Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

KUALA LUMPUR: EXISTING guidelines on stem cell research are sufficient to regulate the industry and the Health Ministry sees no need for a stem cell Act for now.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said guidelines on stem cell research were clear and were drafted with the help of stakeholders, including religious bodies.

He said the ministry had produced four guidelines:

* National Guidelines for Haemopoietic Stem Cell Therapy;

* National Standards for Cord Blood Banking and Transplantation;

* National Standards for Stem Cell Transplantation; and

* Guidelines on Stem Cell Research and Therapy

"We hope researchers follow these guidelines. The ministry does not intend to introduce any Act yet," he said after officiating the First National Stem Cell Congress here yesterday.

Liow said guidelines would be enough to provide a sound and ethical environment for researchers to carry out work. He said the public should also be informed of stem cell services available and be aware that stem cell research here was encouraging.

"In 2009 alone, 213 haemopoitic stem cell transplants were performed and registered in the country," he said.

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No need for stem cell Act, says health minister

WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Oct 17, 2012) - The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine (ARM), the international organization representing the interests of the regenerative medicine community, announced the publication today of an article on FDA communications to help companies developing cell-based therapies by clarifying the development pathway. The article, entitled "Communications with the FDA on the Development Pathway for a Cell-Based Therapy: Why, What, When, and How?" will be published in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine. It is co-authored by representatives from ARM, Janssen R&D, GE Healthcare and Life Technologies, with the lead author from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

"There are a number of ways cell-based therapy companies can communicate with FDA that will help them navigate the road from the bench to a regulatory submission," said Michael Werner, Executive Director of ARM. "We hope that our combined experience as co-authors, and our attempt to create a single source of guidance on the regulatory process, will help companies bring new cell-based therapies through clinical trials and the regulatory review process more quickly so they can reach patients faster," added Mr. Werner.

Lead author Ellen Feigal, MD, Senior Vice President for Research and Development at the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) commented, "Cell-based therapies represent a fundamentally new way to treat or cure disease, but developing a new therapy is costly, time consuming and fraught with uncertainty. Our paper takes a practical approach to clarifying the path to market."

"Communications with the FDA on the Development Pathway for a Cell-Based Therapy: Why, What, When, and How?" provides detailed information on options for communicating with the FDA at different stages; the official communications tied to each stage of development; and the most common reasons regulatory applications are delayed. The article can be accessed at: http://stemcellstm.alphamedpress.org/content/early/recent

About CIRM: CIRM was established in November 2004 with the passage of Proposition 71, the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act. The statewide ballot measure, which provided $3 billion in funding for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions, was overwhelmingly approved by voters, and called for the establishment of an entity to make grants and provide loans for stem cell research, research facilities, and other vital research opportunities. A list of grants and loans awarded to date may be seen here: http://www.cirm.ca.gov/for-researchers/researchfunding.

About ARM: The Alliance for Regenerative Medicine is a Washington, DC-based multi-stakeholder advocacy organization that promotes legislative, regulatory and reimbursement initiatives necessary to facilitate access to life-giving advances in regenerative medicine. ARM also works to increase public understanding of the field and its potential to transform human healthcare, providing business development and investor outreach services to support the growth of its member companies and research organizations. Prior to the formation of ARM in 2009, there was no advocacy organization operating in Washington, DC to specifically represent the interests of the companies, research institutions, investors and patient groups that comprise the entire regenerative medicine community. Today ARM has more than 120 members and is the leading global advocacy organization in this field. In March 2012, ARM launched a sister organization in Europe -- the Alliance for Advanced Therapies. For more information go to http://www.alliancerm.org.

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Journal Stem Cell Translational Medicine to Publish Article on FDA Communications and the Regulatory Pathway for Cell ...

October 17, 2012

Michael Harper for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Stem cell research, as promising as it may be, has always run into some controversial matters of ethics. As such, research into these stem cells and their relatively untapped potential could be hampered by these legal and political roadblocks. Now new research has discovered a method of harvesting pockets of cells from the scalps and brain linings of recently deceased humans then repurposing them as stem cells. With this new method, stem cells could only be a trip to the morgue away.

Armed with these stem cells, scientists could develop new cell therapies as well as gain a better understanding of developmental disorders such as autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The trouble now, according to Ronald D.G. McKay of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, is knowing which stem cells come from embryos and which come from adult, mature human cells. Speaking with ABC News, McKay explained that there are big differences between the stem cells and so far scientists dont know enough about the two to accurately distinguish them.

Fred H. Gage of the Salk Institute in LaJolla, California, who led the research, agrees.

We cant look in a dish at a mixed population [of cells] and say That is a stem cell, he said, also speaking with ABC News. Different people have different ideas.

One broadly accepted definition of stem cells, according to Ira Black with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, is an immature cell that can duplicate itself into different types of mature cells.

By using growth factors linked with stem cell growth, Gage and team were able to collect cells from 146 brain donors and grow other, mature stem cells from them.

We were able to culture living cells from deceased individuals on a larger scale than ever done before, said researcher Thomas Hyde, a neuroscientist, neurologist and chief operating officer at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, speaking with LiveScience.

Previous studies had only been able to grow these mature stem cells from about 6 cadavers. When the scientists began their attempts to harvest and repurpose these cells from the donors, the bodies had been dead for nearly 2 days. To preserve the still-living cells, these cadavers were kept cool in a morgue, but not frozen, according to LiveScience.

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New Method Harvests Stem Cells From Cadavers

Grants Pass, OR (PRWEB) October 16, 2012

Harvard Ophthalmologist and Corneal Stem Cell Researcher Ula Jurkunas, MD, has announced an important new stem cell transplant procedure for the eyes.

Speaking on the Sharon Kleyne Hour Power of Water radio show, Dr. Jurkunas, predicted that the procedure will offer a significant benefit to patients with certain corneal diseases, and corneal injuries such as chemical and thermal burns (The cornea is the eyes clear portion).

Stem cell research has been in the news because the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded for stem cell research.

Dr. Jurkunas explained to host Sharon Kleyne that the human eye produces its own adult (non-embryonic) stem cells. These are found between the limbus (where the clear cornea meets the white of the eye) and the conjunctiva (the red meaty tissue in the eyes inner corner). Their function is to replenish corneal cells to keep the cornea clear and healthy.

Production of corneal stem cells, according to Dr. Jurkunas, can become impaired due to a disease entity such as an infection, severe allergy, severe dry eye, immunological disorder or chronic inflammation; or due to injury such as a chemical or thermal burn. These traumas can cause the cornea to become cloudy and ulcerated. Prior to the present corneal stem cell research, there had been no reliable, non-invasive treatment for these conditions.

Corneal stem cell transplantation, Dr. Jurkunas explains, has the advantage of utilizing the patients own tissue as donor cells. Stem cells may be taken either from healthy tissue elsewhere in the diseased eye, from the patients other eye, or from the patients inner cheek (which has many similarities to eye tissue and also produces adult stem cells). Donor stem cells are then isolated and grown in culture. The final step is to transfer them to the affected cornea using a stem cell bandage.

The procedure, says Dr. Jurkunas, has resulted in dramatic corneal clearing and sight restoration. Although research is ongoing and the procedure remains experimental, corneal stem cell therapy is available in clinical trials. Widespread applications of the procedure, including routine testing for corneal stem cell deficiency, are anticipated. Stem cell therapy, according to Dr. Jurkunas, could eventually be used for macular degeneration, glaucoma and other eye diseases.

Dr. Jurkunas stressed the importance of water and hydration in maintaining a healthy tear film and cornea. The tear film covering the cornea is 99% water and is essential to the light refraction that enables vision. Dry eye and related eye infections, according to Dr. Jurkunas, can damage both the cornea and adjacent stem cell producing tissues that enable the cornea to repair itself. Water in the tear film stimulates the healthy production of stem cells. Water is also critical to keeping stem cells viable during transplantation.

Mrs. Kleyne and Dr. Jurkunas agree that non-invasive therapies using the bodys own tissues, such as corneal stem cell transplantation, could eventually prove indispensable in combating the worldwide health effects of global drying and dehydration.

Excerpt from:
Harvard Ophthalmologist Dr. Ula Jurkunas Introduces Stem Cell Transplant for Eyes

StemCells Inc. has a history not much different from those of dozens, even hundreds, of biotech companies all around California.

Co-founded by an eminent Stanford research scientist, the Newark, Calif., firm has struggled financially while trying to push its stem cell products through the research-and-development pipeline. It collects about $1 million a year from licensing patents and selling cell cultures but spends well more than $20 million annually on R&D, so it runs deeply in the red.

On the plus side, StemCells Inc. has had rather a charmed relationship with the California stem cell program, that $3-billion taxpayer-backed research fund known formally as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

The firm ranks first among all corporate recipients of approved funding from CIRM, with some $40 million in awards approved this year. That's more than has gone to such established California nonprofit research centers as Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and the Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute.

The record of StemCells is particularly impressive given that one of the two proposals for which the firm received a $20-million funding award, covering a possible Alzheimer's treatment, was actually rejected by CIRM's scientific review panel twice. Nevertheless, the stem cell agency's governing board went ahead and approved it last month.

What was the company's secret? StemCells says it's addressing "a serious unmet medical need" in Alzheimer's research. But it doesn't hurt that the company also had powerful friends going to bat for it, including two guys who were instrumental in getting CIRM off the ground in the first place.

There's nothing improper about the state stem cell agency funding private enterprise; that's part of its statutory duties, and potentially valuable in advancing the goals of research. In part that's because CIRM is in a good position to help biotech firms leapfrog the "valley of death" the territory between basic research and the much more expensive and speculative process of moving a technology to clinical testing and, hopefully, the marketplace. Unfortunately, that's also the point where outside investment often dries up.

But private enterprise is new territory for CIRM, which has steered almost all its grants thus far to nonprofit institutions. Those efforts haven't been trouble-free: With some 90% of the agency's grants having gone to institutions with representatives on its board, the agency has long been vulnerable to charges of conflicts of interest. The last thing it needed was to show a similar flaw in its dealings with private companies too.

That brings us back to StemCells Inc. First, consider the firm's pedigree. Its co-founder was Irving Weissman, director of Stanford's Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and a stem cell research pioneer. Weissman was one of the most prominent and outspoken supporters of Proposition 71, the 2004 ballot initiative that established the stem cell agency.

He's also been a leading beneficiary of CIRM funding, listed as the principal researcher on three grants worth a total of $24.5 million. The agency also contributed $43.6 million toward the construction of his institute's glittering $200-million research building on the Stanford campus. As of mid-April Weissman was still listed as a shareholder of StemCells, where his wife, Ann Tsukamoto, is an executive. Weissman, who is traveling in Africa, could not get back to me by deadline to talk about his relationship with the company.

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Research firm reaped stem cell funds despite panel's advice

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Oct 16, 2012) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. ( OTCBB : VSTA ) ( OTCQB : VSTA ), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue and novel pharmaceutical assays for predictive heart and liver toxicology and drug metabolism screening, today announced the completion of the previously announced $3.25 million financing commitment with Platinum Long Term Growth VII, LLC (Platinum) and approximately $3.0 million strategic debt restructuring. The combined transactions involve the Company's three largest institutional shareholders and its patent counsel.

"Today marks a significant turning point for VistaGen. These transactions represent a tremendous vote of confidence by four of our major stakeholders and position us to realize the full measure of our commercial opportunities involving our stem cell technology platform and AV-101 clinical program," said Shawn K. Singh, VistaGen's Chief Executive Officer.

"Our expectations are set very high. Over the next 12 months, we plan to achieve multiple transformative milestones, both in the lab and in the clinic. This funding provided by Platinum, combined with our strategic equity-based restructuring transactions with Cato Research, Morrison & Foerster and University Health Network, will be instrumental in our success," concluded Mr. Singh.

Allen Cato, M.D., Ph.D., co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cato Research, stated, "By more closely approximating human biology, VistaGen's stem cell-based bioassay systems can improve the predictability of the drug development cycle and lower the cost of new drug research and development. We are pleased to support VistaGen's efforts to transform the drug development process and to bring safer, more effective therapies to market."

Michael Goldberg, M.D., Portfolio Manager of Platinum Long Term Growth VII, commented, "VistaGen has been, and continues to represent, an excellent investment opportunity for Platinum. Our continued commitment toward supporting VistaGen underscores our confidence in the Company's novel stem cell technologies and AV-101."

Further information regarding the Company's recent financing transaction with Platinum Long Term Growth Fund, and its strategic debt restructuring transactions with Cato Research, Morrison & Foerster and University Health Network, is set forth in the Company's Current Reports on Form 8-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and available on both the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov and the Company's website at http://www.VistaGen.com.

About VistaGen Therapeutics

VistaGen is a biotechnology company applying human pluripotent stem cell technology for drug rescue and novel pharmaceutical assays for predictive heart and liver toxicology and drug metabolism screening. VistaGen's drug rescue activities are focused on combining its human pluripotent stem cell technology platform, Human Clinical Trials in a Test Tube, with modern medicinal chemistry to generate new chemical variants (Drug Rescue Variants) of once-promising small-molecule drug candidates. These are drug candidates discontinued due to heart or liver toxicity after substantial investment and development by large pharmaceutical companies, the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) or university laboratories. VistaGen uses its pluripotent stem cell technology to generate early indications, or predictions, of how humans will ultimately respond to new drug candidates before they are ever tested in humans, bringing human biology to the front end of the drug development process.

Additionally, VistaGen's orally-available, small molecule drug candidate, AV-101, is completing Phase 1 development for treatment of neuropathic pain. Neuropathic pain, a serious and chronic condition causing pain after an injury or disease of the peripheral or central nervous system, affects millions of people worldwide. To date, VistaGen has been awarded over $8.5 million from the NIH for development of AV-101.

Visit VistaGen at http://www.VistaGen.com, follow VistaGen at http://www.twitter.com/VistaGen or view VistaGen's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/VistaGen.

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VistaGen Therapeutics Completes $3.25 Million Financing and $3.0 Million Debt Restructuring

Hisashi Moriguchi was besieged by reporters after giving a press conference retracting his claims.

J. Sato/Getty

Rarely has such a spectacular scientific claim been debunked so rapidly. For a few brief hours last week, Hisashi Moriguchi, a project researcher at the University of Tokyo, was riding high, lauded by his nations press for pioneering work on induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. His feat was said to be the first successful use in humans of a technology that days earlier had won his countryman, Kyoto Universitys Shinya Yamanaka, a share of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1.

Yet a swift investigation by Nature and several stem-cell researchers found that Moriguchis claim to have cured six heart-failure patients with cells derived from iPS cells was untrue; that he had lied about his university affiliations; and that he had plagiarized key parts of his research papers2. At a hastily convened press conference on 13 October, Moriguchi recanted. I admit that I lied, he told reporters, adding that his career as a researcher is probably over.

The sad episode could be written off as one researchers runaway fantasy. But it highlights the febrile nature of the iPS-cell field, particularly in Japan. Many researchers fear that the therapeutic promise of these cellswhich could open the way to creating replacement tissues to treat diseasewill spur a premature rush to clinical applications before their safety and efficacy can be proven.

The story kicked off when Moriguchis claims were splashed over the front page of Yomiuri Shimbunthe highest-circulation newspaper in the worldon 11October. He described how he had reprogrammed patients liver cells into an embryonic state, with the potential to develop into many different cell types. After converting these iPS cells into heart-muscle cells, he supposedly injected them into six patients in the United States to successfully repair their damaged heart tissue.

But inconsistencies in the account quickly became apparent. Alerted by Nature, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital, both in Boston, denied that the procedures had taken place there, or that Moriguchi was affiliated with them, as he had claimed. In an interview with Nature, Moriguchi could not provide details of the ethics review board that had approved the procedures; the source of the clinical-grade cells; or the names of collaborators. He claimed to have carried out an incredible range of activities almost single-handedly and described unconventional and unlikely methods for producing the cells. Yet he trained as a nurse, lacks a medical degree, and his most recent research was in medical economics. Nature also discovered that the publications that Moriguchi had used to support his claims3, 4 contained technical images copied from other sources, as well as plagiarized passages from other articles5, 6. We are all doing similar things, so it makes sense that wed use similar words, Moriguchi told Nature.

On 13 October, the day after Nature ran its expos2, Moriguchi held a press conference in New York, where he had been attending a meeting of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. He admitted that most of his claims were untrue, but maintained that he had injected iPS-cell-derived heart cells into one patient, and that he could produce notes to prove it. The University of Tokyo and the Tokyo Dental and Medical University, where Moriguchi claimed to have carried out collaborative studies, have subsequently launched investigations into the affair. Nature Publishing Group, which has published papers by Moriguchi in its journal Scientific Reports, says that it is aware of the issues surrounding these publications and is investigating.

Researchers trying to understand why Moriguchi would engage in such reckless fabrication have noted a climate that allows such claims to gain prominence with little challenge. Since Yamanakas discovery of iPS cells in 2006, some Japanese media and government officials have taken a highly competitive tone about the technology. In its original article about Moriguchis claims, Yomiuri Shimbun noted that a burdensome regulatory system was holding back Japans clinical research relative to the United States, and, in a 2009 correspondence published in Nature7, Moriguchi argued that Japan is in danger of being overtaken in the field of human iPS-cell research.

Scientists, journalists and regulators here need to be especially careful not to let their pride in Yamanakas achievement affect their critical faculties, or overwhelm them in national fervour, says Douglas Sipp, who researches stem-cell ethics and regulation at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan.

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Stem-cell fraud hits febrile field

An important issue pushed into the background.

Stem cell issues: still important issues. Photograph: Getty Images

In a US election year dominated by economic issues, research using human embryonic stem cells (hESC) has received far less attention in 2012 than in previous election years just another social debate pushed into the background, despite its ethical controversy and the fact that it could have major implications for the treatment of conditions as serious and widespread as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and dementia.

Although stem cell research isn't exactly on top of this year's election agenda, the result when America goes to the polls on 6 November could have a major impact on hESC research in the US. The main issue at hand is not whether embryonic stem cell research should be banned both Obama and Romney agree that this research is legal but whether it should be federally funded through the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

President Obama has effectively made his position clear during his time in office. In 2009, he reversed a directive from his predecessor George W Bush that denied federal funding to research on any stem cells created after 2001, limiting researchers to the 21 stem cell lines (a family of constantly dividing cells) that had been derived from embryos up to that point. Obama's legislation re-opened the 1,000 or more stem cell lines that have been created since then to federally-funded research, a move welcomed by the scientific community and condemned by pro-life campaigners and conservative Republicans.

In reality, despite Obama's 2009 legislation, under the Dickey-Wicker amendment introduced in 1996 it is still illegal in the US to pursue any research that involves the creation, destruction or discarding of human embryos, meaning that although American scientists can conduct research on stem cell lines derived from embryos, they are barred from using embryos to create their own lines. The Dickey-Wicker amendment remains an obstacle to embryonic stem cell research in the US and it's unclear if the president would have the clout to do away with it if re-elected.

Romney's personal view on hESC seems to broadly follow the pro-life stance of his party; he supports stem cell research in general, but opposes the destruction of embryos for the purpose. In a Republican presidential candidates' debate for the last election in 2007, Romney stated that he wouldn't use federal funds to finance hESC research. This would essentially take the US back to the same situation as under George W Bush, and there's no reason to think that Romney has changed his position between 2007 and now.

The Republican candidate has consistently extolled the benefits of adult and umbilical cord stem cells, which, he asserts, provide the benefits of creating pluripotent cells without the "moral shortcut" of destroying an embryo in the process. Alternatives to embryonic stem cell research are Romney's perfect political solution, allowing him to appear to support stem cell research without losing the religious right by excusing the destruction of embryos.

From a scientific standpoint, his position is less tenable. Researchers have said that the development of non-embryonic stem cell types is actually dependent on embryonic stem cell research as a complementary process. So by plugging adult stem cell research alternatives as the exclusive answer to the field's ethical issues, Romney may be unwittingly damaging their development by depriving researchers of important side-by-side embryonic research.

Whatever the outcome of the elections on 6 November, the US is unlikely to live up to its stem cell research potential when compared to world leaders in the field. If Obama wins, there will at least be federal funding to study existing embryonic stem cells, but the Dickey-Wicker amendment will maintain the ban on creating new stem cell lines. If Romney turns the tide and emerges on top, American stem cell researchers will likely have to suffer through four more years in the unfunded wilderness.

Originally posted here:
Stem cells: this election's neglected child

NEWARK, Calif., Oct. 16, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StemCells, Inc. (STEM) announced today the launch of four new SC Proven human neural stem cell (NSC) kits for use in neuroscience research. Each kit will contain high purity, multipotent NSCs derived from a different area of the human central nervous system (CNS), and will provide researchers with a reproducible and scalable serum-free platform with which to perform a broad range of assays. With these kits, researchers will now have the ability to compare and contrast the biological, functional and neural differentiation properties of human NSCs isolated from specific CNS regions, as well as to screen for the effects of different compounds on such cells.1,2

"These kits represent the first in a new family of human cell-centric products we are adding to the SC Proven portfolio to provide researchers with a unique set of tools to realize the promise of regenerative medicine," said Stewart Craig, Ph.D., Senior Vice President, Development and Operations at StemCells, Inc. "Stem cell research is flourishing and these kits will enable investigators to derive and characterize human neural lineage cells using published methods, or the ability to customize their own assay formats up to and including scale-up for non-commercial screening applications."

Kits containing multipotent human NSCs derived from Hindbrain (HNS-HIN-001), Cortex (HNS-COR-001), Spinal Cord (HNS-SPI-001), and Mid-forebrain (HNS-MIF-001), and RHB-A(R), StemCells Inc.'s proprietary serum-free cell culture medium, are now available. For a limited time a special discount of 20% can be obtained when placing an online order with the Discount Code JAV66.

References

1 Hook L, et al., Non-immortalized human neural stem cells as a scalable platform for cellular assays. Neurochem Int. 2011 59(3): 432-44.

2 McLaren D, et al., Automated large-scale culture and medium-throughput chemical screen for modulators of proliferation and viability of human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Neuroepithelial-like Stem Cells. J Biomol Screen. Oct 4: 2012 doi:10.1177/1087057112461446.

About SC Proven Products

The SC Proven product portfolio comprises a range of products for the detection, isolation, expansion, differentiation, and characterization of a variety of different human and animal cell types. The entire SC Proven product catalog and online ordering can be found at http://www.scproven.com.

About StemCells, Inc.

StemCells, Inc. is engaged in the research, development, and commercialization of cell-based therapeutics and tools for use in stem cell-based research and drug discovery. The Company's lead therapeutic product candidate, HuCNS-SC(R) cells (purified human neural stem cells), is currently in development as a potential treatment for a broad range of central nervous system disorders, including Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), a fatal myelination disorder, chronic spinal cord injury, and dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). StemCells also markets a range of stem cell research products under the SC Proven(R) brand (www.scproven.com), and offers contract cell process development and production services (cellservices@stemcellsinc.com). Further information is available at http://www.stemcellsinc.com.

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StemCells, Inc. Launches Four New Human Neural Stem Cell Kits Under SC Proven(R) Brand

12-10-2012 18:24 Shinya Yamanaka and British scientist John Gurdon have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for discoveries relating to stem cell research. The Japanese researcher found out how to create tissue that would act like embryonic cells, without the need to harvest human embryos. Watch more at linkasia.org. IMAGE Kyoto University Professor Shinya Yamanaka talks with Japan's Prime Minister Yoshihiko Nada by a mobile phone during a news conference in Kyoto: REUTERS/Kyodo

Link:
'Cell Reprogramming' Wins Nobel for Japanese Scientist (LinkAsia: 10/12/12) - Video