13 hours ago Microscope And Digital Camera. Credit: Richard Wheeler/ Wikipedia CC BY-SA 3.0

Case Western Reserve researchers have discovered landmarks within pluripotent stem cells that guide how they develop to serve different purposes within the body. This breakthrough offers promise that scientists eventually will be able to direct stem cells in ways that prevent disease or repair damage from injury or illness. The study and its results appear in the June 5 edition of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Pluripotent stem cells are so named because they can evolve into any of the cell types that exist within the body. Their immense potential captured the attention of two accomplished faculty with complementary areas of expertise.

"We had a unique opportunity to bring together two interdisciplinary groups," said co-senior author Paul Tesar, PhD, Assistant Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at CWRU School of Medicine and the Dr. Donald and Ruth Weber Goodman Professor.

"We have exploited the Tesar lab's expertise in stem cell biology and my lab's expertise in genomics to uncover a new class of genetic switches, which we call seed enhancers," said co-senior author Peter Scacheri, PhD, Associate Professor of Genetics and Genome Sciences at CWRU School of Medicine. "Seed enhancers give us new clues to how cells morph from one cell type to another during development."

The breakthrough came from studying two closely related stem cell types that represent the earliest phases of developmentembryonic stem cells and epiblast stem cells, first described in research by Tesar in 2007. "These two stem cell types give us unprecedented access to the earliest stages of mammalian development," said Daniel Factor, graduate student in the Tesar lab and co-first author of the study.

Olivia Corradin, graduate student in the Scacheri lab and co-first author, agrees. "Stem cells are touted for their promise to make replacement tissues for regenerative medicine," she said. "But first, we have to understand precisely how these cells function to create diverse tissues."

Enhancers are sections of DNA that control the expression of nearby genes. By comparing these two closely related types of pluripotent stem cells (embryonic and epiblast), Corradin and Factor identified a new class of enhancers, which they refer to as seed enhancers. Unlike most enhancers, which are only active in specific times or places in the body, seed enhancers play roles from before birth to adulthood.

They are present, but dormant, in the early mouse embryonic stem cell population. In the more developed mouse epiblast stem cell population, they become the primary enhancers of their associated genes. As the cells mature into functional adult tissues, the seed enhancers grow into super enhancers. Super enhancers are large regions that contain many enhancers and control the most important genes in each cell type.

"These seed enhancers have wide-ranging potential to impact the understanding of development and disease," said Stanton Gerson, MD, Asa & Patricia Shiverick and Jane Shiverick (Tripp) Professor of Hematological Oncology and Director of the National Center for Regenerative Medicine at Case Western Reserve University. "In the stem cell field, this understanding should rapidly enhance the ability to generate clinically useful cell types for stem cell-based regenerative medicine."

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Stem cells hold keys to body's plan

13 hours ago Directed Network Wiring, a new method to simplify the study of protein networks, is illustrated. Credit: Shohei Koide/University of Chicago

Proteins are responsible for the vast majority of the cellular functions that shape life, but like guests at a crowded dinner party, they interact transiently and in complex networks, making it difficult to determine which specific interactions are most important.

Now, researchers from the University of Chicago have pioneered a new technique to simplify the study of protein networks and identify the importance of individual protein interactions. By designing synthetic proteins that can only interact with a pre-determined partner, and introducing them into cells, the team revealed a key interaction that regulates the ability of embryonic stem cells to change into other cell types. They describe their findings June 5 in Molecular Cell.

"Our work suggests that the apparent complexity of protein networks is deceiving, and that a circuit involving a small number of proteins might control each cellular function," said senior author Shohei Koide, PhD, professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics at the University of Chicago.

For a cell to perform biological functions and respond to the environment, proteins must interact with one another in immensely complex networks, which when diagrammed can resemble a subway map out of a nightmare. These networks have traditionally been studied by removing a protein of interest through genetic engineering and observing whether the removal destroys the function of interest or not. However, this does not provide information on the importance of specific protein-to-protein interactions.

To approach this challenge, Koide and his team pioneered a new technique that they dub "directed network wiring." Studying mouse embryonic stem cells, they removed Grb2, a protein essential to the ability of the stem cell to transform into other cell types, from the cells. The researchers then designed synthetic versions of Grb2 that could only interact with one protein from a pool of dozens that normal Grb2 is known to network with. The team then introduced these synthetic proteins back into the cell to see which specific interactions would restore the stem cell's transformative abilities.

"The name, 'directed network wiring,' comes from the fact that we create minimalist networks," Koide said. "We first remove all communication lines associated with a protein of interest and add back a single line. It is analysis by addition."

Despite the complexity of the protein network associated with stem cell development, the team discovered that restoring only one interactionbetween Grb2 and a protein known as Ptpn11/Shp2 phosphatasewas enough to allow stem cells to again change into other cell types.

"We were really surprised to find that consolidating many interactions down to a single particular connection for the protein was sufficient to support development of the cells to the next stage, which involves many complicated processes," Koide said. "Our results show that signals travel discrete and simple routes in the cell."

Koide and his team are now working on streamlining directed network wiring and applying it to other areas of study such as cancer. With the ability to dramatically simplify how scientists study protein interaction networks, they hope to open the door to new research areas and therapeutic approaches.

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New method reveals single protein interaction key to embryonic stem cell differentiation

19 hours ago Fig. 1: Pluripotent stem cells enable planarians to achieve extraordinary feats of regeneration. (A) Planarians are able to re-grow an entire head in a matter of a few days. (B) The stem cells and their early offspring can be found almost all over the worms body. During regeneration, when a lot of new tissue has to be produced, they are able to generate a wide variety of cell types. The cell nuclei are marked in blue. Tissue-specific markers are marked in red, green and white. Credit: Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine /Bartscherer

Planarians are known as masters of regeneration: they can re-build any part of their bodies after amputation. This ability relies on a large number of pluripotent stem cells. To further investigate the mechanisms that enable planarians to maintain their stem cell pool over generations, scientists have now established a method for analysing the composition of planarian stem cells and the turnover of their proteins. They discovered a protein that is not only required for the maintenance of the stem cell pool in planarians, but might also be active in the pluripotent stem cells of mammals.

Of earthworms and flatworms

Everyone knows the myth about earthworms: if you cut them in half, you get two worms. Nothing could be further from the truth, alas. However, if the earthworm is replaced by a flatworm, the two parts can survive these childish experiments. What's more, be it skin, intestine or brain, the body part lost through cutting will simply grow again in a matter of days. The creatures involved here are planarians[1], a class of flatworms that are so flat that they need neither lungs nor a heart to take in and distribute oxygen in their bodies. So simple and yet so ingenious? It would appear so. Regeneration studies involving these animals have shown that a dismembered planarian can generate several hundred tiny animals, hence they could "almost be called immortal under the edge of a knife" (Dalyell, 1814). The astonishing aspect here is that both the blueprint and construction material for the regeneration process must be contained in each of the fragments: a small piece of tail, for example, becomes a complete worm under the animal's own strength and using existing resources.

Not the preserve of youth: pluripotency also available in adults

So where do the components needed to rebuild the cellular structures come from? In their search for the answer to this question, scientists have a population of small cells in their sights, namely the approximately five-micrometre-long neoblasts. These cells are found almost everywhere in the planarian body and behave like stem cells: they divide, renew and can form the different cell types that have been lost as a result of amputation (Fig. 1). When the planarian loses a body part or discards its tail for reproduction, the neoblasts are reactivated and migrate to the wound. They divide there and their offspring form a blastema, in which as a result of interplay between various extra- and intra-cellular factors important differentiation and patterning processes take place. Thanks to these processes, in turn, complex structures like the brain are formed. If the neoblasts are eliminated through radiation, for example, the planarian loses its ability to regenerate and dies within a few weeks. The fact that, following transplantation into an irradiated, neoblast-free worm, a single neoblast can produce all cell types and enable the host worm to regain its ability to regenerate shows that at least some neoblasts are pluripotent [2]. In healthy mammals, pluripotency, that is the ability of one cell to produce any given cell type found in an organism, e.g. muscle, nerve or pancreas cells, only arises in the early embryonic stage. Therefore, stable pluripotency in the adult organism is something special but not impossible as long as mechanisms exist for conserving this characteristic as is clearly the case with the planarians.

An in-vivo Petri dish for pluripotent stem cells

The preservation of pluripotency has been an important topic in stem cell research for years, and has mostly been examined up to now using isolated embryonic stem cells. Important transcription factors that can induce and preserve pluripotency were discovered in the course of this research. So what can planarians contribute to the current research if their stem cells cannot be cultivated and reproduced outside of the body? This is precisely where the strength of the planarians as a model system in stem cell research lies: the combination they can offer of a natural extracellular environment and pluripotent stem cells. Whereas cultivated stem cells are normally taken out of their natural environment and all important interactions with neighbouring cells and freely moving molecules are interrupted as a result, the stem cells in planarians can be observed and manipulated under normal conditions in vivo. Therefore, planarians are of interest as "in-vivo Petri dishes" for stem cells, in which not only their mechanisms for preserving pluripotency can be studied, but also their regulation and contribution to regeneration.

A venerable old worm meets ultra-modern next-generation technologies

Although planarians have been renowned as masters of regeneration and research objects for generations, they have undergone a genuine explosion in research interest in recent years. In particular, the possibility of switching off specific genes through RNA interference (RNAi) and the availability of the genome sequence of Schmidtea mediterranea, a planarian species which is especially good at regenerating itself, have contributed to this surge in interest. With the development of modern sequencing procedures, that is 'next generation sequencing', gene expression profiles that provide information about the specific genes activated in particular cells or tissues at particular points in time can now be produced on a large scale. Hence, it is possible to examine which messenger RNAs (mRNAs) are produced that act as molecular templates for the production of proteins. For example, hundreds of these mRNAs are produced after the amputation of a worm's head and their proteins provide potential regulators of the regeneration process [3; 4]. However, the real work only starts here: the extent to which the presence of a particular mRNA also reflects the volume of protein that is active in the cell remains to be determined. It is mainly the proteins in the form of enzymes, signalling molecules and structural elements, and not their mRNAs, that ultimately control the majority of cellular processes. In addition, their production using mRNA templates and their lifetime are precisely regulated processes and the frequency with which an mRNA arises cannot provide any information about these processes. The time has come, therefore, to develop experimental approaches for planarians that extend beyond gene expression analysis and lend greater significance to the subsequent regulatory processes.

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How planarians maintain their stem cell pools over generations

June 5, 2014

Nathan Hurst, University of Missouri

One of the biggest challenges for medical researchers studying the effectiveness of stem cell therapies is that transplants or grafts of cells are often rejected by the hosts. This rejection can render experiments useless, making research into potentially life-saving treatments a long and difficult process. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have shown that a new line of genetically modified pigs will host transplanted cells without the risk of rejection.

The rejection of transplants and grafts by host bodies is a huge hurdle for medical researchers, said R. Michael Roberts, Curators Professor of Animal Science and Biochemistry and a researcher in the Bond Life Sciences Center. By establishing that these pigs will support transplants without the fear of rejection, we can move stem cell therapy research forward at a quicker pace.

In a published study, the team of researchers implanted human pluripotent stem cells in a special line of pigs developed by Randall Prather, an MU Curators Professor of reproductive physiology. Prather specifically created the pigs with immune systems that allow the pigs to accept all transplants or grafts without rejection. Once the scientists implanted the cells, the pigs did not reject the stem cells and the cells thrived. Prather says achieving this success with pigs is notable because pigs are much closer to humans than many other test animals.

Many medical researchers prefer conducting studies with pigs because they are more anatomically similar to humans than other animals, such as mice and rats, Prather said. Physically, pigs are much closer to the size and scale of humans than other animals, and they respond to health threats similarly. This means that research in pigs is more likely to have results similar to those in humans for many different tests and treatments.

Now that we know that human stem cells can thrive in these pigs, a door has been opened for new and exciting research by scientists around the world, Roberts said. Hopefully this means that we are one step closer to therapies and treatments for a number of debilitating human diseases.

Roberts and Prather published their study, Engraftment of human iPS cells and allogeneic porcine cells into pigs with inactivated RAG2 and accompanying severe combined immunodeficiency in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: Nathan Hurst, University of Missouri

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Stem Cells Successfully Transplanted And Grown In Pigs

JUNE 5, 2014

BY ERIN DIGITALE

Maria Grazia Roncarolo

Maria Grazia Roncarolo, MD, a stem cell and gene therapy expert and former scientific director of the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, is joining the Stanford University School of Medicine as a professor of pediatrics.

Roncarolo has been recruited to lead the schools efforts to translate basic scientific discoveries in the field of regenerative medicine into novel patient therapies, including treatments based on stem cells and gene therapy. My biggest goal is to build an infrastructure and assemble a team of world-class physician-scientists who can take full advantage of the tremendous discovery and knowledge generated at Stanford in order to transfer those into the clinic, she said.

Roncarolo begins June 15 as chief of the newly created Division of Pediatric Translational and Regenerative Medicine within the Department of Pediatrics, and as a pediatric immunologist at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford. She will also co-direct Stanfords Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Roncarolo is a world leader in stem cell and gene therapies, said Hugh OBrodovich, MD, professor and chair of pediatrics, and director of the Child Health Research Institute at Stanford. Under her direction, the San Raffaele Scientific Institute has been seminal in showing that these therapies can actually work. Being able to bring her here to Stanford to translate our discoveries into therapies for patients at one of the best childrens hospitals is a perfect match. OBrodovich is also the Adalyn Jay Physician-in-Chief at Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital Stanford.

Stanford is the only institution in the world that has the antibodies required to purify human blood-forming stem cells, giving it a unique advantage in the quest to develop stem-cell-based medical treatments. Roncarolo, meanwhile, has brought many basic-science discoveries in this field to patients. She holds eight patents and has six pending for methods used in cell and gene therapies. She has published more than 280 scientific papers and 22 book chapters. Her publications have been cited more than 19,000 times.

No single person has done as much as she in this field, or as successfully, said Irving Weissman, MD, professor of pathology and of developmental biology, and director of Stanfords Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. Roncarolo will join Michael Longaker, MD, professor of surgery, as a co-director of the institute.

We are very excited that Maria Grazia is joining our faculty, said Lloyd Minor, MD, dean of the School of Medicine. She is an outstanding basic scientist and translational researcher, and a highly knowledgeable institutional leader. She will be a tremendous asset to our team.

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Leading stem-cell expert to join Stanford Medicine faculty ...

Stem Cell Therapy Market by Treatment Mode Therapeutic Applications - 2020
[196 Slides Report] Stem Cell Therapy Market report categories the Global market by Therapeutic Applications (CNS, CVS, Musculoskeletal, Wound Healing, GIT, Eye, Immune System), Treatment...

By: James Evans

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Stem Cell Therapy Market by Treatment Mode & Therapeutic Applications - 2020 - Video

A NEW method of helping bone marrow stem cells "mature" is pushing science closer to being able to treat brain injuries by creating specific cells capable of repairing damaged areas.

By modifying the surface of these cells and ensuring the proper environment, these otherwise easy-to-obtain marrow cells could drive brain regeneration.

Although this is only a small step forward, the hope is that these techniques could one day help treat those who have suffered brain damage, including those resulting from a stroke.

Nationally, there are 420,000 Australians living with the effects of stroke in Australia.

There are about 50,000 new and recurrent strokes each year, about 29,000 of those in Queensland and New South Wales.

National Stroke Foundation spokeswoman Professor Richard Linley said the research had the potential to help stroke patients, but was clearly in the very early stages of development.

Queensland University of Technology researcher Rachel Okolicsanyi said while the capability of these marrow stem cells has been understood for some time, this research into influencing how they mature could create techniques to convert them into brain or neural cells.

Ms Okolicsanyi, with supervisors Dr Larisa Haupt and Professor Lyn Griffiths , will now attempt to nail down a technique that will deliver routine results.

Ms Okolicsanyi's work was published in the journal Developmental Biology.

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New stem cell methods may help brain injuries

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Jun-2014

Contact: Sandra Hutchinson s3.hutchinson@qut.edu.au 61-731-389-449 Queensland University of Technology

A QUT scientist is hoping to unlock the potential of stem cells as a way of repairing neural damage to the brain.

Rachel Okolicsanyi, from the Genomics Research Centre at QUT's Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, said unlike other cells in the body which were able to divide and replicate, once most types of brain cells died, the damage was deemed irreversible.

Ms Okolicsanyi is manipulating adult stem cells from bone marrow to produce a population of cells that can be used to treat brain damage.

"My research is a step in proving that stem cells taken from the bone marrow can be manipulated into neural cells, or precursor cells that have the potential to replace, repair or treat brain damage," she said.

Ms Okolicsanyi's research has been published in Developmental Biology journal, and outlines the potential stem cells have for brain damage repair.

"What I am looking at is whether or not stem cells from the bone marrow have the potential to differentiate or mature into neural cells," she said.

"Neural cells are those cells from the brain that make everything from the structure of the brain itself, to all the connections that make movement, voice, hearing and sight possible."

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Unlocking the potential of stem cells to repair brain damage

GOLTRY, Okla. Armed with stem cells, a Goltry area woman will be heading to Milwaukee next week to join in her brothers cancer fight.

Jeni Sumner was the only match among family members tested to donate stem cells to her younger brother, Ed Dee.

To me, Ive been given a gift. I know everybodys congratulating me and saying its a wonderful thing, and not taking it away from that, but I think Ive been given just a tremendous gift, Sumner said.

Along with helping her brother, Sumner is trying to encourage others to join the bone marrow donor registry.

I think a lot of people are afraid to join because they might get called, because they dont know what its like to be a donor, she said. I want more people to become aware of what its actually like to be a donor.

Sumner set up a Facebook page It Doesnt Hurt - To Save a Life to chronicle everything she will go through, as a donor, during the procedure.

Its an unknown for me, but its nothing compared to what my brothers going through, she said. I know the feeling that I got when I got the call from the doctor saying that I was his donor. The relief and the joy that I felt that our family doesnt have to look anymore. If anything happens, were covered because we have a donor, we have a match. The feeling that I got was incredible, she said.

Dee, of Milwaukee, Wis., was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia last year. Sumner said he went into remission last October.

Unfortunately, the cancer came back. This type of leukemia is a very dangerous and aggressive form. He, every couple of weeks, would go in for a blood test and this March he was informed that his leukemia had come back, she said. His doctors feel that a stem cell transplant would be the best for him, at this time.

Following the return of the cancer, Dee went through five days of rigorous chemotherapy to put him back into remission. He recently finished a lower dose session of chemo, Sumner said.

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Using stem cells, woman joins brothers cancer fight

Boston, MA (PRWEB) June 03, 2014

Today, Dr. James L. Sherley, the Director of Bostons Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC (ASCTC) described a new technology for identification of new drug candidates that are toxic to adult stem cell cells in the human body. The new AlphaSTEM technology is the first of its kind to address a long-standing unmet need in the pharmaceutical industry.

Dr. Sherley presented the AlphaSTEM technology at the 7th Annual Massachusetts Life Sciences Innovation Day (MALSI Day 2014; http://www.mattcenter.org/malsi-day-2014/home.html) at the Harvard Club of Boston. ASCTC is one of a select number of start-up companies invited to present posters on their newest innovative biotechnologies at the all day event, which features the best and brightest life sciences innovations of the year.

Just as adult stem cells are crucial for life and normal organ function, their safety is crucial for successful treatment with new drugs. Even if a new drug has high activity against a disease or disorder; it will not be an effective treatment, if it is also too toxic to adult stem cells.

Adult stem cells are found in all renewing tissues and organs of the human body, like hair, skin, liver, and even the brain. They are responsible for replacing old mature tissue cells with new young cells. They are also essential cells for repairing injured tissues and wounds.

Some drugs are known to harm adult stem cells. Examples of these are many cancer drugs. Cancer drugs are often administered at the highest doses at which patients can tolerate the adverse effects of the drugs on adult stem cells. ASCTCs AlphaSTEM technology could accelerate discovery of better cancer drugs with less adult stem cell toxicity.

The major application proposed for the new AlphaSTEM technology is use by pharmaceutical companies to identify adult stem cell-toxic drugs before initiating clinical trials with them or entering the marketplace. Drug failure in clinical trials due to safety concerns is a major unrecovered cost of drug development. Chronic adult stem cell toxicity that now may go undetected until after marketing can result in tragic deaths for patients and catastrophic injury liabilities for the responsible drug companies. The Merck drug Vioxx is an example of such an unfortunate mishap.

The problem faced by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the pharmaceutical industry is how to monitor drug effects on adult stem cells, when the cells are difficult to identify, isolate, produce, and count. The solution presented by ASCTC was a computer simulation approach based on the universal tissue cell production properties of adult stem cells.

ASCTC partnered with AlphaSTAR Corporation, a leading global provider of simulation technologies, to develop the AlphaSTEM software program that can simulate the culture multiplication of adult tissue stem cells found in any human tissue. AlphaSTEM technology not only has the power to detect drug toxicity against adult stem cells, but also against other specialized types of tissue cells specifically.

Director Sherley predicted that the introduction of AlphaSTEM technology into the pharmaceutical industry would have many immediate benefits. With relatively inexpensive detection of drugs destined to fail in expensive clinical trials, the new technology could save billions of currently wasted dollars, reducing overall drug development costs in the U.S. by as much as 20%. These savings could accelerate the rate of arrival of new effective drugs to patients by a comparable reduction in time. AlphaSTEM technology may also reduce the occurrence of drugs thought safe, but which actual have a lurking toxicity that emerges as lethal to some patients with wider and longer use.

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The Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC Announces New Technology for Preventing Catastrophic Adult Stem Cell ...

MIAMI (PRWEB) June 04, 2014

GlobalStemCellsGroup.com, its subsidiary Stem Cell Training, Inc. and Bioheart, Inc. have announced a new 16 CME online credit course for physicians. Working at their own pace from the privacy of home or office, physicians can learn how to implement regenerative medicine techniques in their own practices.

Taught by stem cell and regenerative medicine expert Kristin Comella, the online course provides didactic lectures on regenerative medicine and scientifically validated protocols. Lecture topics include:

Included in the online coursework are training videos, training booklets, detailed protocols and power point presentations with instructions and images for:

Medical professionals can also choose to combine the online coursework with one-on-one training with a regenerative medicine specialist.

For more information, visit the Global Stem Cells website,, email bnovas(at)regenestem(dot)com, or call 305-224-1858.

About the Global Stem Cells Group:

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. is the parent company of six wholly owned operating companies dedicated entirely to stem cell research, training, products and solutions. Founded in 2012, the company combines dedicated researchers, physician and patient educators and solution providers with the shared goal of meeting the growing worldwide need for leading edge stem cell treatments and solutions.

With a singular focus on this exciting new area of medical research, Global Stem Cells Group and its subsidiaries are uniquely positioned to become global leaders in cellular medicine.

Global Stem Cells Groups corporate mission is to make the promise of stem cell medicine a reality for patients around the world. With each of GSCGs six operating companies focused on a separate research-based mission, the result is a global network of state-of-the-art stem cell treatments.

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Global Stem Cells Group Announces Accredited Online Stem Cell Training Course

stem cell therapy-treatment for adhd by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india
improvement seen in just 5 days after stem cell therapy treatment for Global Developmental Delay with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder predominantly Hyperactivity Disorder by dr alok...

By: Neurogen Brain and Spine Institute

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stem cell therapy-treatment for adhd by dr alok sharma, mumbai, india - Video

Arthritic hip, knee, and thumbs 9 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson
Raymond and Nina describe their outcomes from stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson for their various arthritic pains http://www.docereclinics.com.

By: Harry Adelson, N.D.

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Arthritic hip, knee, and thumbs 9 months after stem cell therapy by Dr Harry Adelson - Video

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 04, 2014

The Animal Medical Center of New York is offering stem cell therapy provided through Vet-Stem and long-term management in a clinical trial for qualifying cats with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The ultimate goal of this study is to investigate the use of stem cells (obtained from the patients own fat) in aiding the enhancement of renal (kidney) function by their regenerative capabilities, with the goal of improving survival in cats with CKD.

Currently there are no therapeutic options for cats with CKD other than renal transplantation, which is not typically an option for most owners. Most efforts aim at improving uremic signs with food, dietary supplements, and antacids, but there are no current methods for improving function of the kidney directly. CKD is the leading cause of death in older cats, and 35% of cats will develop CKD at some point.

Since renal failure is so common in cats and renal cell death is the ultimate result, improving the health and environment of the cells that remain could improve the overall function of the kidneys and ultimately improve the survival times and quality of life in patients. The aim is to use the cats own adipose (fat) derived stem cells to improve renal function directly, as stem cells are thought to improve, repair, and aid in the growth of damaged tissue.

The potential health benefits of using stem cells to combat CKD include renal regeneration, anti-fibrotic effects, a decrease in proteinuria (also called urine albumin or an abnormal amount of protein in the urine), and an improvement in the Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR used to help measure kidney function). AMC is offering free fat collection, isolation of the stem cells from the fat, and intra-arterial injection for qualifying cats, as well as free follow-up for three years. Qualifying cats must be diagnosed with IRIS Stage 3 CKD that have had no other experimental therapies. Potential candidates must undergo a full workup and have no history of urinary tract stone disease or the presence of other concurrent, unrelated disease.

Allyson Berent, DVM, DACVIM and Catherine E. Langston, DVM, DACVIM will be leading the three year study, and invite owners with a cat that has been diagnosed with CKD to call 212.329.8763 for more information on qualifying for the clinic trial. To learn more about the study go to http://www.amcny.org/clinicaltrials. To watch a short special interest film about one cats success go to http://www.vet-stem.com/pr_detail.php?id=49.

The Animal Medical Center in New York City is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit veterinary center that has been a national leader in animal care since 1910. As an academic veterinary hospital, The AMC promotes the health and well-being of companion animals through advanced treatment, research and education. Stem Cell Therapy through Vet-Stem has been offered at AMC since 2008 to treat pain associated with chronic osteoarthritis. To find out more about AMC and their stem cell therapy services for osteoarthritis go to http://www.amcny.org/surgery/neurosurgery/stem-cell-therapy.

Vet-Stem, Inc. was formed in 2002 to bring regenerative medicine to the veterinary profession. The privately held company is working to develop therapies in veterinary medicine that apply regenerative technologies while utilizing the natural healing properties inherent in all animals. As the first company in the United States to provide an adipose-derived stem cell service to veterinarians for their patients, Vet-Stem, Inc. pioneered the use of regenerative stem cells in veterinary medicine. The company holds exclusive licenses to over 50 patents including world-wide veterinary rights for use of adipose derived stem cells. In the last decade over 10,000 animals have been treated using Vet-Stem, Inc.s services, and Vet-Stem is actively investigating stem cell therapy for immune-mediated and inflammatory disease, as well as organ disease and failure. For more on Vet-Stem, Inc. and Veterinary Regenerative Medicine visit http://www.vet-stem.com or call 858-748-2004.

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Animal Medical Center of New York Seeks Candidates for Clinical Trial for Cats with Chronic Kidney Disease to Receive ...

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Newswise June 3, 2014, New Haven, CT Thomas Jessell, PhD, the Claire Tow Professor of Motor Neuron Disorders in the Departments of Neuroscience and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, is the recipient of the 2014 Neuroscience Prize of The Gruber Foundation. Jessell is being honored with this prestigious international award for his seminal work on the development and wiring of spinal cord neurons involved in the control of movement. He is also co-director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, all at Columbia.

The award will be presented to Jessell, in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 at the 44th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Tom Jessell is one of the worlds leaders in the field of developmental neuroscience, says Ben Barres, a member of the Neuroscience Selection Advisory Board. His research has completely changed our understanding of the mechanisms of neural circuit assembly and function, which, in turn, has helped create a blueprint for the development of potential treatments for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

When Jessell began his research more than three decades ago, very little was known about the movement-controlling neural circuitry of the spinal cord, one of the most evolutionarily conserved regions of the central nervous system (CNS). Through a groundbreaking series of studies, Jessell revealed how nave neural cells develop into hundreds of distinct subtypes of motor neurons to form that remarkable circuitry. He was the first scientist to show, for example, that a specific signaling protein known as Sonic hedgehog (Shh) determines the fate (subtype identify and role in movement) of many of these cells.

Jessell has also described the precise way in which the distinct subtypes of spinal neurons are connected with each other and how they control the patterned activity of their muscle targets. In addition, he has led the way in demonstrating that Shh and other signaling pathways can be manipulated to influence the process by which stem cells mature into motor neurons. As a result, scientists now have a deeper understanding of how stem cells might be used to treat degenerative spinal cord diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Because of Jessells research, the spinal cord is now considered a model system for studying neural development and is widely used by scientists to better understand the neural circuitry of other, more complex areas of the CNS.

His more recent studies have focused on the mechanisms that wire circuits for limb movement, with the premise that genetic manipulation of individual neuronal classes can begin to uncover principles of circuit function as well as organization. Through the application of molecular information about neuronal identity to monitor, manipulate, and model the activity of specific classes of neurons, his work has also provided systems- and circuit-level insights into the neural control of limb movement.

Jessells discoveries have had a profound effect on all areas of neuroscience, which is why its so fitting that he is being acknowledged and honored with this award, says Carol Barnes, chair of the Selection Advisory Board to the Neuroscience Prize.

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Neurobiologist Thomas Jessell to Receive $500,000 Gruber Neuroscience Prize for Groundbreaking Work on the Neural ...

Thomas Jessell, PhD, the Claire Tow Professor of Motor Neuron Disorders in the Departments of Neuroscience and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, is the recipient of the 2014 Neuroscience Prize of The Gruber Foundation. Jessell is being honored with this prestigious international award for his seminal work on the development and wiring of spinal cord neurons involved in the control of movement. He is also co-director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, all at Columbia.

The award will be presented to Jessell, in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 at the 44th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. Tom Jessell is one of the worlds leaders in the field of developmental neuroscience, says Ben Barres, a member of the Neuroscience Selection Advisory Board. His research has completely changed our understanding of the mechanisms of neural circuit assembly and function, which, in turn, has helped create a blueprint for the development of potential treatments for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases.

When Jessell began his research more than three decades ago, very little was known about the movement-controlling neural circuitry of the spinal cord, one of the most evolutionarily conserved regions of the central nervous system (CNS). Through a groundbreaking series of studies, Jessell revealed how nave neural cells develop into hundreds of distinct subtypes of motor neurons to form that remarkable circuitry. He was the first scientist to show, for example, that a specific signaling protein known as Sonic hedgehog (Shh) determines the fate (subtype identify and role in movement) of many of these cells.

Jessell has also described the precise way in which the distinct subtypes of spinal neurons are connected with each other and how they control the patterned activity of their muscle targets. In addition, he has led the way in demonstrating that Shh and other signaling pathways can be manipulated to influence the process by which stem cells mature into motor neurons. As a result, scientists now have a deeper understanding of how stem cells might be used to treat degenerative spinal cord diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Because of Jessells research, the spinal cord is now considered a model system for studying neural development and is widely used by scientists to better understand the neural circuitry of other, more complex areas of the CNS.

His more recent studies have focused on the mechanisms that wire circuits for limb movement, with the premise that genetic manipulation of individual neuronal classes can begin to uncover principles of circuit function as well as organization. Through the application of molecular information about neuronal identity to monitor, manipulate, and model the activity of specific classes of neurons, his work has also provided systems- and circuit-level insights into the neural control of limb movement.

Jessells discoveries have had a profound effect on all areas of neuroscience, which is why its so fitting that he is being acknowledged and honored with this award, says Carol Barnes, chair of the Selection Advisory Board to the Neuroscience Prize.

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Prof. Thomas Jessell Wins Gruber Prize for Spinal Cord Neuron Research

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

3-Jun-2014

Contact: A. Sarah Hreha info@gruber.yale.edu 203-432-6231 Yale University

Thomas Jessell, PhD, the Claire Tow Professor of Motor Neuron Disorders in the Departments of Neuroscience and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Columbia University, is the recipient of the 2014 Neuroscience Prize of The Gruber Foundation. Jessell is being honored with this prestigious international award for his seminal work on the development and wiring of spinal cord neurons involved in the control of movement. He is also co-director of the Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Science, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, all at Columbia.

The award will be presented to Jessell, in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 at the 44th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

"Tom Jessell is one of the world's leaders in the field of developmental neuroscience," says Ben Barres, a member of the Neuroscience Selection Advisory Board. "His research has completely changed our understanding of the mechanisms of neural circuit assembly and function, which, in turn, has helped create a blueprint for the development of potential treatments for a variety of neurodegenerative diseases."

When Jessell began his research more than three decades ago, very little was known about the movement-controlling neural circuitry of the spinal cord, one of the most evolutionarily conserved regions of the central nervous system (CNS). Through a groundbreaking series of studies, Jessell revealed how nave neural cells develop into hundreds of distinct subtypes of motor neurons to form that remarkable circuitry. He was the first scientist to show, for example, that a specific signaling protein known as Sonic hedgehog (Shh) determines the "fate" (subtype identify and role in movement) of many of these cells.

Jessell has also described the precise way in which the distinct subtypes of spinal neurons are connected with each other and how they control the patterned activity of their muscle targets. In addition, he has led the way in demonstrating that Shh and other signaling pathways can be manipulated to influence the process by which stem cells mature into motor neurons. As a result, scientists now have a deeper understanding of how stem cells might be used to treat degenerative spinal cord diseases, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Because of Jessell's research, the spinal cord is now considered a model system for studying neural development and is widely used by scientists to better understand the neural circuitry of other, more complex areas of the CNS.

His more recent studies have focused on the mechanisms that wire circuits for limb movement, with the premise that genetic manipulation of individual neuronal classes can begin to uncover principles of circuit function as well as organization. Through the application of molecular information about neuronal identity to monitor, manipulate, and model the activity of specific classes of neurons, his work has also provided systems- and circuit-level insights into the neural control of limb movement.

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Neurobiologist Thomas Jessell to receive $500,000 Gruber Neuroscience Prize

Scientists Grow Human Cartlilage Using Stem Cells

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Scientists Grow Human Cartlilage Using Stem Cells - Video

A Littlestown resident went through a five-day procedure to give bone marrow stem cells to a man living in France

By Adam Michael

amichael@GameTimePA.com

@goodoletwonames on Twitter

John Sibirtzeff will never meet the man who used his stem cells to heal. He'll never know exactly what his affliction was, and he's OK with that.

A month ago, Sibirtzeff spent five days in Washington D.C. donating bone marrow stem cells that would be used to heal a 69-year-old man living in France.

"I'll never know who the recipient was," he said. "I'll never know if he was American or French, military or non."

When Sibirtzeff, of Littlestown, was in Navy boot camp in 2007, he opted into the C.W. Bill Young Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program. Naval doctors drew a vial of his blood and stored it after identifying his type. In 2011, Sibirtzeff finished his tour of duty, but his name remained on the donor list.

This past January, the program contacted Sibirtzeff requesting that he return for testing, as he was a potential match for a 69-year-old man living in France.

According to the program's website, salutetolife.org, 70 percent of patients are unable to find a match within their families. Sibirtzeff's receiver was among them.

More:
Everyday Hero: Littlestown man donates bone marrow stem cells to stranger

"It's a tiny wee finger prick test," says senior nurse Patsy Scouse to calm the nervous first-time donor having his hemoglobin levels tested at a blood donation centre in Edinburgh.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service receives donations from about four percent of the UK's population. Currently, stocks are stable, although the service is always trying to recruit new donors.

The collection may take place in a clinical environment, the nurse says, but the clinic "wants this experience, especially for first-time donors, to be really positive so they can go out and feel they've done a really good thing."

But the service is also working on potential new technologies to secure blood supplies in the future, including "artificial blood."

Mass-produced and clean

Mark Turner, medical director of the Blood Transfusion Service, is looking into how blood could be synthesized in the future.

"We've known for some time that it's possible to produce red blood cells from so called adult stem cells, but you can't produce large amounts of blood in that way because of the restrictive capacity of those cells to proliferate," he explains. What scientists can do, he adds, is to derive pluripotent stem cells - stem cell lines - either from embryos or from adult tissue.

These cells are processed in the laboratory to produce larger numbers of cells, Turner told DW.

"It may be possible in due course to manufacture blood on a very large scale, but we're a very long way from that at the present time," he says. "At the moment, our focus is on trying to achieve production of red blood cells which are of the right kind of quality and safety, that they would be fit for human trials."

From the lab to clinical trials

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Artificial blood made from human stem cells could plug the donations hole