Category Archives: Cell Medicine

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University

Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone.

Researchers can use the method, called nanocombinatorics, to build enormous libraries of physical structures varying in size from a few nanometers to many micrometers for addressing problems within and outside biology.

Those in the fields of chemistry, materials engineering and nanotechnology could use this invaluable tool to assess which chemical and physical structures -- including size, shape and composition -- work best for a desired process or function.

Nanocombinatorics holds promise for screening catalysts for energy conversion, understanding properties conferred by nanostructures, identifying active molecules for drug discovery or even optimizing materials for tissue regeneration, among other applications.

Details of the method and proof of concept is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"With further development, researchers might be able to use this approach to prepare cells of any lineage on command," said Chad A. Mirkin, who led the work. "Insight into such a process is important for understanding cancer development and for developing novel cancer treatment methodologies."

Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering. He also is the director of Northwestern's International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN).

The new analytical method utilizes a technique invented at Northwestern called polymer pen lithography, where basically a rubber stamp having as many as 11 million sharp pyramids is mounted on a transparent glass backing and precisely controlled by an atomic force microscope to generate desired patterns on a surface. Each pyramid -- a polymeric pen -- is coated with molecules for a particular purpose.

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Influencing stem cell fate

SAN DIEGO, March 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Histogen Inc., a regenerative medicine company, and Suneva Medical, a privately-held aesthetics company, today announced that they have entered into a license agreement for physician-dispensed aesthetic products containing Histogen's proprietary multipotent cell conditioned media (CCM).

Under the terms of this license agreement, Suneva Medical has acquired exclusive U.S. licensing rights to Histogen's multipotent CCM and the ReGenica branded line of products for topical applications in the licensed market. Suneva Medical will manufacture the ReGenica product line and market it to aesthetic practitioners throughout the U.S. Histogen will receive a transfer price on the CCM, as well as royalties on future sales of ReGenica and product line extensions.

"First, let me say that, as the first step in expanding our business, we are very excited about this particular opportunity as the advent of regenerative medicine is upon us. One of our key business objectives is to find novel products that complement our rapidly growing dermal filler business. We believe Histogen's innovative technology coupled with our proven experience of developing and marketing aesthetic products is a winning combination as it enables us to offer our customers a differentiated product line," stated Nicholas Teti, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Suneva Medical.

Through Histogen's technology process, which mimics the embryonic environment including conditions of low oxygen and suspension, cells are triggered to become multipotent, and naturally produce proteins associated with skin renewal and scarless healing. The result is a soluble cell conditioned media containing cell-signaling proteins such as KGF, follistatin, stem cell factor, collagens and laminins, which support the epidermal stem cells that renew skin throughout life. In addition, factors associated with scarring, such as TGF-beta, are decreased or nonexistent.

"The applications for this proprietary multipotent CCM within the field of medical aesthetics are numerous and, based upon the way the proteins within the complex signal the body's own stem cells to rejuvenate and regenerate skin, potentially groundbreaking," said Dr. Gail K. Naughton, CEO and Chairman of the Board at Histogen. "This recognition from Suneva's expert team, with a rich background in developing and marketing aesthetics, validates Histogen's technology and supports the fact that it is different from anything currently in the market."

About Histogen Histogen, launched in 2007, seeks to redefine regenerative medicine by developing a series of high value products that do not contain embryonic stem cells or animal components. Through Histogen's proprietary bioreactors that mimic the embryonic environment, including low oxygen and suspension, newborn cells are encouraged to naturally produce the vital proteins and growth factors from which the Company has developed its rich product portfolio. Histogen has two product families a proprietary cell conditioned media, and a human Extracellular Matrix (ECM) material. For more information, please visit http://www.histogen.com.

About Suneva Medical Suneva Medical, Inc. is a privately-held aesthetics company focused on developing, manufacturing and commercializing novel, differentiated products for the dermatology, plastic and cosmetic surgery markets. The Company's long-lasting injectable product is marketed as Artefill in the U.S. and Bellafill in Canada to correct facial wrinkles. For more information visit http://www.sunevamedical.com.

Contacts:

For Histogen Inc.:

Eileen Brandt Phone: (858) 200-9520 ebrandt@histogeninc.com

Original post:
Histogen Signs License Agreement with Suneva Medical for Cell Conditioned Media-based Aesthetic Products

Public release date: 6-Mar-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Megan Fellman fellman@northwestern.edu 847-491-3115 Northwestern University

Northwestern University scientists have developed a powerful analytical method that they have used to direct stem cell differentiation. Out of millions of possibilities, they rapidly identified the chemical and physical structures that can cue stem cells to become osteocytes, cells found in mature bone.

Researchers can use the method, called nanocombinatorics, to build enormous libraries of physical structures varying in size from a few nanometers to many micrometers for addressing problems within and outside biology.

Those in the fields of chemistry, materials engineering and nanotechnology could use this invaluable tool to assess which chemical and physical structures -- including size, shape and composition -- work best for a desired process or function.

Nanocombinatorics holds promise for screening catalysts for energy conversion, understanding properties conferred by nanostructures, identifying active molecules for drug discovery or even optimizing materials for tissue regeneration, among other applications.

Details of the method and proof of concept is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"With further development, researchers might be able to use this approach to prepare cells of any lineage on command," said Chad A. Mirkin, who led the work. "Insight into such a process is important for understanding cancer development and for developing novel cancer treatment methodologies."

Mirkin is the George B. Rathmann Professor of Chemistry in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and professor of medicine, chemical and biological engineering, biomedical engineering and materials science and engineering. He also is the director of Northwestern's International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN).

The new analytical method utilizes a technique invented at Northwestern called polymer pen lithography, where basically a rubber stamp having as many as 11 million sharp pyramids is mounted on a transparent glass backing and precisely controlled by an atomic force microscope to generate desired patterns on a surface. Each pyramid -- a polymeric pen -- is coated with molecules for a particular purpose.

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Influencing stem cell fate

05-03-2012 11:59 Learn more about cord blood stem cells here http://www.cordblood.com Cord Blood Registry's Scientific and Medical Affairs team, led by Heather Brown Vice President of Scientific and Medical Affairs, is dedicated to helping understand, communicate and advance stem cell medicine. Her team's focus is on helping find new uses for cord blood, including supporting research that is looking for treatments for conditions that have no treatment today. Our company was founded on the belief that saving newborn stem cells can change the future of medicine. Whether it's providing newborn stem cell banking at no cost to a family with a medical need or partnering with world-class researchers for first-of-their-kind clinical trials, we are committed to advancing stem cell medicine and finding new cures.

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Cord Blood Registry's Leading Science and Research Team - Video

Boosting the production of certain cells could help treat liver disease, new research has suggested.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Edinburgh said they have discovered how to enhance the production of key cells needed to repair damaged liver tissue. The research could help develop treatments for diseases such as cirrhosis or chronic hepatitis.

Scientists hope their work could eventually ease the pressure on waiting lists for liver transplants. Researchers said that when the liver is damaged it produces too many bile duct cells and not enough cells called hepatocytes, which the liver needs to repair damaged tissue.

They found they could increase the number of hepatocyte cells - which detoxify the liver - by encouraging these cells to be produced instead of bile duct cells. Understanding how liver cells are formed could help to develop drugs to encourage the production of hepatocytes to repair liver tissue.

Professor Stuart Forbes, associate director at the MRC, who is a consultant hepatologist and was the academic leader of the study, said: "Liver disease is on the increase in the UK and is one of the top five killers. Increasing numbers of patients are in need of liver transplants, but the supply of donated organs is not keeping pace with the demand.

"If we can find ways to encourage the liver to heal itself then we could ease the pressure on waiting lists for liver transplants."

The production of hepatocyte cells was increased by altering the expression of certain genes in early stage liver cells. The university said that liver disease is the fifth biggest killer in the UK with almost 500 people waiting for a liver transplant, compared with just over 300 five years ago.

Dr Rob Buckle, head of regenerative medicine at the MRC, said: "Liver transplants have saved countless lives over the years, but demand will inevitably outstrip supply and in the long term we need to look beyond replacing damaged tissues to exploiting the regenerative potential of the human body.

"The MRC continues to invest heavily across the breadth of approaches that might deliver the promise of regenerative medicine, and this study opens up the possibility of applying our increasing knowledge of stem cell biology to stimulate the body's own dormant repair processes as a basis for future therapy."

The study is published in the journal Nature Medicine. It was carried out in collaboration with the University's MRC Centre for Inflammation Research, the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow and the KU Leuven in Belgium.

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Cell find boosts liver disease hope

29-02-2012 17:57 Learn more at http://www.cordblood.com CBR's team of dedicated professionals is prepared to guide you through every step of the banking process and beyond. Meet Sherry, CBR's transplant coordinator. As Sherry says, her employer is CBR, but she works for the families who need newborn stem cell medicine. She is the voice parents hear over the phone when they need to use their stored cord blood stem cells. Sherry's dedication and passion to deliver exceptional customer service to clients is one example of the many people at Cord Blood Registry who are committed to helping families live longer, healthier lives.

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Cord Blood Registery Helps Families Use Stem Cells - Video

ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2012) UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered a critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway that prevent blood precursors from premature differentiation in the placenta, a process necessary for ensuring proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime.

The placental niche, a stem cell "safe zone," supports blood stem cell generation and expansion without promoting differentiation into mature blood cells, allowing the establishment of a pool of precursor cells that provide blood cells for later fetal and post-natal life, said study senior author Dr. Hanna Mikkola, an associate professor of molecular cell and developmental biology and a researcher at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Mikkola and her team found that PDGF-B signaling in trophoblasts, specialized cells of the placenta that facilitate embryo implantation and gas and nutrient exchanges between mother and fetus, is vital to maintaining the unique microenvironment needed for the blood precursors. When PDGF-B signaling is halted, the blood precursors differentiate prematurely, creating red blood cells in the placenta, Mikkola said.

The study, done in mouse models, appears March 1, 2012, in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Cell.

"We had previously discovered that the placenta provides a home for a large supply of blood stem cells that are maintained in an undifferentiated state. We now found that, by switching off one signaling pathway, the blood precursors in the placenta start to differentiate into red blood cells," Mikkola said. "We learned that the trophoblasts act as powerful signaling centers that govern the niche safe zone."

The study found that the PDGF-B signaling in the trophoblasts is suppressing production of Erythropoietin (EPO), a cytokine that controls red blood cell differentiation.

"When PDGF-B signaling is lost, excessive amounts of EPO are produced in the placenta, which triggers differentiation of red blood cells in the placental vasculature," said Akanksha Chhabra, study first author and a post-doctoral fellow in Mikkola's lab.

Mikkola and Chhabra used mouse models in which the placental structure was disrupted so they could observe what cells and signaling pathways were important components of the niche.

"The idea was, if we mess up the home where the blood stem cells live, how do these cells respond to the altered environment," Chhabra said. "We found that it was important to suppress EPO where blood stem cell expansion is desired and to restrict its expression to areas where red blood cell differentiation should occur."

The finding, Chhabra said, was exciting in that one single molecular change "was enough to change the function of an important blood stem cell niche."

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Cell and signaling pathway that regulates the placental blood stem cell niche identified

29-02-2012 17:57 Learn more at http://www.cordblood.com CBR's team of dedicated professionals is prepared to guide you through every step of the banking process and beyond. Meet Sherry, CBR's transplant coordinator. As Sherry says, her employer is CBR, but she works for the families who need newborn stem cell medicine. She is the voice parents hear over the phone when they need to use their stored cord blood stem cells. Sherry's dedication and passion to deliver exceptional customer service to clients is one example of the many people at Cord Blood Registry who are committed to helping families live longer, healthier lives.

Read the original:
Cord Blood Registery Helps Families Use Stem Cells - Video

ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2012) Despite their unassuming appearance, the planarian flatworms in Whitehead Institute Member Peter Reddien's lab are revealing powerful new insights into the biology of stem cells -- insights that may eventually help such cells deliver on a promising role in regenerative medicine.

In this week's issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, Reddien and scientists in his lab report on their development of a novel approach to identify and study the genes that control stem cell behavior in planarians. Intriguingly, at least one class of these genes has a counterpart in human embryonic stem cells.

"This is a huge step forward in establishing planarians as an in vivo system for which the roles of stem cell regulators can be dissected," says Reddien, who is also an associate professor of biology at MIT and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Early Career Scientist. "In the grand scheme of things for understanding stem cell biology, I think this is a beginning foray into seeking general principles that all animals utilize. I'd say we're at the beginning of that process."

Planarians (Schmidtea mediterranea) are tiny freshwater flatworms with the ability to reproduce through fission. After literally tearing themselves in half, the worms use stem cells, called cNeoblasts, to regrow any missing tissues and organs, ultimately forming two complete planarians in about a week.

Unlike muscle, nerve, or skin cells that are fully differentiated, certain stem cells, such as cNeoblasts and embryonic stem cells are pluripotent, having the ability to become almost cell type in the body. Researchers have long been interested in harnessing this capability to regrow damaged, diseased, or missing tissues in humans, such as insulin-producing cells for diabetics or nerve cells for patients with spinal cord injuries.

Several problems currently confound the therapeutic use of stem cells, including getting the stem cells to differentiate into the desired cell type in the appropriate location and having such cells successfully integrate with surrounding tissues, all without forming tumors. To solve these issues, researchers need a better understanding of how stem cells tick at the molecular level, particularly within the environment of a living organism. To date, a considerable amount of embryonic stem cell research has been conducted in the highly artificial environment of the Petri dish.

With its renowned powers of regeneration and more than half of its genes having human homologs, the planarian seems like a logical choice for this line of research. Yet, until now, scientists have been unable to efficiently find the genes that regulate the planarian stem cell system.

Postdoctoral researcher Dan Wagner, first author of the Cell Stem Cell paper, and Reddien devised a clever method to identify potential genetic regulators and then determine if those genes affect the two main functions of stem cells: differentiation and renewal of the stem cell population.

After identifying genes active in cNeoblasts, Wagner irradiated the planarians, leaving a single surviving cNeoblast in each planarian. Left alone, each cNeoblast can form colonies of new cells at very specific rates of differentiation and stem cell renewal.

The researchers knocked down each of the active genes, one per planarian, and observed how the surviving cNeoblasts responded. By comparing the rate of differentiation and stem cell renewal to that of normal cNeoblasts, they could determine the role of each gene. Thus, if a colony containing a certain knocked down gene were observed to have fewer stem cells than the controls, it could be concluded that gene in question plays a role in the process of stem cell renewal. And if the colony had fewer differentiated cells than normal, the knocked down gene could be associated with differentiation.

Continued here:
Planarian genes that control stem cell biology identified

ScienceDaily (Mar. 1, 2012) UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered a critical placental niche cell and signaling pathway that prevent blood precursors from premature differentiation in the placenta, a process necessary for ensuring proper blood supply for an individual's lifetime.

The placental niche, a stem cell "safe zone," supports blood stem cell generation and expansion without promoting differentiation into mature blood cells, allowing the establishment of a pool of precursor cells that provide blood cells for later fetal and post-natal life, said study senior author Dr. Hanna Mikkola, an associate professor of molecular cell and developmental biology and a researcher at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA.

Mikkola and her team found that PDGF-B signaling in trophoblasts, specialized cells of the placenta that facilitate embryo implantation and gas and nutrient exchanges between mother and fetus, is vital to maintaining the unique microenvironment needed for the blood precursors. When PDGF-B signaling is halted, the blood precursors differentiate prematurely, creating red blood cells in the placenta, Mikkola said.

The study, done in mouse models, appears March 1, 2012, in the peer-reviewed journal Developmental Cell.

"We had previously discovered that the placenta provides a home for a large supply of blood stem cells that are maintained in an undifferentiated state. We now found that, by switching off one signaling pathway, the blood precursors in the placenta start to differentiate into red blood cells," Mikkola said. "We learned that the trophoblasts act as powerful signaling centers that govern the niche safe zone."

The study found that the PDGF-B signaling in the trophoblasts is suppressing production of Erythropoietin (EPO), a cytokine that controls red blood cell differentiation.

"When PDGF-B signaling is lost, excessive amounts of EPO are produced in the placenta, which triggers differentiation of red blood cells in the placental vasculature," said Akanksha Chhabra, study first author and a post-doctoral fellow in Mikkola's lab.

Mikkola and Chhabra used mouse models in which the placental structure was disrupted so they could observe what cells and signaling pathways were important components of the niche.

"The idea was, if we mess up the home where the blood stem cells live, how do these cells respond to the altered environment," Chhabra said. "We found that it was important to suppress EPO where blood stem cell expansion is desired and to restrict its expression to areas where red blood cell differentiation should occur."

The finding, Chhabra said, was exciting in that one single molecular change "was enough to change the function of an important blood stem cell niche."

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Cell and signaling pathway that regulates the placental blood stem cell niche identified