Colon Cancer Screening Needed Less Than Every 5 Years - Colon cancer is easily treated if found early enough, but it appears current recommendations for scope screening every 5 years is unnecessarily frequent.

Sigmoidoscopy screening for colon cancer is recommended every five years for people over 50, however a new study found that screening that often may be unnecessary.

Sigmoidoscopy screening allows a doctor to identify polyps, or small growths, in the colon that could turn into cancer. Other colon cancer screening methods include fecal occult blood testing, which identifies blood in the stool, and colonoscopy, which examines the entire colon (sigmoidoscopy only examines the lower part).

While the American Cancer Society recommends that adults over 50 receive sigmoidoscopy screening every five years and a fecal occult blood test annually, some say this may be overly aggressive.

According to experts, it could take up to 15 years for polyps to develop into cancer and it may be that a one-time sigmoidoscopy screening is enough for those at average-risk. Read more...

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Via Scoop.it – inPharmatics

Oracle Exadata gets into Personlized Medicine & Bioinformatics space dressed as Oracle® Health Sciences Omics Data Bank.    Oracle Health Sciences today announced availability of Oracle® Health Sciences Omics Data Bank, a molecular data model, which is part of Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center.   The new data model provides integration and analysis of cross-platform omics data to support translational research. Oracle Health Sciences Translational Research Center runs on Oracle Exadata Database Machine, delivering the extreme performance required for querying vast data sets.
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The magazine GEN this week produced two relatively lengthy articles dealing with the current state of affairs and the future of the $3 billion California stem cell agency.

Much of the material is familiar to readers of the California Stem Cell Report, but GEN, which says it reaches "221,035 biotech and life science professionals, also produced an online survey that asked its readers: "How helpful has CIRM been in advancing stem cell science?"

At the time of this writing, the results showed that 40.9 of respondents said CIRM was "very helpful."  An identical percentage said "not very" or were undecided. The survey showed 18.2 percent as ranking the agency "somewhat" helpful. The number of respondents was not disclosed.

The two articles (see here and here)by Alex Philippidis also discussed the possibility of a bond issue in a "few years," before CIRM runs out of cash in 2017. Philippidis wrote,

"By then CIRM hopes to have won what ICOC (the CIRM governing board) chairman Jonathan Thomas, Ph.D., has called the 'communications war' the agency is fighting with California newspapers and the CIRM-focused blog California Stem Cell Report. Both have criticized the agency over a host of governance and pay issues."

For the record, the California Stem Cell Report has not criticized the agency in connection with the level of its executive pay. We have pointed out that many California voters have a highly negative and visceral reaction to high public salaries, which is a matter that CIRM must deal with in connection with retention of public confidence. We have also noted that the salaries represent a tiny, tiny fraction of CIRM spending.

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The blue-ribbon Institute of Medicine panel examining the performance of the $3 billion California stem cell agency has quietly concluded its first public hearing in California without so much as a smidgen of daily coverage in the mainstream media.

Instead, the big state news in California yesterday was a lawsuit filed by lawmakers against the state's top fiscal officer to prevent him from cutting their pay again when they fail to pass a balanced budget.

It would have been extremely unlikely, however, to have seen any daily coverage of the IOM session. The mainstream media generally ignores the affairs of the California stem cell agency.

Other than what has appeared on the California Stem Cell Report, the most comprehensive look at the $700,000, IOM examination of CIRM was provided on Tuesday by Marcy Darnovsky of the Center for Genetics and Society, which has followed CIRM, and the ballot measure that created it, since 2004.

Darnovsky brought her readers on the Biopolitical Times up to speed on CIRM matters. She noted that CIRM will need more cash in a few years when its bond funding runs out. She concluded,

"But ballot measure or no ballot measure, CIRM will continue to disperse the public money it controls - another billion and a half dollars. This is a public agency spending increasingly scarce public resources. It is funding a field of research in which we place great hopes for medical and scientific advances. These factors make it all the more crucial that CIRM follow the basics of good governance and public accountability, and eschew the hyperbole and exaggerated promises that have tainted stem cell research for so long."

The California Stem Cell Report emailed a 1,370-word statement to the panel. The study director of the IOM panel said the statement would be placed in the panel's record.

The document provided perspective on the formation of CIRM, the political context in which it operates and discussed some of the potential pitfalls of CIRM's necessary but delicate courting of industry. Suggestions were offered for changes to ease potential conflicts of interest and to open to the public the statements of the economic interests of the grant reviewers who make the de facto decisions on CIRM's funding.

Here is the full statement from the California Stem Cell Report.
CSCR Statement to IOM-CIRM Performance Inquiry

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A promising, positive story on stem cell research in California popped up in the news this week, involving improvements in vision as the result of the only hESC clinical trial in the nation.

The story came after Jonathan Thomas, chairman of the $3 billion California stem cell agency, said in the San Francisco Business Times that what he likes least about his job is that "the coverage in the press chooses to focus on items besides the extraordinary work that our scientists are doing."

The good news about the eye research appeared in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times and across the nation. However, it did not involve work at the stem cell agency, probably for reasons that likely have to do in good part with CIRM. The research involves a firm headquartered in Santa Monica, Ca., Advanced Cell Technology, that moved its base to the Golden State in hopes of securing CIRM funding. ACT has applied more than once for CIRM cash but has never received a grant. And it is one of the rare companies that has complained publicly to the CIRM governing board about a conflict of interest on the part of a CIRM reviewer. In ACT's case, its complaints received a public brushoff at a CIRM board meeting in 2008.

ACT's results in its clinical trial are quite tentative. They involve only two persons. One of the UCLA scientists involved said part of the results could have been the result of a placebo effect. Nonetheless, the reports carried the kind of story line that CIRM yearns for. Indeed, Thomas stressed the need for positive news when he told CIRM directors last June that the agency is in a "communications war" that is tied to its ultimate fate. (The agency runs out of cash in 2017.)

The New York Times' Andy Pollock wrote,

"Both patients, who were legally blind, said in interviews that they had gains in eyesight that were meaningful for them. One said she could see colors better and was able to thread a needle and sew on a button for the first time in years. The other said she was able to navigate a shopping mall by herself."

On its research blog, CIRM described the ACT results as a "milestone." CIRM's Amy Adams wrote,

"It’s the first published paper showing that—at least in this small number of patients for the first few months—the cells are safe."

She quoted Hank Greely of Stanford as saying that the news from ACT is "at least, a little exciting – and in a field that saw its first approved clinical trial stopped two months ago, even a little exciting news is very welcome."

Greely's reference, of course, was to Geron's sudden abandonment in November of its hESC trial, only three months after CIRM gave the firm a $25 million loan. It was widely believed that ACT was one of the initial applicants in the round that provided funding for Geron, although CIRM does not release the names of non-funded applicants.

Last week, CIRM directors spent a fair amount of time discussing the agency's future. The talk was of priorities, hard choices and generating results that would resonate with the people of California.

This week's news from a company that was not funded by CIRM will give them more to ponder.

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24-01-2012 10:25 On January 17th, 2012, the CIRM Governing Board heard from scientists and a patient about the essential role of genomics in the development of stem cell based therapies.

More here:
Craig Venter: Understanding Our Genes - A Step to Personalized Medicine | CIRM Spotlight on Genomics - Video

19-01-2012 22:48 Stem cell research has the potential to yield groundbreaking new tools to understand and develop therapies for CP and related brain disorders.

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Professor Alan Trounson - World focus on stem cell research - Video

08-11-2011 12:57 Human pluripotent stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (cardiac tissue) grown on an "air-liquid-interface" culture system to produce "microheart" OrganDots™. These OrganDots™, a core technology supporting VistaGen's drug rescue programs, are used to evaluate the positive ("efficacy") and negative ("toxicity") of drugs and drug candidates on the electrical functions and beating rates of the microhearts.

See more here:
VistaGen's Cardiac OrganDots(TM) Produced for Drug Rescue - Video

04-01-2012 21:51 Dr. Alok Srivastava, Chairman, National Apex Committee for Stem cell Research

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Jeevan Oration 2011: Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation: It's potential

03-01-2012 16:06 Read More @ http://www.BuyTvOffer.com Stem Cell Therapy is a new advanced anti aging skin care cream, that prevents and treats wrinkles. This anti wrinkle cream is specially designed to treat your skin, making fine lines disappear before your very eyes

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Stem Cell Therapy Cream - Video

03-01-2012 20:39 perfectmyskin.com - We often hear this "Build your own dreams before someone else HIRES you to build their dreams!". "Jeunesse", is once again in the forefront of this exploration for youth-enhancing solutions.

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Luminesce Stem Cell Skin Care - Rediscover Your Skin | Rediscover Yourself! - Video

19-12-2011 14:50 Katie Sharify, 23, of Pleasanton, receives stem cells for a spinal cord injury.

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Stem cell therapy at VMC - Video

27-12-2011 00:09 Many of our patients travel to Guangzhou from all over the world for medical treatment and tourism. China medical tourism can help with becoming a patient, travel arrangements and language assistance

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China medical tourism--Spinal Injury--Stem Cell - Video

14-12-2011 14:13 Crossroads Intern, Renee Davidson, explored the issue of stem cell/bone marrow donations interviewing a brave little girl, Alysha Dykstra, who knows first-hand what it's like to be in need and end up trying to find her one match. .

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"One Match" -- Stem Cell

02-01-2012 12:26 See inside our state-of-the-art adult stem cell facilities in Panama City, Panama.

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Stem Cell Therapy - Medistem Labs Panama Laboratory Tour - Video

26-10-2011 11:37 Apple Stem Cell break through technology that offers hopes for damaged skin.

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Apple Stem Cell - Video

15-01-2012 00:02 http://www.SCRxPlasma.Com Welcome to the 21st Century of Modern Medicine. Recent discovery reveals that it is the umbilical cord lining that is the body's greatest source of undifferentiated stem cells.

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SCRx Skin Systems.m4v - Video

15-01-2012 12:18 http://www.SCRxPlasma.Com Welcome to the 21st Century of Modern Medicine. Recent discovery reveals that it is the umbilical cord lining that is the body's greatest source of undifferentiated stem cells. In a single cord skin, billions of ETHICAL epithelial and mesencymal stems cells can be harvested.

The rest is here:
SCRx Skin System. - Video

Overuse and overprescription of antibiotic drugs has become a widely known culprit in causing the emergence of antibiotic-resistant "superbugs," as well as the onset of digestive and other health problems, caused by the elimination of beneficial gut flora. But a new review published in the journal Nature suggests that such gut flora alterations could be permanent.

Professor Martin Blaser from New York University's (NYU) Langone Medical Center has been studying the long-term effects of antibiotics on gut flora, which has already confirmed a definitive link between antibiotics and the disruption of beneficial bacteria in the digestive system. But what his research also seems to confirm is the possibility that such disruption might be permanent, at least in some individuals, and thus carry with it lifelong health consequences. Read more...

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Scientists have found ways to prepare stem cells from skin of an adult rat, without harming embryos. The discovery, which was done successfully on rats, will remove the ethical concerns of using stem cells for various medical purposes. Researchers have shown that it is possible to create stem cells similar to those present in embryos from skin. So far, mature cells were considered incapable of producing stem cells. The success of the research on rat has made scientists hopeful of being able to do this in case of humans as well. If this happens, the stem cells obtained from skin cells of a person will be able to produce cells and tissues that would be genetically an exact copy of the original, dispelling any rejection by the body that was probable for a stem cell obtained from an embryo. Stem cells are totipotent–capable of developing in any kind of tissue present in the body. Such a capability is of immense benefit as they can be used to replace the damaged cells and tissues, thus providing possible cure for several diseases like diabetes, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. The use of stem cells from embryo had ethical and moral concerns as the collection of stem cells damages the embryos. This many said is tantamount to murder or cannibalism. The new discovery, if successful for humans, will pave new ways for curing several diseases including those which were till now could not be treated. This will surely help cure many diseases and body defects. An advancement in this technique may also provide body organs for transplantation. The possibilities are immense but some concerns will continue to remain. The stem cells could be used rampantly for cosmetic purposes like skin grafts. This may also open a new arena of spare parts for human bodies as is available for machines. This will obviously dent the magical power of life. The cliche remains valid even here – every coin has two sides. It’s all up to us to choose the positive side. Learn more about stem cells. Source: BBC, Daily Mail Image Source: Canada.com

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