This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB) April 03, 2017

Retired orthopedic spine surgeon, Kenneth Pettine, M.D. is excited to release the three year results of his bone marrow stem cell treatment study. Dr. Pettine has been a pioneer in the use of bone marrow concentrate stem cell injections. He was the first surgeon to inject biologics into the human spine as part of an FDA Study in the U.S. almost seven years ago. He has the only U.S. Patent on the method of treating orthopedic and spine pathology with a patient's own stem cells.

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain, said Dr. Pettine. Thats terrific news for patients who up until now only had the option of undergoing expensive and invasive back fusion or artificial disc surgery.

Degenerative disc disease is a common back pain diagnosis in the United States and affects millions of patients. The symptoms of the condition can become so painful that patients may be forced to miss work and are prevented from participating in regular daily activities. Treatment is often limited to palliative care such as chiropractic, physical therapy, narcotics, injections or invasive surgical procedures to try to decrease the daily chronic low back pain. Numerous studies have shown surgery improves back pain in the average patient only 40%. Stem Cell therapy improved the average patient 70% with long term follow up.

Dr. Pettines treatment uses a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to help reduce inflammation in the spine and stimulate the creation of new tissue in the spinal disc to help reverse the effects of the disease. The office procedure is performed with I.V. sedation and usually takes 45 minutes. The study noted that patients who received higher concentrations of stem cells in their injections saw a greater improvement in their back pain.. This three year follow-up research study shows utilizing a patient's own stem cells can provide long-term back pain relief and prevented the need for invasive surgery in 77% of the patients.

If you live in the Northern Colorado area and are experiencing neck or back pain due to degenerative disc disease, you can learn more about Dr. Pettines treatment and research by visiting his website at http://www.KennethPettine.com.

About Dr. Kenneth Pettine Dr. Pettine has been the principal investigator of 18 FDA studies about stem cells and their uses and is considered a pioneer in the field. He founded The Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine in 1991 to offer patients a non-fusion surgical option for their neck and back pain. He co-invented the FDA-approved Prestige cervical artificial disc and the Maverick Artificial Disc. He is currently focused on the use of Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for patients desiring to avoid orthopedic or spine surgery. You can learn more about the therapy and Dr. Pettine at his website, http://www.KennethPettine.com.

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Northern Colorado Surgeon Releases Three Year Results of Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment - PR Web (press release)

LORENA, Texas (KWTX) Lorena residents and others from around Central Texas turned out Monday to register as bone marrow donors in support of a first grade teacher with a rare medical condition, the only cure for which is a bone marrow transplant.

Melinda Colyer, who teaches at Lorena Primary School, was diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome with myelofibrosis about two weeks ago.

"It's actually a disease that causes the destruction of your stem cells in your bone marrow. They do consider it a form of cancer. The only cure that will be provided is through a bone marrow transplant, Colyer said.

She said receiving the news was tough, but she says shes a fighter.

I decided to pick myself up and was able to go forward and that's what I'm doing at this point, said Colyer.

Lorena Primary School Principal Liza Cunningham said Colyer shines with positivity despite the diagnosis.

"Ms. Colyer is one of the most upbeat people you will ever meet in your entire life. She always has a positive attitude, she has a love for kids. It's very apparent in everything she does, said Cunningham.

The drive Monday was held at Midway High Schools Distance Learning Center.

The process takes less than five minutes, and involves a mouth swab to collect DNA samples.

Prospective donors must be in good health and between the ages of 18 to 44.

Anyone interested in becoming a bone marrow donor can sign up with Scott & Whites Marrow Donor Program.

"She wants everybody to go out and be tested because even if we are not a match for her, we would be a match for somebody else. And that's really what she's been telling us about this whole event and that's very selfless of her, Cunningham said.

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Lorena: Residents support teacher who needs bone marrow transplant - KWTX

A new method of producing red blood cells outside the body on a large scale has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol.

'We have demonstrated a feasible way to sustainably manufacture red cells for clinical use We've grown litres of it,' saidDr Jan Frayne, one of the authors of the research which waspublished in Nature Communications.

Previously the most effective technique involved taking stem cells from bone marrow, which makes blood cells in the body,and inducing them to do the same in lab conditions. This was of limited practical success because each stem cell will only make about 50,000 blood cells before dying by comparison, a few drops of blood can contain around one billion red cells.

Working with NHS Blood and Transplant, the Bristol team overcame this limitation by engineering the stem cells to make them 'immortal', using DNA. from the human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer. Red blood cells cannot continue to divide in the bloodstream, and as they mature they shed their nuclei and with it the virus DNA. Thus the adult cells that might in the future be given to patients, if the technique is applied in clinical trials, would not contain the any of the HPV genetic material.

'It's a brilliant approach, and they seemed to have solved several of the really important bottlenecks,' said Dr Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who was not involved in the project.

The lab-grown blood is likely to be much more expensive than donated blood, but there may be a number of potential applications. Lab-grown blood could be used for patients with rare blood types for whom a match is difficult to find. It could also be useful in military or disaster situations where there is no time for blood typing people who are critically injured. Interest has also been expressed by researchers of malaria and other blood-borne diseases.

The first studies to assess the safety of manufactured blood are due to begin at the end of this year, although the first trial will not test this new type of blood cell. Even if safety is established, for the time being there is not currently enough capacity to produce it and industrialising the process could be costly.

'To make big huge vats of it would be outside of our ability in a research lab,' said Dr Frayne. 'We'd have to have company interest.'

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Stem cells could be used to create 'endless supply of blood' - BioNews

In what's reported to be a world-first, last Tuesday, a Japanese man received a pioneering retinal cell transplant grown from donor stem cells instead of his own.

Doctors took skin cells from a donor bank and reprogrammed them into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can be coaxed to grow into most cell types in the body.

For this procedure, the physicians grew the iPS cells into atype of retinal cell, and then injected them into the retina of the patient's right eye.

The test subject was a man in his 60s who has been living with age-related macular degeneration-a currently incurable eye disease that slowly leads to loss of vision.

If this news sounds somewhat familiar, it's because the same team of Japanese doctors successfully performed a similar transplant in 2014. But in that case, the iPS cells came from the patient's own skin, not from a donor.

The 2014 treatment involved culturing a patient's cells into a thin sheet of retinal pigment epithelium cells, which they transplanted directly under her retina.

One year later, their results showed that the patient's disease had not progressedas it would have without any treatment, and she continues to do well.

But a second case study after the 2014 success never went ahead - the researchers found genetic abnormalities in the iPS cells they had derived from an additional patient's skin. To avoid complications, the doctors fromRIKENand Kobe City Medical Centre General Hospital decided to halt the trial and refine their approach.

Now they are back with a potentially safer technique that uses cells from a donor bank. The patient who received the transplant last week is the first of five approved for a study by Japan's health ministry in February this year. It's important to note that so far this is a safety study - a precursor to a clinical trial.

As team leader Masayo Takahashi from RIKEN told a press conference, we will have to wait and see for several years until we know for sure whether last week's transplant was a complete success - which is the whole point of doing a safety study like this.

"A key challenge in this case is to control rejection. We need to carefully continue treatment," she said.

The patient will be closely observed for a year, and then receive check-ups for three more years. The main things for the team to look out for are rejection of the new retinal cells, and the development of potential abnormalities.

An editorial in Nature praises the team's cautious approach, emphasising that this work with iPS cells could pave a smoother path for other trials in the emerging field of stem cell medicine.

If donor cells turn out to be a viable option in iPS cell procedures, it would be huge for creating more affordable stem cell treatments that anyone can benefit from.

Instead of having to induce stem cells out of each individual patient's samples, doctors could go down the cheaper and quicker route of simply picking a suitable match from a donor bank.

Stem cell treatments such as this new procedure are an extremely promising avenue in medicine, but scientists are right to remain cautious and proceed slowly. Just last month a devastating case report broke the news that three women lost their eyesight by participating in a dodgy stem cell trial.

On the other hand, in 2015, an experimental stem cell treatment showed promise in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and just last year, stem cell injections were used to help stroke patients in recovery.

With all these exciting developments, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on further reports from the Japanese team.

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A Japanese man just got another person's stem cells transplanted in ... - ScienceAlert

In Brief Studies are being done on the value of replacing older blood with younger blood via transfusions. Other researchers are studying the effects of a certain protein, osteopontin, on blood cell production. 1000 Ways To Live Forever

Society is gradually changing its classification of aging as a natural phenomenon to a disease. We have made strides in our research on preventing and potentially reversing the effects of aging.In addition to the ongoing research in molecular biology ontelomeres, there is the interesting idea of utilizing young blood to combat aging. Ironically, the legends of Dracula might be vindicated in light of new research involving young blood to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, which has inspiredclinical trials that may give patients a chance at beating the Grim Reaper.

Ambrosia, a company inspired by the work done by Stanford University neuroscientistTony Wyss-Coray with parabiosis in mice, charges $8,000 per patient for its human clinical trial ofparabiosis. Although there may be 600 people whotake part in the study transfusing 1.5 liters of plasma with donors between the ages of 16 and 25, thestudy is being done without the blessing of Wyss. He believes that the study does not genuinely represent the science and that, theres just no clinical evidence, and youre basically abusing peoples trust and the public excitement around this.

While Ambrosia is operatingwithout clinical evidence to support the trials, the science behind utilizing young blood in repairing and restoring aged cellular processes is worth taking a look at.

Red and white blood cells are produced from stem cellswithin bone marrow, and as we grow older, our bodys ability to replenish the number of red and white blood cells greatly depletes. Similar to the mouse trials ran by Wyss-Coray, researcherHartmut Geigerand his team at the University of Ulm in Germany looked at the bone marrow in mice at varying ages and determined that older rodents produce very low levels of the protein osteopontin.

Rather than looking at blood transfusions for apossible solution like Wyss-Corays team, Geigers team looked the potential of stem cells to test the importance of the deficient protein.The team introduced fresh stem cells into mice that had little to no osteopontin and noticed that the stem cells aged very quickly. When older stem cells were introduced to a dish with osteopontin and anactivator protein, the stem cells began to propagate blood cells.

While companies like Ambrosia are testing blood transfusions on humans to mimic an experiment that utilized a shared circulatory system between an older mouse and a younger mouse, Geigers team notes that long-term studies must be done on their work to verify the effect of osteopontin on rejuvenating cells completely.

The team is developing a drug with the protein and its activating factor, but they do not promise a fountain of youth. They do believe that there would be benefits for the immune systems of the elderly, which may be better positioned to fight diseases that are linked with cardiovascular agingafter takingthe drug.

While all this talk about immortality is exciting, it might be a while before we can actually reap the benefits of researchers studiesin the way we hope. In the meantime, we can keep dreaming away death.

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If Young Blood Can Combat Aging, It May Be Thanks to Just One Protein - Futurism

A benefit dinner will be held April 1 in honour of seven-month-old Madalayna Ducharme. The Warrior Princess fundraiser starts Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Parkwood Gospel Temple. All proceeds will support the family's ongoing expenses related to her medical treatment.

Madalayna suffers from malignant infantile osteoporosis, a rare genetic disorder of bone development in which the bones become thickened and unhealthy. It leads to bone fractures, short stature, poor bone growth and a thicker skull which may delay development of teeth. Left untreated, it could be fatal.

Early this year, her family started a Facebook campaign that went viral asking for people to sign up to become stem cell or bone marrow donors. Thanks to the number of people who volunteered to be tested, a match was found and Madalayna underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this month.

The recovery is expected to be lengthy as the transplant process is grueling on an infants body. Its expected that she will need to stay in a Toronto hospital for three months while she undergoes treatment.

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Benefit dinner will help family of baby girl recovering from bone marrow transplant - CTV News

Alexes Harris tells KUOW's Katherine Banwell her story.

When ProfessorAlexes Harris learned she had a rare form of leukemia, she knew she was in a fight for her life. But she didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a bone marrow match as a woman of color. This is her story.

I have a rare blood cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome.

I was diagnosed in May 2016 after a year of various tests.Prior to being diagnosed, my only health complaints were a random onset of what felt like asthma attacks during my cycling classes (the only reason I went to the doctor), feeling very tired, and not always thinking clearly. I was told that if I did not begin treatment right away I would have two years to live.

Im a 41-year-old mother of a 9 year old and 5 year old (and wife to an amazing husband), so my only true option was to begin treatment.

After being presented with treatment options, we opted for an intensive round of in-patient chemotherapy, which I underwent in June 2016 and managed symptoms in July, 2016.During my initial diagnosis I learned that I would eventually need a bone marrow or stem cell transplant. This would be my only hope of a cure.

We immediately started research to learn about how matches were found and I discovered that because I am a person with a mixed race and ethnic background (African American, Filipino and white) I would have a difficult time finding a full donor match.

While whites have a 75 percent chance of finding a full match in the existing bone marrow registry, African Americans only have a 19 percent likelihood of finding a match. African Americans comprise only 7 percent of the United States registry.

And, it is projected that by 2017 our likelihood of finding a match will only raise to 21 percent. Within the United States registry, the likelihood for finding a full match is higher for people of Mexican (37 percent), Chinese (41 percent), South Asian (33 percent), Hispanic Caribbean (40 percent) and Native American (52 percent) ancestry than for African Americans, but still significantly lower than the likelihood for whites.

Finding a non-related full match is difficult if you are a person of color, especially people of mixed race origin. Having a 100 percent match is crucial in predicting positive outcomes post-transplant. While the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance has been searching for a match, today, I still do not have a full bone marrow donor match and am moving forward with an alternative stem cell transplant using donated umbilical cord blood. My transplant for using cord blood was in September.

This is why we are organizing a national bone marrow donation registry campaign.I want to make my cancer matter, so my great friends stepped in to make this happen. Our goal is to have 4,000 new people registered by this effort. We need people of all backgrounds to become potential matches to help people like me live.

I am a professor of sociology and teach about social stratification, inequality and racial outcomes in institutional processing.I research class and racial differences in criminal justice processing and outcomes. I am the daughter of a black and Filipino man, wife to a black man, sister to black men, and mother of a black son and daughter.I live in the United States and, as many of us know, understand the racial inequalities in our broader society.Many times I feel overwhelmed about the lack of ability to make institutional differences, be it in our systems of education, criminal justice and health care.

Yet, when it comes to bone marrow donation, and other blood products and organ donation, we can make a difference. We can, for ourselves, save ourselves. Becoming involved in donation empowers us in a way like no other to alleviate health care disparities.

You can learn a lot about my story and this campaignatteamalexes.com. We had bone marrow registries in five cities last fall Seattle, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington, D.C., and New York.

Please consider signing up for the bone marrow registry. You can literally be a superhero and save someones life.

Dr. Alexes Harris is a professor of sociology at the University of Washington. This essay was originally published on her personal website.

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I'm a woman of color with cancer. Here's why I can't find a bone ... - KUOW News and Information

"Dancing With the Stars" pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy has been posting pictures on social media while getting treatment for his calf injury and now he's speaking out for the first time.

In exclusive video obtained by "Good Morning America," the past Mirror Ball champ is talking via video to his "DWTS" partner Heather Morris and telling her that he does not intend to lose this season.

Chmerkovskiy sat out Monday's show and Morris was paired up with pro stand-in Alan Bersten.

"I still feel like we have a chance," he tells Morris and Bersten in the video. "You deserve it and I want to give you 150 percent effort and be physically active as I was at my best."

"I want to come back and win," he says.

Chmerkovskiy has been posting several selfies from the hospital, with one captioned, "Gettin' un-broken."

Chmerkovskiy's fiancee Peta Murgatroyd previously told "Access Hollywood" that he is getting surgery for what could be tears in his calf muscle.

"It's gonna take a couple of weeks at least to get better," she said. "He's having a surgery done," but she added that he's a fighter and will be back as soon as he can.

"GMA" anchor Lara Spencer said today that doctors made a concentrate from Chmerkovskiy's bone marrow stem cells and injected them into his calf to speed up the recovery process.

Earlier in the week, the dancer thanked his fans for all their "love and support!"

"Please rest assured that I'm taking this thing very seriously and, although I don't have a concrete return date, I'll give it my all!" he said on Wednesday.

"Dancing With the Stars" returns Monday night on ABC.

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Exclusive: 'Dancing With the Stars' pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy speaks out about injury - ABC News

Dodgers left-hander Rich Hill put some distance between himself and his spring of discontent Friday night, while Angels right-hander Garrett Richards put the finishing touches on his spring time of renewal.

Hill allowed four hits in 3 2/3 scoreless innings in a 3-1 exhibition victory at Angel Stadium, striking out two and walking one, a marked contrast from the 8.03 earned-run average he posted in five Cactus League starts, when he walked 14 and struck out 13 in 12 1/3 innings.

Hill said he was not particularly worried about his spring numbers. After all, he posted an 11.25 ERA last spring, then a 2.12 ERA during the season. Still, he was pleased with his performance Friday.

Everything is going in the right direction, he said. Today was a good outing, a good way to finish up spring training.

He said his curve and slider were the sharpest they had been all spring.

It was pretty weak contact throughout the game, he said. I think thats an indication of how the ball is coming out of your hand.

Richards allowed one run and two hits in four innings, striking out three and walking one in a 57-pitch tuneup for his regular-season debut Wednesday in Oakland.

His only blemish was a 1-and-1 slider that Justin Turner lined over the left-field wall in the fourth for a solo home run, giving the Dodgers third baseman, who is batting .385, a team-leading four homers and 16 runs batted in for the spring.

That Richards will open the season in the rotation is something of a miracle considering his setback last spring. He tore the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow in May and seemed headed for Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery.

Instead, he opted for stem-cell therapy, in which stem cells from his own bone marrow were injected into his elbow. A procedure that didnt work for teammate Andrew Heaney worked for Richards, who pitched in the instructional league last fall and has looked strong this spring, his fastball clocked in the 96-mph range.

I just feel very blessed, very thankful, for my teammates, who stood by me the whole time, for our training staff and doctors, Richards said. Everybody did such a great job with me, and I really appreciate it. Its been a long time, and Ive got to watch a lot of baseball, so its good to be out there competing again.

Richards said any doubts about the integrity of his elbow were eliminated in the instructional league. He had to overcome a similar mental hurdle in the spring of 2015 when he returned from major left-knee surgery.

I feel normal, Richards said. My body is finally feeling complete again. Im over the knee, my arm feels good.

Richards only concession to the elbow injury will be a pitch limit that the Angels hope to keep at around 100. A workhorse by nature, Richards threw 118 pitches and 115 pitches in consecutive April games last season.

I dont think well see 110-pitch outings from Garrett, but theres nothing to say he wont pitch deep into games, Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said. I think the extremes with Garret are something well avoid. Early in the season, were not going to see him throw 115 pitches. It just doesnt make sense.

The Dodgers were encouraged by Hills command Friday night, when he walked one of 16 batters after walking 14 of 58 batters in Arizona. He struck out Albert Pujols looking at a looping curve to end the first. He pitched out of a two-on, two-out jam in the second and retired the side in order in the third.

Left fielder Andrew Toles helped Hill with a running, lunging catch of Jefry Martes drive to the wall in the fourth, and Hill finished his night by striking out Danny Espinosa looking at a full-count curve.

The Dodgers scored twice off Angels reliever Kirby Yates in the eighth when Erick Mejia and Franklin Gutierrez led off with doubles and Cody Bellinger hit a two-out RBI double.

Angels right-hander Blake Parker may have solidified a bullpen spot when he struck out the side in the ninth, extending his consecutive strikeout string to 17 batters.

Dodgers closer Kenley Jansen struck out two of three in the fifth, and probable Angels closer Cam Bedrosian retired the side in order in the seventh, giving him nine scoreless innings this spring.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com

Follow Mike DiGiovanna on Twitter @MikeDiGiovanna

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Some restoration drama at the Big A as Dodgers top Angels, 3-1 - Los Angeles Times

It offers hope for sufferers of diseases hitherto thought incurable

Adult Stem Cell Therapy has gained popularity in developed countries as an alternative to the conventional treatment of many diseases. There are several studies and clinical trials conducted in the United States to support this.

Some current line of treatments are not typically effective, and some can cause detrimental side effects. Medicine is evolving to a more natural and more effective means with the use of stem cells. Due to the numerous religious and ethical issues that comes with the use of embryonic stem cells, todays medicine is moving towards the application of Adult Stem Cell Therapy. This article highlights some new applications of adult stem cells in conditions and diseases that has posed a problem in our society for far too long.

Sickle Cell Anemia

Tissue-based treatments is already evident in the United States of America. In 2012, a patient was successfully cured of sickle cell disease after receiving achemotherapy-free stem cell transplant for sickle cell disease. Additional patients have been successfully treated since then. Two studies conducted in 2014 and 2015 have shown that the use of adult stem cell therapy can greatly reduce complications or even stop the progression of the diseases by providing stem cells to the needed areas. This reduces the need for surgeries for many of these patients.

Diabetes

According to International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there were over 40,000 deaths due to diabetes documented in Nigeria in 2015. Treatment for diabetes has been a focal point for medical research for many years. Consequently, some studies and clinical trials conducted have shown that Adult Adipose (fat) Stem Cell Transplantation can lower and regulate sugar levels resulting in reducing or eliminating the amount of medication or insulin that patients need to take.

In a recently conducted clinical trial, some of the patients achieved insulin independence that remained stable for a median time of 29 months, and another patient for 43 months ongoing. In fact, all the patients studied showed substantial improvement in their dependence on insulin and overall diabetic condition.

Sexual Dysfunction

The emergence of Regenerative Medicine (which includes Adult Stem Cell and Platelet Rich Plasma therapy) has positively impacted the sexual life of both women (O-Shot) and men (P-Shot), and the treatment is also being used for urinary incontinence, etc. There is now ample evidence to show that O-Shot helps women increase their sexual responses, the ability to have Vaginal Orgasm, arousal from clitoral stimulation, sexual desire and natural lubrication, arousal from G-spot stimulation, as well as decrease pain during intercourse and tighten vaginal opening.

Furthermore, P-Shotin men regenerates damaged penile tissues faster and stronger than most traditional treatments. In most cases, treated men see increase in length up to 1 inch or more and girth up to 3/4 inch or more while also increasing their sexual stamina.

Arthritis

Adult stem cells transplantationhas also been studied in arthritis, and there has been some positive reports about its efficacy. In 2014, the effects of stem cells for articular cartilage regeneration was studied.They studied the effect of stem cells injection in treating osteoarthritis of the knee, and the results showed significant improvement.

Neurological Disorders (e.g. Spinal Cord Injury)

The usefulness of stem cell therapy in neurological disorders like Multiple Sclerosis, Cerebral Palsy, Spinal Cord Injury, etc. has been shown in different studies and clinical trials. The prognosis for spinal cord injuries is generally believed to be poor. However, recent researches and case studies are changing this ideology as the value of adult stem cell therapy for patients with spinal cord injuries is emerging.

An example of this can be seen in a case study published in 2015. In this case study, a patient with functional loss below the lesion level due to a motor vehicle accident failed standard therapy but saw clinically meaningful improvements after multiple adult stem cell treatments. Stem cell transplantations over a period of months led to the restoration of the patients ability to move lower extremities against gravity, control the body trunk, and the ability to control the bladder. The patient was also able to stand as well as walk with the aid of hip and knee ortheses. The sensation level also increased.

Conclusion

Regenerative medicine involving adult stem cells is continually being studied and researched to gather more evidence to enable harnessing its clinical potentials. The use of adult stem cells for clinical therapy is now a reality for many patients who were not able to shed the yoke of many diseases that conventional medicine provided very little hope of permanent relief for.

One new innovation is the Umbilical Cord Stem Cells transplantation that is now done without the need for HLA matching. This allows anyone to be treated for conditions or diseases where applicable. In case of sickle cell disease, case studies have been published on the use of Umbilical Cord Stem Cells from HLA matching donors to remedy sickle cell disease; however, case studies are yet to be published on the efficacy of the Umbilical Cord Stem Cells not requiring HLA matching for the treatment of sickle cell disease. I am cautious to note that the results may differ from case to case, so not every sickle cell patient will be a good candidate for the treatment.

Currently, Adult Stem Cell Therapy is now seen as a viable therapeutic alternative for joint and back pain, sexual dysfunction, diabetes, End Stage Renal Disease on hemodialysis, arthritis, etc. The treatments are gaining popularity among patients and doctors because it is natural and can help repair and regenerate most parts of the human tissues.

Ikudaiyisi is the Medical Director of Glory Wellness and Regenerative Centre in USA, Lagos and Abuja and can be reached on info@glorywellness.org

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How Adult Stem Cell Therapy Is Breaking Glass Ceiling Of Modern Medicine - Leadership Newspapers

An Italian neurosurgeon is saying he plans on transplanting a head onto a donor body, not in some distant future, but by the end of 2017.

When Dr. Sergio Canavero first announced his plans a couple of years ago, most people thought he was either crazy, or it was a publicity stunt. Now Canavero says he will put the head of 30-year-old Russian Valery Spiridonov on a donor body in December. Spiridonov suffers from Werdnig-Hoffman disease, which is a form of spinal muscular atrophy.

The surgeon said the procedure would take humanity closer to extending life indefinitely.

Although Canavero insists everything is ready to go, a lot of the details remain murky, and it might still be more fantasy than reality.

Dr. David Albert Jones, the director of the Oxford-based Anscombe Bioethics Centre, says the risks associated with such an attempt are not justifiable.

The center is a Catholic academic institute that studies the moral issues surrounding medicine.

The current scientific and medical consensus is that this experiment has very little chance of success, Jones told Crux, adding the most likely outcome is either death during the operation or survival in a paralyzed state for a few hours or days.

Similar experiments have been done with small animals, to little success. No animal has ever come out of the procedure without being paralyzed, and they all have died soon after.

Jones said the studies are not even advanced enough to attempt the procedure on primates such as monkeys or chimpanzees, let alone a human subject.

There is nothing to suggest that the current proposal for a head transplant is realistic, Jones said, adding even if it were, it would not put mankind on a path to immortality.

People who have received donor organs live longer than they would have done, but they do not live longer, on average, than the average life expectancy of the general population, Jones said.

We will all die.

Jones did warn that if immortality became the goal of a society, this could be a real concern because the quest for unachievable goals can detract from the achievable goals of society, the realistic goals of healthcare, education and social solidarity.

Jones responded to some questions from Crux by email, and told us the scientific and ethical concerns about the proposed procedure.

Crux: Is this even possible with todays technology?

Jones: The idea of a head transplant (or a neck down body-transplant) has been attempted in animals but most animals have either died or have been completely paralyzed and none have lived more than a few days. Given the very poor outcome with mice at the present time it is very difficult to justify attempting this with primates, let alone with humans.

A key challenge is reconnecting the spinal cord. Only if we could finally overcome this problem in patients suffering from spinal cord injury (for example, by the use of gene therapy, stem cells and/or growth factors) would it be realistic to deliberately severe the spinal cord and reconnect the head to a different body.

Thought must also be given to the consequences if the body were to reject the new head. Could the head be kept alive apart from the body, and what kind of existence would this be?

Is such a transplant ethically permitted?

The current scientific and medical consensus is that this experiment has very little chance of success. The most likely outcome is either death during the operation or survival in a paralyzed state for a few hours or days.

The risks are such that it is not justifiable even with consent, but there is an added concern in that it seems likely that the patient has been given misinformation about the realistic prospects for success, and in these circumstances it seems doubtful that consent is properly informed.

It should also be noticed that the operation would not only take great financial and human resources but would also require a donor whose heart, lungs, liver, and/or kidneys could have given real benefits to several patients on the organ transplant waiting list. The opportunity costs would, at the very least, involve extending the suffering of these patients and could involve the death of a patient who might otherwise have been saved.

Many are saying that if such a surgery is successful, it puts humanity on the path to immortality. Should such a goal concern us?

There is nothing to suggest that the current proposal for a head transplant is realistic. If some time in the future the technical problems were overcome, it would not be the path to immortality any more than current, very successful, transplant medicine puts people on a path to immortality. People who have received donor organs live longer than they would have done, but they do not live longer, on average, than the average life expectancy of the general population. We will all die.

How can the Church do more to help people assess the morality of new biotechnologies and medical (or pseudo-medical) procedures?

The goal of immortality is unachievable. There is no need to be concerned therefore about the achievement of this goal. On the other hand if (virtual) immortality became the goal of a society, this could be a real concern because the quest for unachievable goals can detract from the achievable goals of society, the realistic goals of healthcare, education and social solidarity.

The virtue of temperateness is needed if society is to avoid such vain and destructive desires. The Church could do more to promote the virtues of temperateness and humility, which are necessary not only in relation to this issue but in the wider context of the care of creation.

How should the governments involved handle such things, both on a national and international level? I mean, it seems odd that this doctor is even being allowed to attempt this procedure, given the objections from many that the technology has not even been tested properly.

Governments should ensure that experimental surgery is subject to the same level of ethical scrutiny as the clinical trials of drugs or of medical devices. Unfortunately surgery is sometimes given a degree of latitude that leaves patients vulnerable to exploitation. Experimental procedures should not be permitted by a hospital unless and until it has been subject to scientific peer review and has satisfied a clinical ethics committee. It is difficult to see how the current proposal could fulfill such criteria.

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Should a head transplant be allowed to happen? - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - March 29, 2017) - VistaGen Therapeutics Inc. (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 European Patent Office (EPO) has issued a Notice of Intention to Grant the Company's European Patent Application for AV-101, its oral CNS prodrug candidate in Phase 2 development for major depressive disorder (MDD). The granted claims covering multiple dosage forms of AV-101, treatment of depression and reduction of dyskinesias associated with L-DOPA treatment of Parkinson's disease will be in effect until at least January 2034.

"We are extremely pleased to receive the EPO's notice of intention to grant significant CNS-related patent claims for AV-101, another substantial step forward in our plan to secure a broad spectrum of intellectual property protection for AV-101 covering multiple CNS indications," stated Shawn Singh, Chief Executive Officer of VistaGen.

About AV-101

AV-101 (4-CI-KYN) is an oral CNS prodrug candidate in Phase 2 development in the U.S. as a new generation treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD). AV-101 also has broad potential utility in several other CNS disorders, including chronic neuropathic pain and epilepsy, as well as neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

AV-101 is currently being evaluated in a Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD, a study being fully funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and conducted by Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., Chief, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and Chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the NIMH, as Principal Investigator.

VistaGen is preparing to advance AV-101 into a 180-patient, U.S. multi-center, Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study in MDD patients with an inadequate response to standard FDA-approved antidepressants, with Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University as Principal Investigator.

About VistaGen

VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. (VTGN), is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing new generation medicines for depression and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders. VistaGen's lead CNS product candidate, AV-101, is a new generation oral antidepressant drug candidate in Phase 2 development for major depressive disorder (MDD). AV-101's mechanism of action is fundamentally differentiated from all FDA-approved antidepressants and atypical antipsychotics used adjunctively to treat MDD, with potential to drive a paradigm shift towards a new generation of safer and faster-acting antidepressants. AV-101 is currently being evaluated by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in a Phase 2 monotherapy study in MDD being fully funded by the NIMH and conducted by Dr. Carlos Zarate Jr., Chief, Section on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Mood Disorders and Chief of Experimental Therapeutics and Pathophysiology Branch at the NIMH. VistaGen is preparing to launch a 180-patient Phase 2 study of AV-101 as an adjunctive treatment for MDD patients with inadequate response to standard, FDA-approved antidepressants. Dr. Maurizio Fava of Harvard University will be the Principal Investigator of the Company's Phase 2 adjunctive treatment study. AV-101 may also have the potential to treat multiple CNS disorders and neurodegenerative diseases in addition to MDD, including chronic neuropathic pain, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, where modulation of the NMDAR, AMPA pathway and/or key active metabolites of AV-101 may achieve therapeutic benefit.

VistaStem Therapeutics is VistaGen's wholly owned subsidiary focused on applying human pluripotent stem cell technology, internally and with collaborators, to discover, rescue, develop and commercialize proprietary new chemical entities (NCEs), including small molecule NCEs with regenerative potential, for CNS and other diseases, and cellular therapies involving stem cell-derived blood, cartilage, heart and liver cells. In December 2016, VistaGen exclusively sublicensed to BlueRock Therapeutics LP, a next generation regenerative medicine company established by Bayer AG and Versant Ventures, rights to certain proprietary technologies relating to the production of cardiac stem cells for the treatment of heart disease.

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For more information, please visit http://www.vistagen.com and connect with VistaGen on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release that are not historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements that are based on current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual future results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. Those risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks related to the successful launch, continuation and results of the NIMH's Phase 2 (monotherapy) and/or the Company's planned Phase 2 (adjunctive therapy) clinical studies of AV-101 in MDD, and other CNS diseases and disorders, protection of its intellectual property, and the availability of substantial additional capital to support its operations, including the development activities described above. These and other risks and uncertainties are identified and described in more detail in VistaGen's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). These filings are available on the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov. VistaGen undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements.

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VistaGen Therapeutics Receives European Patent Office Notice of Intention to Grant European Patent for AV-101 - Yahoo Finance

Having someone elses marrow or stem cells is called a donor transplant, or an allogeneic transplant. This is pronounced a-low-gen-ay-ik.

The donors bone marrow cells must match your own as closely as possible. The most suitable donor is usually a close relative, such as a brother or sister. It is sometimes possible to find a match in an unrelated donor. Doctors call this a matched unrelated donor (MUD). To find out if there is a suitable donor for you, your doctor will contact The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Register.

To make sure that your donors cells match, you and the donor will have blood tests. These are to see how many of the proteins on the surface of their blood cells match yours. This is called tissue typing or HLA matching. HLA stands for human leucocyte antigen.

Once you have a donor and are in remission, you have your high dose chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A week later the donor comes into hospital and their stem cells or marrow are collected.

You then have the stem cells or bone marrow as a drip through your central line.

If you've had a transplant from a donor, there is a risk of graft versus host disease (GVHD). This happens because the transplanted stem cells or bone marrow contain cells from your donor's immune system. These cells can sometimes recognise your own tissues as being foreign and attack them. This can be an advantage as the immune cells may also attack cancer cells left after your treatment.

Acute GVHD starts within 100 days of the transplant and can cause

If you develop GVHD after your transplant, your doctor will prescribe drugs to damp down this immune reaction. These are called immunosuppressants.

Chronic GVHD starts more than 100 days after the transplant and you may have skin rashes, diarrhoea, sore joints and dry eyes. Your doctor is likely to suggest that you stay out of the sun because GVHD skin rashes can often get worse in the sun.

There is more detailed information about graft versus host disease.

Excerpt from:
Bone marrow or stem cell transplants for ALL | Cancer ...

BRADENTON, Fla. By now, the time line for recovery from Tommy John surgery is familiar even to the casual baseball fan. It takes at least a year, usually more. It takes tedious, monotonous work on the part of the player.

Alternatives exist, but until now their use among established major leaguers has been limited if tried at all. This season could provide a referendum on two of them. One surgical procedure could cut the recovery time in half. Another treatment could help a player avoid surgery altogether.

I think it can definitely help the game, right-hander Seth Maness, who had a modified elbow ligament surgery in August, said by phone from spring training in Arizona. But the circumstances have to be right.

Maness had a surgery on his right elbow known as a primary repair or primary brace. The procedure reattaches the elbows ulnar collateral ligament to the bone with collagen-coated Arthrex tape. Los Angeles Angels starter Garrett Richards received a stem cell injection into his right elbow to heal his damaged UCL. So far, its working.

The last thing you want to do is have surgery, and if you do what your body does naturally, thats going to be stronger than any replacement surgery, Richards said, also by phone from spring training in Arizona. I just hope that this further gives guys a little bit of knowledge that you have options.

Neither procedure will replace Tommy John. Stem cells dont work in every case, and if the UCL is torn across the middle of the ligament, it needs to be replaced. The sample size for both is also small. But both provide options involving less recovery time for pitchers whose injuries fit a certain profile.

Maness, 28, spent four seasons pitching out of the St. Louis Cardinals bullpen and signed a minor league contract with the Kansas City Royals in February. Maness ligament had pulled away from the bone rather than tearing across the middle. Instead of needing a full Tommy John surgery, which requires grafting a tendon from the wrist or hamstring into the elbow to replace the UCL and at least a year of recovery, Maness was a candidate for a primary repair.

Really this primary brace technology had been used more widely in Europe, particularly for ligament injuries of the knee and the ankle, said Dr. George Paletta, St. Louis Cardinals head orthopedic surgeon who performed Maness surgery. So the concept or the idea was, OK, its working well there, is there a way to adapt it to the elbow?

Paletta had done roughly 60 primary repairs on amateur pitchers prior to operating on Maness and saw an average recovery time of 6 months. That background helped him establish three criteria he needed a young pitcher, an otherwise healthy ligament and, most importantly,the ligament needed to pull off the bone on one end rather than tear in the middle.

Weve had a lot of experience with ligaments healing directly to bone and we have a good understanding of that timetable, so we knew that by about 12 weeks after surgery, this repair should be pretty well healed and pretty solid at that point, Paletta said.

Cardinals reliever Mitch Harris also had the primary repair, as did a third pitcher with major league experience, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, with whom Maness first discussed the procedure in January. Cardinals non-roster outfielder/pitcher Jordan Schafer had the procedure this month.

The UCL in Richards right elbow had a tear running along the ligament, not across it. He sought second opinions from noted orthopedic surgeons Dr. James Andrews and Dr. Neal ElAttrache.

Dr. Andrews pretty much told me, Hey Garrett, if you were my son, I would try the stem cell first, Richards said.

Doctors removed stem cells from his pelvis and injected them into his elbow, in hopes the cells would heal the UCL. Stem cells, extracted from bone marrow, are able to develop into multiple different tissues and can promote healing.

It just feels tight. Youre putting fluid into a place that pretty much doesnt have any room for any more fluid, Richards said of the injection. If you can imagine youre just overfilling a certain area with this nice special sauce.

Teams sometimes use platelet-rich plasma injections, where blood is spun in a centrifuge to isolate growth factors Takashi Saitos PRP injection in 2008 was believed to be the first for a major league pitcher, and Masahiro Tanaka also has pitched successfully with a partially torn UCL after PRP treatment but stem cells are less common. Bartolo Colon, soldiering into his 20th major league season at 43 years old, had a stem cell treatment in 2010. Boston Red Sox left-hander Drew Pomeranz had a stem cell injection in his elbow this winter to address lingering soreness.But Pomeranz went on the disabled list Thursday with left forearm flexor strain.

It doesnt always work. Richards teammate, lefty Andrew Heaney, needed Tommy John last summer after stem cells didnt do the trick.

Richards six-week exam showed significant growth. His three-month check showed even more. He reported no issues this spring, his high-90s mph fastball is back and he is on track to open the season in the rotation.

Everything feels great, Richards said. Basically I took the year off, let my arm heal and now Im back doing what I always do. I just feel refreshed.

Bill Brink: bbrink@post-gazette.com and Twitter @BrinkPG.

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How new-age medicine is helping Major League Baseball pitchers avoid injury - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Adelaide woman Kate Rafertys son just started school, her daughter is two.

She doesnt like to speak about it with her doctors, but she may not get the chance to see them grow up.

Ms Raferty has a severe form of Leukaemia, which relapsed early in 2017.

She needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant a simple one-day procedure for the donor but of the millions of registered donors around the world, none are a match.

It was a bit hard to absorb because everything happened so fast when I was first diagnosed, she told SBS.

They focused on my sister being a match, and that took weeks to work out that she wasn't a match.

Only about 30 per cent of patients are able to find a match within their family - the chance of a single sibling being a match is 25 per cent.

At about the same time, they told me there wasn't a match worldwide, but never really worked out or advised why, MsRaferty said.

The likely reason is as uncomfortable one Ms Rafertys mother is Hungarian and her father is a white Australian.

The unique background is an inherent part of what makes Kate Raferty who she is, but it may have doomed her chances of finding a donor.

Bone marrow transplants require a partial genetic match relating to an array of genes known as the HLA system - family members are the best chance of a match, but failing that it's likely a donor will have to be found from people with a similar ethnic background.

People like us who have migrated to Australia, or are children of those who migrated and help make up multicultural Australia, have one of the worst chances of finding a match, Ms Rafertysaid.

Paul Berghoffer, Operations Manager with the Bone Marrow Donor Centre, says that while donor matching is based on a range of factors, a HLA match is critical - it's the system which your immune defences use to distinguish your own cells from foreign cells.

You inherit half of your HLA type from your mother and half from your father, and because it is an entirely inherited trait, we find there are HLA clusters within particular ethnic groups," he said.

Within Australia's 170,000-strong donor pool, northwest Europeans are probably over-represented, he said.

The challenge for donor registries in Australia and around the world is to build genetically diverse registries that are reflective of those who need help."

While factors vary case to case, those with a mixed genetic background, such as Kate Raferty, can have even rarer HLA types.

Looking at the law of averages, its definitely more challenging for people of mixed backgrounds to find a HLA match," he said.

"Given there are roughly 29 million donors registered world-wide, the fact that people still can't find a match just stands to show how variable HLA types are."

The answer, he says, is recruitment focused onethnic minorities and people with mixed backgrounds.

Kate Raferty and her husband and children, Christmas 2014.

In her desperation to stay alive to see her children grow up, Ms Raferty has taken to social media to raise awareness and increase donor registration.

Our cure is out there in someone else in the world, we just need them to register, she said.

The Raferty family isnt the only one looking.

Tania in South Australia has a mixed Balkan background.

Baby Ruby in the UK has a mixed Latin American background.

Six-month-oldAustin in the UKis of mixed Polish background.

Five-year-old Valerie in the UK has an African background.

Each family is desperate to find a match, andthey work with each other as part of an international drive to increase the genetic diversity of registered donors.

I am determined, determined to ask each and every one of you to help to save people like my son by signing up to become a stem cell donor for patients in need, said baby Austins father, Lewis.

Some campaigns have signed up thousands of extra donors, and turned up matches for multiple other patients.

Because people are often unaware of the diversity of their own genetic make-up, their campaigns target people very broadly.

My mum is from Hungary but thinks her grandma was from Czechoslovakia, Ms Rafferty said.

Possibly also any bordering country might share the same tissue types.

While doctors have toldMsRafterty her chances of finding a match are slim, she remains optimistic.

Others have found their matches by campaigning like this, but sadly others have died in their search, she said.

Enrolled in a drug trial and receiving blood cord transplants, she now has some extra time with her children, but she says her only hope of a cure is a transplant.

Someone with mixed Jewish-Chinese heritage just found their match, she said, so we live in hope.

You can join Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry if you are aged between 18 and 45 years, in good health and meet the eligibility criteria. Joining the registry requires a blood test. If you are found to be a match, donating can be done through a blood donation or a relatively simple day procedure.

Find out more from the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry. To register call 13 14 95.

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Why mixed-race minorities struggle to find life-saving transplant matches - SBS

JEROMESVILLE Heidi Steiber was 27 years old when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.

MS is an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brain, and between the brain and body, according to the NationalMultiple SclerosisSociety.

"I've experienced various symptoms," Steiber said. "Loss of vision, my left and right hands and left leg don't work very well."

MS is a progressive ailment, Steiber added, which means the damage the disease causes can not be corrected.

Now, 15 years later, the 42-year-old Steiber is hoping to raise enough money to spend a month in Puebla, Mexico to undergo a hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

HSCT is a transplant of multipotent hematopoietic stem cells, usually derived from bone marrow, peripheral blood, or umbilical cord blood.

Steiber applied for a similar program in Chicago, but was turned away because they wanted to research MS patients who have had the disease for 10 or less years.

The treatment will cost $55,000 and will keep Steiber in isolation for a month, she said. The treatment will destroy her immune system after her stem cells are taken from her marrow. After the immune system is removed the stem cells will be replaced into her body. She hopes to make her appointment on June 19 at Clinica Ruiz

"It's like Heidi 2.0 or Heidi rebooted," she joked.

She is using a crowd sourcing website to gather donations. So far, she has been excited by the results in one month, raising $32,000 of the $70,000 she is looking for to pay for her treatments and the following recovery. Steiber said her insurance will not contribute to the medical expenses.

"People have been extremely generous. One of my donators did a matching donation, so I raised $3,000 in a day-and-a-half.

Steiber, now residing in Raleigh, North Carolina, will be heading back to her hometown of Jeromesville to the American Legion for a benefit dinner, May 13. It will run from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m.

"You know the expression, it takes a village? That's the village they were talking about Jeromesville," the Hillsdale High graduate said. "It's amazing to have people coming together for you."

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Hillsdale grad looks for medical help in Mexico, local support to get there - Richland Source

Screenshot of Taigas website.

A startup at University of Colorado Anschutz is in the middle of a substantial capital raise.

Taiga Biotechnologies, which is developing new therapies for cancer, HIV and other diseases, has raised $6 million and is looking for an additional $14 million, according to a recent SEC filing.

The date of the first sale was March 16, and so far, the startup has 14 individual investors.

Founded in 2006, Taiga creates therapies for cancer, immune diseases and other serious medical conditions using stem cells, proteins and other molecular compounds.

In 2012, the firmreceived a patent to produce significant amounts of adult blood stem cells using blood from umbilical cords or bone marrow. Blood samples could be stored and expanded to be used after chemotherapy or radiation treatment, instead of having multiple bone marrow transplants.

Last summer, Taiga developed a product to help children with severe immune deficiencies, forcing them to live in protected and sterile environments. The product, which garnered an Orphan Drug Designation from the Food and Drug Administration, was approved for clinical trial in Israel.

Taiga is led by co-founders Brian Turner and Yosef Refaeli.

The company received $12 million in a raise ending in 2015, as well as $246,000 in 2010, according to SEC filings.

Taiga is basedat 12635 E. Montview Blvd. at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Kate Tracy is a BusinessDen reporter who covers nonprofits, startups and the outdoors industry. She is a graduate of Corban University. Email her at kate@BusinessDen.com.

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UC Anschutz startup gets $6M boost to fight disease with stem cells - BusinessDen

Friday, March 31, 2017

By Nicholas Snow

The Rose Mercadante Chemistry Seminar Series is pleased to present a seminar entitled "Improving Blood and Marrow Transplantation" by Dr. Robert Korngold of the John Theurer Cancer Center, Hackensack University Medical Center.

The seminar will be held on Tuesday April 4, 2017 at 5:45 p.m. in the Helen Lerner Amphitheater, McNulty Hall, Science and Technology Center, Seton Hall University.

Dr. Korngold specializes in basic science and translational research in the field of blood and marrow stem cell transplantation. In 1978, he demonstrated in mouse models that mature T cells in donor bone marrow were responsible for causing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) directed to minor histocompatibility antigens in transplanted recipients. This landmark study had significant impact on the future course of clinical treatment for patients undergoing transplantation from matched sibling or unrelated matched donors. Since then he has devoted his career to studying the immunological mechanisms of GVHD and refining the hematopoietic stem cell transplantation process to avoid disease and allow for enhanced anti-leukemia immune reactivity. He is widely recognized as a leading researcher in his field and as such he has served since 2001 as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Dr. Korngold is an author of 140 research articles, reviews and book chapters.

The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry offers BS, MS and PhD degrees with specializations in all areas of chemistry. Our unique research environment, including traditional full-time students and part-time students is designed to foster collaborations with industry and colleagues in other disciplines. The Rose Mercadante Seminar Series is named for Rose, our departmental secretary for over 40 years, in honor of our alumni, her "boys and girls".

Categories: Science and Technology

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Improving Blood and Marrow Transplantation - Seton Hall University News & Events

KAMLOOPS My curiosity was sparked when I read that a stem cell centre was opening in Kamloops (Kamloops This Week, March 21, 2017).

So I went to the location of the centre at 470 Columbia St only to find a parking lot. Thinking that the address might be wrong, I searched the directory of the medical building next door and found that no stem cell centre was listed.

The Stem Cell Centers website lists Kamloops as the only one in Canada. Dr. Richard Brownlee is named as the surgeon with more information coming soon.

Stem cell therapy, says the website, can help with orthopedic or pain management, ophthalmological conditions, cardiac or pulmonary conditions, neurological conditions, and auto-immune diseases, among many other conditions and disease that results in damaged tissue.

One of the ophthalmological conditions they treat is macular degeneration. If your vision is fading due to macular degeneration, you know its time to seek help. Our non-invasive Stem Cell Therapy treatment might be the solution for you.

I wanted get Dr. Brownlees reaction to news that an unproven stem cell treatment had resulted in blindness according to the New England Journal of Medicine as reported in the Globe and Mail, March 20, 2017.

This week, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) reported on three individuals who went blind after receiving an unproven stem cell treatment at a Florida clinic. The patients paid thousands of dollars for what they thought was a clinical trial on the use of stem cells to treat macular degeneration.

The writer of the Globe and Mail article, Timothy Caulfield, Research Chair of the in Health Law and Policy at the University of Alberta, doesnt name the Florida clinic.

The Stem Cell Centers website refers optimistically to treatment for macular degeneration at a Florida clinic, although apparently not theirs since no Florida clinic appears on their list. It tells of how Doug Oliver suffered from macular degeneration before stem cells were extracted from his hip bone and injected them into his eyes. Almost immediately, Olivers eyesight started to improve. I began weeping, he said.

Caulfield encourages caution. Health science gets a lot of attention in the popular press. People love hearing about breakthroughs, paradigm shifts and emerging cures. The problem is, these stories are almost always misleading. It can also help to legitimize the marketing of unproven therapies.

Reports from the Stem Cell Centers own website are cautionary as well. It quotes an abstract from a study done by the Southern California College of Optometry on how stem cells might ultimately be used to restore the entire visual pathway.

The promise of stem cell research is phenomenal. Scientific American (Jan., 2017) reports that brains can be grown in a lab dish from stem cells taken from skin. These samples can be used to research brain disorders ranging from schizophrenia to Alzheimer's disease, and to explore why only some babies develop brain-shrinking microcephaly after exposure to the Zika virus.

However, Dr. George Daley, dean of Harvard Medical School, concludes that there are only a handful of clinical applications available and they are for skin and blood-related ailments.

Practice, it seems, has not yet matched the promise of stem cell research.

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Stem cell centre coming to Kamloops? | CFJC Today - CFJC Today Kamloops

March 28, 2017 by Layne Cameron Kristin Parent mapped the structure of the giant Samba virus with MSUs cryo-EM microscope, which is featured on the cover of the journal Viruses. Credit: Michigan State University

In a laboratory at Michigan State University, scientists took a DIY approach to build a retrofitted cryo-electron microscope that allowed them to map a giant Samba virus one of the worlds largest viruses.

If the common cold virus is scaled to the size of a ladder, then the giant Samba virus is bigger than the Washington Monument, said Kristin Parent, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology and co-author of the paper featured on the cover of the journal Viruses. Cryo-EM allowed us to map this virus structure and observe the proteins it uses to enter, or attack, cells.

It seems counterintuitive that bigger organisms are harder to see, but they are when using cryo-electron microscopy. Thats because these microscopes usually are used to look at thin specimens and cant decipher larger organisms to reveal their biological mechanisms. For thick samples, scientists see only dark gray or black blobs instead of seeing the molecular framework.

Cryo-EM allowed Parents team to image the giant Samba virus and understand the structures that allow it to enter an amoeba. Once inside, Samba opens one of its capsid layers and releases its nucleocapsid which carries the genetic cargo that sparks an infection. While Samba isnt known to cause any diseases in humans, its cousin, the mimivirus, may be a culprit for causing some respiratory ailments in humans.

If you scoop up a handful of water from Lake Michigan, you are literally holding more viruses than there are people on the planet, said Parent, who published the paper with Jason Schrad and Eric Young, MSU biochemistry and molecular biology graduate students. While scientists cant study every virus on Earth, the insights we glean from viruses like the giant Samba can help us understand the mechanisms of other viruses in its family, how they thrive and how we can attack them.

As bacteria become more resistant to antibiotics, looking for new ways to fight diseases will continue to grow in importance. Parents lab also studies how bacteria-infecting viruses enter cells using this method, which could potentially lead to new antibacterial treatments. Yet the worlds best cryo-EM microscope costs more than $5 million. Limited by funds but not drive, Parent was able to upgrade an existing microscope at MSU to do cryo-EM one that is a tinkerers dream.

This traditional transmission electron microscope was retrofitted with a cryostage, which keeps viruses frozen in liquid nitrogen while theyre being studied. Parent and her team then added a Direct Electron DE-20 detector, a powerful camera the mighty microscopes piece de resistance.

Parent didnt invent cryo-EM, but establishing it on campus serves as a viable proof-of-concept for MSU, opening the door for many interdisciplinary partnerships. This cutting-edge microscopy has applications across many fields, from those addressing a single protein to others studying entire cells. Virtually anyone studying complex molecular machines can advance their work with this tool, Parent added.

Parent has earned an AAAS Marion Milligan Mason Award for Women in the Chemical Sciences. This award, her paper in Viruses and being the co-author who performed cryo-EM work in a recent Nature Communications paper, lays the groundwork to some day have a more advanced cryo-EM microscope housed at MSU to be able to perform high-resolution structural studies.

Weve done quite a bit with our limited resources, but were primed to do more, Parent said. I think MSU could serve as a cryo-EM center and to increase the prevalence of this technology in the Midwest and beyond.

As one example, scientists from Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Brazil) and Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) also contributed to this study and benefitted from the technology MSU has to offer.

Explore further: Cryo-electron microscopy achieves unprecedented resolution using new computational methods

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In order for a fuel cell to work, it needs an oxidizing agent. TU Wien has now found a way to explain why oxygen does not always enter fuel cells effectively, rendering them unusable.

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