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Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

California Stem Cell Hoopdedoo Over Rick Perry: Strange Bedfellows and Education of Politicians

Posted: June 3, 2012 at 3:59 pm

A onetime aspirant to become the leader
of the free world was in California recently touring the lab of a
stem cell researcher in La Jolla.

The visit was somewhat unusual. The
visitor was Rick Perry, the governor of Texas who campaigned
unsuccessfully for the Republican nomination for president and who is
a strong opponent of hESC research. The lab is run by Scripps' Jeanne
Loring, who engages in hESC research among other things.

The event – if you can call it that –
also led to a video on YouTube of Perry at the lab, three blog
items by UC Davis stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler and
responses from Loring and Michael Thorsnes, who put up
the video and who has what he modestly describes as
"significant political experience" in the Democratic party.
Thorsnes, a retired San Diego lawyer and now a photographer, raised about $5.4 million for John Kerry's and Al Gore's
presidential efforts as well as other Democrats.

Issues raised in all the hoopdedoo include
consorting with the enemy, openness, exploitation of scientists for
political gain, public education and education of political leaders,
promotion of patient causes, rushing to judgment and even strange
bedfellows.

As far as we can tell, Perry's visit
received no attention in mainstream media, but Thorsnes, a key figure
in arranging the visit, put up a video of it on the Internet.
Knoepfler, who is the rare stem cell scientist with a blog, saw the
video and on May 21 raised what he now calls "a big stink"
in a blog posting. Subsequently Knoepfler toned down the language in
that item because of what he says was its "overly extreme
verbiage."

For several years now, Knoepfler has
been writing a fine blog that deals mostly with stem cell science but
also public policy, biotech business and more. Unfortunately,
however, his original item is no longer available, but our
recollection is that Knoepler's item was strong, indicating that
Loring should not have allowed the visit because it would bolster the
political fortunes of an enemy of science or at least hESC science.
Knoepfler cited what he called the campaign-style video as evidence
of exploitation.

On May 24, after a related May 22 item dealing with Rick Perry, Knoepfler said he rewrote the original item to temper his comments as a result of learning more
about what led up to the visit. That included more information from Thorsnes, who is chair of the executive advisory board of the
Parkinson’s Disease Association of San Diego.

Loring was quoted in original item as
saying,

"I think that scientists have an obligation to educate the
public. I welcome visits from both stem cell proponents and
opponents, so I have a chance to clarify any misconceptions about
what it is that we really do. We have to figure out how to deal with
our opponents as well as our friends. I have a policy of welcoming
opponents so I can teach them. It works. Education wins minds."

The California Stem Cell Report
queried Loring about any additional comments she had on the subject.
She replied,

"Governor Rick Perry left my lab
understanding far more about induced pluripotent stem cells than he
did when he arrived. If we don't engage those who don't share our
views, who will tell them the truth? How will they know that we are
ethical and working to improving human health?

"The visit was arranged by Michael
Thorsnes, a well-known Democratic fundraiser. He is a very
impressive person who knows politicians of every stripe, and he
arranged the meeting with Perry so that I could explain our project
to make iPSCs from people with Parkinson's disease, and our work
using iPSC derivatives in multiple sclerosis. Perry is promoting
'adult' stem cell therapy in Texas, and I wanted to be sure that he
understood the difference between 'adult' stem cells and pluripotent
stem cells. He does. Educating those in positions of power is one
of our responsibilities, and I take it very seriously."

Our take: Perry is first and foremost a
politician with large ambitions. It is more than legitimate to think
about how such a visit might be used or misused. Nonetheless,
foregoing the opportunity to educate political leaders, who control
research spending in this country, means isolation of the scientific
community and less understanding on the part of lawmakers. As far as
Perry's possible political gain is concerned, it is conceivable that
the visit could backfire on Perry should a political opponent
characterize the Loring lab tour as some sort of endorsement by him
of hESC research.

Everybody's particular interests were
at work in this episode: Thorsnes' desire for support for his cause,
Perry's political schmoozing and his own special interest in stem
cells – pro adult and con hESC, and Loring's desire to promote
scientific research in general and to educate a major political
figure.

As for the video, Knoepfler now says he
would allow a lab visit by Perry but no video. But in this digital
age, that condition could kill a likely visit. If researchers want to
talk to politicians – and they should -- risks are always involved,
but that is the price of relying on public funding and building
public enthusiasm for continued support.

One final note: Earlier in this item,
we said it was unfortunate that the original Knoepfler post is not
available. Without being able to read the original, it is difficult
to completely understand the subsequent string of events. On the
California Stem Cell Report, when corrections or other changes are
made, we always retain something to show what the original item said
and note where changes are made and why. It keeps the record straight
and provides a necessary paper trail. All in all, however, from
Perry's visit to today, it has been a robust and healthy exchange for
the stem cell community and beyond.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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CIRM Board Member Prieto Endorses Proposition 29

Posted: June 3, 2012 at 3:59 pm

One of the members of the governing
board of the California stem cell agency, Francisco Prieto, has
commented on the item yesterday dealing with California's Proposition 29, which
would create a CIRM-like agency to fund research into tobacco-related
illness.

Prieto, who is a Sacramento physician
and president of the Sacramento Sierra Chapter of the American
Diabetes Association, said in an email,

"I'm with George Skelton(Los
Angeles Times columnist). Whatever you think about ballot box
budgeting, you could take every penny raised by this and bury it in
the ground - it would still: Reduce smoking (mostly by preventing
some kids, the most price-sensitive group of smokers from starting) .
Save lives. Hurt the lying tobacco companies. All very good things."

CIRM has not taken a position on the measure.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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Malta opposing EU financing for stem cell research on embryos

Posted: June 1, 2012 at 2:19 pm

Stem cell therapy may one day be used to cure disorders such as Fragile-X syndrome, or Cystic fibrosis and other genetic maladies.

Matthew Vella

The Maltese government wants the European Commission to abandon plans to provide funds for research activities on stem cells that involve "the destruction of human embryos".

In a declaration on the ethical principles for the Horizon 2020 programme, which is an 80 billion fund for the EU's programme for research and innovation to create new jobs, the Maltese government said it wanted more detailed guidelines on the bioethical principles that will guide research programmes.

Horizon 2020 will allow the financing of research on human stem cells - both adult and embryonic - as long as it is permitted by the national laws of member states.

The fund however will not finance human cloning, genetic modification, or the creation of human embryos intended for the purpose of research or stem cell procurement.

The European Commission does not explicitly solicit the use of human embryonic stem cells, but Horizon 2020 allows the use of human stem cells according to the objectives of the research, and only if it has the necessary approvals from the member states.

The Maltese declaration echoes previous statements by the Commission of Catholic Bishops of the EC (Comece), which said Horizon 2020 did not include greater protection of human embryos from stem cell research.

Malta says it does not want any such embryos to be used for stem cell research. The statement by the Maltese government said the Horizon 2020 programme "does not take sufficiently into account the therapeutic potential of human adult stem cells."

Malta wants Europe to commit to a reinforcement of research on human adult stem cells, and that Europe should abstain from financing matters of fundamental ethical principles, which differ among member states.

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Malta opposing EU financing for stem cell research on embryos

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CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Posted: May 30, 2012 at 5:20 am

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

A CHOC Childrens research project, under the direction of Philip H. Schwartz, Ph.D., senior scientist at the CHOC Childrens Research Institute and managing director of the facilitys National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource, has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The grant will be used to develop a stem cell-based therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS I), a fatal metabolic disease that causes neurodegeneration, as well as defects in other major organ systems.

Based on a number of medical and experimental observations, children with inherited degenerative diseases of the brain are expected to be among the first to benefit from novel approaches based on stem cell therapy (SCT).

Dr. Schwartz explains, While uncommon, pediatric genetic neurodegenerative diseases account for a large burden of mortality and morbidity in young children. Hematopoietic (bone marrow) stem cell transplant (HSCT) can improve some non-neural symptoms of these diseases, but does not treat the deadly neurodegenerative process. Our approach targeting the effects of the disease on organs besides the brain with HSCT and neurodegeneration with a second stem cell therapy specifically designed to treat the brain is a strategy for whole-body treatment of MPS I. Our approach is also designed to avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted cells.

This research is designed to lead to experimental therapy, based on stem cells, by addressing two critical issues: early intervention is required and possible in this patient population; and teaching the immune system not to reject the transplanted cells is required. This research also sets the stage for efficient translation of this technology into clinical practice, by adapting transplant techniques that are standard in clinical practice or in clinical trials, and using laboratory cell biology methods that are easily transferrable to clinical cell manufacturing.

Nationally recognized for his work in the stem cell field, Dr. Schwartz research focuses on the use of stem cells to understand the neurobiological causes of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Named one of the best childrens hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2011-2012) and a 2011 Leapfrog Top Hospital, CHOC Children's is exclusively committed to the health and well-being of children through clinical expertise, advocacy, outreach and research that brings advanced treatment to pediatric patients.

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UCI researcher wins large research grant

Posted: May 30, 2012 at 5:20 am

A UC Irvine stem cell researcher won a $4.8-million grant to fund research toward a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded immunologist Thomas Lane, of the campus' Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, an Early Transitional Award last week to create a new line of neural stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis, according to a UCI press release.

"I am delighted that [the California Institute] has chosen to support our efforts to advance a novel stem cell-based therapy for multiple sclerosis," Peter Donovan, director of the research center, said in the release.

Lane is collaborating with Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and Claude Bernard, a multiple sclerosis researcher at Monash University in Australia.

The research project "really embodies what [the California Institute] is all about, which is bringing science together to treat horrible diseases like multiple sclerosis," said Lane, who is a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Multiple sclerosis is a central nervous system disease that causes inflammation and a loss of myelin, a fatty tissue that insulates and protects nerve cells.

The three are working on a stem cell treatment that will stop myelin loss while promoting the growth of new myelin to mend damaged nerves.

Loring creates the neural stem cells, said Lane, while he is testing the therapeutic effects the cells have on multiple sclerosis cells in animals.

The stem cells are already having a positive effect and the scientists are trying to understand why. They hope to identify the cells that have the most promise before going to clinical trials.

"I really want to thank the [California Institute] for allowing, and for funding, us," Lane said.

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UCI researcher wins large research grant

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CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Posted: May 30, 2012 at 4:19 am

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

More:
CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

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Bioheart and Ageless Regenerative Partner to Advance Stem Cell Field With New Laboratory Training Program on June 23 …

Posted: May 29, 2012 at 3:10 pm

SUNRISE, Fla., May 29, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bioheart, Inc. (OTCBB:BHRT.OB - News) announced today that it will offer another laboratory training course in partnership with the Ageless Regenerative Institute, an organization dedicated to the standardization of cell regenerative medicine, on Saturday/Sunday June 23-24, 2012. Attendees will participate in hands on, in depth training in laboratory practices in stem cell science at Bioheart, Inc.'s corporate headquarters and clean room in Sunrise, Florida. The course was designed for Laboratory technicians, Students, Physicians and Physician Assistants.

"Attendees will graduate from this one-of-a-kind course with an extensive understanding of stem cell science laboratory practices," said Kristin Comella, Chief Scientific Officer, Bioheart, Inc. "Previous attendees described the course as incredibly well orchestrated providing comprehensive know how for laboratory start up."

An emerging field with tremendous opportunities, adult stem cell research has been shown to regenerate and repair injured or diseased structures via the release of bioactive tissue growth factors and cytokines. This is the second time that The Ageless Regenerative Institute has partnered with Bioheart, Inc. to provide hands-on training in a stem cell laboratory. This course provides instruction regarding how to grow stem cells and perform quality control testing in an actual cGMP facility following FDA regulations.

The course goals and objectives include reviewing stem cell types and characteristics; learning cell culture including plating, trypsinization and harvesting, and cryopreservation; learning quality control tests including cell count, viability, flow cytometry, endotoxin, mycoplasma, sterility; and learning and performing cGMP functions including clean room maintenance, gowning and environmental monitoring.

For information on costs and to register, visit http://www.agelessregen.com or email: info@agelessregen.com.

About Bioheart, Inc.

Bioheart is committed to maintaining its leading position within the cardiovascular sector of the cell technology industry delivering cell therapies and biologics that help address congestive heart failure, lower limb ischemia, chronic heart ischemia, acute myocardial infarctions and other issues. Bioheart's goals are to cause damaged tissue to be regenerated, when possible, and to improve a patient's quality of life and reduce health care costs and hospitalizations.

Specific to biotechnology, Bioheart is focused on the discovery, development and, subject to regulatory approval, commercialization of autologous cell therapies for the treatment of chronic and acute heart damage and peripheral vascular disease. Its leading product, MyoCell, is a clinical muscle-derived cell therapy designed to populate regions of scar tissue within a patient's heart with new living cells for the purpose of improving cardiac function in chronic heart failure patients. For more information on Bioheart, visit http://www.bioheartinc.com.

About Ageless Regenerative Institute, LLC

The Ageless Regenerative Institute (ARI) is an organization dedicated to the standardization of cell regenerative medicine. The Institute promotes the development of evidence-based standards of excellence in the therapeutic use of adipose-derived stem cells through education, advocacy, and research. ARI has a highly experienced management team with experience in setting up full scale cGMP stem cell manufacturing facilities, stem cell product development & enhancement, developing point-of-care cell production systems, developing culture expanded stem cell production systems, FDA compliance, directing clinical & preclinical studies with multiple cell types for multiple indications, and more. ARI has successfully treated hundreds of patients utilizing these cellular therapies demonstrating both safety and efficacy. For more information about regenerative medicine please visit http://www.agelessregen.com.

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Bioheart and Ageless Regenerative Partner to Advance Stem Cell Field With New Laboratory Training Program on June 23 ...

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Americans flocking to India for stem cell therapy

Posted: May 29, 2012 at 12:11 am

Washington: A growing number of Americans are travelling to India to seek treatment for rare diseases through India's experimental embryonic stem cell therapy, according to an investigative report.

Among them Cash Burnaman, a 6-year-old South Carolina boy, who travelled with his parents to India seeking treatment for a rare genetic condition that has left him developmentally disabled, CNN reported.

"Cash is mute. He walks with the aid of braces. To battle his incurable condition, which is so rare it doesn't have a name, Cash has had to take an artificial growth hormone for most of his life," it said.

A growing number of Americans are travelling to India to seek treatment for rare diseases through experimental embryonic stem cell therapy.

His divorced parents, Josh Burnaman and Stephanie Krolick, have paid tens of thousands of dollars to have Cash undergo experimental injections of human embryonic stem cells at New Delhi's NuTech Mediworld run by Dr Geeta Shroff, a retired obstetrician and self-taught embryonic stem cell practitioner.

Shroff first treated Cash -- who presents symptoms similar to Down Syndrome -- in 2010. "I am helping improve their quality of life," she told CNN.

After five weeks of treatment, Cash and his parents returned home to the US. That's when Cash began walking with the aid of braces for the first time.

For four or five weeks of treatment, Shroff says she has charged her 87 American patients an average of $25,000.

But doctors cited by CNN said all that work and hope and money Cash's supporters have funnelled into his experimental therapy likely will have no medical benefits.

"There is zero evidence for what she (Shroff ) is doing being effective," Rutgers University's Dr Wise Young, a leading US neuroscientist, was quoted as saying.

More here:
Americans flocking to India for stem cell therapy

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A Look at the ‘Son of CIRM’ Proposal on the June California Ballot

Posted: May 27, 2012 at 3:58 pm

In the last couple of weeks, two
well-respected Los Angeles Times columnists have visited what
might be called the "Son of CIRM" initiative on the
June ballot in California. It is aimed at fighting cancer by spending
$800 million or so annually on research with the money coming from a
$1-a-pack tax on cigarettes.

One of the columnists, Michael
Hiltzik, said the measure, Proposition 29, is another
example of why California is a world leader in "paving the road to hell with good intentions." The other writer, George
Skelton, said,

"Prop. 29 would increase cancer
research. Reduce smoking. Save lives. Hurt the lying tobacco
companies. Good plan."

In his work at the Times, Hiltzik deals primarily with business
and financial news. He has written from time to time critically about
the $3 billion California stem cell agency. Skelton is a longtime
observer of the Califorrnia political scene and has been around since
Pat Brown was governor.

In a column slated for publication
Sunday, Hiltzik said that the drafters of the cancer measure closely
examined Proposition 71, which created the stem cell agency in
2004, and "managed to reproduce the earlier measure's worst
features."

He said the Proposition 71 "retired
the trophy for doing the wrong thing in the wrong way for what sounds
like the right reasons." Hiltzik wrote,

"Proposition 71, you may recall, was sold to a gullible
public via candy-coated images of Christopher Reeve walking
again and Michael J. Fox cured of Parkinson's.
The implication was that these miracles would happen if voters
approved a $3-billion bond issue for stem cell research. Who could be
against that?

"As it turned out, the stem cell
measure created an unwieldy bureaucracy and etched conflicts of
interest into the state Constitution. By last count about 85% of the
$1.3 billion in grants handed out by the program, or some $1.1
billion, has gone to institutions with representatives on the stem
cell board. The program is virtually immune to oversight by the
Legislature or other elected officials. For these reasons and others,
it has grappled with only mixed success with changes in stem cell
science and politics that have called its original rationale into
question."

Hiltzik continued,

"Proposition
29, similarly, places most spending from the tobacco tax in the hands
of a nine-member board that must comprise one cardiovascular
physician affiliated with a California academic medical center; the
chancellors of UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco and UC
Santa Cruz; two representatives of lobbying groups devoted to
tobacco-related illness (including one who has been treated for such
a disease); and three representatives from National Cancer
Institute-designated cancer centers in the state. There are
10 of the latter, including five UC campuses and the City of Hope.
Plainly, every member of the board will represent an employer that
thinks it's in line for some of the money."

Skelton took a different approach on May 14. Using the words of a federal judge,
he lambasted the tobacco industry for its "a
certified history of deception, distortion and lying. And let's not
forget fraud and racketeering."

Skelton dealt with the current TV ads
being aired in California against the initiative. They criticize the
measure for its conflicts of interest and also say that the money
would be spent out of state.

Skelton wrote,

"The anti-29 side is hitting this
hard: that the research money generated in California could be spent
out of state. And the politest thing possible to say about that claim
is that it's disingenuous. It's stretching something that's
conceivable into a virtual certainty."

Skelton continued,

"The anti-29 camp charges that
(the structure of the board) would allow a conflict of interest in
awarding contracts. But there are state laws that protect against
such conflicts.

"Anyway, the tobacco crowd can't have it
both ways: complaining that the money could be spent outside
California and also griping when the system is set up to practically
guarantee that it will be spent in California."

Our take:

Ballot box budgeting – which is at
the heart of both the stem cell and cancer initiatives -- is one of the
reasons that California is staggering from one year to the next in a
perennial financial mess. Initiatives also sometimes create nasty
blowback that can damage the effort that they ostensibly serve. Such
is the case with the California stem cell agency, which suffers from
management and other minutia embedded in Proposition 71 that is virtually
politically impossible to change.

Hiltzik wrote,

"Gov. Brown's latest budget
proposal calls for cuts of $1.2 billion in Medi-Cal and
$900 million in CalWorks (a relief program for families with
children) and steep cuts in financial aid for college students and in
court budgets. The University of California and Cal State systems are
becoming crippled by 20 years of cutbacks in state funding,
leading to soaring tuition charges. Tobacco-related illnesses create
some of the burden on Medi-Cal and other public healthcare programs,
yet a minimal portion of Proposition 29 revenue, if any, would go to
helping taxpayers carry that burden.

"With the overall state budget gap
approaching $16 billion, how can anyone make the case for diverting a
huge chunk of $800 million a year in new revenue to long-term
scientific research, whether in California or not? Even if you
believe that case can be made, the proper place to make it is in the
Legislature, where all these demands on the budget can be weighed and
balanced against one another — not at the ballot box, where the
only choice is to spend it the way the initiative's drafters choose
or not to raise it at all."

The California Stem Cell Report agrees
wholeheartedly.

(A personal disclosure: I worked for
Skelton when he was bureau chief for United Press International in
Sacramento some decades ago and consider him a friend. I am also
acquainted with Hiltzik but have not known him as long. I hold both
men in high regard.)

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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Thin Coverage of California Stem Cell Board Meeting

Posted: May 27, 2012 at 3:58 pm

Media coverage of yesterday's $69
million in research awards and other matters involving the California
stem cell agency was nearly non-existent today.

That is not unusual, however, since the
$3 billion enterprise is not within the attention span of the
mainstream press and electronic outlets.

The California Stem Report could find
only two stories involving yesterday's actions. One by Ron Leuty
appeared in the San Francisco Business Times and was a look at the grant awards. The other appeared on Nature's website.

Unfortunately, Nature's lead was incorrect.
It said,

"The California Institute of Regenerative Medicine
(CIRM) voted on 24 May to accept a new strategic planwhich
shrinks or eliminates support for basic research, facilities and
training, while funneling more of its funds toward clinical
development."

The CIRM governing board actually put
off until at least July decisions on which programs to cut and which
to expand. Basic research is not likely, however, to take a major
hit, for a variety of reasons.

Source:
http://californiastemcellreport.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

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Page 219«..10 20..218219220 221..230 240..»

Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

California Stem Cell Hoopdedoo Over Rick Perry: Strange Bedfellows and Education of Politicians

CIRM Board Member Prieto Endorses Proposition 29

Malta opposing EU financing for stem cell research on embryos

CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

UCI researcher wins large research grant

CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Bioheart and Ageless Regenerative Partner to Advance Stem Cell Field With New Laboratory Training Program on June 23 …

Americans flocking to India for stem cell therapy

A Look at the ‘Son of CIRM’ Proposal on the June California Ballot

Thin Coverage of California Stem Cell Board Meeting

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