Category Archives: Ohio Stem Cells

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Newswise ANN ARBOR, Mich. A $3 million gift from noted business and philanthropic leaders Leslie and Abigail Wexner will support the next generation of medical research trailblazers at the University of Michigan through grants from the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute.

The Wexner gift will establish two permanent Emerging Scholars berths for young clinician-scientists on the U-M Medical School faculty. The Emerging Scholars Program, one of the Taubman Institutes most unique and innovative initiatives, provides $50,000-per-year grants to launch young physicians into the dual role of doctor and laboratory researcher.

Some of the most groundbreaking medical breakthroughs in recent years such as the discovery of the cancer stem cells that cause metastasis have come from the efforts of clinician-scientists to quickly translate basic science into viable therapies for the patients they treat. Removing financial barriers for those attempting to establish their laboratories and gain the credentials needed for traditional government funding will help keep the vital pipeline of medical research flowing.

The Emerging Scholars Program is among the most visionary elements of the Taubman Institute, said institute founder and chair A. Alfred Taubman. I feel sure that it is paving the way for some of the most promising health science discoveries yet to come, and I am honored that my longtime friends Abigail and Les Wexner have joined me in this crucial endeavor.

Their generosity to science is well known and we extend our deepest gratitude for their partnership and their unwavering faith in our mission. The Wexners, who have philanthropic interests in Ohio and nationally, share Mr. Taubmans passionate interest in promoting innovation in the medical and scientific arena.

We are thrilled to be able to support Alfred and the Institute in the critical, groundbreaking and inspiring work that they are accomplishing, said Abigail Wexner. Mrs. Wexner also is a charter member of the institutes Leadership Advisory Board, which was established in 2008.

The Wexner gift will advance the cause of medical science at the Taubman Institute, including the establishment of at least two Emerging Scholars grants in perpetuity. The new scholars will be appointed in honor of the Wexners, in recognition of this gift. Currently, there are 16 Emerging Scholars investigating new approaches to the treatment of a wide variety of diseases.

The Wexner gift is the inaugural contribution to the Taubman Institutes Founders Circle, whose members will be recognized for outstanding investment in finding the cures of tomorrow.

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Taubman Institute Receives $3 Million Wexner Gift to Support Emerging Physician-Researchers

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Newswise The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund (Morgans Fund) has announced the launch of its free, audio podcast series about Necrotizing Enterocolitis called Speaking of NEC: Necrotizing Enterocolitis.

Produced by The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, and funded by The Petit Family Foundation, Speaking of NEC is a series of one-on-one conversations with relevant NEC expertsneonatologists, clinicians and researchersthat highlights current prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies for NEC, and the search for a cure.

Episode 1 The premiere episode features Dr. Gail Besner, chief of Pediatric Surgery at Nationwide Childrens Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. During the episode, Dr. Besner discusses:

- The mortality and morbidity (complications associated with the disease) associated with NEC from a historical perspective - Surgical outcomes of NEC and the role length of intestine plays in those outcomes - Her serendipitous discovery, and continuous research, of a growth factor (HB-EGF) that can play a role in protecting babies from NEC - Her current research of stem cells and tissue engineered intestine in prevention and treatment of NEC - The importance, and inherent challenges, of funding research in NEC.

Episode 1 will be available to listen to, or download, on Saturday, March 28, 2015 at noon EDT at: http://www.morgansfund.org/speaking-of-nec-episode-1

This episode was produced in part by the TeacherCast Educational Broadcasting Network. For more information about Speaking of NEC or The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, visit our website at http://www.morgansfund.org.

About The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund, Inc. The Morgan Leary Vaughan Fund (Morgans Fund) is an all-volunteer, public charity dedicated to Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC). Its mission is to promote public awareness about NEC and the potentially devastating effects it can have on preemies and their families, and to advance research to prevent, diagnose, treat, and ultimately, cure NEC. Named after Morgan, it celebrates his survival, courage and strength.

Morgan and his twin brother were born at 28 weeks, one day gestation -- nearly three months early -- each weighing less than 2.5 pounds. At four days old, Morgan developed NEC and lost approximately 20% of his small intestine. Morgan not only survived but has also thrived since his bout with NEC. This is his familys way of paying it forward.

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Morgan's Fund Launches Necrotizing Enterocolitis (NEC) Podcast Series: Premiere Features Dr. Gail Besner

Can we take a procedure that was invented in Colorado and have it workon a patient who is a Michigan physician,performed by a doctor in Ohio? One of the hallmarks of a good medical procedure is that it can be taught to others and that it works as well in their hands as it did in the inventors. However, accomplishing that in medicine isnt always easy, as medical history is rife with procedures that worked well in early studies and then were abandoned because they didnt easily translate.

Our focus on having our procedure technology work well in the hands of others is why we spend so much time and energy making sure that only physicians with a specific skill set can join our exclusive network. This why our acceptance rate for that stem cell treatment network is lower than getting into Harvard. This is also why we have the worlds most comprehensive educational program for physicians wanting to use stem cells for knee, shoulder, or hip arthritis, bar none. In order to be certified in these areas our physicians must undergo both didactic and hands on training in musculoskeletal ultrasound, fluoroscopy, stem cell harvest techniques, and body part specific techniques (i.e. for knee arthritis). Each of these body areas has a CORE skills checklist of various procedures they must master. When you do all of that, you get great practitioners like Roger Kruse, M.D. in Ohio who know their stuff.

Roger was already an ACE in musculoskeletal ultrasound before he joined up with the RegenexxNetwork. He was team physician for 3 Olympic games and head team physician for the US Olympic Team, Nagano, Japan. He is head physician for the University of Toledo and a assistant clinical professor at their medical school. He also runs a sports medicine fellowship program and is team physician for U.S. Figure Skating. Suffice it to say that Roger is no ordinary doctor.

Dr. Kruse recently sent me a letter from a physician patienthe treated that illustrates the above point. In addition, the other mark of a procedure that works is when physicians begin referring themselves for the treatment. Weve treated many health care providers through the years including many physicians. Suffice it to say that they have been to the puppet show and seen the strings, meaning when it comes to their own healthcare they tend to choose less invasive options. They also do their homework and look for things like research data that supports the procedure. They dig deep before trying something, as they have the knowledge to sort out the real deal from quackery.

Heres the very wonderful letter from one of Rogers physician patients:

November 18, 2014

Thanks Dr. Kruse.But first I have to thank Paul Shapiro MD, my prolo Doc in Ann Arbor Michigan who told me about Regenexx. Without his advice I might have been seduced by some of the stem cell quackery found all around Southeast Michigan.

I was discouraged, though, because of my past surgical history. In 1974 I had a left medial menisectomy for a traumatic bucket-handle tear. I was sure by 2014 with all my competitive triathloning, hiking and walking I would have severe arthritis that would make me a non candidate. Nevertheless, I sent my MRI CD and paperwork to the Regenexx facility in Toledo, Ohio. Lucky for me, Dr. Kruse believed I was a candidate. Glad he did as in 2001, I had a debridement of right medial and lateral meniscus tears from doing extreme yoga. and over the past 5 years I was having difficulty even walking my usual4-5 miles a day. I went to Toledo in July 2014 thinking I would have theprocedure only on my left knee but Dr. Kruse expertly and painlessly injected both my knees. While I am a little uncertain about the results of my left knee, but it seems to be true I have about 60% improvement in my right knee.

Finally, many thanks to Christopher J. Centeno MD who developed and perfected the Regenxx procedure from its roots in equine Veterinary Medicine making this procedure what it is today-a treatment to stop pain and disability for many without extensive traditional orthopedic surgery.

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Ohio Stem Cell Knee Arthritis Treatment-Regenexx

This Tuesday, Jan. 20, President Barack Obama will honor an American tradition as old as George Washington: the State of the Union. The constitutionally ordained address to each new session of Congress has been a presidential ritual since 1790. Its a chance to check in on the present and make some pledges for our future.

Its that future bit that got us thinking: If all that talk had come true, even the crazy, far-out pledgesespecially the crazy, far-out pledgeswhat would our world look like today? Not political promises and posturing for lower taxes or immigration reform, but lifestyle manna such as supersonic jets and paralysis-curing implants.

So we read through 35 years of State of the Union addresses, from Obama back to Ronald Reagan, and found an interesting mix of science and science fiction with varying likelihoods of the prognostications ever becoming reality. Obama may have missed his goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 (by 725,000 cars), but its bound to happen one day. Meanwhile, Reagans nuclear shield (popularly known as the Star Wars program) is a remnant of a time tormented by the Cold War. As for Clintons child-safe smart guns well, whos to tell?

Together, these visions offer a uniquely American version of Utopia. One wed be perfectly happy driving our Wi-Fi-enabled, 3D-printed, hydrogen-fueled car aroundbut maybe only for a day or two.

The Pledge: In 2013, Obama referred to a once-shuttered warehouse in the Rust Belt that became a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering 3D printing and proposed replicating its success around the country.

The Reality? As Obama said, it has already happened in Youngstown, Ohio, thanks to his Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. But the likelihood of reviving former industrial towns with 3D printing hubs seems counterintuitive to the very idea of 3D printing, not to mention the fact that 3D printing is still pricier than the old-fashioned assembly line for most manufacturers.

The Pledge:In 2013, Obama also heralded the work of scientists who are developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs and urged Congress to keep making those investments.

The Reality? Things are looking good. Scientists have made great advances in regenerating organs using stem cells (doctors grew trachea way back in 2008). And ever since Obama removed some barriers for using stem cells in research, scientists have been steaming ahead.

The Pledge: In 2000, President Bill Clinton asked gun companies to invest in smart guns to keep weapons out of the hands of children, as well as other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

The Reality? Despite the 15 years that have passed since Clintons call to action, its still a dreamone pretty much destined to fail, thanks both to the National Rifle Association and to lack of consumer interest. (We do have fingerprint-enabled gun casesand GPS locators that track when a gun is drawn and shot. Baby steps.)

Read the original here:
We Were Promised Space Lasers: The State of the Union's Biggest Fibs

This Tuesday, Jan. 20, President Barack Obama will honor an American tradition as old as George Washington: the State of the Union. The constitutionally ordained address to each new session of Congress has been a presidential ritual since 1790. Its a chance to check in on the present and make some pledges for our future.

Its that future bit that got us thinking: If all that talk had come true, even the crazy, far-out pledgesespecially the crazy, far-out pledgeswhat would our world look like today? Not political promises and posturing for lower taxes or immigration reform, but lifestyle manna such as supersonic jets and paralysis-curing implants.

So we read through 35 years of State of the Union addresses, from Obama back to Ronald Reagan, and found an interesting mix of science and science fiction with varying likelihoods of the prognostications ever becoming reality. Obama may have missed his goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 (by 725,000 cars), but its bound to happen one day. Meanwhile, Reagans nuclear shield (popularly known as the Star Wars program) is a remnant of a time tormented by the Cold War. As for Clintons child-safe smart guns well, whos to tell?

Together, these visions offer a uniquely American version of Utopia. One wed be perfectly happy driving our Wi-Fi-enabled, 3D-printed, hydrogen-fueled car aroundbut maybe only for a day or two.

The Pledge: In 2013, Obama referred to a once-shuttered warehouse in the Rust Belt that became a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering 3D printing and proposed replicating its success around the country.

The Reality? As Obama said, it has already happened in Youngstown, Ohio, thanks to his Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. But the likelihood of reviving former industrial towns with 3D printing hubs seems counterintuitive to the very idea of 3D printing, not to mention the fact that 3D printing is still pricier than the old-fashioned assembly line for most manufacturers.

The Pledge:In 2013, Obama also heralded the work of scientists who are developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs and urged Congress to keep making those investments.

The Reality? Things are looking good. Scientists have made great advances in regenerating organs using stem cells (doctors grew trachea way back in 2008). And ever since Obama removed some barriers for using stem cells in research, scientists have been steaming ahead.

The Pledge: In 2000, President Bill Clinton asked gun companies to invest in smart guns to keep weapons out of the hands of children, as well as other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

The Reality? Despite the 15 years that have passed since Clintons call to action, its still a dreamone pretty much destined to fail, thanks both to the National Rifle Association and to lack of consumer interest. (We do have fingerprint-enabled gun casesand GPS locators that track when a gun is drawn and shot. Baby steps.)

More:
We Were Promised Space Lasers: State of the Union's Biggest Fibs

This Tuesday, Jan. 20, President Barack Obama will honor an American tradition as old as George Washington: the State of the Union. The constitutionally ordained address to each new session of Congress has been a presidential ritual since 1790. Its a chance to check in on the present and make some pledges for our future.

Its that future bit that got us thinking: If all that talk had come true, even the crazy, far-out pledgesespecially the crazy, far-out pledgeswhat would our world look like today? Not political promises and posturing for lower taxes or immigration reform, but lifestyle manna such as supersonic jets and paralysis-curing implants.

So we read through 35 years of State of the Union addresses, from Obama back to Ronald Reagan, and found an interesting mix of science and science fiction with varying likelihoods of the prognostications ever becoming reality. Obama may have missed his goal of having 1 million electric cars on the road by 2015 (by 725,000 cars), but its bound to happen one day. Meanwhile, Reagans nuclear shield (popularly known as the Star Wars program) is a remnant of a time tormented by the Cold War. As for Clintons child-safe smart guns well, whos to tell?

Together, these visions offer a uniquely American version of Utopia. One wed be perfectly happy driving our Wi-Fi-enabled, 3D-printed, hydrogen-fueled car aroundbut maybe only for a day or two.

The Pledge: In 2013, Obama referred to a once-shuttered warehouse in the Rust Belt that became a state-of-the-art lab where new workers are mastering 3D printing and proposed replicating its success around the country.

The Reality? As Obama said, it has already happened in Youngstown, Ohio, thanks to his Manufacturing Innovation Institutes. But the likelihood of reviving former industrial towns with 3D printing hubs seems counterintuitive to the very idea of 3D printing, not to mention the fact that 3D printing is still pricier than the old-fashioned assembly line for most manufacturers.

The Pledge:In 2013, Obama also heralded the work of scientists who are developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs and urged Congress to keep making those investments.

The Reality? Things are looking good. Scientists have made great advances in regenerating organs using stem cells (doctors grew trachea way back in 2008). And ever since Obama removed some barriers for using stem cells in research, scientists have been steaming ahead.

The Pledge: In 2000, President Bill Clinton asked gun companies to invest in smart guns to keep weapons out of the hands of children, as well as other steps to keep guns out of the wrong hands.

The Reality? Despite the 15 years that have passed since Clintons call to action, its still a dreamone pretty much destined to fail, thanks both to the National Rifle Association and to lack of consumer interest. (We do have fingerprint-enabled gun casesand GPS locators that track when a gun is drawn and shot. Baby steps.)

Read more from the original source:
We Were Promised Space Lasers: The State of the Union's Big Fibs

Researchers say they've developed a drug that may help heal a damaged spine the first time anything like a drug has been shown to help.

The drug works on nerve cells that are cut, sending connections across the break, and it helped injured rats move their back legs again and also gave them back control of their bladders.

"This recovery is unprecedented," said Jerry Silver, a neuroscience professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio who led the study.

Right now, there's no good way to heal a broken spine. Sometimes people grow nerve cells back, but usually not. All the cures that are in the works require invasive surgery, whether it's injections of stem cells, nerve tissue transplants or implants of neurostimulators.

But Silver's team came up with a compound that is injected. It doesn't require surgery.

"We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries."

"There are currently no drug therapies available that improve the very limited natural recovery from spinal cord injuries that patients experience," said Lyn Jakeman, a program director at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, part of the National Institutes of Health, which helped pay for the study. "This is a great step toward identifying a novel agent for helping people recover."

"We're very excited at the possibility that millions of people could, one day, regain movements lost during spinal cord injuries," Silver added.

One of the problems with repairing a crushed spine is scar tissue. The body grows a lot of it, and even if nerve cells try to send out little growths called axons across the breach, they get bogged down by the scar tissue.

The culprits are molecules called proteoglycans. They are covered with sugars, and like anything sugary, they are sticky and grab the delicate axons that nerve cells grow to connect to other nerves. "What we found is that when nerve fibers are damaged they have a receptor that can see those proteoglycan molecules and stick tightly to it. They stick so tightly they can't move. It's like flypaper," Silver told NBC News.

Excerpt from:
'Unprecedented': Drug May Help Heal Damaged Spines

worldhealth.net

SOUTH BEND, Ind.--- In 1990 the Human Genome Project started.

It was a massive scientific undertaking that aimed to identify and map out the body's complete set of DNA.

This research has paved the way for new genetic discoveries, and one of those has allowed scientists to study how to fix bad chromosomes.

Case Western Reserve University scientist, Anthony Wynshaw-Boris, is studying how to repair damaged chromosomes.

Our bodies contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, 46 in total, but if chromosomes are damaged, they can cause birth defects, disabilities, growth problems and even death.

Wynshaw-Boris is taking skin cells and reprogramming them to work like embryonic stem cells, which can grow into different cell types.

"We are taking an adults, or a child's, skin cells, said Wynshaw-Boris. We are not causing any loss of an embryo, and you're taking those skin cells to make a stem cell."

Scientists studied patients with a specific defective chromosome that was shaped like a ring. They took the patients' skin cells and reprogrammed them into embryonic-like cells in the lab.

They found this process caused the damaged "ring" chromosomes to be replaced by normal chromosomes.

More here:
New DNA discovery could lead to chromosome therapies in the future

The artificial human guts could be used to study diseases and test drug treatments

Part of a miniature stomach grown in the lab, stained to reveal various cells found in normal human stomachs. Credit:Kyle McCracken

Scientists have successfully grown miniature stomachs in the lab from human stem cells, guiding them through the stages of development seen in an embryo. The lumps of living tissue, which are no bigger than a sesame seed, have a gland structure that is similar to human stomachs and can even harbour gut bacteria.

The feat, reported in this week'sNature, offers a window to how cells in human embryos morph into organs. Scientists say that these 'gastric organoids' could also be used to understand diseases such as cancer, and to test the stomach's response to drugs.

This is extremely exciting, says Calvin Kuo, a stem-cell biologist at Stanford University in California. To be able to recapitulate that in a dish is quite a technical achievement.

The stem cells used to grow the mini stomachs are pluripotent, or plastic: given the right environment, they can mature into any type of cell. But to coax them down a specific path in the lab requires recreating the precise sequence and timing of environmental cues in the womb the signals from proteins and hormones that tell cells what kind of tissue to become. Bits of kidney, liver, brain and intestine have previously been grown in a lab dish using this technique.

Stomach switch The key to turning pluripotent stem cells into stomach cells was a pathway of interactions that acts as a switch between growing tissues in the intestine and in the antrum, a part of the stomach near its outlet to the small intestine.

When the stem cells were around three days old, researchers added a cocktail of proteins including Noggin, which suppresses that pathway, and timed doses of retinoic acid, a compound in vitamin A. After nine days, the cells were left to grow in a protein bath.

At 34 days, the resulting organoids were only a few millimetres in diameter and had no blood cells, immune cells, nor the ability to process food or secrete bile. But their gland structures and each marker of their development paralleled development in their control tissues, which the team obtained from mice. In that sense, they are remarkably similar to an actual stomach, says study leader James Wells, a developmental biologist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center in Ohio.

That similarity allowed the researchers to use the tiny stomachs as test subjects for human disease by injecting them withHelicobacter pylori, a bacterium that targets the antrum and can cause ulcers and stomach cancer. Within 24 hours, the team found thatH.pyloriwas causing the organoid cells to divide twice as fast as normal, and activating a particular gene, c-Met, that can cause tumours. These effects are also seen in human stomachs infected withH. pylori.

Originally posted here:
Tiny Stomachs Grown in the Lab

Researchers are using stem cells to grow tiny three-dimensional human stomachs that are structurally similar to the real thing, helping investigators seek treatments for gastric diseases such as ulcers and cancer.

Researchers carefully added growth hormones to embryonic or induced stem cells in a lab for as long as five weeks to encourage the development of gastric tissue, according to the findings published today in the journal Nature. The mini-stomachs, which even produce hormones that regulate the secretion of acid and digestive enzymes, may help discover therapies for diseases that affect as much as 10 percent of the worlds population.

The researchers are experimenting with tissue from the mini-stomachs to use as grafts for treating peptic ulcers, said James Wells, a professor of pediatrics at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center in Ohio. Eventually they may be able to make larger organs that could be used for transplant, he said.

The transplant of a whole stomach is a way off, but its within a reasonable time frame to generate in a petri dish pieces of stomach to patch ulcers, Wells said in a telephone interview. There is no reason to think that if we can do this in miniature that we cant do it on a larger scale. This was a seminal step in that direction.

Some of the same investigators transplanted functioning human intestinal tissue grown from stem cells into mice, creating a model for studying intestinal diseases. Ultimately, tissue grown using a patients own stem cells may be used to treat their ailments, according to the study published last week in Nature Medicine.

The researchers are already able to use the tiny organs, about the size of a small green pea, to track the development of stomach ailments that are often caused by bacteria called Helicobacter pylori, Wells said. They inject the mini-stomachs with the bacteria and within hours they can see the cell replication it causes. One day they may be able to use the approach to see which experimental drugs block the damage.

The results may have more immediate impact on the production of lung and pancreatic cells that other researchers are crafting, he said. Those tissues are now grown on flat sheets, and using a three-dimensional approach may also work better for them, Wells said.

These are three-dimensional organs, he said. It makes sense to use a more functional approach.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Andrew Pollack, Drew Armstrong

Originally posted here:
Stem Cells Used to Grow Mini-Stomachs Seeking Treatments