Category Archives: Cell Medicine

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

14-Oct-2014

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

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

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

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

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

Cell Growth Plusses and Minuses

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

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

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

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

13-Oct-2014

Contact: Karen Kreeger karen.kreeger@uphs.upenn.edu 215-349-5658 University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine @PennMedNews

PHILADELPHIA Roberto Bonasio, PhD, an assistant professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and a core member of the Penn Epigenetics Program is one of the recipients of a 2014 New Innovator Award from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

The NIH Director's New Innovator Award, totaling $1.5 million over five years for each of the 50 recipients this year, supports highly innovative research and creative, new investigators who exhibit strong potential to make great advances on a critical biomedical or behavioral research problem. The initiative, established in 2007, supports investigators who are within 10 years of their terminal degree or clinical residency, who have not yet received a research project grant (R01), or equivalent NIH grant, to conduct unusually innovative research.

Bonasio studies the molecular mechanisms of epigenetic memory, which are key to a number of biological processes, including embryonic development, cancer, stem cell pluripotency, and brain function. In particular, he will be looking at gene expression controlled by epigenetic pathways that alter the chemical structure of chromosomes and allow for multiple cell identities to arise from a single genome. These pathways are also critical in the brain and their improper functioning can cause mental retardation, cognitive decline, and psychiatric disorders.

Bonasio has chosen ants as a model system. With colleagues Shelley Berger, PhD, who directs the Penn Epigenetics program; postdoctoral mentor Danny Reinberg, PhD, New York University; and Jrgen Liebig, PhD, Arizona State University, Bonasio has established the ant Harpegnathos saltator as a laboratory model to study epigenetics, the process by which a single genome gives rise to a variety of physiological outcomes.

This phenomenon is particularly evident in ants, as they live in caste-based societies in which most of the individuals are sterile females, limited to highly specialized roles such as workers and soldiers. Only one queen and the relatively small contingent of male ants are fertile and able to reproduce. Yet despite such extreme differences in behavior and physical form, all females within the colony appear to be genetically identical.

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Also see the University of Pennsylvania release.

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Penn Medicine researcher receives New Innovator Award from National Institutes of Health

MIAMI (PRWEB) October 13, 2014

Global Stem Cells Group, Inc. has launched a new corporate website (http://www.stemcellsgroup.com) designed to better highlight its six stem cell-related operating companies and provide up-to-date information on upcoming conferences, corporate news, stem cell research findings and more.

The website offers detailed information on each stem cell division including:

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

About 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 Launches New Corporate Website

MIAMI (PRWEB) October 13, 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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

About Regenestem:

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

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

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

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Step 1 - lupus / diabetes / alzheimers syrum - Take 5ml blood - Video

Boston, Massachusetts (PRWEB) September 25, 2014

The ASCTCs (website) Director James L. Sherleys first BioPharm America (conference website) experience got off to a remarkable beginning on Day 1 of the conference. After an impromptu decision to participate in the events Perfect Pitch competition, which involved about 40 company contestants, ASCTC tied for second place. As one of a few companies in the stem cell and regenerative medicine space at the conference, this success led to some attendees referring to Sherley as that stem cell guy. Sherley smiled, I take it as a fun compliment. I do think it was the unique presence of ASCTC as one of a few stem cell companies present in a sea of drug development companies that contributed to our success.

However, the ASCTCs pitch to a panel of Pharma investors was in fact more about drugs than stem cells. Sherley pitched the companys partnership venture with AlphaSTAR Corporation (ASC; website) located in Long Beach, California. ASC develops computer simulation analyses to predict the integrity failure of complex composite materials used to build aircraft, racing cars, and other high stress vehicles like the space shuttle. The two companies have integrated their respective expertise to produce a first-of-its-kind computer simulation-based technology for identifying, at the beginning of the drug development pipeline, drug candidates that are toxic to tissue stem cells. Such toxicity causes drugs to fail in expensive preclinical studies and clinical trials, and even after marketing.

At the conference, Sherley commented, I think we are starting to get their [drug companies] attention now. In his pitch of the new AlphaStem tissue stem cell toxicity technology, he emphasized that the ASCTC projects that this technology could save the U.S. Pharma industry about $4 billion of the estimated $40 billion that it spends on failed drug candidates each year. Besides reducing cost and accelerating the development of needed new drugs, the AlphaStem technology would reduce that exposure of patients to particularly harmful drug candidates.

The ASCTC was not the only company at the conference active within the regenerative medicine space. On the first evening of the conference, ASCTC was one of several guest companies and academic institutions in the regenerative medicine space that were invited to a VIP dinner co-hosted by BioPharm Americas producer, EBD Group, and the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine. The guest party dined at the Top of the Hub Restaurant on the top floor of Bostons Prudential Tower.

BioPharm America conferences are designed to arrange many one-to-one meetings among participants of diverse expertise in the international pharmaceutical industry. Over the three-day conference, ASCTC Director Sherley met with Pharma executives, contract research organization directors, Pharma business development consultants, and Pharma investment group partners towards establishing new strategic relationships for the company.

On the final morning of the conference, the ASCTC was one of eleven companies selected to present in the Next Generation Company session. Director Sherley focused his presentation on how the ASCTCs unique expertise in tissue stem cell asymmetric self-renewal gives the company its exclusive position in commercialization of technologies for counting, manufacturing, and monitoring human tissue stem cells. Asymmetric self-renewal is the defining property of tissue stem cells that allows them to maintain the genomic blueprint of human tissues while continuously producing the building block cells of body tissues at the same time. Sherley expressed that asymmetrically self-renewing stem cells in organs and tissues of children and adults will eventually be understood as the fulcrum at the center, between the mature industry of pharmaceutical therapeutics and the emerging industry of cell-based therapeutics. Thats the ASCTC vision.

************************************************************************************************************* The Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC is a Massachusetts life sciences company established in September 2013 (ASCTC; join mailing list). ASCTC Director and founder, James L. Sherley, M.D., Ph.D. is the foremost authority on the unique properties of adult tissue stem cells. The companys patent portfolio contains biotechnologies that solve the three main technical problems production, quantification, and monitoring that have stood in the way of successful commercialization of human adult tissue stem cells for regenerative medicine and drug development. In addition, the portfolio includes novel technologies for isolating cancer stem cells and producing induced pluripotent stem cells. Currently, ASCTC is employing its technological advantages to pursue commercialization of mass-produced therapeutic human liver cells and facile assays that are early warning systems for drug candidates with catastrophic toxicity due to adverse effects against adult tissue stem cells.

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The Adult Stem Cell Technology Center, LLC Presents Its New Company Initiatives At The 2014 BioPharm America ...

Xia Jie.

Medical entrepreneur Xia Jie, whose company Health 100 owns the largest chain of health clinics in China, plans to open overseas facilities to cater for wealthy clients.

That could result in an investment of about $20 million in a regenerative treatment centre in the resort, making it a Mecca for health tourism and athlete injury rehabilitation.

''We're now negotiating with the local medical teams,'' Mr Xia said yesterday through an interpreter while on a four-day fact-finding mission to Queenstown.

''Health 100 really wants to find beautiful cities around the world to take Chinese patients to and Queenstown is one of them.

''The vision is to bring the very high-end customers to have special treatment which is not carried out elsewhere in the world,'' he said.

Health 100 would invest with existing firms Queenstown Regenerative Medicine (QRM), run by Marcelle Noble, and the Queenstown Skin Institute.

Both have small premises at Remarkables Park in Frankton.

Queenstown Skin Institute director Dr Hans Raetz said Mr Xia had indicated plans for a much larger centre, with sites in Remarkables Park, Jacks Point or the Five Mile development off Frankton Ladies Mile already earmarked.

''The size depends on Mr Xia, but we've been talking between $10 million and $20 million.

Continued here:
Stem cell centre proposed for resort

(PRWEB UK) 22 September 2014

BioKidz is a simple concept which aims to engage children in the importance of stem cell medicine. Aimed at an audience of 4-9 year olds, the company now aims to use it in the 21 countries in which it operates.

BioEden has been invited to speak with parents and teachers later this month, as the BioKidz site aims to be a good source of scientific information for primary school teachers.

The BioEden proposition is very simple one: harvest the stem cells from a naturally shed baby tooth, store the viable cells for future therapeutic use, and guarantee that the cells will be available when needed.

As stem cell medicine is now becoming commonplace, it is important that there is a stem cell match when needed. The easiest way to do this is by harvesting and storing one's own cells, and there is no easier way than from naturally shed teeth.

The company admits that they could be putting the ordinary tooth fairy out of business, but they hasten to add that BioKidz have their own hero in the form of a Super Tooth Fairy who works within their own stem cell laboratories.

Children can meet BioEden the Super Tooth Fairy by visiting http://www.bioeden.com.

Excerpt from:
BioKidz: the Children of the Stem Cell Revolution to go Global

Cellular therapeutics -- using intact cells to treat and cure disease -- is a hugely promising new approach in medicine but it is hindered by the inability of doctors and scientists to effectively track the movements, destination and persistence of these cells in patients without resorting to invasive procedures, like tissue sampling.

In a paper published September 17 in the online journal Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh and elsewhere describe the first human tests of using a perfluorocarbon (PFC) tracer in combination with non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track therapeutic immune cells injected into patients with colorectal cancer.

"Initially, we see this technique used for clinical trials that involve tests of new cell therapies," said first author Eric T. Ahrens, PhD, professor in the Department of Radiology at UC San Diego. "Clinical development of cell therapies can be accelerated by providing feedback regarding cell motility, optimal delivery routes, individual therapeutic doses and engraftment success."

Currently, there is no accepted way to image cells in the human body that covers a broad range of cell types and diseases. Earlier techniques have used metal ion-based vascular MRI contrast agents and radioisotopes. The former have proven difficult to differentiate in vivo; the latter raise concerns about radiation toxicity and do not provide the anatomical detail available with MRIs.

"This is the first human PFC cell tracking agent, which is a new way to do MRI cell tracking," said Ahrens. "It's the first example of a clinical MRI agent designed specifically for cell tracking."

Researchers used a PFC tracer agent and an MRI technique that directly detects fluorine atoms in labeled cells. Fluorine atoms naturally occur in extremely low concentrations in the body, making it easier to observe cells labeled with fluorine using MRI. In this case, the modified and labeled dendritic cells -- potent stimulators of the immune system -- were first prepared from white blood cells extracted from the patient. The cells were then injected into patients with stage 4 metastatic colorectal cancer to stimulate an anti-cancer T-cell immune response.

The published study did not assess the efficacy of the cell therapy, but rather the ability of researchers to detect the labeled cells and monitor what happened to them. Ahrens said the technique worked as expected, with the surprising finding that only half of the delivered cell vaccine remained at the inoculation site after 24 hours.

"The imaging agent technology has been to shown to be able to tag any cell type that is of interest," Ahrens said. "It is a platform imaging technology for a wide range of diseases and applications," which might also speed development of relevant therapies.

"Non-invasive cell tracking may help lower regulatory barriers," Ahrens explained. "For example, new stem cell therapies can be slow to obtain regulatory approvals in part because it is difficult, if not impossible, with current approaches to verify survival and location of transplanted cells. And cell therapy trials generally have a high cost per patient. Tools that allow the investigator to gain a 'richer' data set from individual patients mean it may be possible to reduce patient numbers enrolled in a trial, thus reducing total trial cost."

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Better way to track emerging cell therapies using MRIs

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Scientists are celebrating a breakthrough in stem cell research.

A type of human stem cell has been replicated in a lab for the first time in history.

The cells, previously impossible to duplicate, have been recreated to the equivalent of those between seven and nine days old the same as found in an embryo before it implants in the womb.

The creation of the human pluripotent cells opens a door for specialised cells to be created in the future for use in regenerative medicine.

The Wellcome Trust - Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute led the research, which was carried out by both British and Japanese academics.

Professor Austin Smith, director, said: "Our findings suggest that it is possible to rewind the clock to achieve true ground state pluripotency in human cells.

"These cells may represent the real starting point for formation of tissues in the human embryo. We hope that in time they will allow us to unlock the fundamental biology of early development, which is impossible to study directly in people."

The "reset" cells could be used as "raw material" for therapies, as well as diagnostic tools and drug screenings.

Scientists also hope that after further studying, the cells will help them learn more about how an embryo develops correctly, and how miscarriages and developmental disorders are caused.

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Significant milestone in stem cell research at The Wellcome Trust - Medical Research Council institute