Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

PALM BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) announced today that Bernard Siegel, Executive Director of GPI, will make two keynote presentations this month at regional conferences: Midwest Conference on Stem Cell Biology and Therapy October 5-7 in Rochester, Michigan and BioFlorida Conference 2012 October 7-9 in Miami, Florida.

The 2012 World Stem Cell Summit is in West Palm Beach, Florida this December, so we have been working closely with the biotechnology community here. I am delighted to partner with BioFlorida as they advance Floridas bioscience industry

Siegel will present a keynote address titled The Power of Advocacy at the Midwest Conference on Stem Cell Biology and Therapy. The Genetics Policy Institute joined with the Oakland University William Beaumont Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (ISCRM) as a collaborating partner for the event. Researchers from hospitals, medical organizations, academic institutions and the business community throughout the Midwest will discuss not only the latest advances in this rapidly expanding field of medical science, but the ethical and moral issues that surround it.

"I am pleased to participate in these important conferences, which showcase the latest scientific developments in their respective regions and beyond. ISCRM and the World Stem Cell Summit have a strong connection, as the Institute was officially launched at our 2010 Summit in Detroit, said Bernard Siegel, GPI's Executive Director and founder of the annual World Stem Cell Summit.

BioFloridas 15th annual Conference is the premier event for Floridas bioscience community. This years meeting will bring together more than 500 professionals from across Florida, the Southeast and the nation to discuss major trends and issues, including topics related to product development, scientific research, business development, financing and public policy.

Siegels keynote address at BioFlorida is titled: The Mandate to Deliver Cures: Aligning Patient Advocacy, Industry and Science. Former Governor Jeb Bush will deliver the second keynote at BioFloridas annual Conference.

The 2012 World Stem Cell Summit is in West Palm Beach, Florida this December, so we have been working closely with the biotechnology community here. I am delighted to partner with BioFlorida as they advance Floridas bioscience industry," said Siegel, who also serves on the Executive Committee of the Alliance for Regenerative Medicine and Board of the Coalition for Advancement of Medical Research. He serves as spokesperson for the Stem Cell Action Coalition.

ABOUT GPI:The Genetics Policy Institute (GPI) supports stem cell research to develop therapeutics and cures. GPI pursues its mission by honoring leadership through the Stem Cell Action Awards, producing the World Stem Cell Summit, publishing theWorld Stem Cell Report, organizing educational initiatives and fostering strategic collaborations. For more information, visitwww.genpol.org.

ABOUT THE WORLD STEM CELL SUMMIT:The 2012 World Stem Cell Summit is presented by GPI and is co-organized by the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Diabetes Research Institute, Beckman Research Institute at City of Hope, Karolinska Institute (home of the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine), International Translational Regenerative Medicine Center (ITRC) and the Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) at Kyoto University. The Summit is the flagship meeting of the world stem cell community. The 2012 Summit will be held at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, December 3-5, 2012. For more information, visit http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com.

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Bernard Siegel to Deliver Keynote Addresses at Midwest Conference on Stem Cell Biology and Therapy and BioFlorida ...

Contributed photo

Dr. Nabil Dib

They're called "no-option patients."

They've endured angioplasty, stent procedures, bypasses and a long line of medications. None of the treatments has fixed the plaque-plugged coronary arteries that trigger angina, starve the heart of blood and force people to hunch in pain after walking twoblocks.

Adult stem cell research at an Oxnard hospital is aimed at giving themchoices.

"A patient who has no hope will have some hope," said Dr. Nabil Dib, a world-renowned researcher partnering with St. John's Regional Medical Center. "It's a hope for potential therapy that will revise the way we treat cardiovasculardisease."

Stem cells are blank cells that function as the body's building blocks. They are able to grow into many different kinds of cells, including blood, muscle and tissue. Dib's work involves adult stem cells harvested from his patients, as opposed to stem cells that come from embryos and trigger ethicaldebates.

In a clinical trial starting at St. John's and 49 other hospitals across the country, the adult stem cells will be isolated and used to create new blood vessels. It's a way of manipulating the body into building new pathways for blood flow impeded by barricadedarteries.

"We're doing like a bypass a biological bypass," Dibsaid.

The trial is part of a genre of research aimed at using the body's own resources to repair the heart. It could reduce consequences ranging from heart transplants and hospitalizations to heart failure anddeath.

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New stem cell research could bring choices to heart patients

REYKJAVIK, Iceland, October 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

ORF Genetics announced today that the company has added endotoxin- and animal-free human Fibroblast Growth Factor Basic (FGF basic) and mouse Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (mouse LIF) to its portfolio of growth factors for stem cell research.

Most growth factors applied in stem cell research today are made in E. coli bacteria, which produce endotoxins that can have adverse effect on stem cell cultures. Other manufacturers of growth factors have various methods to remove these endotoxins, but traces inevitably remain, which can lead to increased death rate of cells and other suboptimal effects in cell cultures. Other growth factors on the market today are made by animal cells. However, most stem cell researchers prefer to use growth factors of non-animal origin to exclude risks of viral contamination and the inclusion of growth factor homologs.

This has led to a market demand for alternative sources of animal-free growth factors, void of endotoxins. ORF Genetics' unique growth factors are produced in the seeds of the barley plant, which does not produce any endotoxins or other substances toxic to mammalian cells.

FGF basic and mouse LIF are key growth factors for the cultivation of their respective stem cells, i.e. FGF basic for human stem cells and mouse LIF for mouse stem cells. Each protein is used to expand the stem cells' populations before researchers make them differentiate into various cell types, such as heart, liver or neural cells.

"ORF Genetics has built a reputation for offering the first plant-made, endotoxin-free and animal-free growth factor portfolio for stem cell researchers. As we are producing these growth factors in our novel plant expression system ORFEUS, we are very happy to be able to offer these high quality growth factors at more efficient prices than market leaders," said Bjrn rvar, CEO of ORF Genetics.

ORF Genetics is a world leader of plant made growth factors and offers a portfolio of endotoxin- and animal-free growth factors for human stem cell research. The company's production takes place in a biorisk-free production system in barley, bypassing conventional bacteria and animal cell production systems. The cultivation of barley takes place in greenhouses in inert volcanic pumice, using renewable geothermal energy.

For more information please contact:

Dr. Hakon Birgisson, Director of Global Market Development Tel: +354-821-1585 email:hakon.birgisson@orfgenetics.com

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ORF Genetics to Offer endotoxin- and Animal-free FGFb and mLIF for Stem Cell Research

NOKOMIS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Stem cell research may hold the key to a cure for Parkinsons disease. The only problem is, stem cell research hasnt advanced as quickly as patients need it to. Rainbow BioSciences, the biotech subsidiary of Rainbow Coral Corp. (RBCC) is working to market an advanced stem cell growth solution that could potentially energize the worldwide search for a cure.

Currently, government restrictions and ethical dilemmas serve as roadblocks to fast-paced stem cell research, but even when these roadblocks are absent, controlling the behavior of stem cells in a laboratory isnt easy. One way to help speed research projects up and make them more efficient is to raise the number of high-quality adult stem cells available for that research.

RBCC is working to do just that. The company has engaged Regenetech in discussions regarding the potential acquisition of a license to perform cell expansion using that companys Rotary Cell Culture SystemTM.

Originally developed by NASA, the Rotary Cell Culture SystemTM is a rotating-wall bioreactor designed to facilitate the growth of human cells in simulated weightlessness. Cell cultures, including stem cells, grown inside the bioreactor look and function much closer to human cells grown within the body than the flat cell cultures grown in Petri dishes.

By bringing the bioreactor to emerging research markets where stem cell research faces fewer roadblocks, RBCC hopes to help kickstart billions of dollars worth of research into possible cures for Parkinsons and other neurological disorders.

RBCC plans to offer new technology to compete in the stem-cell research industry alongside Amgen, Inc. (AMGN), Celgene Corporation (CELG), Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ:GENZ) and Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD).

For more information on Rainbow BioSciences, please visit http://www.rainbowbiosciences.com/investors.html.

About Rainbow BioSciences

Rainbow BioSciences, LLC, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Rainbow Coral Corp. (OTCBB:RBCC). The company continually seeks out new partnerships with biotechnology developers to deliver profitable new medical technologies and innovations. For more information on our growth-oriented business initiatives, please visit our website at [http://www.RainbowBioSciences.com]. For investment information and performance data on the company, please visit http://www.RainbowBioSciences.com/investors.html.

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RBCC: NASA Bioreactor Could Speed Parkinson’s Research

October 3, 2012

Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Ask a handful of people about their thoughts and feelings on the use of stem cells for research and therapeutic means and you will find that they each have strong and varying positions on the topic. Outside the scientific community, however, little is known about this highly complex field of research.

The politicization of stem cell research accompanied the 1998 discovery that embryonic stem cells, the building blocks of organ, tissue, bone and brain cells, could be extracted for study and medical use. In 2001, with an order to limit the lines of stem cell research to those already in possession of the scientific community, President George W. Bush largely hampered the development of this field in the United States by limiting government funding for stem cell research. Adult stem cells, or somatic stem cells, were unaffected by this order, but the prevailing wisdom of the genetic community was that adult stem cells were not as dynamic and couldnt be used in the same way as their embryonic cousins.

With a report published Monday in the American Journal of Pathology, that truth no longer seems to be the case. A team led by Manel Esteller, director of the Cancer Epigenetics and Biology Program in the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL), was able to identify epigenetic changes that occur in the somatic stem cells to generate different body tissues.

The use of somatic or adult stem cells had been a regular occurrence since their discovery in the 1950s. It was then that researchers found that bone marrow contains two different kinds of stem cells. The first, called hematopoietic stem cells, form all the types of blood cells in the body. The second, known as bone marrow stromal stem cells, were discovered only a few years later and are effective in the generation of bone, cartilage, fat and fibrous connective tissues.

One thing that has been understood is that the genome of each cell in the human body is identical. This is true regardless of their appearance and function. It is for this reason that certain anomalies, such as cancer, are seemingly incomprehensible as they are unable to be explained by the genome of the host. To better understand such complex genetic deviations, something more is required.

Researchers in this current study offer an explanation via analogy. Epigenetics is defined as the inheritance of DNA activity that does not depend on the strict sequence of it. According to the team, if genetics is the alphabet, spelling would be the epigenetics, referring to chemical changes in our genetic material as well as the proteins that regulate and control their activity.

We now know that somatic stem cells have enormous potential to regenerate damaged organs. By investigating how to use them more effectively in different types of therapies, the research team postulates that it will become easier to steer clear of any sticky ethical complications that might arise from working with embryonic stem cells.

In this study, the team was able to isolate somatic stem cells from body fat, allowing them to transform them into muscle and bone cells. Through their study, they observed the resemblance of the cells created in the laboratory to those of the host individual. They were also able to determine that the cells were biologically secure enough that they might be implanted into waiting patients. Overall, the study was able to show that the epigenome of the cells obtained and maintained in culture closely resembled skeletal and muscle cells that are spontaneously present in nature, though not completely identical.

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Study Shows Epigenetics Of Adult Stem Cells Influences Organ Creation

STAMFORD, CT--(Marketwire - Oct 3, 2012) - Noble Financial Capital Markets (Noble) announced today that it has released a full high definition video catalog of its Life Sciences Exposition, BIOX, an investor exposition that was held at the University of Connecticut in Stamford, CT on September 24-25, 2012. In addition to the participation of more than two dozen biotechnology companies, the event featured world renowned key opinion leaders Dr. Mark Noble (University of Rochester), R. Phil Greenberg (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center), Dr. Jeffrey Infante (Sarah Cannon Research Institute), and Dr. Charles Vacanti (Harvard Medical School).

Opening remarks were provided by Dr. Sharon White, Director of the UCONN Stamford campus and Richard Blumenthal, United States Senator for Connecticut. "Washington is dysfunctional and broken," Blumenthal said. "The good news is that scientific advancements and research offer a real opportunity to reach across the aisle; this is an area that should inspire bipartisan cooperation."

Overwhelmingly, the message coming from the Exposition was one of encouragement that we are making great strides in the effective treatment of catastrophic disease, in particular cancers. Determining genetic differences in tumors, which has posed challenges for biomarkers, has improved significantly with advancements in molecular biology. Novel and approved targeted agents is the next rationale step in matching tumor types with appropriate therapies; a developmental step that large pharmaceutical companies have already taken.

Dr. Noble, who led a panel moderated by Noble Financial Senior Analyst, Nathan Cali and consisting of executives from Cytomedix, Cytori, MediStem, Mesoblast and NeoStem, expressed optimism that stem cell therapy will continue to grow exponentially. "Stem cells are a natural cascade offering the potential to treat significant unmet medical needs," he said."The path to better cancer treatment comes from a clearer understanding of cancer stem cell biology."

Rahul Jasuja, Noble Financial's Managing Director of Biotechnology Research moderated the panel which focused on immunotherapy and vaccines. Executives from Argos, Galena, Inovio, NewLink and Prima Biomed joined Dr. Phil Greenberg (referred to as Dr. T-Cell) to debate the challenges and advancements in the understanding of how the immune system is suppressed by cancer cells. While a consensus was not reached in terms of specific methods to harness the immune system, all agreed that the next generation of immunotherapy approaches will aim to "realign" the immune system to destroy cancer.

Jules Msing, Chairman of Noble's Scientific Advisory Board and the former head of Global Drug Licensing for Johnson & Johnson addressed attendees at the opening session and again on day two of the Exposition. "The hope is great that all of the technologies and innovations that will be discussed here today will have a huge impact on healthcare around the world," he said. "This, however, is reliant on the underlying assumption that society's acceptance of healthcare innovation and our willingness to invest in it will continue into the future," he added. Msings' presentation to life science corporate executives centered on the question of why some biotech companies can attract the attention of large pharma while others cannot and why many licensing executives in large pharma are unable to convince their R&D groups or executive committees to make substantial investments in these companies. Mr. Msing negotiated deals with various companies such as Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Genentech, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Meyers Squibb, CTI Inc., Regeneron, Alkermes, Enzon Pharmaceuticals, GTx Inc, Alliance Pharmaceuticals, Allos Therapeutics, Somatogen, Morphotek, Edison Pharmaceuticals, etc.

Based upon the success of this event, Noble Financial has begun planning its second Life Sciences Exposition for the fall of 2013. Noble's Ninth Annual large-format investor conference that will feature 150 public companies is scheduled for January 22-23, 2013 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Fort Lauderdale.

Complete HDVideo webcast catalog available at: http://www.nobleresearch.com/BioExposition.htm

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Provocative Biotech Exposition Reveals Significant Advancements in Stem Cell Research, Immunotherapy, Targeted ...

NOKOMIS, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

In a continuing effort to expand its research into possible cures for neurological diseases gaining in prevalence, Rainbow Coral Corp.s (RBCC) biotech subsidiary, Rainbow Biosciences, is looking to China for possible partners for stem cell research.

Last month, RBCC announced that it was in talks to acquire a license to use a NASA-developed bioreactor to multiply adult stem cells for research. As RBCC closes in on an agreement with the cutting-edge devices license holders, Amarantus BioSciences (AMBS), China has emerged as a logical location to set up shop conducting medical research using the powerful tool.

With a massive, growing population of senior citizens and a scientific community that is receptive to advanced stem cell research, China could be an ideal choice for RBCCs work. Seniors are at the highest risk for devastating neurological disorders such as Parkinsons and Alzheimers, and the countrys number of senior citizens will hit 437 million by 2051.

Right now, all signs point to China as the obvious choice for both our company and our shareholders, said RBCC CEO Patrick Brown. The cheaper labor costs there, as well as a receptive market, make China a logical location to search for potential research partners that can utilize the bioassembler technology in a meaningful way.

There is certainly no space-age technology like the bioassembler available in China today, he added.

RBCC plans to pursue a license to use the bioreactor for stem cell expansion in China and other markets around the world potentially in excess of $100 billion.

Rainbow BioSciences is dedicated to developing new medical and research technology innovations to compete alongside companies such as Amgen Inc. (NASDAQ:AMGN),Cell Therapeutics, Inc. (CTIC), Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) andAffymax, Inc.(NASDAQ:AFFY).

For more information on Rainbow BioSciences, please visitwww.rainbowbiosciences.com/investors.

Follow us on Twitter atwww.twitter.com/RBCCinfo.

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RBCC Looks to China for Stem Cell Research

ST. LOUIS, Oct. 3, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (SIAL) announced today that Sigma Life Science, its innovative biological products and services research business, has launched Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium, a novel human pluripotent stem cell culture medium that provides a consistent environment for the long-term maintenance and growth of healthy pluripotent stem cells. The new medium performs equivalently to the industry's leading medium and provides academic and pharmaceutical stem cell research labs with a substantially lower cost alternative to higher priced media. Additional information and sample requests of the Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium are available at http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc.

"The exorbitant cost of media for pluripotent stem cells is a universal complaint from the stem cell research community. Our Stemline Pluripotent Culture Medium performs equivalently to the leading medium for maintaining pluripotency and optimal growth rates, and is produced more efficiently than traditional media, resulting in lower costs. For example, a typical academic lab that consumes three 500 mL bottles of media per week could save at least $12,000 annually using our new Stemline medium. A high-throughput pharmaceutical development team that consumes 20 liters of media weekly could save more than $160,000 annually," said John Listello, Market Segment Manager for Regenerative Medicine at Sigma Life Science.

Culturing pluripotent stem cells can be challenging as many media's undefined, heterogenous mixtures can cause inconsistent growth rates and undesired spontaneous differentiation. The Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium is serum-free, composed of fully-defined components and has 80% less basic fibroblast growth factor than the leading pluripotent stem cell culture medium. This provides a consistent environment for long-term maintenance of optimal growth rates, viability and pluripotency. Rigorous characterization of the Stemline Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium has demonstrated that cultured pluripotent stem cells display all established pluripotency markers and maintain proper karyotype and the ability to differentiate into each of the three germ layers. The feeder-independent medium also enables culturing with synthetic matricies, thereby eliminating a source of variability that would prohibit later clinical applications.

"Academic and pharmaceutical groups performing toxicology screens, disease-specific stem cell research or studies of the basic mechanisms behind pluripotency and differentiation depend upon a steady supply of consistent, high-performance cell culture medium. This novel Stemline medium extends Sigma's existing position as one of the largest global providers of cell culture media," said Listello.

Existing Stemline stem cell culture media include specialized formulations for expansion of six human adult stem cell and progenitor cell types: hematopoietic, neural, dendritic, mesenchymal, T-cells, and keratinocytes. These six Stemline media are produced under good manufacturing practices (GMP) and have Device Master File certificates from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Sigma Life Science's comprehensive stem cell product portfolio includes custom iPS cell CompoZr ZFN-mediated genetic engineering, Stemgent Reprogramming Lentiviruses, the MISSION shRNA Library with the latest content release from The RNAi Consortium, 3D matrices, growth factors, small molecules, other cell culture media and the industry's most validated antibodies. Sigma Life Science acquired a worldwide license to Kyoto University's iPS cell patent portfolio in February, 2012.

For more information and to request pricing, visit http://www.sigma.com/stemlinepsc.

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "could," "could expect," "can be," "predictive" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There can be no guarantee that pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding products associated with pluripotent stem cells, pluripotent stem cell media, or related custom services could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,100 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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Sigma® Life Science Launches Novel, Affordable Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium

April Flowers for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Columbia University ophthalmologists and stem cell researchers have developed an experimental treatment for blindness using the patients skin cells, which has improved the vision of blind mice in testing.

The findings of this research, published online in the journal Molecular Medicine, suggest that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) could soon be used to improve vision in people with macular degeneration and other eye retina diseases. iPS cells are derived from adult human skin cells but have embryonic qualities.

With eye diseases, I think were getting close to a scenario where a patients own skin cells are used to replace retina cells destroyed by disease or degeneration, says Stephen Tsang, MD, PhD, associate professor of ophthalmology and pathology & cell biology. Its often said that iPS transplantation will be important in the practice of medicine in some distant future, but our paper suggests the future is almost here.

Scientists were very excited by the advent of human iPS cells when they were discovered in 2007, as they provide a way to avoid the ethical complications of embryonic stem cells. Another advantage is that the iPS cells are created from the patients own skin, eliminating the need for anti-rejection medications. Like the ethically challenged embryonic cells, iPS cells can develop into any type of cell. To-date, no iPS cells have been implanted into people, but many ophthalmologists say that the eye would prove to be ideal testing ground for iPS therapies.

The eye is a transparent and accessible part of the central nervous system, and thats a big advantage. We can put cells into the eye and monitor them every day with routine non-invasive clinical exams, Tsang said. And in the event of serious complications, removing the eye is not a life-threatening event.

Professor Tsang is running a new preclinical iPS study using human iPS cells derived from the skin cells of a 53-year-old donor. The cells were first transformed with a cocktail of growth factors into cells in the retina that lie underneath the eyes light-sensing cells.

Retina cells nourish the light-sensing cells and protect the fragile cells from excess light, heat and cellular debris. In macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, retina cells die, which allows the photoreceptor cells to degenerate causing the patient to lose their vision. It is estimated that 30 percent of people will have some form of macular degeneration by the time they are 75 years old, as it is the leading cause of vision loss in the elderly. Currently, it affects 7 million Americans and that is expected to double by 2020.

The Columbia research team injected the iPS-derived retina cells into the right eyes of 34 mice that had a genetic mutation that caused their retina cells to degenerate. In many of the mice, the iPS cells assimilated into the retina without disruption and functioned as normal retina cells well into the animals old age. Mice in the control group, who received injections of saline or inactive cells, showed no improvement in retina tests.

Our findings provide the first evidence of life-long neuronal recovery in a preclinical model of retinal degeneration, using stem cell transplant, with vision improvement persisting through the lifespan, Tsang says. And importantly, we saw no tumors in any of the mice, which should allay one of the biggest fears people have about stem cell transplants: that they will generate tumors.

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Blind Mice Get Experimental Stem Cell Treatment For Blindness

Zutphen, The Netherlands (ots/PRNewswire) -

Cryo-Save Group promotes the awareness of cord blood storage and stem cell therapies at several local educational events held throughout Europe.

Cryo-Save continues its Cord Blood Awareness Months celebration by sponsoring educational events in the Netherlands, Italy and Spain during the months of October and November. It is events like these that Cryo-Save hopes to bring awareness of and research advancements for the stem cell industry.

Stem cells are becoming ever more important in the medical field as a way to treat a broad variety of malignant and non-malignant diseases. The U.S. National Marrow Donor Program sites cord blood as treatment for multiple myeloma, severe aplastic anaemia, beta thalassemia major, SCID and other inherited immune system disorders, and leukaemias and lymphomas. Patients suffering from sickle cell anaemia have been considered cured after being treated with stem cells.[1] Over 4,000 clinical trials using cord blood stem cells are taking place to treat diseases such as cerebral palsy, diabetes and autism with many more potential clinical trials continuing to develop.

"Cryo-Save's efforts to inform the medical professionals and community members about advances in regenerative medicine means that patients suffering from diseases treatable with stem cells can also become better informed," says Dr. Cherie Daly, Medical Affairs Manager Cryo-Save. "Having a series of events and programs as part of Cord Blood Awareness Months makes an even stronger impact on the meaningfulness of this research and its application." Cryo-Save Group will continue its commitment to promoting the storage of cord blood and stem cells even after Cord Blood Awareness Months by offering several customer related promotions.

Cryo-Save Italy will hold a special meeting for midwives about stem cells, applications and Cryo-Save's storage services on October 2. Dr. Stefano Grossi, Cryo-Save Italy Scientific Director, will be there to present on stem cell applications. During the month of October Cryo-Save Italy will also offer several parent-to-be courses on similar topics in places all around Italy: Brescia, Venice, Bologna, Milan and others.

Midwives in the Netherlands are invited on October 4 to visit the Cryo-Save Laboratory in Niel, Belgium for a unique behind the scenes tour of the ultra-modern facility - an opportunity not available at most other cord blood banks. Attendees will have a chance to be given an update from Dr. Sally Sennitt, Cryo-Save Lab Director about the current applications of stem cells, treatable diseases and new clinical trials. Staff from Cryo-Save, the Netherlands will also report on the position and procedure of stem cell storage in the Netherlands and have a group discussion on the topic. "This event is our chance to give midwives information on the importance of stem cell storage and give them tools for helping parents become better informed of this option," says Erica Dikkeboom, Cryo-Save Nederland.

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1. University of Illinois at Chicago (2012, June 18). Chicago woman cured of sickle cell disease. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 12, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/06/120618194714.htm

Crio-Cord, Cryo-Save's subsidiary in Spain, will hold a stem cell therapy symposium in Madrid on October 16 focusing on cutting edge therapies using umbilical cord stem cells and will also include current investigations using stem cells that are taking place in Madrid. The symposium will be attended by national and international speakers and is the first of its kind to take place in Madrid.

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Educational Programs Offered as Part of Cryo-Save's Cord Blood Awareness Months