Page 217«..1020..216217218219..230240..»

Category Archives: Stem Cells

Stem Cell Agency Plan Falls Far Short of Solving IOM Concerns

Posted: February 3, 2013 at 8:11 am

The governing board of the $3 billion
California stem cell agency last week fell far short of complying
with the recommendations of a blue-ribbon Institute of Medicine (IOM) study
that the agency itself commissioned to improve its performance.

Many of the proposals by the IOM dealt
with conflicts of interest at the eight-year-old agency, which board members
reluctantly recognized on Wednesday as a perception problem. Under the plan approved last week, 13 of the 29 members of the board would not be allowed to vote on any awards. They are members tied to institutions that benefit from funding. Three other board members linked to those beneficiary
institutions, however, would still be allowed to vote on grants other than
those to their institutions. .
The board did nothing to deal with the
structural issues involving conflicts of interest that are built into
the board as the result of Prop. 71, the ballot measure that created the research
effort in 2004. The 29-member board was constituted in such a way as
to give nearly all institutions that could benefit a seat at the
table where the money is handed out. It is as if the state's Public
Utility Commission, which sets utility rates, were dominated by
executives of the utility companies.
Under longstanding rules, individual members of the stem
cell board are barred from voting on grants to their institutions. However, the board still determines the game and the rules. The board approves the
specific areas of research for funding, approves plans for individual
RFAS, sets the rules for the grants and loans and enforces compliance
through CIRM staff.
The board last week limited itself to
changes that it could enact on its own. Many of the IOM
recommendations, including a new majority of independent members,
would require legislative action, which opens the agency to a wider
range of changes than even the IOM recommended. That is not a prospect the agency relishes. Nonetheless,
how well the board complies with the IOM recommendations is likely to
be critical to its plans to raise funds to continue its operations
beyond 2017, when the taxpayer cash runs out for new grants.
Here is a look at the key IOM recommendations and the response so far from the stem cell agency(see here and here).
More details may emerge between now the next CIRM board meeting in
the San Francisco Bay Area March 19, when the board is schedule to finalize its IOM plan. 
IOM Recommendation
“Change the Composition and Structure
of the Board and Working Groups.
“CIRM should put systems in place to
restructure the board to have a majority of independent members,
without increasing the size of the board. It should include
representatives of the diverse constituencies with interests in stem
cell research, but no institution or organization should be
guaranteed a seat on the board. Consideration should be given to
adding members from the business community....The chair and other
ICOC members should be prohibited from serving on the working groups.
During the reconstitution of the working groups, the current level of
representation of disease advocates should be maintained, such board
members being replaced with other disease advocates who are not board
members.”
CIRM Response
The Thomas plan basically is a total
rejection of this recommendation. The CIRM board does not support
creation of a new majority of independent members, which would mean
some current members would lose their seats if the board were not
increased beyond 29 members. No members will be added from industry.
Board members will continue to serve on the grant review panel and
other groups, contrary to IOM recommendations. In the case of grant
reviews, however, they would no longer vote in the closed door
sessions. The board has no plans to add patient advocates who are not
board members to working groups, including the grant review panel.
The University of California will continue to have five guaranteed
seats on the board. No independent members currently sit on the
board.
IOM Recommendation
“Revise Conflict of Interest
Definitions and Policies.
“CIRM should revise its definitions
of conflict of interest to recognize conflicts arising from
nonfinancial interests, such as the potential for conflict arising
from an individual’s interest in a specific disease, and should
reassess its policies for managing conflict of interest in light of
this broader definition.”
CIRM Response
CIRM has no plans to move to prevent
nonfinancial conflicts of interest. Several board members expressed
strong opposition to such an effort. Sixteen persons who sit on the
board have ties to institutions that receive CIRM funds. Currently
individual board members cannot vote on applications from their
institutions. To avoid the appearance of conflicts of interest, the
Thomas plan would have the 13 members directly appointed from
beneficiary institutions voluntarily abstain from voting on any grant
applications. Apparently not affected under the Thomas plan would be
three other board members who are appointed as patient advocates. Two
of them are employed by beneficiary institutions. The third is
chairwoman of the UC Board of Regents. All of the board members would
continue to vote on plans for all rounds of grants, including
determination of some of the specifics of the ensuing RFAs.
IOM Recommendation
“Restructure the Grant Review and
Funding Process.
“CIRM should restructure the grant
review and funding process to separate oversight and strategic
planning from day-to-day operations. The ICOC (the agency's governing
board) should remain responsible for oversight and articulation of an
overall strategic plan. However, grant management, funding
recommendations, and grant administration should be the
responsibility of the CIRM scientific staff, reporting to the
president. This restructuring would help mitigate concerns related to
conflicts of interest and would also put the review and funding
process in the hands of those best equipped to make those decisions.”
CIRM Response
CIRM patient advocate board members who
serve on the grant review group would not vote on applications during
the grant review sessions. They would be limited to voting at public
board meetings. They would lead discussion of non-scientific
considerations for approval of applications during the public
sessions. Currently that occurs during the closed door review.
IOM Recommendation
Abolish the “extraordinary petition”
mechanism for public appeals of negative grant reviews.
CIRM Response
Move all appeals to staff level and
behind closed doors. Currently extraordinary petitions are handled in
public board meetings, sometimes leading to lengthy, emotional
sessions with presentations by patient advocates. The public in
general, including grant applicants, continues to have the right
under state law to address the board on grant applications or any
other matter they wish.
IOM Recommendation
“Separate Operations from Oversight.
“The board should focus on strategic
planning, oversee financial performance and legal compliance, assess
the performance of the president and the board, and develop a plan
for transitioning CIRM to sustainability. The board should oversee
senior management but should not be involved in day-to-day
management. The chair and the board
should delegate day-to-day management responsibilities to the
president. Each of the three working groups should report to
management rather than to the ICOC.”
CIRM Response
The Thomas plan does not appear to
differ significantly from current operations, which reflect the
troubling dual executive arrangement involving the chairman and
president that was created by Prop. 71, the ballot measure that
created CIRM. The existing arrangement is also a hangover from the
days of the agency's first chairman, Robert Klein, and has been an
obstacle in previous recruitment efforts for a president of the
agency. The Thomas plan does eliminate a dual reporting arrangement
for the chief financial officer, a position that has been vacant
since last summer. Thomas indicated last fall that the position would
not be filled. Both the chairman of the IOM study panel and the
California state controller's office both say more needs to be done
to separate operations from oversight.
IOM Recommendation
“Enhance Industry Representation in
Key Aspects of CIRM Organization.
“Industry representation on the ICOC,
the Scientific Advisory Board, the Standards Working Group, and the
Grants Working Group should be enhanced to leverage industry’s
expertise and resources in product development, manufacturing, and
regulatory approval in support of the ultimate goal of bringing
therapies to patients.”
CIRM Response
The Thomas plan would increase industry
involvement “where appropriate.” However, industry has complained
for years about this problem, and some board members as well. But
little has been done to deal with the problem. Recently, the agency
has taken some steps to engage industry, but the IOM was aware of
those when it made its recommendation for closer cooperation.
IOM Recommendation
“Establish a Scientific Advisory
Board.
“CIRM should establish a single
Scientific Advisory Board comprising individuals with expertise in
the scientific, clinical, ethical, industry, and regulatory aspects
of stem cell biology and cell-based therapies.” Members of this
board would be from out of state and replace existing advisory
boards. They would be appointed by and report to president.
CIRM Response
CIRM says the structure and membership
of the a new board is under discussion, but generally indicated it
would go along this proposal. Not specifically addressed was
abolition of other advisory groups.
Develop a “sustainability” platform
in consultation with current and future partners, including sources
of funding.
IOM Recommendation
Develop a “sustainability” platform
in consultation with current and future partners, including sources
of funding.

CIRM Response
Chairman Jonathan Thomas said he is
working on details of a plan.
IOM Recommendations
“Incorporate Future Enforcement of
Intellectual Property Policies in the Sustainability Platform.
“As part of the plan maximizing the
continued impact of CIRM’s many achievements..., CIRM should
propose regulations that specify who will have the power and
authority to assert and enforce in the future rights retained by the
state in CIRM-funded intellectual property.”
“Consider Harmonizing Intellectual
Property Policies with Policies of Bayh-Dole Act.
“As other sources of funding for stem
cell research become available and as the field of regenerative
medicine advances from the laboratory to the clinic, the ICOC should
reconsider whether its goal of developing cures would be better
served by harmonizing CIRM’s IP policies wherever possible with the
more familiar policies of the Bayh-Dole Act.”
CIRM Response
The governing board's IP Subcommittee
will review the policies and make recommendations.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/0VfeUpeWrOw/stem-cell-agency-plan-falls-far-short.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on Stem Cell Agency Plan Falls Far Short of Solving IOM Concerns

Patient Advocate Reed Defends Patient Advocates on Stem Cell Board

Posted: February 3, 2013 at 8:10 am

Patient advocate Don Reed, declaring that the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) 17-month study of the $3 billion California stem cell agency is "grossly misguided," this weekend nonetheless said the agency took "the high road" in its response to the study's recommendation.

Reed, of Fremont, Ca., was particularly incensed about the IOM's recommendations concerning patient advocates on the board. The IOM said that none of the board members, including patient advocates, should vote on grant applications secretly in grant review groups. The IOM said their votes should be recorded in public at full board meetings. Other patient advocates would still have seats on the grant review group, under the IOM recommendations. But they would not also be members of the governing board.

The IOM also said that CIRM should also revise its conflict of interest standards to regulate personal conflicts of interest, such as those involving particular diseases and patient advocates. Some members of the CIRM governing board bristled at the recommendation, and the board did not act on it last week.

Last Wednesday, the CIRM board acted to permit board members who are patient advocates to continue to participate in the closed door grant review sessions, but not vote on the grants at that stage. Previously patient advocates had two cuts at applications, one in the grant review group and one at the public board meeting.

Writing on the Daily Kos blog, Reed also said that no real conflicts of interest currently exist on the board, although 90 percent of the $1.7 billion that has awarded has gone to institutions tied to board members.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/SmmFtyc1zXo/patient-advocate-reed-defends-patient.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on Patient Advocate Reed Defends Patient Advocates on Stem Cell Board

Loring on Patient Advocates and Their Role at the California Stem Cell Agency

Posted: February 3, 2013 at 8:10 am

The following statement by stem cell researcher Jeanne
Loring was read at the January 23, 2013, meeting of the governing board of the California stem cell agency. Loring is director
of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research
Institute in La Jolla, CA.

“I am sorry that I
cannot attend this important meeting of the ICOC. I'm in Toronto
reviewing stem cell grants for Japan and Canada. I've asked (patient advocate) Don Reed
to read my statement.
“I am a California
stem cell scientist whose research is funded by the NIH, private
foundations, and CIRM. I am the director of one of CIRM's shared
laboratories, which has provided formal training in research and
ethics to hundreds of young stem cell scientists. My CIRM funding
supports the stem cell genomics research that is the main focus of
the lab. We have also been funded by CIRM to investigate stem cell
therapies for Alzheimer disease and multiple sclerosis. I have
leveraged CIRM grant support to obtain funding for studies of autism
through the NIH, and for Parkinson's disease from a private
foundation.
“The IOM report
recommended a number of changes in CIRM's policies. One of these
recommendations is of especially great concern to me: the suggestion
that patient advocates should have much less influence in CIRM's
decisions about what research should be funded.
“Patient advocates
are extremely valuable to us researchers. Most of us stem cell
researchers had never met a patient advocate- and perhaps not even a
patient- before CIRM was founded. In my 20 years of being funded by
the NIH, the funding agency never once suggested that I should talk
to people who have the disease, or have relatives with a disease that
I was receiving funding to study.
“With my first CIRM
grant, I started meeting patient advocates, and now I can't imagine
pursuing a disease-related research project without them. I've
learned a great deal from the advocates on the ICOC, and I greatly
enjoy talking with them. They are wonderful sources of knowledge:
Jeff Sheehy taught me about HIV/AIDS and patient activism, I learned
about Parkinson's disease from Joan Samuelson, autism from John
Shestack, and David Serrano-Sewell, Diane Winoker have educated me
about MS and ALS.
“Professional
research scientists are competitive by nature- a conversation between
scientists is often constrained by our secrecy- we need to publish,
or perish. But advocates have no such constraints, which makes ICOC
meetings more enjoyable and informative than many scientific
meetings.
“Patient advocacy has
made me a better scientist. Advocacy makes CIRM-funded research
breathtakingly relevant and uniquely powerful to change the course of
medicine.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/l-jQiD3JTec/loring-on-patient-advocates-and-their.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on Loring on Patient Advocates and Their Role at the California Stem Cell Agency

CIRM’s Thomas: Conflicts ‘Put to Bed’ at Stem Cell Agency

Posted: February 3, 2013 at 8:10 am

The chairman of the $3 billion
California stem cell agency, Jonathan Thomas, today hailed board
action last week as putting “to bed once and for all” questions
about financial conflicts of interest by members of the agency's
governing board.

Writing on the agency's blog, Thomas
pointed to board approval of a new policy that would bar 13 of the 29
members of the governing board from voting on any grants whatsoever.
The 13 are the members who are “appointed from an institution that
is eligible to receive money.” Three other board members have ties
to institutions that receive money. Two are employees of the institutions and one is the
chair of the University of California board of regents, Sherry
Lansing. All three are appointed as patient advocate members of the
board. Currently all 16 are barred individually from voting on grants
to their institutions, but they can vote for awards to other
institutions.
Thomas proposed the plan last week to
the governing board, which approved it on a 23-0 vote with one
abstention. Thomas advanced the proposal in response to the
recommendations of a 17-month study by the Institute of Medicine(IOM).
CIRM paid $700,000 for the blue-ribbon report, hoping that it would
serve as the basis for continued financing of the agency beyond 2017,
when funds for new grants run out.
The IOM's far-reaching recommendations
included creation of a majority of independent members on the board,
which would mean some current members of the board would lose their
seats. No institutions would be guaranteed seats on the board.
Currently five members are appointed from the University of
California. The Thomas plan does not deal with those recommendations.
The IOM said “far too many” members
of the board have ties to institutions that receive funds from CIRM.
Compilations by the California Stem Cell Report show that about 90
percent of the $1.7 billion that the board has awarded has gone to
institutions linked to directors.
Thomas said that the board last week
“endorsed a framework of proposals that would dramatically change
the way the board works, and directly addresses the concerns and
recommendations of the IOM, in particular their feeling that the way
our Board works could create a perception of conflict of interest.”
Concerning the change in voting for the
13 board members, Thomas wrote,

“It was not an easy change to propose
and certainly not an easy one for our board members to approve. They
all care deeply about our mission and devote a great deal of thought,
time and energy to helping us do our work. So for 13 of them to agree
to abstain from a key aspect of their work was difficult to say the
least. And yet they did it because they felt it was important for the
overall goal of the agency.”

Thomas continued,

“So why did we take this approach?
It's simple. We want people to focus on the great work we do, on the
groundbreaking research we fund, and the impact we are having on the
field of regenerative medicine not just in California but throughout
the U.S. and around the world. As long as there are perceptions of
conflict of interest hanging over the Board, this will continue to be
difficult.”

Thomas said,

“This puts the economic conflicts
issue to bed once and for all.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/GHXrGjkYixw/cirms-thomas-conflicts-put-to-bed-at.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on CIRM’s Thomas: Conflicts ‘Put to Bed’ at Stem Cell Agency

IOM’s Shapiro Wants to See More Changes from California Stem Cell Agency

Posted: February 3, 2013 at 8:10 am

Additional mainstream media news
coverage surfaced last Friday involving the California stem cell
agency's response to the blue-ribbon report from the Institute of
Medicine(IOM), whose concerns about the agency ranged from conflicts of interest to grant
appeals by rejected researchers.

One of the more interesting pieces was
done by Stephanie O'Neill of Los Angeles radio station KPCC. To her
credit, she contacted the chairman of the IOM panel, Harold Shapiro,
for his fresh take on what the stem cell agency's board did on
Wednesday.
His comments were somewhat different
than those read Wednesday at the CIRM board meeting. On Friday, Shapiro was quoted as
saying the board action was “an important first step forward,”
but he added a caveat. O'Neill wrote,

“'I’m encouraged by this,' Shapiro
told KPCC. 'Presumably in the future they’ll take other steps. But
these are steps they could take without any legislative approval and
…I think it does respond in a pretty significant way to the spirit
of the report.'
“But Shapiro expressed concern that
the agency is making only 'small moves' to address a recommendation
that CIRM separate operations from oversight. Currently, the ICOC
functions 'both as an executor and as an overseer—competing duties
that compromise the ICOC’s critical role of providing independent
oversight and strategic direction,' according to the December IOM
report.
“'But  I do understand… that
would be a move that they would have to take over time so we’ll
have to wait and see,' Shapiro said.
“Thomas agreed and said that while
CIRMs recommendations more clearly define the roles of chairman and
president, more refinements will be likely over time.”

From the Los Angeles Times, came a
piece from Eryn Brown. Her article was brief and she referred her
readers to the California Stem Cell Report for details. Her first
paragraph said,

“Changes may be on the way at
California’s stem cell funding agency.”

In coverage outside the mainstream media,
the Burrill Report carried an article by Daniel Levine. The Burrill
Report is produced by Burrill & Co., a San Francisco life
sciences financial firm. Levine's straight-forward account was
largely based on the CIRM press release and the IOM report.
Two bloggers surfaced with some
coverage. UC Davis stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler, who is a CIRM
grantee, called the Thomas plan a “bold one-year experiment” and
“biggest development for CIRM in many years.” Knoepfler said,

“I’m still not sure I’m a fan of
all of the proposed changes, but I would say the plan is bold and
creative.”

On livingbiology.com, an unidentified
CIRM grantee carried a few brief items live from the meeting.

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/A2ayEbm2Se0/ioms-shapiro-wants-to-see-more-changes.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on IOM’s Shapiro Wants to See More Changes from California Stem Cell Agency

A gut feeling about neural stem cells

Posted: February 2, 2013 at 5:49 pm

Public release date: 1-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Jillian Hurst press_releases@the-jci.org Journal of Clinical Investigation

Proper function of the digestive system requires coordinated contraction of the muscle in the wall of the intestinal tract, regulated by the enteric nervous system. Damage or loss of these neurons can result in intestinal motility disorders, such as Hirschsprung's disease, for which there is a dearth of effective treatments. In principle, disorders of the enteric nervous system could be treated by cell therapy, but it was previously unknown whether transplanted stem cells could migrate to the appropriate location in the gut and then become neurons that could properly innervate the bowel. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Heather Young and colleagues at the University of Melbourne, isolated neural stem cells from mice, cultured them to promote the formation of neural precursor cells, and implanted them into the muscle in the colons of recipient mice. Young and colleagues found that these cells were able to migrate away from the transplantation site and develop into neurons that provided stimulation to the portions of the gut the regulate motility. These findings suggest that the transplantation of neural stem cells is a promising therapeutic avenue for the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders.

###

TITLE:

Transplanted progenitors generate functional enteric neurons in the postnatal colon

AUTHOR CONTACT:

Heather Young University of Melbourne, Parkville, UNK, AUS Phone: +61383440007; E-mail: h.young@unimelb.edu.au

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Original post:
A gut feeling about neural stem cells

Posted in Stem Cells | Comments Off on A gut feeling about neural stem cells

Doctor Credits Stem Cells For Restoring Woman’s Shrinking Face

Posted: February 2, 2013 at 5:49 pm

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich., Feb. 1, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --Shelby Township doctor diagnosis woman with rare poorly-understood condition.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130201/DE52888 )

Emma, a 35-year-old Detroit woman spent years unable to look in the mirror because the left half of her face had sunken over time. She had already consulted with several doctors who said they couldn't help when she found Brett Kotlus, M.D., a cosmetic and oculofacial plastic surgeon in Shelby Township, Michigan. He diagnosed her with a rare and poorly-understood condition called Parry-Romberg Syndrome (or Progressive Hemifacial Atrophy) that causes shrinkage of skin, fat, and bone of one half of the face. Dr. Kotlus was able to dramatically improve her disfigurement and restore her self-confidence by injecting fat taken from her waist into the collapsed areas of her face.

The disease had affected Emma's desire to participate in social activities and had dramatically hurt her self-esteem. "People would ask me what happened to my face when I was out," said Emma, a native Detroiter who works for the city. "I basically just went to work and went right home because I was so self-conscious about how I looked."

Dr. Kotlus performed a mini-liposuction procedure to remove fat cells from around her belly-button. The fat was artistically transplanted, virtually cell-by-cell, to the shrunken areas on the left side of Emma's face. "The same specialized fat transfer techniques that I use for cosmetic facial enhancement were useful in this situation. Studies have shown that a majority of the newly-located fat will flourish in its transplanted location. The fatty tissue is surrounded by a rich supply of progenitor cells, also known as stem cells, which I believe are responsible in part for the profound benefits of this procedure," explained Dr. Kotlus. "Using the unaffected side of Emma's face as a template, I was able to help her regain symmetry. Being able to help her in this way is both professionally and personally rewarding for me."

For more than 15 years, cosmetic surgeons have been performing fat transfer surgery to plump-up lips, cheeks, eyebrows, and temples, restoring volume lost in the normal process of aging. More recently, fat transfer techniques have returned to the spotlight because of the abundant stem cell supply found in the body's layers of fat. Stem cells have the potential to develop into more mature tissue including skin, bone, or fat components. Dr. Kotlus says that these characteristics make fat "a valuable cosmetic and reconstructive building block for surgeons. At the same time, many patients have gravitated toward fat transfer as opposed to synthetic materials because it is natural and has a negligible risk of rejection by the body."

Today, Emma smiles and tears form in her eyes when she recalls her experience with the procedure done more than 6 months ago. "I look more like the person I'm supposed to be," she beams.It's possible she may require further treatment if the disease becomes active again. But for now she is pleased with her restored appearance. She is especially happy that Dr. Kotlus agreed to perform the reconstruction free of charge. "My insurance wouldn't cover the surgery because they said it was cosmetic. But I wasn't trying to look younger or different. I just wanted to look normal." Dr. Kotlus says he was touched by Emma's story and personality. "This was a special circumstance and a special patient," he states.

Brett Kotlus, M.D. of Allure Medical Spa and Michigan Cosmetic Surgery Center is an accomplished and board-certified cosmetic and oculofacial plastic surgeon who practices who offers consultations at 8180 26 Mile Road, Suite 300, Shelby Township, Michigan. Allure Medical Spa is a physician-based practice offering innovative surgical and non-surgical cosmetic services.Individuals who think they may benefit or want additional information on various cosmetic procedures can visitwww.AllureMedicalSpa.com or call 586-992-8300. Allure Medical Spa is one of the first Medical Spas of its kind inthe United States, offering surgical and non-surgical cosmetic procedures.

Follow this link:
Doctor Credits Stem Cells For Restoring Woman's Shrinking Face

Posted in Stem Cells | Comments Off on Doctor Credits Stem Cells For Restoring Woman’s Shrinking Face

Scientists Are Rebuilding Hearts With Stem Cells

Posted: February 2, 2013 at 5:49 pm

Every two minutes someone in the UK has a heart attack.

Every six minutes, someone dies from heart failure.

During an attack, the heart remodels itself and dilates around the site of the injury to try to compensate, but these repairs are rarely effective. If the attack does not kill you, heart failure later frequently will.

"No matter what other clinical interventions are available, heart transplantation is the only genuine cure for this," says Paul Riley, professor of regenerative medicine at Oxford University. "The problem is there is a dearth of heart donors."

Transplants have their own problems successful operations require patients to remain on toxic, immune-suppressing drugs for life and their subsequent life expectancies are not usually longer than 20 years.

The solution, emerging from the laboratories of several groups of scientists around the world, is to work out how to rebuild damaged hearts. Their weapons of choice are reprogrammed stem cells.

These researchers have rejected the more traditional path of cell therapy that you may have read about over the past decade of hope around stem cells the idea that stem cells could be used to create batches of functioning tissue (heart or brain or whatever else) for transplant into the damaged part of the body.

Instead, these scientists are trying to understand what the chemical and genetic switches are that turn something into a heart cell or muscle cell. Using that information, they hope to programme cells at will, and help the body make repairs.

It is an exciting time for a technology that no one thought possible a few years ago. In 2007, Shinya Yamanaka showed it was possible to turn adult skin cells into embryonic-like stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), using just a few chemical factors.

His technique radically advanced stem cell biology, sweeping aside years of blockages due to the ethical objections about using stem cells from embryos. He won the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his work in October. Researchers have taken this a step further directly turning one mature cell type to another without going through a stem cell phase.

See the original post here:
Scientists Are Rebuilding Hearts With Stem Cells

Posted in Stem Cells | Comments Off on Scientists Are Rebuilding Hearts With Stem Cells

Sacramento Bee: Stem Cell Agency Falling Short on IOM Recommendations

Posted: February 1, 2013 at 1:28 pm

It's exceedingly rare when the
California stem cell agency makes the front page of any newspaper.

So it is worthy of note that The
Sacramento Bee this morning carried a lengthy piece on its page one
about the agency and its response to the blue-ribbon Institute of
Medicine (IOM) report.
The headline said,

 “Analyst: Stem
cell agency reforms fall short.”

The analyst is the Institute of
Medicine, more specifically Harold Shapiro, chairman of the panel that
studied California's $3 billion research effort for 17 months at
a cost of $700,000 to the agency.
Bee reporter Cynthia Craft wrote that
Shapiro said the stem cell agency is “falling short” in its
response to the IOM recommendation.
Craft wrote,

"'There certainly is a gap between
what we recommended and what they responded with,' said Shapiro,
president emeritus at Princeton
University. ' I wish they had moved closer to our
recommendations.'"

Craft said the IOM made sweeping recommendations “emphasizing the need for new blood on a governing
board that has been plagued by the appearance of conflicts of
interest, cronyism and sluggishness in getting stem-cell products to
market.”
Craft also interviewed Jonathan
Thomas, chairman of the stem cell agency, who said some of the IOM
recommendations would take legislative action. But Thomas said that
was “out of the question.”
Craft wrote,

“The process would take years, he
said. The first opportunity to get on the ballot, for instance, would
be in the fall of 2014.”

The agency will run out of cash for new
grants in less than four years.
Craft's story was the first major news
article in years about the agency in the Bee, the only daily
newspaper in the state's capital. She reviewed a bit of the history
of the agency and concerns about conflicts of interest. She
concluded,

“Shapiro said he stands firmly behind
his committee's report. 

"'I think our recommendations sit
together and interrelate to each other well – and should have been
moved along as quickly as possible,' Shapiro said. 

"'It might have been helpful if
they indicated to us what they were willing to do and what they
weren't,' he said."

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/tEEJz8_Jcds/sacramento-bee-stem-cell-agency-falling.html

Posted in Stem Cells, Stem Cell Therapy | Comments Off on Sacramento Bee: Stem Cell Agency Falling Short on IOM Recommendations

Cutting Edge Research in Stem Cells and Cancer Immunotherapy to Be Presented at the 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy …

Posted: February 1, 2013 at 10:47 am

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Ground breaking research on cancer stem cells as targets and normal stem cells in Immunotherapy will be discussed at the 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy Conference in Washington DC on April 4-5, 2013.

As modern oncology, largely directed towards developing therapies that achieve tumor reduction, has been thus far unsuccessful in achieving long term management of cancer, much more needs to be done in identifying and appropriately leveraging targets associated with tumor initiation, relapse or metastasis. Immunotherapy holds the promise of achieving durable control of cancer if matched with appropriate targets borne by cancer cells responsible for relapse and metastasis.

At the 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy Conference, significant findings on hematopoietic stem cells and T cell engineering for cancer immunotherapy, as well as cancer stem cells as a new category of targets for immune intervention in solid and hematological malignancies will be presented by nearly twenty experts in the fields of academia, pharmaceuticals and cancer research.

Speakers and panelists will be addressing and answer the following questions:

Some of the speakers at this years conference include:

This conference brings together leading scientists and C-Level executives from across the globe to present ground breaking research, case studies and new viewpoints. Please visit http://www.cancerimmunotherapyconference.com for the full list of speakers, agenda, and registration information.

See original here:
Cutting Edge Research in Stem Cells and Cancer Immunotherapy to Be Presented at the 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy ...

Posted in Stem Cells | Comments Off on Cutting Edge Research in Stem Cells and Cancer Immunotherapy to Be Presented at the 2nd Annual Cancer Immunotherapy …

Page 217«..1020..216217218219..230240..»