Category Archives: Stem Cell Videos

23-02-2012 14:54 http://www.euronews.net Dutch scientist Mark Post hopes that he will be able to produce the world's first test-tube burger later this year. He says it will look, and taste identical to a regular quarter-pounder. In the laboratory, he has already grown small strips of beef from bovine stem cells, and is now looking at ways to increase production. It is white because there are no blood cells. But researchers hope that once cooked, these cells will look and taste the same as conventionally produced meat.

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euronews science - In Vitro meat - Video

The method, developed over several years in the lab of Prof. Ehud Shapiro of the Institute's Biological Chemistry, and Computer Science and Applied Mathematics Departments, uses mutations in specific genetic markers to determine which cells are most closely related and how far back they share a common parent cell, to create a sort of family tree for cells. Shapiro and members of his lab, including Drs. Shalev Itzkovitz and Rivka Adar, together with Prof. Nava Dekel and research student Yitzhak Reizel of the Biological Regulation Department, used their method to see if ova could be descended from bone-marrow stem cells. Their findings indicated that any relationship between the two types was too distant for one to be an ancestor of the other.

These scientists also found, surprisingly, that the ova of older mice had undergone more cell divisions than those of younger mice. This could be the result of replenishment during adulthood, but an alternate theory holds that all eggs are created before birth, and those that undergo fewer divisions are simply selected earlier on for ovulation. Further experimentation, says Shapiro, will resolve the issue.

Cell lineage trees are similar to modern evolutionary and taxonomic trees based on genome comparisons between organisms. Shapiro and his team used mutations in cells that are passed on to daughter cells over an organism's lifetime (though not on to the next generation). By comparing a number of genetic sequences called microsatellites – areas where mutations occur like clockwork – they can place cells on trees to reveal their developmental history.

A number of papers published by Shapiro, his team and collaborators in recent months have demonstrated the power and versatility of this method. One study, for instance, lent support to the notion that the adult stem cells residing in tiny crypts in the lining of the colon do not harbor, as thought, "immortal DNA strands." Immortal strands may be retained by dividing stem cells if they always relegate the newly-synthesized DNA to the differentiating daughter cell and keep the original stand in the one that remains a stem cell.

A second study addressed an open question about developing muscle cells. Here they found that two kinds of progenitor cell - myogenic cells, which eventually give rise to muscle fiber, and non-myogenic cells – found within the same muscle are more closely related than similar cells in different muscles.

One immediate advantage of the cell lineage analysis method developed by Shapiro's team is that it is non-invasive and retrospective, and as such can be applied to the study of human cell lineages. Most other studies of development rely on genetically engineered lab animals in which the stem cells are tagged with fluorescent markers. In addition to providing a powerful new research method that does not rely on such markers, Shapiro believes that it could one day be adapted as a diagnostic tool that might, for instance, reveal the history of an individual's cancer and help doctors determine the best course of treatment.

Provided by Weizmann Institute of Science (news : web)

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Lineage trees reveal cells' histories

MINNEAPOLIS - A first-of-its-kind study is just getting underway at University of Minnesota Physicians Heart at Fairview, in Minneapolis. The FDA-approved trial is designed to test the impact of stem cells on restoring the heart's muscle function in patients suffering from advanced heart failure. The results of the trial could impact the future of health care in the area of heart disease, and may one day save lives.

Lee Magnuson, 58, of Spring Brook, WI, became one of the first patients to enroll in the study.

"To me it was a no brainer, I had to contribute," said Magnuson.

Magnuson suffered a heart attack on October 5, 2010. He spent about a year being treated with medication and undergoing cardiac rehabilitation in an attempt to strengthen his heart muscle.

But, by August of 2011, he said, his doctor could tell things were not going well. That is when his doctor recommended implanting a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). The device helps pump blood from the lower left chamber of the heart to the rest of the body. His doctor also told him about the U of M study.

"This trial is designed for heart failure patients in the end stage of heart failure, with no options for treatment," explained Ganesh Raveendran, M.D., who is the principal investigator of the clinical trial. "The question this trial is designed to answer is whether or not patients on a left ventricular assist device with the stem cell component do better than patients with only the device, which right now is the standard care for patients experiencing advanced heart failure."

The trial is currently enrolling qualified patients. All patients involved in the study will undergo a marrow harvest in which stem cells will be taken from the marrow of their own hip bone. Then, during implantation of the LVAD, two thirds of the patients enrolled in the study will receive an injection of their own stem cells. A third of the patients will be randomly assigned to the control group, and will receive only an LVAD and an injection of saline.

The trial is double-blind, meaning U of M researchers will not know which patients have received stem cells and which did not until the trial concludes.

So far, three patients have enrolled. Researchers hope to eventually recruit 24 people from around the region. The study will last approximately two years.

In November, Magnuson became the first of the patients to have an LVAD implanted and receive an injection.

Throughout the trial, Magnuson and the other patients will undergo a series of tests in which doctors slowly decrease the effort of the LVAD and place more pressure back on the heart's own pumping function. The purpose of the tests is to assess the impact of the stem cells on restoring the functionality of heart muscle. Researchers want to know whether there is any improvement in the size of the heart and the pressure inside the heart chambers. The tests include echocardiograms, PET scans, walking assessments, blood pressure measurements and quality-of-life questioning.

Researchers will eventually compare the results of those tests to see if there was a difference between the two groups of patients.

"The hope is that this group of patients suffering from severe heart failure eventually should be able to get some cells and improve the heart function," said Dr. Raveendran.

That answer will come once the patients either undergo a transplant or they die. Only then will doctors be able to study the hearts to learn the true impact of the stem cells.

Last month, Magnuson was put on a waiting list for a heart transplant.

"So it's a matter of waiting now, it's a matter of time," explained Magnuson.

He remains optimistic about the future, but says his heart issues also have taught him to be a realist.

"My quality of life is, before it was work, work, work, and it's going to not be so much work anymore and we're going to enjoy things," reflected Magnuson. "You all of a sudden realize that you're not going to live forever."

To learn more about the study:
Call the U of M Physicians Heart at Fairview - 612-625-5949
Email - stemcells@umnheart.com
Webpage - http://www.med.umn.edu/lcru/

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U of M researchers aim to restore heart muscle using stem cells

24-01-2012 12:40 Mon, Jan 23: It's an experimental breakthrough treatment for macular degeneration. Jennifer Tryon explains how embryonic stem cells helped two blind people see again.

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Stem cells offer hope for blind - Video

21-02-2012 05:39 (WTNH)-- Would you be willing to eat a burger that was grown in a test tube? Researchers say they have come up with a way to grow meat in a lab using animal stem cells.

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Buzz:Test tube beef - Video

17-02-2012 08:27 The University of Michigan's first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the US National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry. The line, known as UM4-6, is a genetically normal line, derived in October 2010 from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That embryo was created for reproduction but was no longer needed for that purpose and was therefore about to be discarded.

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UM human embryonic stem cell line placed on national registry - Video

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Verastem, Inc., (NASDAQ: VSTM - News) a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells, announced presentations at two upcoming investment conferences. The Verastem presentation details are as follows:

2012 RBC Capital Markets’ Global Healthcare Conference on Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 4:35 p.m. (ET) at the New York Palace Hotel in New York City. Citi 2012 Global Healthcare Conference on Wednesday, February 29, 2012 at 9:30 a.m. (ET) at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

Webcasts of the presentations can be accessed by visiting the investors section of the company’s website at http://www.verastem.com. A replay of the webcasts will be archived on the Verastem website for two weeks following each presentation date, respectively.

About Verastem, Inc.

Verastem, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSTM - News) is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing drugs to treat breast and other cancers by targeting cancer stem cells. Cancer stem cells are an underlying cause of tumor recurrence and metastasis. Verastem is translating discoveries in cancer stem cell research into new medicines for the treatment of major cancers such as breast cancer. For more information please visit http://www.verastem.com.

Forward-looking statements:

Any statements in this press release about future expectations, plans and prospects for the Company constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements. The Company anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause the Company’s views to change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so.

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Verastem to Present at RBC and Citi Healthcare Conferences

VANCOUVER, British Columbia

In a laboratory in the Netherlands, stem cells from cows are being grown into what researcher Mark J. Post says will be the first so-called "test-tube burger" -- comprising the tiny pieces of tissue-engineered, or "in vitro," meat -- that he and his colleagues aim to cook and taste as early as this October.

By this summer, California researcher Patrick O. Brown says, a company he's helped start will bring to market a revolutionary new plant-based substitute for a meat or dairy food -- he's not yet sharing specifics -- that "can't be distinguished from the animal product it replaces, even by hard-core foodies."

The scientists are on the leading edge of a movement to dramatically change how the world grows and consumes meat, something they say must happen, one way or another.

"Animal farming is by far the biggest ongoing global environmental catastrophe," Mr. Brown said Sunday at a news briefing for journalists from around the world at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, attended by some 5,000 delegates and 700 media people in Vancouver.

He and Mr. Post were part of a panel of four experts who later that day presented a symposium titled, "Meat without Animals: Test-tube Burgers and More." It was provocative enough that the Times of London broke a news embargo to publish something on it that morning, and bits of the story have been broadcast this week as far and wide as the local TV news in Pittsburgh.

The issue certainly is food for thought.

Mr. Brown, a biochemist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, wants to see a world without animal farming, because "in every conceivable way, it's inefficient and destructive."

Inefficient, in that it takes many pounds of grains, and many, many gallons of water, to make a typical quarter-pounder. Destructive, he said, citing sobering United Nations statistics, that show animal farming takes up about 30 percent of the Earth's land, accounts for more than 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, is the largest source of water pollution and the biggest threat to biodiversity.

Meanwhile, the world's appetite for meat is expected to double by 2050.

Mr. Brown called animal agriculture, mostly unchanged for centuries, as "a sitting duck for a disruptive technology."

That's why, with backing from a Silicone Valley venture capital firm, he's launched two startups to create and market alternative foods that, like him, are vegetarian.

Of course, the market already has plenty of meat substitutes and non-dairy "cheeses," but he says they're not very good and they're expensive, and they're marketed to people who've already chosen to be vegetarian or vegan for health or ethical reasons, not to the mainstream.

The products he plans will compete head-on with animal products by being "high-value, protein-rich, nutrient-dense human foods that appeal to consumers" -- stand-ins for everything from bacon to cheddar.

Professor Post of Maastricht University said that he hopes Mr. Brown and others are able to fix the problems of animal agriculture with plants. But because he believes many people want real meat, his research is about producing that in a more efficient, less environmentally degrading way.

Cows are only about 15 percent efficient at making meat from grains and other foods, he said. Making beef under more controlled conditions could feed a lot more people while using fewer resources, saving the grains for human consumption as food as well as biofuel. (Their aim is to grow meat with vegetable-based nutrients, perhaps involving algae.)

With backing of $330,000 from a "reputable," non-food-industry funder he's not yet identifying, his team is working to grow enough muscle cells to show that "cultured meat" is possible.

Already, they've grown bovine stem cells into tiny strips about an inch long and 2/100ths of an inch thick.

They'll need thousands of these to make a burger (the golf-ball-sized goal sounds more like a slider, and an expensive one at that). But that's just one of many challenges.

Growing stem cells happens in labs all over the world, including Pittsburgh, where some researchers envision being able to make replacement organs for humans.

Bits for ground beef, the most popular meat in the U.S., look to be relatively easy. (Mr. Post got laughs when recounting how they started with pig cells, planning to make sausage, which can be "hardly recognizable as a meat product" anyway).

But muscle cells on an animal grow because of conditions that scientists have to figure out how to create in the petri dish. Mr. Post described using electric current to "exercise" the cow muscle cells, and treatments ranging from administering caffeine to withholding light to get them to make more myoglobin, which gives meat its red color.

"Right now, it's sort of a pinkish-yellowish," he told journalists. "The color is an interesting issue."

But, as he said later, it's also a scientifically controllable one. His part of the talk touched on possibilities including lowering the saturated fat and cholesterol of various meats, even creating custom combinations of meats.

His Powerpoint presentation illustrated the ultimate goal -- making "big slabs of meat" -- which were fancifully depicted as octagonal steaks, on round ceramic "bones."

Even if he does taste that burger this fall, cultured filet mignons are a long ways off. They will be expensive, as will all the research it'll take.

"But what's the cost of traditional meat production?" asked Nicholas Genovese, a visiting scholar at the University of Missouri-Columbia who organized the symposium. He includes in that the costs of dealing with outbreaks of food-borne illness and other human health woes associated with animal foods.

One of the issues he stresses is the ethical one of millions of animals being killed. His research, in fact, is funded by a grant from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which in 2008 offered a $1 million reward for the first researchers to make in vitro chicken meat, indistinguishable from the "real" deal, and sell it to the public by June 30, 2012.

That offer stands and might be extended at a PETA meeting in Los Angeles in April, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C., last week. "Originally, we thought we'd never have to pay out," she said. "Nobody had heard of [in vitro meat]. We wanted to boot it into the public consciousness."

Now, she says, "We're feeling very good" about the research progress that's been made. "If this allows them to get rid of cruelty to animals, fabulous."

She's well aware that the idea of in vitro meat can stir strong reactions from everyone from Midwest farmers to home cooks, but says, "Everybody fears change," and points out that many foods such as soy milk were once little known.

The AAAS panelists included KeShun Liu, a U.S. Department of Agriculture researcher who talked about the next generation of extruded meat "analogs" that mimic the fibers of real chicken and turkey. (He said to look for products soon from Maryland's Savage River Farms).

The panelists agreed they're not advocating for legislation or subsidies; they're just working for alternatives for consumers.

Some acceptance of these new alternatives may be a matter of language. At the AAAS meeting, Mr. Genovese stressed, "In vitro meat will never be produced in the 'lab.' " As beer is made in a brewery, he has proposed calling meat production facilities of the future "carneries."

Bob Batz Jr.: bbatz@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1930.

First published on February 23, 2012 at 12:00 am

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Is 'in vitro meat' moving closer to the menu?

Thursday, Feb. 23, 2012

KYOTO — Researchers have succeeded in improving the treatment of Parkinson's disease by using human embryonic stem cells to create nerve cells that produce dopamine and then transplanting the cells into monkeys' brains.

Four monkeys with Parkinson's disease — and previously unable to walk due to their symptoms — improved substantially after the human nerve cells were transplanted into their brains, reducing the shaking in their limbs and leading to some regaining the ability to walk, the research team, including Kyoto University professor Jun Takahashi, said Tuesday.

It is the first time pluripotent human embryonic stem cells have been successfully transplanted to improve symptoms of Parkinson's disease in monkeys, according to the team.

Parkinson's disease is linked to drops in the production of dopamine — a neurotransmitter in the brain. While there are drugs to treat the progressive neurological illness, there is currently no treatment to stop dopamine levels from falling.

In the study, the researchers transplanted nerve cells derived from the human stem cells into the four monkeys' brains. About three months later, all of them began to show improvements in their symptoms and tests conducted a year after the operation confirmed the nerve cells had been successfully grafted in their brains.

The finding holds much promise for the future treatment of Parkinson's disease in humans using regenerative medicine, but the researchers cautioned that a lot more work lies ahead as the study also showed that transplanted nerve cells that were not appropriately matured led to the development of tumors, although they were not malignant and could be treated.

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Monkeys' Parkinson's woes eased via stem cells

An important new study by a team of scientists at RhinoCyte™ Inc., Louisville, Ky., details promising results on the effectiveness of olfactory (nasal) stem cells in repairing spinal cord damage resulting from the most common cause of these injuries — contusions (bruising) due to major trauma such as is seen in auto accidents, falls or combat. This could have major implication for the estimated 5 million people worldwide affected by spinal cord injuries – 1.275 million of them in the United States alone, where the cost of treatment exceeds $40.5 billion each year.

Louisville, Kentucky (PRWEB) February 22, 2012

An important new study released by a team of scientists at RhinoCyte™ Inc., Louisville, Ky., details promising results on the effectiveness of olfactory (nasal) stem cells in repairing spinal cord damage resulting from the most common cause of these injuries — contusions (bruising) due to major trauma. Their study is featured in the current issue of the Journal of Neurodegeneration and Regeneration.

The study, led by Dr. Fred Roisen, has great implication for the estimated 5 million people worldwide affected by spinal cord injuries – 1.275 million of them in the United States alone, where the cost of treatment exceeds $40.5 billion each year. Current treatment options are limited to retaining and retraining mobility; no drug therapies are available, but studies pertaining to stem cell treatments are showing great promise for these as well as other neurodegenerative conditions.

A previous study by the group made national headlines when lab rats whose spinal cords had been partially cut in the region of the animal’s neck in a way that disabled their front right paws were able to regain significant use of their paws after being injected with olfactory stem cells. The investigative team took the cells from the olfactory neurosensory epithelium — the part of the nose that controls the sense of smell — in adult volunteer donors who were already undergoing elective sinus surgery. The removal of the stem cells has no effect on the patients’ ability to smell. Also, the minimally invasive surgery is frequently done on an outpatient basis so the cells are readily available and, as such, are a potentially promising source of therapeutic stem cells.

The researchers isolated the stem cells and increased their numbers in the laboratory by growing them in an enriched solution. The cells were then injected into a group of lab rats. Twelve weeks later, these animals had regained control of their affected paws while a control group that received no cells had not.

This latest study continued that original work, by concentrating on contusions caused by blunt force trauma such as that resulting from an automobile accident or a fall. Spinal cord and head trauma are common among soldiers suffering serious combat injuries, too.

Two independent sets of experiments were conducted, beginning two weeks after the rats had received contusions administered in a computer-controlled surgery. In the first group, 27 out of 41 rats were injected with olfactory stem cells, while the remainder received none. In the second group, 16 rats were treated with olfactory stem cells, 11 received no treatment and 10 received stem cells grown from human skin to see how the olfactory cells compared with another stem cell source.

The results once again showed great promise, with 40 percent of the rats treated with the olfactory-derived stem cells showing significant improvement after just six weeks, compared to 30 percent of those treated with human skin-derived cells and only 9 percent of those receiving no treatment. In addition, the olfactory stem cell-treated rats showing the highest rate of improvement recovered much faster than the other groups.

“This is very exciting on numerous levels,” said Dr. Roisen. “As an autologous cell source — that is, the patient is both the donor and the recipient — olfactory stem cells bypass the time a patient must wait while a suitable donor is found, which can be critical to the outcome of the patient’s treatment. They also eliminate the need for immunosuppressive drugs, which have numerous negative side effects.

“And just as importantly, stem cells taken from the nose of an adult do away with the ethical concerns associated with using embryonic stem cells.”

The researchers are in the final stages of their enabling studies, which are scheduled to be completed by summer; Phase 1 safety studies could begin as soon as early next year.

Dr. Roisen is chief science officer and co-founder of RhinoCtye™, and a professor and chair of the University of Louisville School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomical Sciences and Neurobiology. The original work forming the basis for the contusion study was conducted by Dr. Roisen’s group at UofL and has been licensed to RhinoCtye™ (http://www.rhinocyte.com), a company he co-founded in 2005 with Dr. Chengliang Lu and Dr. Kathleen Klueber to develop and commercialize diagnostic tools and therapies for stem cell treatment of multiple degenerative and traumatic neurological diseases. RhinoCyte™ currently has three patents for olfactory stem cell treatments approved in the United States, Australia and Israel, with others pending worldwide.

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Laurel Harper
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502-550-0089
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Nasal Stem Cells Show Promise in Repairing Spinal Cord Damage Caused by Contusion