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Category Archives: Stem Cells

Dynamics of DNA packaging helps regulate formation of heart

Posted: September 28, 2012 at 8:15 am

ScienceDaily (Sep. 27, 2012) A new regulator for heart formation has been discovered by studying how embryonic stem cells adjust the packaging of their DNA. This approach to finding genetic regulators, the scientists say, may have the power to provide insight into the development of any tissue in the body -- liver, brain, blood and so on.

A stem cell has the potential to become any type of cell. Once the choice is made, the cell and other stem cells committed to the same fate divide to form organ tissue.

A University of Washington-led research team was particularly interested in how stem cells turn into heart muscle cells to further research on repairing damaged hearts through tissue regeneration. The leaders of the project were Dr. Charles Murry, a cardiac pathologist and stem cell biologist; Dr. Randall Moon, who studies the control of embryonic development, and Dr. John Stamatoyannopoulos, who explores the operating systems of the human genome.

The paper's lead author is Dr. Sharon Paige, a UW MD-PhD student who completed her Ph.D. in Dr. Murry's lab.

The results are published in the Sept. 28 edition of Cell.

Paige, an aspiring pediatric cardiologist, said, "By identifying regulators of cardiac development, this work has the potential to lead to a better understanding of the causes of congenital heart disease, thereby paving the way for therapeutic advances."

Previously UW researchers had examined the signals that prod cells to grow into various kinds of heart tissue. In this case, the researchers entered a relatively unexplored area. They decided to look at the genetic controls behind the transformation of stem cells into heart tissue.

Because stem cells keep their DNA code under wraps until needed, the scientists examined how this packaging is altered over time to permit reading of portions of the code and thereby produce changes in the cell.

DNA is wound up into a structure called chromatin. "DNA can be packaged as tightly closed, neutral or activated," Murry explained. The tightly closed state, he said, is analogous to setting the brakes on a car.

Like a child who clams up when asked, "What will you be when you grow up?" stem cells are protective of the genes that will determine their future cell type, or what scientists call their cell fate.

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Tumorogenic stem cells purged

Posted: September 27, 2012 at 2:11 pm

Scientists find new way to up safety factor of stem cell therapy by causing contaminated cells to purge themselves.

Pluripotent stem cells show great potential in treating various debilitating diseases, but at a risk: during the process of reprogramming the cells so they will grow (differentiate) into the desired tissue, some of their DNA may be damaged causing them to develop into tumors. Researchers have been scrambling to find a way to overcome this huge drawback to an otherwise highly promising therapeutic candidate.

Now, researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, think they might have found an answer. Reporting in the October issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, they detail a low-cost, highly-effective way to detect and then purge at-risk cells during an early stage in the differentiation process.

Strategies to improve the safety of stem cell therapy have generally focused on separating or depleting damaged cells after the cells have differentiated. However, while this method was able to diminish the number of tumors formed as well as significantly reduce their size, the technical burdens and cost of specialized reagents and equipment needed to do so remain a challenge for widespread clinical applications, says lead investigator Timothy J. Nelson, M.D., Ph.D. He directs the cell biology group within the clinics Regenerative Strategies team.

Instead, the Mayo team turned to a relatively simple protocol that involves pre-treating cultured stem cells with a genotoxin an agent that sniffs out gene mutations or chromosomes changes in contaminated cells and kills them after first priming the cells through the up-regulation of Puma protein, which can be activated to send a series of signals leading to cell suicide. They tested their theory using stem cells taken from a mouse model.

The results showed that not only did the contaminated cells die off, At the same time, it didnt affect the remaining healthy cells capability to differentiate nor did it have any negative consequence on their genomic stability, Nelson says. And it worked on stem cells derived from both natural and bioengineered sources.

This novel strategy, based on innate mechanisms of pluripotent stem cells, is primed for high-throughput and cost-effective clinical translation.

The potential for tumor formation has been a significant drawback to therapeutic use of certain cell populations, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The strategy outlined in this manuscript shows promise for avoiding the risk of uncontrolled cell growth upon transplantation.

STEM CELLS Translational Medicine

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Tumorogenic stem cells purged

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Three-dimensional fiber scaffold promotes large-scale stem cell proliferation and differentiation

Posted: September 26, 2012 at 6:15 pm

Pluripotent embryonic stem cells encapsulated in the fiber scaffold developed at IBN. Credit: A*STAR Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology

Thanks to the ability of pluripotent stem cells to self-renew and differentiate into a wide variety of specialized cell types, they are expected to revolutionize the treatment of illnesses such as type I diabetes and Parkinson's disease. Before this becomes a reality, however, scientists must develop culture systems to mass-produce these cells. To overcome the limitations of previous single-layer-substrate systems, a research team in Singapore has developed three-dimensional scaffolds that stimulate stem cell proliferation and differentiation under defined chemical conditions. Importantly, the system can be scaled up. The scaffolds consist of microscopic fibers obtained by weaving together polymer strands bearing opposite charges.

Hongfang Lu and Andrew Wan from the A*STAR Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology led the research. Wan notes that the fiber-based scaffold not only avoids the need to consume large quantities of key growth factors, but it would also shield the cells from the shear stresses generated in large-scale bioreactors.

To manufacture the scaffold, the researchers opted for a positively charged biopolymer called chitin, which they extracted from crab shell, and a negatively charged polymer called sodium alginate. After depositing one droplet of each of these water-soluble polymers onto a sterile substrate, they brought the droplet interfaces into contact using forceps; this formed a chitinalginate complex. Held together by intermolecular electrostatic interactions, the complex extended into a continuous fiber. The team reeled the fiber onto a holder to complete the three-dimensional system.

By suspending the stem cells in the alginate solution, Lu, Wan and co-workers incorporated the cells into the scaffold during fiber formation, resulting in a network of uniformly distributed cells (see image). Preliminary tests showed that when the researchers destroyed the scaffold with enzymes, they could recover a high number of the cells.

Lu explains that their system provided a 'micro-environment' in which cells could grow in aggregates. When sub-cultured over many generations, the encapsulated stem cells remained pluripotent and did not undergo any genetic mutations. Moreover, the cells displayed excellent viability when frozen in the fiber for storage; in addition, they could either self-renew or differentiate, depending on the media available to them. "The small dimensions of the fibers are useful because they allow nutrients and growth factors to efficiently diffuse towards the cells within the scaffold," she adds.

The team is now planning to exploit their approach to produce transplantable tissue for cell-based therapy. "Our system allows us to generate large numbers of cells for tissue-engineering applications," says Wan.

More information: Lu, H. F., Narayanan, K., Lim, S.-X., Gao, S., Leong, M. F. & Wan, A. C. A. A 3D microfibrous scaffold for long-term human pluripotent stem cell self-renewal under chemically defined conditions. Biomaterials 33, 24192430 (2012): article

Provided by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore

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Making it easier to make stem cells: Kinase inhibitors lower barrier to producing stem cells in lab

Posted: September 25, 2012 at 9:13 pm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) The process researchers use to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) -- a special type of stem cell that can be made in the lab from any type of adult cell -- is time consuming and inefficient. To speed things up, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) turned to kinase inhibitors. These chemical compounds block the activity of kinases, enzymes responsible for many aspects of cellular communication, survival, and growth.

As they outline in a paper published September 25 in Nature Communications, the team found several kinase inhibitors that, when added to starter cells, help generate many more iPSCs than the standard method. This new capability will likely speed up research in many fields, better enabling scientists around the world to study human disease and develop new treatments.

"Generating iPSCs depends on the regulation of communication networks within cells," explained Tariq Rana, Ph.D., program director in Sanford-Burnham's Sanford Children's Health Research Center and senior author of the study. "So, when you start manipulating which genes are turned on or off in cells to create pluripotent stem cells, you are probably activating a large number of kinases. Since many of these active kinases are likely inhibiting the conversion to iPSCs, it made sense to us that adding inhibitors might lower the barrier."

According to Tony Hunter, Ph.D., professor in the Molecular and Cell Biology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and director of the Salk Institute Cancer Center, "The identification of small molecules that improve the efficiency of generating iPSCs is an important step forward in being able to use these cells therapeutically. Tariq Rana's exciting new work has uncovered a class of protein kinase inhibitors that override the normal barriers to efficient iPSC formation, and these inhibitors should prove useful in generating iPSCs from new sources for experimental and ultimately therapeutic purposes." Hunter, a kinase expert, was not involved in this study.

The promise of iPSCs

At the moment, the only treatment option available to many heart failure patients is a heart transplant. Looking for a better alternative, many researchers are coaxing stem cells into new heart muscle. In Alzheimer's disease, researchers are also interested in stem cells, using them to reproduce a person's own malfunctioning brain cells in a dish, where they can be used to test therapeutic drugs. But where do these stem cells come from? Since the advent of iPSC technology, the answer in many cases is the lab. Like their embryonic cousins, iPSCs can be used to generate just about any cell type -- heart, brain, or muscle, to name a few -- that can be used to test new therapies or potentially to replace diseased or damaged tissue.

It sounds simple enough: you start with any type of differentiated cell, such as skin cells, add four molecules that reprogram the cells' genomes, and then try to catch those that successfully revert to unspecialized iPSCs. But the process takes a long time and isn't very efficient -- you can start with thousands of skin cells and end up with just a few iPSCs.

Inhibiting kinases to make more iPSCs

Zhonghan Li, a graduate student in Rana's laboratory, took on the task of finding kinase inhibitors that might speed up the iPSC-generating process. Scientists in the Conrad Prebys Center for Chemical Genomics, Sanford-Burnham's drug discovery facility, provided Li with a collection of more than 240 chemical compounds that inhibit kinases. Li painstakingly added them one-by-one to his cells and waited to see what happened. Several kinase inhibitors produced many more iPSCs than the untreated cells -- in some cases too many iPSCs for the tiny dish housing them. The most potent inhibitors targeted three kinases in particular: AurkA, P38, and IP3K.

Working with the staff in Sanford-Burnham's genomics, bioinformatics, animal modeling, and histology core facilities -- valuable resources and expertise available to all Sanford-Burnham scientists and the scientific community at large -- Rana and Li further confirmed the specificity of their findings and even nailed down the mechanism behind one inhibitor's beneficial actions.

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Making it easier to make stem cells: Kinase inhibitors lower barrier to producing stem cells in lab

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Cryopreservation of induced pluripotent stem cells improved the most by one product

Posted: September 25, 2012 at 9:13 pm

Public release date: 25-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Eve cellmedicinect@gmail.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Tampa, Fla. (Sep. 25, 2012) In a study to determine the best cryopreservation (freezing) solution to maintain induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a team of researchers from Japan compared 12 kinds of commercially prepared and readily available cryopreservation solutions and found that "Cell Banker 3" out-performed the other 11 solutions by allowing iPS cells to be preserved for a year at degrees C in an undifferentiated state.

The study is published in a recent special issue of Cell Medicine [3(1)], now freely available on-line at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/cm.

"iPS cells are a promising alternative to embryonic stem cells and can be used in place of bone marrow cells, stromal cells and adipose tissue-derived stem cells," said study co-author Hirofumi Noguchi, MD, PhD, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Transplant and Surgical Oncology at the Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine. "However, the viability of human iPS cells, like embryonic stem cells, decreases significantly during cryopreservation. A wide variety of cryopreservation solutions have been used, however many are toxic or ineffective for use in extended cryopreservation."

The researchers concluded that Cell Banker 3 showed the highest cell viability and proliferation of all the solutions examined and can be widely used as it does not require any special skills for use.

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This research was among those studies presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Organ Preservation and Medical Biology (JSOPMB). Sixteen studies were published in this special issue of CELL MEDICINE. The theme of the issue is "Organ/Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine."

Citation: Miyamoto, Y.; Noguchi, H.; Yukawa, H.; Oishi, K.; Matsushita, K.; Iwata, H.; Hayashi, S. Cryopreservation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells. Cell Med. 3(1):89-95; 2012.

Contact: Dr. Hirofumi Noguchi, Department of Gastroenterological Surgery, Transplant and Surgical Oncology, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2-5-1 Shikata, Okayama 700-8558 Japan Tel + 81-86-235-7257; Fax + 81-86-221-8775 Noguchih2006@yahoo.co.jp / noguch-h@cc.okayama-u.ac.jp

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Cryopreservation of induced pluripotent stem cells improved the most by one product

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Isolating stem cells from brain tumors

Posted: September 25, 2012 at 9:13 pm

ScienceDaily (Sep. 25, 2012) A new video protocol in Journal of Visualized Experiments (JoVE) details an assay to identify brain tumor initiating stem cells from primary brain tumors. Through flow cytometry, scientists separate stem cells from the rest of the tumor, allowing quick and efficient analysis of target cells. This approach has been effectively used to identify similar stem cells in leukemia patients.

"Overall, these tumors are extremely rare, with only around one in 100,000 people being diagnosed with a primary brain cancer," Dr. Sheila Singh, co-author and neurosurgeon from McMaster University, explains. "However, these tumors are the second most common malignancy in the pediatric population, and are behind only leukemia as the cancer with the highest mortality rate."

This publication is significant because it allows scientists to identify, purify, and study brain tumor initiating cells rapidly and without sample loss. Because these stem cells allow scientists to grow films in a petri dish, they serve as an effective model of a tumor expanding in the brain of a patient. Though not all tumors are actively driven by a stem cell, they do drive the most aggressively expanding tumors that lead to a negative prognosis. Typically, the median survival for patients with these types of tumors is fifteen-months, and they are almost uniformly fatal. Currently there is no prospect for a cure.

"Since 2003, we've been perfecting the technique to isolate stem cells from brain tumors," Dr. Singh explains. Stem cells have three key properties: self-renewal, multilineage differentiation, and longevity. Studying stem cells allow scientists to develop therapies that not only target the progenitor cells, but also many of the daughter cells. This is crucial because stem cells are often hard to eradicate without adverse effects to the rest of the body. Once daughter cells are identified, this procedure can be used to target and isolate these cells as well. Singh continues, "By describing the entire hierarchy of tumor progenitor cells, we can describe, characterize and target any point in the lineage. These techniques are going to help us characterize and isolate these cells to learn more about their molecular underpinnings and how to target them."

Given the small amount of tissue available to scientists like Dr. Singh, analytic procedures must be incredibly efficient and precise so as not to waste the precious material. Since Dr. Singh first identified brain tumor initiating cells, she has "recognized the difficulties in working with these tissues." Singh's lab "has focused on optimizing these procedures, which are limited by small cell numbers, to increase the data output." As such, JoVE's unique video-text hybrid serves as an effective means to transmit the procedures to Dr. Singh's colleagues and other cancer researchers. JoVE is the world's first peer-reviewed science video journal indexed in PubMed and MEDLINE.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by The Journal of Visualized Experiments.

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Isolating stem cells from brain tumors

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Mouse pancreatic stem cells successfully differentiate into insulin producing cells

Posted: September 25, 2012 at 9:13 pm

Public release date: 25-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Eve cellmedicinect@gmail.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Tampa, Fla. (Sep. 25, 2012) In a study to investigate how transplanted islet cells can differentiate and mature into insulin-producing pancreatic cells, a team of Japanese researchers found that using a specific set of transcription factors (proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences) could be transduced into mouse pancreatic stem cells (mPSCs) using Sendai virus (SeV), a mouse influenza virus, as a carrier, or vector. The study is published in a recent issue of Cell Medicine [3(1)], now freely available on-line at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/cm.

"Diabetes is one of the most serious and prevalent metabolic diseases," said study co-author Dr. Hiroshi Yukawa, Department of Advanced Medicine in Biotechnology and Robotics, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine. "Islet cell transplantation has proven effective, however this strategy requires sufficient organ donors."

Given the shortage of donors, the researchers investigated factors that could impact on the expansion and differentiation of pancreatic stem cells (PSCs) into insulin-producing cells using combinations of varieties of transcription factors and the SeV mouse virus to carry the cells, thus increasing the number of functional islet cells available for transplantation.

SeV vectors, said the researchers, are superior to conventional virus vectors because "they do not go through a DNA phase" and can introduce foreign genes without toxicity into a variety of cell types.

The combination of transcription factors that produced the greatest impact on the differentiation of PSCs into insulin cells was Pdx-1 (Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox 1), NeuroD (neurogenic differentiation) and MafA (musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma oncogene A). "Our data suggest that the transduction of transcription factors using SeV vectors facilitates mPSCs differentiation into insulin producing cells and showed the possibility of regenerating B-cells by using transduced PSCs," concluded the researchers.

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This research was among those studies presented at the 37th Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Organ Preservation and Medical Biology (JSOPMB). Sixteen studies were published in this special issue of CELL MEDICINE. The theme of the issue is "Organ/Cell Transplantation and Regenerative Medicine."

Citation. Yukawa, H.; Noguchi, H.; Oishi, K.; Miyamoto, Y.; Inoue, M.; Hasegawa, M.; Hayashi, S. Differentiation of Mouse Pancreatic Stem Cells into Insulin-Producing Cells by Recombinant Sendai Virus-Mediated Gene Transfer Technology Cell Med. 3(1):51-61; 2012.

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Therapeutic impact of cell transplantation aided by magnetic factor

Posted: September 24, 2012 at 5:13 pm

Public release date: 24-Sep-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: David Eve celltransplantation@gmail.com Cell Transplantation Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair

Putnam Valley, NY. (Sept. 24, 2012) Two studies in the current issue of Cell Transplantation (21:6), now freely available on-line at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/cog/ct/, demonstrate how the use of magnetic particles are a factor that can positively impact on the targeted delivery of transplanted stem cells and to also provide better cell retention.

A research team from the University of British Columbia used focused magnetic stem cell targeting to improve the delivery and transport of mensenchymal stem cells to the retinas of test rats while researchers from Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute (Los Angeles) injected magnetically enhanced cardiac stem cells to guide the cells to their target to increase cell retention and therapeutic benefit in rat models of ischemic/reperfusion injury.

According to study co-author Dr. Kevin Gregory-Evans, MD, PhD, of the Centre for Macular Degeneration at the University of British Columbia, degeneration of the retina - the cause of macular degeneration as well as other eye diseases - accounts for most cases of blindness in the developed world. To date, the transplantation of mensenchymal stem cells to the damaged retina has had "limited success" because the cells reaching the retina have been in "very low numbers and in random distribution."

Seeking to improve stem cell transplantation to the retina, the researchers magnetized rat mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs). Via an externally placed magnet, they directed the SPION enhanced cells to the peripheral retinas of the test animals.

"Our results showed that large numbers of blood-borne magnetic MSCs can be targeted to specific retinal locations and produce therapeutically useful biochemical changes in the target tissue," explained Gregory-Evans. "Such an approach would be optimal in focal tissue diseases of the outer retina, such as age-related macular degeneration."

Contact:

Dr. Kevin Gregory-Evans, Centre for Macular Research, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of British Columbia, 2550 Willow St., Vancouver, BC, Canada, V5Z 3N9 Tel. + 1-604-671-0419 Fax. + 1-604-875-4663 Email: kge30@interchange.unc.ca

Citation: Yanai, A.; Hfeli, U. O.; Metcalfe, A. L.; Soema, P.; Addo, L.; Gregory-Evans, C. Y.; Po, K.; Shan, X.; Moritz, O. L.; Gregory-Evans, K. Focused Magnetic Stem Cell Targeting to the Retina Using Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles. Cell Transplant. 21(6):1137-1148; 2012.

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Cancer Stem Cells Drug Pipeline Update 2012

Posted: September 24, 2012 at 5:13 pm

NEW YORK, Sept. 24, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Reportlinker.com announces that a new market research report is available in its catalogue:

Cancer Stem Cells Drug Pipeline Update 2012

http://www.reportlinker.com/p0980850/Cancer-Stem-Cells-Drug-Pipeline-Update-2012.html#utm_source=prnewswire&utm_medium=pr&utm_campaign=Biological_Therapy

Treatments designed to target and destroy cancer stem cells may come to revolutionize how we treat cancer. This unique product covers both explicit cancer stem cell drug development and cancer drugs which are inhibitors of the Hedgehog, Notch, and WNT Pathway. These developmental pathways are frequently activated in neoplasms, and particularly in the rare subpopulation of cancer stem cells.

There are today 203 companies plus partners developing 243 cancer stem cells and developmental pathways drugs in 684 developmental projects in cancer. In addition, there are 3 suspended drugs and the accumulated number of ceased drugs over the last years amount to another 123 drugs. Cancer Stem Cells Drug Pipeline Update lists all drugs and gives you a progress analysis on each one of them. Identified drugs are linked to 165 different targets. These targets are further categorized on in the software application by 38 classifications of molecular function and with pathway referrals to BioCarta, KEGG and NetPath.

How May Drug Pipeline Update Be of Use?

* Show investors/board/management that you are right on top of drug development progress in your therapeutic area.

* Find competitors, collaborations partners, M&A candidates etc.

* Jump start competitive drug intelligence operations

* Excellent starting point for world wide benchmarking

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Reproducing Research Results: Removing a Scientific Roadblock

Posted: September 23, 2012 at 3:55 pm


The California stem cell agency faces
no easy task in trying to translate basic research findings into
something that can be used to treat patients and be sold commercially.

Even clinical trials, which only begin
long after the basic research is done and which involve more ordinary
therapeutic treatments than stem cells, fail at an astonishing rate.
Only one out of five that enter the clinical trial gauntlet
successfully finish the second stage, according to industry data
cited last spring by Pat Olson, executive director of scientific activities at the stem cell agency. And
then come even more challenges.
But at a much earlier stage of
research there is the “problem of irreproducible results,” in the
words of writer Monya Baker of the journal Nature. Baker last month reported on
moves by a firm called Science Exchange in Palo Alto, Ca., to
do something to ease the problem and speed up preclinical research.
The effort is called the Reproducibility Initiative and also involves
PLOS and figshare, an open science Internet project.
Elizabeth Iorns
Science Exchange Photo
Science Exchange is headed by Elizabeth
Iorns
, a scientist and co-founder of the firm. She wrote about  test-tube-to-clinic translation issues in a recent article in New
Scientist
that was headlined, “Is medical science built on shaky
foundations?”
Iorns said,

“One goal of scientific publication
is to share results in enough detail to allow other research teams to
reproduce them and build on them. However, many recent reports have
raised the alarm that a shocking amount of the published literature
in fields ranging from cancer biology to psychology is not
reproducible.”

Iorns cited studies in Nature that
reported that Bayer cannot “replicate about two-thirds of published
studies identifying possible drug targets” and that Amgen failed at
even a higher rate. It could not “replicate 47 of 53 highly
promising results they examined.”
The California Stem Cell Report earlier
this week asked Iorns for her thoughts on the implications for the
California stem cell agency, whose motto is "Turning stem cells into cures." Here is the full text of her response.

“First, I think it is important to
accept that there is a crisis affecting preclinical research. Recent
studies estimate that 70% of preclinical research cannot be
reproduced. This is the research that should form the foundation upon
which new discoveries can be made to enhance health, lengthen life,
and reduce the burdens of illness and disability. The
irreproducibility of preclinical research is a significant impediment
to the achievement of these goals. To solve this problem requires
immediate and concrete action. It is not enough to make
recommendations and issue guidelines to researchers. Funders must act
to ensure they fund researchers to produce high quality reproducible
research. One such way to do so, is to reward, or require,
independent validation of results. The reproducibility initiative
provides a mechanism for independent validation, allowing the
identification of high quality reproducible research. It is vital
that funders act now to address this problem, to prevent the wasted
time and money that is currently spent funding non-reproducible
research and to prevent the erosion of public trust and support for
research.”

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

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