconception is that donating marrow is painful. Nagata informed that most procedures are done through nonsurgical Peripheral Blood Stem Cell (PBSC) donations where cells are collected through the blood rather than the bone itself.

Umbilical cord blood is another source, and Be The Match lists a number of hospitals that collect the blood for a public cord blood bank.

Hope for Medina

There are now currently 1,270 ethnically diverse, and 101 Caucasian registrants through Medinas campaign, reported Nagata. With the help of Medinas support group and community, theres hope that the numbers can increase.

Since the start of Medinas match campaign, two others in need of bone marrow transplants were able to find a match.

On June 25, Medina personally posted on his Match4Matt Facebook campaign page, Even if they never find a match for me, I can say that this campaign has been a success since it has already helped save the lives of at least two people (so far).

For Medina, the search continues but he remains optimistic. On his Facebook post, he reported that his blood cell counts have increased and he hopes that the upward trend continues toward remission. I am not out of the woods yet, he added. There is still a long road to recovery ahead, but the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter.

But as Pagulayan said, the only way to really revert it is through a bone marrow transplant. Medinas condition can change just as quick as how he found out he had the disease.

To those thinking about registering to be a match, Pagulayan said to think of a loved one and what would happen if you woke up and found out they had the disease.

To join a registry, anyone up to 60 years old can sign up, but donors between ages 18-44 are preferred. There are also medical conditions that may make someone ineligible. The process itself takes less than five minutes, according to Nagata. As Pagulayan put it, It takes less time to swab your cheeks than it takes to fill out the paperwork.

More information on registering can be found on Be the Matchs website. To join Medinas registry, visit http://www.join.bethematch.org/match4mat

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Fil-Am LAPD officer still in need of bone marrow match - Inquirer.net

WORMS A benefit event to assist a Palmer man who is battling MDS (Myelodysplastic Syndrome) is planned for Friday, Aug. 18, at Nitecrawler Bar in Worms.

Army veteran Paul Spencer Curry was diagnosed with MDS in January. MDS is a bone marrow/blood cancer that effects the blood cells and immune system. He has been undergoing chemotherapy treatments since February and had a bone marrow/stem cell transplant in July at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

He is required to spend 100 days after the transplant in Omaha. Proceeds from the benefit will be used to help cover medical, lodging and travel expenses for Curry and his wife, Pam.

The benefit event will include a Texas Hold Em poker tournament at 6 p.m., with the top prize being two Husker football tickets.

The event will also include raffle drawings, live and silent auctions and a pulled pork dinner served from 5 to 9 p.m.. Registration for the poker tournament is $20; freewill donations for the meal. Menu includes pulled pork sandwiches, beans, chips, salads and desserts.

The benefit is sponsored by Dannebrog Michelson-Larkowski American Legion and Auxiliary Post 241.

Donations can be dropped off at any Five Points Bank location, payable to Paul Curry cancer benefit, or mailed to 2015 N. Broadwell Ave., Grand Island, NE 68803.

For tickets, auction donations or more information, contact Randy Hansen at (308) 750-0691 or Leanna Obermiller at (308) 380-1515.

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Benefit event planned for Palmer man - Grand Island Independent

KOCHI: Shabas T S, a 23-year-old electrical engineer from Kochi, did not know that a stem cell donor registration camp he attended two years ago just to bunk class would become a turning point in his life. A year after registering with DATRI, India's largest adult unrelated blood stem cell donor's registry, Shabas was informed by the organization that his stem cells are perfect match to 9-year-old Manasvi Karamchedu from Hyderabad who was diagnosed with Thalassemia Major when she was five months old.

On Thursday, when Shabas met a fully-recovered Manasvi at Cochin Palace Hotel here at a meet arranged by DATRI, he was an elated lot. "I have no words to express my feeling. I feel so proud that a simple gesture from my part saved a life," said Shabas.

Manasvi's father Kiran could not control his tears when he hugged the youth who gave his daughter a new lease of life. "My wife and I were shattered when Manasvi was diagnosed with Thalassemia Major. She needed blood transfusions every week and the permanent solution was a blood stem cell transplant," he said.

"We came to know about DATRI when we lost all the hopes. Last year, we got the transplant done at Apollo Hospital, Chennai. Shabas and DATRI have gifted Manasvi a new life. Now, she has two birthdays and two birthplaces," said Kiran. "Ever since the transplant last year, we were looking forward to meeting Shabas. I am happy that DATRI has arranged it now," he added.

Blood stem cell transplant is the solution to those diagnosed with blood cancer and other blood-related disorders. But many are reluctant to come forward to donate blood stem cells. Donation can be done through two methods peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation and bone marrow donation.

Shabas, who went for PBSC, said, "My family was very supportive and I was able to get back to my daily activities immediately after the procedure".

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Kerala: He bunked class to save her life - Times of India

Bone Marrow Donors Needed

Paula (Fitzgerald) Silvia of Middletown has been diagnosed with myeloid dysplasia syndrome (MDS), a form of blood cancer where the bone marrow cells do not mature into healthy blood cells. Paula received this devastating news at the end of June. Nothing seemed particularly out of sorts; she was travelling with her family, working, going to the beach and doing all her volunteer activities. Only indications were catching more colds and a little tired but Paulas life was always busy and she does so much for everyone, she should be tired.

Paula has started her first round of chemotherapy. Every four weeks, she has five consecutive days of chemotherapy infusion. However, it is only a temporary treatment. A bone marrow transplant is needed to cure the disease.

A bone marrow registration drive is being held on Sunday, September 17 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm at Fenner Hall, 15 Fenner Ave, Newport, for this purpose. It is being organized by her family and friends and is in conjunction with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and http://www.BeTheMatch.org, a national bone marrow donor registry.

The first source for bone marrow matches is a sibling or child, if they fall in the age range, but Paulas family members were not a match. More than 35,000 people in the United States are diagnosed each year with leukemia, anemias, myelodysplastic disorders and other life-threatening diseases requiring treatment with a blood stem cell or bone marrow transplant. About 70 percent of bone marrow transplant recipients must rely on an unrelated donor. Finding a compatible donor is a challenge. The opportunity to register and/or donate will help many patients in need..

Donors must be 18 to 44, and be willing to donate to any patient in need.To join the registry, potential donors must complete paperwork at the drive and have a cheek swab taken. If unable to attend, donors are asked to go towww.bethematch.orgto sign up, or visit any RI Blood Center.

Paula (Fitzgerald) grew up in Newport in the Fifth Ward, attending Newport schools, graduating from Rogers in 1968. Her father, Jim Fitzgerald, was the Dean of Boys at Thompson and football coach and her mother Meg also worked in the school system. She has an older sister, Maureen, and younger siblings, Nancy and Bill. Paula is an outstanding athlete, tennis and golf being her games of recent years. After graduating from college, Paula continued working at Salas until it closed and now works for private catering companies. TR McGrath and Kitchen Companion.

Paula is married to Manny P Silvia, a retired lieutenant in Middletown police department and retired supervisor in DCYF Protective Services. They have two children, Corrine and Greg.

Paula does an amazing amount of volunteering although never wanting any recognition for her efforts. She volunteers for many organizations such as the MLK Community Center, Relay for Life, the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, Mosaic Club, AARP school programs, and Vasco deGama Society. Shes a communicant of St. Augustins Church.

The news of her diagnosis is a shock, but Paula continues with her active, involved life, giving it her best. She wants to send the message that everyone should be proactive about their health and always follow up on lab work. Paula is now awaiting a bone marrow transplant!

Any questions, please contact Nancy Fitzgerald, nancyfitz53@gmail.com, 401-855-1985. To learn more please contact Dana-Farbers Bone Marrow Donor Program at866-875-3324, email nmdpdonor@dfci.harvard.edu or visit online http://www.bethematch.org

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Bone Marrow Drive To Benefit Paula Fitzgerald Silvia On Sunday, September 17th - Newport Buzz

Bone marrow transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

WINTER HAVEN For 14 years, Dr. Christopher Miller has been treating patients at Bond Clinic where he specializes in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. Many local people have met him at Bonds diabetes clinic or in nearby Eloise where he volunteers at Angel Cares free clinic.

Organizers of a Be The Match drive are hoping that those who have benefited from his care, including families and friends of patients, will turn out to honor him Saturday by volunteering to be a bone marrow donor.

He received a shocking, out-of-the-blue diagnosis and is in need of a bone marrow match, said Ashley Scanlan, marketing director for Bond Clinic.

Bone marrow is the soft tissue inside bones where blood cells are produced. Transplants are used in serious blood disorders, especially cancers, when the needed doses of chemotherapy or radiation would be so high it would damage or destroy the stem cells in the marrow.

Be The Match, a national nonprofit organization that is part of the National Marrow Donor Program, is the largest registry matching donors with those in need of a marrow transplant, said Marc Silver, community engagement representative for Be The Match. It also provides support for patients and donors, information for health care professionals and conducts research.

Nearly 70 percent of people needing a marrow transplant do not have a match within their families so the registry was set up to provide a resource for matches.

The event is from 8to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Bond Clinic Main Campus, 500 E. Central Ave., Winter Haven.

Registering to be a donor is a simple process, filling out some paperwork and taking a mouth swab, Scanlan said.

Volunteers should be between 18 and 44 years old, generally in good health and be willing to donate to any patient in the future, Scanlan said.

People are asking why the cutoff is 44, but they have found that age group has the best success in transplants, Scanlan said.

People of other ages are invited to come Saturday and write a note toMiller or make a financial donation, which would go either to the American Cancer Society or to the local Angel Care clinic, she said.

Bobbie Skukowski, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who leads Bonds diabetes clinic, said, Dr. Miller is an excellent physician and an excellent teacher. He was a fellow at Emory University and has taught us all so much; he has brought up the level of diabetes care at Bond Clinic and in the Winter Haven area in general.

"He is very good with his patients and right-on in his care, she said.

If a person is later selected as a potential match, there is no cost to the donor, Scanlan said. And the potential donor can later decide to withdraw from the registry.

The paperwork will ask several questions, including whether the potential donor is willing to donate to any patient in need, willing to donate to a stranger, and willing to donate 20 to 30 hours if found to be a perfect match.

If the potential donor meets the criteria, a mouth swab is taken and later analyzed for a match.

While years ago, being a bone marrow donor was a complicated procedure, now it typically is simple, handled much like a blood donation, Scanlan said.

Over 80 percent of the donations are non-invasive, said Be The Matchs spokesman Silver.

Be The Match literature explains that the donor is given injections of a drug, filgrastim, for five days leading up to the donation to increase the number of stem cells in the blood.

Then, on the day of the donation, the donor goes through a procedure similar to donating blood platelets at a blood center. Blood is taken out of one arm, passed through a machine that collects the blood-forming stem cells, and then the red and white blood cells are returned to the donors other arm through a needle. Typically it takes eight hours.

Donors often have a headache or muscle aches for a few days 22 percent recover within two days, 53 percent within a week, 93 percent within a month, 99 percent within three months and a very few people can take as long as a year to recover, according to Be The Match.

Less than 20 percent of the time, we do a hip aspiration, which is a more complicated procedure and involves having anesthesia in an operating room, Silver said.

Be The Match literature explains that, in those cases, needles are used to withdraw liquid marrow from both sides of the back of the pelvic bone. Typically, the donor stays at the hospital from early morning to late afternoon, or occasionally overnight for observation.

Be The Match helped match 6,200 patients for marrow and cord blood transplants last year and added 472,000 new potential donors to the registry, according to the organization.

Marilyn Meyer can be reached at marilyn.meyer@theledger.com or 863-802-7558. Follow her on Twitter @marilyn_ledger.

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Bone marrow drive to help and honor Bond Clinic physician - The Ledger

Advancellssays its stem cell-based therapy completely reversed multiple sclerosis (MS) in an Indian pilot trial with only one MS patient.

The patient, Rahul Gupta, was diagnosed with MS seven years ago and has since suffered multiple relapses. His disease was progressing fast and he was quickly losing his ability to walk. Gupta, who lives in New Zealand, approached Advancells a company based in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh that specializes in the use of stem cells for therapeutic purposes.

After my last relapse, I became determined to look for alternative treatments for multiple sclerosis,Gupta said in a press release. I started looking on the net and found that stem-cell therapy [offers] hope for people suffering with MS [and] that it is safe and would not harm me in any way. I was determined to undergo stem-cell treatment, as my illness was progressing very quickly.

Gupta enrolled inAdvancells adult stem-cell therapy program as the trials single patient. In the procedure carried outin June at a New Delhi clinic doctors isolated stem cells from his bone marrow and re-infused them back into the patientat specific points. Apart from this procedure, Gupta underwent only physiotherapy and a dietary routine.

Straight after the treatment I saw major improvements, he said. I could walk a lot better, could climb stairs which I was unable to do after 2012 and even go on the treadmill.

Dr. Lipi Singh, head of technology at Advancells, said the company is frequently approached by MS patients from around the world who want to participate in its program.

Patient selection is a key criterion for us and Rahul suited the criteria perfectly, Singh said. He is young and still at a moderate level of the disease and in a very positive frame of mind. Patients at this stage are best suited for this kind of treatment and thus we decided to accept him as a pilot case.

Singh now expects to review Guptas response sometime this fall.

It will take approximately three months for us to review changes in the magnetic resonance imaging of the patient, but the drastic changes in symptoms clearly are an indication of the fact that the treatment is working and could become a hope for millions of patients across the world who are suffering from this disease. Singh said.

He added: This is a good start to a lengthy research phase, but it seems that we are on the right track and hopefully we will be able to make a significant contribution in eradicating not only MS but a host of untreatable diseases existing today.

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India's Advancells Reports Successful Reversal of MS in Single Patient Using Stem Cell Therapy - Multiple Sclerosis News Today

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VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ: VTGN), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders, announced today that the Company has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for U.S. Patent Application No. 14/359,517 regarding proprietary methods for producing hematopoietic precursor stem cells, which are stem cells that give rise to all of the blood cells and most of the bone marrow cells in the body, with potential to impact both direct and supportive therapy for autoimmune disorders and cancer.

The breakthrough technology covered by the allowed U.S. patent was discovered and developed by distinguished stem cell researcher, Dr. Gordon Keller, Director of the UHN's McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine in Toronto, one of the world's leading centers for stem cell and regenerative medicine research and part of the University Health Network (UHN), Canada's largest research hospital. Dr. Keller is a co-founder of VistaGen and a member of the Company's Scientific Advisory Board. VistaGen holds an exclusive worldwide license from UHN to the stem cell technology covered by the allowed U.S. patent.

"We are pleased to report that the USPTO has allowed another important U.S. patent relating to our stem cell technology platform, stated Shawn Singh, Chief Executive Officer of VistaGen. "Because the technology under this allowed patent involves the stem cells from which all blood cells are derived, it has the potential to reach the lives of millions battling a broad range of life-threatening medical conditions, including cancer, with CAR-T cell applications and foundational technology we believe ultimately will provide approaches for producing bone marrow stem cells for bone marrow transfusions. As we continue to expand the patent portfolio of VistaStem Therapeutics, our stem cell technology-focused subsidiary, we enhance our potential opportunities for additional regenerative medicine transactions similar to our December 2016 sublicense of cardiac stem cell technology to BlueRock Therapeutics, while focusing VistaStem's internal efforts on using stem cell technology for cost-efficient small molecule drug rescue to expand our drug development pipeline."

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VistaGen Therapeutics (VTGN) Receives Notice of Allowance For Methods for Producing Blood Cells, Platelets and ... - StreetInsider.com

Updated: August 9, 2017 12:44 pm

Every evening when Aadya watches children in the neighborhood play, my heart breaks. My daughter too was once an energetic presence rushing about. I know that Aadya longs to join them.

It started after Aadyas second birthday. She got high fever and rashes all over. The local doctor called it skin allergy and prescribed medicines. The fever persisted, and we sought another medical opinion.

The diagnosis was devastating. B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia a cancer that affects the immune system. Our only hope now lies in the contributions of caring strangers through ketto.org.

B Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. Big sounding medical terms that we knew nothing about, but by the look on the doctors face, clearly it was serious.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia affects, breaks down the bodys ability to fight diseases. The cancer starts in the bone marrow, where new blood cells grow. These cells grow very fast and the bone marrows capacity to make normal cells is reduced.

The doctor said Aadya needed treatment immediately, or else the cancer would spread. From March to December 2016, she was under the care of Dr. Shweta Bansal at the Sir H.N.Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre in Mumbai. Ten months is a long time for a grown person. To watch our only child suffer through so many blood tests and chemotherapy treatments was very painful and difficult.

After ten months, the treatment ended and we were full of hope that Aadya would begin to recover. Then just four months later, in April 2017, we got the terrible news that the leukemia had relapsed. Since then, Aadya has been visiting the hospital for chemotherapy and tests, every 15-30 days.

Today Aadya is three years old and it hurts us to see her childhood being taken away. She barely eats, feels tired and weak all the time, and gets bruised easily. Even the slightest exposure to infection can be dangerous so we mostly keep her at home. She has missed many days of school and plays indoors. Any exposure to dust is dangerous so we have to make sure that her clothes, food, and toys are kept dust-free at all times.

Aadyas hope is a Bone Marrow Transplant, which costs a staggering Rs 25 lakh. We have started a fundraising page with ketto.org, counting on peoples sense of humanity to help us with this life-saving surgery.

So far we have spent Rs 15 lakh on Aadyas chemotherapy treatments, medications, and hospital visits. I am a housewife and my husband earns Rs 25,000 working as a back office employee. We are completely dependent on his salary and had to raise the money for the treatment by taking loans, borrowing from family members and friends and through insurance. All that we have managed to raise until now has been used up in the treatment.

A Bone Marrow Transplant surgery will replace Aadyas damaged bone marrow with healthy bone marrow stem cells, enabling her to lead a normal, healthy life. Her father is a matching and willing donor but we need to put together Rs 25 lakh in the next one month. We have no means of raising that kind of money.

For Aadya to survive, that operation has to be done in one months time. For over a year now, Aadya has been fighting a tough, long battle. Now there is hope that this operation will finally end her nightmare and lead to that one final miracle when we can take our baby home.

We have started a fundraising page with Ketto.org in Aadyas name, in the hope that people will come forward and help us raise the funds for this surgery.

Please help us pay for her BMT by logging on to Ketto.org.

Help us to bring Aadya home.

For all the latest Lifestyle News, download Indian Express App

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Help my only child survive! - The Indian Express

August 8, 2017 by Samuel Hammond

The Wall Street Journal editorial board reported yesterday that the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) regulation which sought to ban compensation for blood-forming stem cell donors has been defeated. This represents a small but significant victory for advocates of compensating organ donors a practice that remains outlawed by the National Organ Transplant Act (NOTA).

The crux of HRSAs rulemaking was a move to redefine blood-forming stem cells drawn from the bloodstream as an organ, no different from the bone marrow found within the bone, and thus under NOTAs purview. Our friends at the Institute for Justice (IJ) rightly argued for years that such a move was nonsensical and illegal. Blood and plasma are explicitly exempt from NOTAs ban on donor compensation, and as such donations of some subpart of the blood, including stem cells, should also be exempt.

The battle to kill the then-pending regulation heated up late last year, as HRSA neared its deadline to finalize the rule. The Niskanen Center formally joined IJs efforts in November, when we released a report called Bone Marrow Mismatch: How compensating bone marrow donors can end the transplant shortage and save lives. The report highlighted the enormous gap between bone marrow demand and supply under the current regime of voluntary donation, and argued against the applicability of the core ethical concerns advanced by HRSA. Our research and Hill event on the issue culminated in a listening session with HRSA officials, in which we argued that the social cost of enacting the rule was well in excess of $100 million, and thus worthy of delay for a deeper cost-benefit appraisal.

Its unclear what happened next. HRSAs hard December 18 deadline came and went, with a final rule that appeared to have been written but not formally submitted to the Federal Register. Perhaps it was the incoming administration, or the threat of litigation should the rule go through, or our research which provided a clear rationale for postponement. Regardless, the rule entered a strange purgatory, which is where it stayed until HHS formally withdrew the rule last week.

The Niskanen Center has received communications from a federal employee who believes our research was to some degree responsible for the rules ultimate repeal. That said, my research was simply part of a multi-pronged and multi-year effort to oppose the rule, led early on byIJ, the entrepreneur Doug Grant, the economist Mario Macis, and Peter Jaworski, the business ethicist and creator of DonationEthics.com.

The view of the Niskanen Center is that economic rights include the right to receive compensation for organ donations. NOTA therefore deserves a much deeper legal challenge. But in the meantime, lets celebrate the defeat of this regulation as a clear example of what it means to make small steps toward a better world.

Link:
Compensating Bone Marrow Donors Will Close the Supply Gap and Save Lives. - Niskanen Center (press release) (blog)

Marrow Drives

The Office of Management and Budget has withdrawn a proposed rule banning compensation for hematopoietic stem cells. In other words, you can get paid when someone harvests stem cells from your bone marrow.

Bone marrow transplantation is used to treat a variety of ailments, including aplastic anemia, sickle cell anemia, bone marrow damage during chemotherapy, and blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and multiple myeloma. In 1984, Congress passed the National Organ and Transplant Act, which outlawed compensation to the donors of solid organs like kidneys and livers. Oddly, the act also defined renewable bone marrow as a solid organ.

Originally, hematopoietic stem cells were obtained from bone marrow obtained by inserting a needle into donors' hip bones. Researchers later developed a technique in which donors are treated with substance that overstimulates the production of hematopoietic stem cells, which then circulate in their bloodstreams. In a process similar to blood donation, the hematopoietic stem cells are then filtered from the donors' blood. The red blood cells and plasma are returned to the donors.

More Marrow Donors, a California-based nonprofit, wanted to set up a system to encourage hematopoietic stem cell donations with $3,000 awards, in the form of scholarships, housing allowances, or gifts to charity. The Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm, brought suit on their behalf, and in 2012 a federal appeals court sensibly ruled that the law's ban on compensation for solid organ donations did not apply to stem cells obtained from donors' bloodstreams. The Obama administration reacted by proposing a regulation defining stem cells obtained from blood as the equivalent of a solid organ.

Now the new administration has withdrawn the proposal.

"Banning compensation for donors would have eliminated the best incentive we havemoneyfor persuading strangers to work for each other," Jeff Rowes, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, says in a press release. "Predictably, the ban on compensation for blood stem cell donors created chronic shortages and waiting lists. During the past four years, thousands of Americans needlessly died because compensation for bone marrow donors was unavailable."

The system of uncompensated donation is falling far short of meeting patient needs. As the Institute for Justice notes:

At any given time, more than 11,000 Americans are actively searching for a bone marrow donor. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, Caucasian potential donors are available and willing to donate about 51 percent of the time; Hispanic and Asian about 29 percent; and African-American about 23 percent. Caucasian patients can find a matching, available and willing donor about 75 percent of the time; Hispanic about 37 percent; Asian-American about 35 percent; and African-American patients only about 19 percent of the time. This demonstrates the huge gap between the need for compatible donors and the supply.

This is even more true in the case of solid organs from live and brain-dead donors. Right now there are more than 116,000 Americans waiting for a life-saving transplant organ. My colleagues and I at Reason have been arguing for decades in favor of compensating live donors for kidneys and pieces of their livers and the next-of-kin of brain-dead donors for other solid organs. If researchers and entrepreneurs succeed in boosting bone marrow donations by implementing various compensation schemes, perhaps that will prompt Congress to repeal its ill-conceived ban on compensation for organs donated for transplant.

Continue reading here:
Trump Administration Withdraws Proposed Obama Ban on Compensation for Bone Marrow - Reason (blog)

Stem cell therapy has been claimed to cure cancer, improve chronic conditions such as headaches, and even make your skin look younger. How can that not be a good thing?

Youve probably heard about stem cell research before, but what exactly are stem cells, and how can stem cells injected into the body treat various diseases and conditions?

There has been enormous progress in this field over the last few decades, so let's take a look at how stem cell injections work.

What exactly are stem cells?

Stem cells are the bodys building blocks the reserve cells that the body is made up of. These cells are able to produce multiple different cells, each performing a specific function. Stem cells can be divided into two main categories:

What is stem cell therapy?

Stem cell therapy can be categorised as regenerative medicine. Stem cells used in medical treatments are currently harvested from three sources: umbilical cord blood, bone marrow and blood. These are treatments that restore damaged tissue and regenerate new cells in the case of illness or injury.

While there are other forms of stem cell therapy, these are still in the early stages and regarded as research.

How is stem cell therapy performed?

Adult stem cells are derived from a blood sample and injected back into the patient's blood. The surrounding cells are then activated, stimulating rejuvenation in the area.

Why the controversy?

In 2004 South Africa became the first African nation to open a stem cell bank. This involved embryonic stem cells for cloning research and not the "adult" stem cells used in treatment.

Embryonic stem cells are often viewed as problematic, as they are derived from very young foetuses. It is thus viewed as a form of "abortion" to use embryonic stem cells for treatment. But in most cases of stem cell therapy adult stem cells are used, which causes few ethical problems. Stem cells derived from the umbilical cord are not the same as from the embryo.

What does science say?

Prof Jacqui Greenberg from the University of Cape Town stated that although stem cells can potentially treat various diseases, they should be treated with extreme care.

She has no doubt that in time (in medical science particularly, progress is slow and measured in blocks of 10 years), stem cells will be the solution for many things. "But right now we have to strike a balance of not creating too much hype and raising hope too soon. Stem cells are the future, but the future is not now," Greenberg states.

The reason for this is that stem cells derived from an adult are too volatile at times. Researchers are not clear on how many of these stem cells will actually "survive" and "activate" to treat the condition at hand. Therefore it can't be predicted how many cells will survive and become functional.

There is as yet little proof that stem cells can actually fight disease when injected back into the host.Despite the success of IPS cell technology up to date, there are stillchallenges with regard to the purity of stem cells before their use in therapy.

Availability and cost in South Africa

Stem cell therapy is available at various treatment centres in South Africa. One of the most prominent is the South African Stem Cell Institute in the Free State. Here, various treatments, such as regenerative skin treatments and prolotherapy (regeneration of the joints), are offered.

Therapy starts with an initial consultation. During the second consultation vitals are checked, followed by either the fat harvest procedure under tumescent anaesthesia or bone marrow aspiration under local anaesthesia.

The stem cells are then cryopreserved and injected into the patient as needed. Prices of the treatment vary from R500 (for a once-off treatment in a small area, such as the hand) to R22 500 (a comprehensive process), depending on the condition being treated and length of treatment needed. This excludes the initial consultation fee and after-care.

There are also stem cell banks in South Africa, such as Cryo-Save, where stem cells can be stored at an annual fee (excluding initial consultation, testing and harvesting) and used for treatment.

Do your own research

If you do want to go the stem cell route, make sure that the medical programme being offered is legitimate and that the projected outcome is based on real evidence.

There are a number of private institutions banking on the promise of curing any number of diseases with stem cells from a patient's own blood. The truth, however, is that there is no conclusive proof that the majority of these diseases can be cured with the person's own stem cells annihilating the claim that stem cell therapy is the solution to all diseases.

Excerpt from:
Is stem cell injection the cure-all miracle? - Health24

Everybody likes playing with origami and making little paper animals, but researchers in the US have taken their hobby to a freaky new level.

Scientists have developed a way of making a kind of bioactive "tissue paper" from real body organs, which is thin and flexible enough to fold into origami animals like the charming crane you see above which was probably once a kidney, liver, or perhaps a heart.

While it definitely sounds a bit (okay, a lot) on the gross side, this organ origami isn't quite as gruesome as it sounds. For starters, the team from Northwestern University aren't sourcing their tissue paper from human organs at least, not that we know of.

Instead, the researchers are picking up unwanted pig and cow offal from a local butcher, and putting those discarded off-cuts to good use because this flexible paper-like material could one day be used to heal wounds, or to help supplement hormone production in cancer patients.

Northwestern University

"This new class of biomaterials has potential for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine as well as drug discovery and therapeutics," says one of the team, materials scientist Ramille Shah.

"It's versatile and surgically friendly."

The team stumbled upon the idea for making organ-based paper after a lucky accident during their research on 3D-printed mice ovaries.

A chance spill of the hydrogel-based gelatin ink used to make the ovaries ended up pooling into a dry sheet in the bench lab, and from one strange innovation, another was born.

"When I tried to pick it up, it felt strong," says one of the researchers, Adam Jakus.

"I knew right then I could make large amounts of bioactive materials from other organs. The light bulb went on in my head. I could do this with other organs."

Turning to pig and cow organs, the researchers extracted structural proteins called the extracellular matrix from animal ovaries, uteruses, kidneys, livers, muscles, and hearts.

These proteins, which help to give organs their form, were dried and then combined with a polymer to process them into their new paper-like structure.

In other words, it's a bit like papier-mch with a touch of H. P. Lovecraft thrown in, but what's important is that the paper retains residual biochemicals from its protein-based origins, holding on to cellular properties from the specific organ it comes from.

During tests in the lab, the team was able to grow functional, hormone-secreting ovarian follicles in culture using tissue paper sourced from a cow ovary.

It might only be a lab test using animal organs, but if the same idea could be replicated with human hormone-producing tissue paper implanted under patients' skin, it could be a big step towards treating cancer patients and hormone deficiency generally.

"This could provide another option to restore normal hormone function to young cancer patients who often lose their hormone function as a result of chemotherapy and radiation," explains one of the researchers, Teresa Woodruff.

What could make the tissue paper so easy to apply for medical purposes is its malleability. It feels and folds much like ordinary paper, and can even be frozen for later use.

"Even when wet, the tissue papers maintain their mechanical properties and can be rolled, folded, cut and sutured to tissue," says Jakus.

In addition to hormone treatment applications, the team says the pliable material could augment tissue when wounds are healing, which might be able to speed up recoveries, or prevent scarring from injuries.

Of course, before we even get close to sticking origami organs inside human patients, the next step will be looking into how the paper works in animal models.

But initial signs look promising. When the team put human bone marrow stem cells on the tissue paper, all the stem cells attached and multiplied.

"That's a good sign that the paper supports human stem cell growth," says Jakus.

"It's an indicator that once we start using tissue paper in animal models it will be biocompatible."

To be clear, there's still a lot more research to be done here before we know how viable organ paper really is, but we'll never know unless we try.

And in the meantime, at least one thing's for sure.

"It is really amazing that meat and animal by-products like a kidney, liver, heart and uterus can be transformed into paper-like biomaterials that can potentially regenerate and restore function to tissues and organs," says Jakus.

"I'll never look at a steak or pork tenderloin the same way again."

The findings are reported in Advanced Functional Materials.

Read the rest here:
Scientists Are Making Actual Origami Out of Body Organ Tissue - ScienceAlert

Brave Ava Stark has gone back to nursery for the first time since undergoing a life-saving bone marrow transplant.

The four-year-old was all smiles when she arrived at Noahs Ark Nursery in Lochgelly, Fife, yesterday morning.

She said she was looking forward to laughing at the nursery teacher and happily ran around the toy-filled garden before starting at 8am.

But her return was cut short after another child was ill and she had to go home due to her lowered immune system.

Mum Marie said that the half an hour she spent at the nursery was a great start and theyre now looking forward to her returning for longer.

The 34-year-old said: Its absolutely amazing that shes managed to get back to nursery for the first time. We honestly didnt think this day would ever happen.

My mum has been teaching her at home and I think shes going to miss her wee side-kick. It really is a big day.

She may only have been able to stay for half hour but thats a great start and were aiming for more next week. She was too excited to sleep last night.

If it wasnt for all those amazing people who heard about Ava and registered to become donors, then we may never have got here.

We just cant thank everyone who supported us enough.

Nursery manager Karen Robertson added: Its absolutely fantastic, we couldnt have wished for a better outcome.

We always said that when she took ill that we couldnt wait until she was well enough to come back and Im just delighted to see her.

Ava underwent her stem cell transplant in December after a Daily Record appeal which saw more than 83,000 people across the UK sign up to try help her.

She was first diagnosed with inherited bone marrow failure in April 2016 and relied on blood and platelet transfusions to keep her alive.

A matching donor was initially found but pulled out weeks before the procedure went ahead prompting her brave mum to launch the worldwide appeal for help.

A second match was then found but they pulled out just 24 hours before the youngster was due to go to hospital leaving her entire family devastated.

The campaign continued and two more matching donors were eventually found meaning she could undergo the operation in December.

She has recently celebrated her 100 day post-transplant milestone and will become the face of a donor recruitment drive by the Anthony Nolan charity.

She was also named one of the Daily Records Little Heroes at an award ceremony in May.

See the original post here:
Bone marrow transplant tot Ava Stark goes back to nursery for first time since live-saving op - Scottish Daily Record

Gary Campbell's partner, Leanne Crawford, with helpers Lauryn MacKenna (9) and Kye Crawford (12) at the home baking stall at Sunday's fun day.PICTURE IAIN FERGUSON, THE WRITE IMAGE

Two fundraising events have been held in Lochaber at the weekend to help send a local man halfway round the world for ground-breaking treatment.

Gary Campbell, from Caol, who is just 29, was diagnosed with progressive MS in April.

But family, friends and supporters are pulling out all the stops to raise 45,000 in order to send him to Mexico for stem-cell treatment.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, HSCT, involves the intravenous infusion of stem cells collected from bone marrow or peripheral blood.

On Saturday, youngsters and their parents took park in a teddy bear toddle to raise cash for Mr Campbells cause, while yesterday, a large crowd attended a fun afternoon at An Aird in Fort William.

Leanne Crawford, Garys partner, said: The fun day went really well and there was a good turnout.

There were lots of fund-raising activities including a charity shinty match, bouncy castle, beat the goalie, a nail bar, home baking and raffles with loads of prizes.

Gary used to play shinty and two of his old teams from Caol and Banavie took part. Some people had obviously not played in a wee while and were falling about, but it was great fun.

Unfortunately, Gary wasnt well enough to come along which was a pity as he would have really enjoyed it.

He had a fall in the garden on Saturday night and I couldnt get him up. Fortunately his mum was there and between us we managed to get him back into the wheelchair.

His right leg was shaking constantly it was really stressful for him.

Ms Crawford said she has known Mr Campbell for nine years, and for the past five has noticed different symptoms.

He wasnt very good on his feet and sometimes his legs would give way. It was as though he was drunk when he hadnt been drinking.

Gary actually thought he had a brain tumour and, in a way, it was a relief when he was diagnosed with MS.

Ms Crawford said she is hoping by the time enough cash is raised, HSCT might be available closer to home.

I believe hospitals in Galway and Sheffield are looking into the treatment, but if he has to go to Mexico, Ill get him on the plane even though he is petrified of flying.

I dont know how much has been raised yet from these events, but we collected 663 from a recent baking sale and have 2,500 already on the just giving page. We also have 1,500 in a bank account collected from fund-raising events.

Gary is over the moon with the support he is receiving.

Another Lochaber resident with MS, Frances OConnell, received HSCT in Mexico last year.

Excerpt from:
Fun weekend activities will help send Lochaber man for ground-breaking MS treatment - Press and Journal

Tom Parham remembers the time his Woodrow Wilson baseball team was playing Class AAA power Huntington East.

It was 1980, and the Flying Eagles were hosting the Pony Express at Harry Lewin Field. Not known to be a cavernous venue, the field lent itself to an offensive barrage and Huntington East was the last team standing.

A few weeks later, Parham led Woodrow to the state championship game and a rematch with the Express. Woodrow fell short again, but this time it was by the more purist-friendly score of 2-1.

It was then that Parham knew the Eagles needed a new field.

In stepped Doug Epling, Beckley businessman and community leader. He would later be known for refurbishing the old East Bank High School field for WVU Tech to use, as well as the construction of Linda K. Epling Stadium in Beckley, the home of the West Virginia Miners.

The latter, of course, bears the name of Epling's wife. The Tech field is named for Epling himself.The field he helped build on the Woodrow Wilson campus doesn't have an official name.

That will change Saturday.A ceremony will be held at 2 p.m. in the school cafeteria to officially rename the field for Thomas Parham.

The effort to honor the longtime coach was started by Sheila Brown.

"Words cannot describe how it feels," Parham said. "When Mrs. Brown started talking about it, I always told her, nah (modestly). I just thought, 'Let it go.' And finally she told me in April, 'Well, I'm going to the board. I'm going to ask them.' So she did and they told her what to do (at the next meeting)."

The Raleigh County School Board laid out a plan for Brown, and at the next meeting former coaches, colleagues and friends voiced their support.

Legendary boys basketball coach Dave Barksdale. State championship-winning football coach Pete Culicerto. Fellow New Hope Baptist Church member C.W. Claytor. Even Epling himself. They all showed up to see that Parham got the respect they feel he deserves.

"It was just touching to hear former coaches Coach Barksdale, Coach Culicerto, and I even heard from one of my coaching buddies from out of town, Ron Rose," Parham said. "He told Pete what (he wanted) to say. It was just touching, and a humbling experience."

Parham is being recognized for a career that spanned nearly three decades. He was hired as a biology teacher by Ross Hutchens before the start of the 1974-75 academic year.

"He said, 'I need a good biology teacher. I can get a coach anywhere,'" Parham said, laughing.

His first season as head baseball coach was 1975, and he remained there until his retirement in 2000. Along the way, his teams rolled up over 200 wins and appeared in the state tournament five times. Two of those trips resulted in runner-up finishes the 1980 meeting with Huntington East, and in 1983 against Martinsburg.

And the list of star players Parham coached seems endless Chuck Tate, Andy "Bam Bam" Wakefield, Larry Maiolo, Mason Basham, Larry Hickman, Joe Joe Maiolo, Larry Pat Farley, Phil Culicerto, Tim Epling, Phil Lane, Ronnie Fama, John O'Dell.

There were many others, and many of themare members of the Woodrow Wilson Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I was fortunate I came across some good ball players," Parham said. "You don't like to toot your own horn, but like a fella said, we put Woodrow Wilson baseball on the map."

Another was Ronnie Scott, who went on to work for NASA in Florida before returning to Beckley in 2010. Sadly, he passed away in May at age 59.

"He wanted to see baseball dominant again like it was when he played," Parham said.

When Parham retired from baseball in 2000 he stayed on as a biology teacher for one more year it was the emphatic end of an era at the school. Not only did Parham retire, but Culicerto retired after the 1999 football season, and Barksdale left the bench just months before Parham to take a coaching job in Aiken, S.C.

"Indeed it was," said Parham, now 74. "I enjoyed working with Coach Culicerto (as an assistant football coach). He was a great football coach, and he was a baseball supporter. He had seven sons play baseball for me. Three of them played in the state tournament."

After his retirement, Parham's was a familiar face in the stands at Woodrow baseball games. But in 2009, his ability to be a spectator slowed down when it was discovered that he had cancer.

Parham was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that develops in the plasma cells located in bone marrow. The cancer did eventually go into remission, but Parham was still getting checkups when something told him he needed to go to Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.

It was there that he was introduced to autologous stem cell transplant. It's a procedure that involves collecting the patient's stem cells and following it up with high doses of chemotherapy or a combination of chemo and radiation. The process kills cancer cells while also killing blood-producing cells left in the bone marrow.

The collected stem cells are later transplanted back into the patient, allowing the marrow to produce new blood cells.

"I met a very interesting and a caring doctor up there, Dr. (Ivan) Borrello. He told me (about the transplant)," Parham said. "As a matter of fact, they have been doing this since 1980. He asked, 'What do you think about a stem cell transplant?' And I said yeah. Anything to get rid of this cancer.

"At that time my cancer was in remission, so he couldn't do anything. He said we would have to wait until it comes back. He hoped it didn't come back, but if it does ..."

It did, and in February he had the procedure performed.

"It came back in 2016, and when you're over 70 they don't usually do these things," Parham said. "But he felt like I was in good shape, which I think well, I know I am. I went through it, successful, no problems whatsoever.

"After teaching biology, I thought I knew some things. Now I know I know some things."

Just like baseball.

Email: gfauber@register-herald.com and follow on Twitter @GaryFauber

Excerpt from:
Woodrow Wilson baseball field to be renamed for Tom Parham - Beckley Register-Herald

Nalini Ambady, the first Indian-American woman to teach psychology at three major universities in the U.S., died in 2013 due to leukaemia when she was just 54.

For the medical fraternity in Kerala, her native place, it turned the spotlight on the lack of awareness of stem cell transplant, which could have saved her life.

Four years down the lane, doctors say the situation has changed only marginally, as many patients who require the treatment have not been able to do it because of high expenses, lack of matching donors, and lack of facilities at hospitals.

Doctors note that stem cell transplant is being proposed as an effective treatment for cancers such as leukaemia and lymphoma, and primary immune deficiency disorders. Stem cells do not develop normally in such patients and it affects the blood cells that they make. By a transplant, the patient gets new stem cells that can make new and healthy blood cells. Earlier, stem cells were collected from the bone-marrow. Now, it is being collected from blood cells.

Neeraj Sidharthan, bone marrow transplant physician at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, told The Hindu that in Prof. Ambadys case, though matching donors were found, they had all dropped out.

Lack of awareness is still a major issue though there are some positive signs. In some cases, because of lack of infrastructure, cancer cases are not being diagnosed early and treatment is delayed too, he said.

Ajith Kumar V.T., professor, department of paediatrics, Government Medical College, Manjeri, said donors could not be found often from the same families because of the nuclear family system.

There are not many places where you can match the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing with donors. Another problem is the lack of stem cell registries in the State from where matching unrelated donors could be found.

Even if doctors suggest a stem cell transplant, many families dont opt for it because of the high cost involved. If the donor is from the same family, the cost is relatively low. But for unrelated donors, it is very high, Dr. Sidharthan said. The solution, Dr. Ajith Kumar said, was government intervention to set up HLA registries and bone marrow transplant centres. nestCare Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation based in the U.S., had recently approached us expressing interest to set up these facilities in the State. Talks are on, he said.

A.S. Jayanth

View original post here:
Trust those cells to help cure cancer - The Hindu

In 2002, Ian Thompson, a specialist in facial reconstruction at Kings College, London, received an urgent phone call. A patient in his late 20s had been struck by an out-of-control car mounting the pavement. The impact had sent him catapulting over the bonnet of the car, smashing his face and shattering the fragile orbital floor the tiny bone, no more than 1mm thick, which holds the eyeball in place in the skull.

Without the orbital floor, your eye moves backwards into the skull, almost as a defensive mechanism, Thompson explains. But this results in blurred vision and lack of focus. This patient had also lost the ability to perceive colour. His job involved rewiring aircraft and as he could no longer detect a red wire from a blue one, hed barely been able to work in three years.

The accident had happened three years earlier. Since then, surgeons had desperately tried to reconstruct the bony floor and push the eye back into position, first using material implants and then bone from the patients own rib. Both attempts had failed. Each time, infection set in after a few months, causing extreme pain. And now the doctors were out of ideas.

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Thompsons answer was to build the worlds first glass implant, moulded as a plate which slotted in under the patients eye into the collapsed orbital floor. The idea of using glass a naturally brittle material to repair something so delicate may seem counterintuitive.

But this was no ordinary glass.

If you placed a piece of window glass in the human body, it would be sealed off by scar tissue, basically wobble around in the body for a while and then get pushed out, says Julian Jones, an expert in bioglass at Imperial College London. When you put bioglass in the body, it starts to dissolve and releases ions which kind of talk to the immune system and tell the cells what to do. This means the body doesnt recognise it as foreign, and so it bonds to bone and soft tissue, creating a good feel and stimulating the production of new bone.

Bioglass actually works even better than the patients own bone Ian Thompson

For Thompson, the results were immediate. Almost instantaneously, the patient regained full vision, colour and depth perception. Fifteen years on, he remains in full health.

Thompson has gone on to use bioglass plates to successfully treat more than 100 patients involved in car or motorcycle accidents. Bioglass actually works even better than the patients own bone, Thompson says. This is because weve found that it slowly leaches sodium ions as it dissolves, killing off bacteria in the local environment. So, quite by chance, you have this mild antibiotic effect which eliminates infections.

Cutting edge

Bioglass was invented by US scientist Larry Hench in 1969. Hench was inspired by a chance conversation on a bus with an army colonel who recently had returned from the Vietnam War. The colonel told Hench that while modern medical technology could save lives on the battlefield, it could not save limbs. Hench decided to shelve his research into intercontinental ballistic missiles and instead work on designing a bionic material which would not be rejected by the human body.

Hench ultimately took his research to London, and it has been in Britain where some of the most revolutionary bioglass innovations are being made in fields from orthopaedic surgery to dentistry.

Over the last 10 years, surgeons have used bioglass in a powdered form, which looks and feels like a gritty putty, to repair bone defects arising from small fractures. Since 2010, this same bioglass putty has hit the high street as the key component in Sensodynes Repair and Protect toothpaste, the biggest global use of any bioactive material. During the brushing process, the bioglass dissolves and releases calcium phosphate ions which bond to tooth mineral. Over time, they slowly stimulate regrowth.

But many scientists feel that the current applications of bioglass are barely scratching the surface of what could be possible. New clinical products are being developed which could revolutionise bone and joint surgery like never before.

Sitting in his office in Imperial Colleges Department of Materials, Jones is holding a small, cube-shaped object hes dubbed bouncy bioglass. Its similar to the current bioglass but with a slight twist: subtle alterations in the chemical composition mean its no longer brittle. Instead it bounces,like a kids power ball as Jones describes it, and its incredibly flexible.

The point of this is that it can be inserted into a badly broken leg and can support both the patients weight and allow them to walk on it without crutches, without requiring any additional metal pins or implants for support. At the same time, the bouncy bioglass also will stimulate and guide bone regrowth while slowly, naturally assimilating into the body.

To regenerate large pieces of bone, for example in a really big fracture, its very important to be able to put weight on your leg, Jones says. And its really important that the bio-implant in your leg is able to transmit the force from your weight to the bone cells, like a signal. Our body makes its own bone in the architecture that its in, because the cells feel the mechanical environment. So to grow back a big piece of bone you need to be able to transmit the right signals to them. The reason why astronauts in space lose bone mass is because without gravity, the cells arent receiving the same information as they do on Earth.

Further alterations to the chemical makeup of bioglass produce a different form which is much softer and has an almost rubbery feel. It feels almost like a piece of squid at a seafood restaurant. This bioglass is designed for possibly the holy grail of orthopaedic surgery: cartilage repair.

Right now, surgeons attempt to repair damaged cartilage in arthritic hips or damaged knee joints with a fiddly procedure called microfracture. This involves smoothing over the damaged area to expose the bone underneath, then pricking it to release stem cells from the bone marrow which stimulate repair. But this results in scar cartilage and within a few years, as many athletes have found, the original problem returns.

As a solution, Jones is looking to produce bioglass which can be 3D-printed and then slotted into any hole in the cartilage. For the cells to accept it, the material must retain all the natural properties of cartilage. To test its effectiveness, Jones uses a simulator that has human knee joints from cadavers donated for medical research.

We simulate the walking action, bending, all the things a knee would do, and make sure that the bioglass actually preserves the rest of the joint and behaves as it should do, he says. If that works then well proceed to animal and then clinical trials.

This same bioglass could find an additional use in aiding people with chronic back pain due to herniated discs. At the moment surgeons treat this by replacing the dysfunctional disc with a bone graft which fuses the vertebrae in the back together. But while this takes away the pain, it results in a considerable loss in mobility. Instead, a bioglass implant could be printed and simply inserted to replace the faulty disc.

It seems the obvious thing to do, Jones says. So far nobody has been able to replicate the mechanical properties of cartilage synthetically. But with bioglass, we think we can do it.

Weve just got to prove that we can. If all goes well and we pass all the necessary safety tests, it could reach the clinic in 10 years.

Using man-made materials which can fuse to the body may seem far-fetched but it is appearing to be a more and more likely component of future medicine. Already, millions of people brush their teeth with it. And that may just be the start.

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The best way to fix broken bones might be with glass - BBC News