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Massachusetts (Stem Cell) – what-when-how

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 7:05 pm

Massachusetts excels in the biomedical field. The commonwealth has strong, internationally recognized academic research institutions and clinical centers, as well as a growing biomedical industry, with stem cell and regenerative medicine companies. The legislation is supportive of stem cell research, and the state is setting aside funds for embryonic stem cell research. Past successes have included performing the first skin graft grown from human stem cells in 1983.

The only federal legislation regulation of stem cell research is an executive order prohibiting federal funds from being used for embryonic stem cell research, except those using embryonic stem cell lines created before August 9, 2001. Each state is therefore responsible for determining its policy and funding for stem cell research.

Stem cell research in Massachusetts falls under the 2005 act enhancing regenerative medicine, which permits and encourages stem cell research on adult, placental, umbilical cord blood, and human embryonic stem cells. The law permits the creation of embryos for research by therapeutic cloning, using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Cloning for human reproductive purposes is prohibited, and the law includes penalties for violating regulations.

To clarify the regulations for creating embryos for research, an act on biotechnology regulation also was enacted in 2006. This act makes it clear that creating embryos for research may be done only by somatic cell nuclear transfer, parthenogenesis, or other asexual means. Though embryos may not be created for research through in vitro fertilization procedures, excess embryos from assisted reproduction may be donated for research with the informed consent of the donors. Regulations prohibit payment for embryos, human gametes, or cadaveric tissue.

The legislature also overrode a governors veto to create an institute for stem cell research and regenerative medicine at the University of Massachusetts and established an investment fund to create a life science center for regenerative medicine and biotechnology in 2006. With a planned investment of $1 billion over 10 years, the Massachusetts Life Sciences Initiative will provide investment to public and private institutions, growing life sciences research, development, and commercialization, as well as building ties between sectors of the Massachusetts life sciences community. In addition to funding, this strategy of focusing on medicine and science research will provide funds to researchers for work before NIH grant funding, build an infrastructure for research, and support the translation of Massachusetts research innovation into clinical applications with tax incentives and other assistance.

The Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park was created in 1985 in Worcester for biotechnology research and production. The park is across the street from the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and is home to over a dozen biotechnology companies, not-for-profits, and academic institutions. The facilities include wet laboratory space and locations for buildings designed for the business. CenTech Park-Emerging Technology Research and Manufacturing located in Grafton is near the Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. The park is intended for emerging technology companies.

The Harvard Stem Cell Institute, founded in 2004, supports the collaborative work of the university, medical school, teaching hospitals, and researchers to bring together basic science innovation with clinical expertise to translate innovations into clinical applications. The institute supports research into all aspects of stem cell biology, including both embryonic and adult stem cells. Their primary emphasis is on the search for new therapies for serious diseases, including, among others, diabetes, neurological diseases, cardiovascular diseases, blood diseases, and cancer. The institute receives private donation support and National Institutes of Health grant funds.

The University of Massachusetts is a public research university system with campuses statewide and a medical school and a teaching hospital in Worcester. The University of Massachusetts Memorial Healthcare is home to the commonwealths public cord blood bank, as well as researchers in cell biology, stem cell research for use in bone disease and blood disorders, and clinical research with the goal of translation of their findings to clinical application in cardiovascular and blood disease, cancer, and diabetes.

The Massachusetts legislature set aside funding for an institute for stem cell research and regenerative medicine at the university, which will integrate the system-wide strengths in human and animal stem cell research as well as biological material and cell/tissue engineering. The hope is to build core lab facilities, enhance the academic programs, and use the strength of the Massachusetts Biologic laboratories in translating basic science innovations into clinical applications.

Massachusetts Biologic Laboratories became part of the University of Massachusetts in 1997. The laboratory manufactures vaccines and other biologic products at locations in Jamaica Plain and Mattapan. The laboratory is licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for vaccine manufacturing.

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Massachusetts (Stem Cell) - what-when-how

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What's the role of virtues in the lab?

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 7:04 pm

11 hours ago by Gregory Crawford, The Conversation Just because we can doesnt mean we should. There are values at play in the lab. Credit: O. Usher (UCL MAPS), CC BY

The evolution of science and engineering in the 21st century has transformed the role of these professions in profound ways that affect research, scholarship and the practice of teaching in the university setting.

The traditional division between the liberal arts and the STEM disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics is, I believe, artificial and obsolete.

As a physicist, a former dean of engineering at Brown University, and dean of the College of Science at the University of Notre Dame, I have come to recognize and appreciate the vital role that the humanities, social sciences and arts play in the lives and careers of scientists and engineersperhaps more now than ever before.

The acceleration of discovery and invention in this century has reached a point where the question "Can we do this?" is almost always answered "yes."

Meanwhile, the question "Should we do this?" takes on new urgency. Society is looking for STEM graduates to address the global challenges that affect the medical, environmental and economic well-being of billions of people. To succeed with in these difficult tasks, graduates need to be schooled in the intellectual and moral virtues.

Research is not purely objective

Genomic mapping is routine, stem cell research holds promise for a wide range of cures, nanoscience and technology open near-limitless possibilities in some fields.

The complexity of increasingly sophisticated STEM research requires collaboration with people both within one's field and beyond. For example, hundreds of physicists work at CERN, the European particle physics laboratory, to understand the most fundamental nature of the universe's building blocks: subatomic particles. The nature of their work and future discoveries will inspire new collaborations among experts from different disciplines, spin-off technologies applied in other fields, and even raise new and profound questions about nature and human beings.

STEM is a human enterprisean investigation of the physical world carried out by individuals and groups whose interests and backgrounds influence their choices and focus.

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What's the role of virtues in the lab?

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UCLA Researchers Receive Prestigious CIRM Tools and Technologies Award

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 9:46 am

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Newswise Two scientists from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have received a California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) Tools and Technology Award that will forward revolutionary stem cell medicine. The UCLA researchers were among only 20 scientists nationwide to receive the Tools and Technologies Award, the most of any institution represented.

Recipients receiving awards for their respective projects included Dr. James Dunn, professor of bioengineering and surgery, for his research investigating skin-derived precursor stem cells for the treatment of enteric neuromuscular dysfunction, and Dr. Hanna Mikkola, associate professor of molecular, cell and developmental biology, for her work creating a suite of engineered human pluripotent stem cell lines to facilitate the generation of patient specific hematopoietic stem cells.

UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center Director Owen Witte said, We are very grateful for CIRMs support of these potentially groundbreaking projects intended to overcome significant bottlenecks in driving stem cell therapies to the clinic.

The CIRM Tools and Technologies initiative is designed specifically to support research that can address regenerative medicines unique translational challenges. The award seeks to facilitate the creation, design and testing of broadly applicable novel tools and technologies for addressing translational bottlenecks to stem cell therapies.

Dr. James Dunn: Unlocking the Secrets of Neuromuscular Dysfunction

Dr. Dunns cutting-edge work focuses on assessing the therapeutic potential of skin-derived stem cells to treat neuromuscular gastrointestinal diseases. CIRM reviewers noted that, if successfully completed, the project would likely have a major impact upon the field. His lab will develop a model of intestinal neuromuscular dysfunction that is amenable to stem cell transplantation.

Dunns novel approach to treat these patients will use stem cells reprogrammed from the patients own skin (induced pluripotent stem cells) to generate the neural system to correct the intestinal dysfunction. Dunn and his team hope the research will result in a clinical trial using patient specific induced pluripotent stem cells and provide a critical step toward an improved therapeutic approach and to treat intestinal neuromuscular dysfunction.

Dr. Dunns research was additionally supported by the National Institutes and Sun West Company.

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Two UC San Diego Scientists Receive Stem Cell Technology Grants

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 9:46 am

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Newswise The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded two University of California, San Diego researchers almost $3 million in combined funding to pursue new technologies intended to accelerate advances moving stem cell therapies out of the lab and into the clinic.

The funding was part of almost $30 million in new Tools and Technologies awards announced at CIRMs monthly meeting in San Francisco.

Sometimes even the most promising therapy can be derailed by a tiny problem, said Jonathan Thomas, JD, PhD, chair of the CIRM Board. These awards are designed to help find ways to overcome those problems, to bridge the gaps in our knowledge and ensure that the best research is able to keep progressing and move out of the lab and into clinical trials in patients.

Shaochen Chen, PhD, professor in the Department of Nanoengineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering and a member of the Institute of Engineering in Medicine at UC San Diego, received a $1.3 million in CIRM funding for development of 3D bioprinting techniques using human embryonic stem cell-derived heart muscle cells to create new cardiac tissue.

Millions of Americans suffer from cardiovascular disease, specifically congestive heart failure in which a heart valve ceases to work properly. Current treatment often calls for a valve transplant, but donor availability does not meet need.

Chen and colleagues are exploring the possibility of engineering healthy cardiac tissues bioprinted from heart muscle cells, called cardiomyocytes, created from human embryonic stem cells. These tissues could then be implanted in a damaged heart, restoring function.

Shyni Varghese, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering at the Jacobs School of Engineering and director of the Bio-Inspired Materials and Stem Cell Engineering Laboratory, received a $1.4 CIRM grant to improve in vivo function of transplanted stem cells.

Vargheses lab focuses upon the complex interactions of cells with their surrounding microenvironment, and how the conditions necessary to promote normal, healthy survival and growth occur.

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Two UC San Diego Scientists Receive Stem Cell Technology Grants

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Topeka Zoo's bear gets CT scan, stem cell therapy

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 9:44 am

Peek, a 20-year-old American Black Bear living at the Topeka Zoo, is undergoing treatment, including a CT scan, for a back condition, zoo director Brendan Wiley said Monday.

Peek came out of her den two weeks ago and her keeper noticed the bears hind legs were wobbly. Peek was given pain medication. However, the condition quickly worsened, Wiley said in a news release.

Within the next seven days, Peek continued to lose control of her rear legs.

One of the unique things about this scenario is that Peek hasnt acted like anything is hurting her, said Shanna Simpson, animal care supervisor. It is like the front half of her body can no longer communicate with the back half.

Peeks illness required the use of a CT scan, which used equipment the zoo doesnt have, Wiley said.

Zoo veterinarian Shirley Llizo brought in Larry Snyder and Travis Gratton, of University Bird and Small Animal Hospital, to help harvest fat cells from Peek. This would allow the fat cells to be converted to stem cells to be injected.

Peek was tranquilized Jan. 22 and transported to the zoos hospital so the fat cells could be harvested. After the harvest, Peek was transported to St. Francis Health Center, where she was met by Brent Wilkins, director of imaging services, and his staff.

After confirming Peek would fit in the 72-centimeter CT scanner, Wilkins was able to do the scan, and radiologist James Owen found an area of Peeks spine was experiencing spinal stenosis. This is a narrowing of the spinal column that causes pressure on the spinal cord, according to zoo officials.

Our first priority is human patient safety and access, Wilkins said. We work with the Topeka Zoo to accommodate animals that need CT scans in off hours when one of our CT scanners is available. We made sure the bear was separated from any other patients and performed a high-level decontamination and cleaning of the area, called a terminal cleaning, after the bears visit. Were very happy to help our friends at the zoo in keeping the animals healthy.

After the CT scan, Peek went back to the zoo, where she received the stem cell therapy. Stem cell therapy treatment in bears is new technology, Wiley said.

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Topeka Zoo's bear gets CT scan, stem cell therapy

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Topeka Zoo Black Bear Undergoes Stem Cell Therapy

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 9:44 am

Peek the American black bear (Courtesy: Topeka Zoo)

Peek the bear is shown undergoing a CT scan at St. Francis Health Center in this photo from the Topeka Zoo.

St. Francis Health Center staff watch as a CT scan is performed on Peek the black bear. (Courtesy: Topeka Zoo)

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - An American black bear at the Topeka Zoo may be the first bear ever to undergo stem cell treatment for a spinal problem.

Zoo Director Brendan Wiley says Peek, who is 20-years old, started losing control of her hind legs two weeks ago. The condition worsened and zoo staff says pain medication was not having any impact on the situation.

One of the unique things about this scenario is that Peek hasnt acted like anything is hurting her. It is like the front half of her body can no longer communicate with the back half, said Animal Care Supervisor Shanna Simpson.

The zoo worked with St. Francis Health Center to perform a CT scan. Peek was tranquilized and transported to St. Francis' imaging facilities.

"Our first priority is human patient safety and access," says Brent Wilkins, director of Imaging Services at St. Francis Health. "We work with the Topeka Zoo to accommodate animals that need CT scans in off hours when one of our CT scanners is available. We made sure the bear was separated from any other patients and performed a high-level decontamination and cleaning of the area, called a terminal cleaning, after the bears visit."

The scan revealed an area of Peek's spine with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of her spinal column, causing pressure on the spinal cord.

In anticipation of future treatment, Dr. Larry Snyder and Dr. Travis Gratton, veterinarians from Topeka's University Small Animal Hospital were contacted. Before Peek was transported for the CT scan, the two harvested fat cells, which they converted to stem cells to inject back into her. The theory behind the treatment is that the stem cells can stimulate damaged area to repair and heal itself.

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Blood stem cells, Degenerative arthritis in a dog. – Video

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 8:41 am


Blood stem cells, Degenerative arthritis in a dog.
Degenerative arthritis in a dog. This Rottweiler was taken from the dog pound when he was 11. He was brought to me because of his serious arthritis. Even when his owners were having a barbecue...

By: Marco Polettini

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Blood stem cells, Degenerative arthritis in a dog. - Video

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Implant Placement with CGF – CD34+ Matrix – Video

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 8:41 am


Implant Placement with CGF - CD34+ Matrix
Implant Placement with CGF - CD34+ Matrix. Concentrated Growth Factors, CD34+ Stem cells, CGF Bio-Energetic Membrane.

By: DentistEdu

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New Pathway for Stalling BRCA Tumor Growth Revealed

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 4:06 am

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Newswise Inhibiting the action of a particular enzyme dramatically slows the growth of tumor cells tied to BRCA1 and BRCA2 genetic mutations which, in turn, are closely tied to breast and ovarian cancers, according to researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Senior investigator and NYU Langone cell biologist Agnel Sfeir, PhD, says that if further experiments prove successful, these findings could lead to a new class of targeted therapies against cancers with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations. The researchers findings in experiments in mice and human cells are described in the journal Nature online Feb. 2.

Dr. Sfeir and her collaborators say their discovery about the enzyme called polymerase theta, or PolQ resulted from efforts to answer a fundamental biological question: How do cells prevent the telomere ends of linear chromosomes, which house our genetic material, from sticking together? Cell DNA repair mechanisms can stitch together telomeres broken as part of cell metabolism. But such fusions, the researchers say, compromise normal cell growth and survival.

In the purest biological sense, our findings show how this particular enzyme, which we know is active in several tumors, promotes unwanted telomere fusions by inserting whole segments of DNA via a disruptive DNA repair pathway termed alt-NHEJ, says Dr. Sfeir, an assistant professor at NYU Langone and its Skirball Institute for Biomolecular Medicine and a member of NYUs Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center. It was quite remarkable to find that by blocking PolQ action, cancer cell growth was cut by more than half.

For the study, Dr. Sfeir and colleagues at the Scripps Research Institute focused their analysis on telomeric DNA. They noted that as the chromosome ends were being joined, whole sections of new genetic material were being inserted into the telomeric DNA suggesting that any of a dozen or more DNA-synthesizing polymerase enzymes were at work. Researchers then focused on PolQ, in part because it is known to be active in several tumors, including breast and ovarian, but also in liver and colon cancers. Breast and ovarian cancers are among the leading causes of cancer death among women in the United States.

Additional experiments confirmed that PolQ is needed to activate the alt-NHEJ pathway of DNA repair. Unlike the main, error-free pathway or HDR pathway the alt-NHEJ pathway does not use a related chromosomes genetic material as a template to meticulously correct any damaged genetic material. As such, alt-NHEJ is highly likely to leave coding mistakes.

Our studies will continue to look at how the alt-NHEJ pathway operates, Dr. Sfeir adds, and what biological factors cells use in addition to PolQ to choose between the error-prone or error-free DNA repair pathways.

Funding support for the study was provided by the Breast Cancer Alliance, the V-Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program, a Pew Scholars Award, the Novartis Advanced Discovery Institute, National Institutes of Health grant AG0386677, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology, as well the University of Texas at Austin, and from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas.

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Stem Cell Web Focus – Nature Publishing Group : science …

Posted: February 3, 2015 at 4:02 am

Stem cells are truly remarkable. They bridge the gulf between the fertilized egg that is our origin and the architecture that we become. They supply the cells that construct our adult bodies and, as we age, replenish worn out, damaged and diseased tissues. They renew themselves, resisting the powerful pull towards differentiation that overcomes more prosaic cells. And depending on the source, they have the potential to form one, many or all cell types of an organism.

Stem cell research has a history of more than 20 years, and has made some outstanding contributions to our understanding of haematopoiesis and mouse embryology. But the field has been transformed in the past few years by successes achieved in culturing human embryonic stem cells, the building blocks for every tissue we comprise, and in manipulating their differentiation in vitro. This web focus encompasses a one-stop shop for a selection of excellent articles and features on stem cells handpicked from the pages of Nature, including the specially commissioned Stem Cell Insight.

Dopamine neurons derived from embryonic stem cells function in an animal model of Parkinson's disease JONG-HOON KIM , JONATHAN M. AUERBACH , JOS A. RODRGUEZ-GMEZ , IVN VELASCO , DENISE GAVIN , NADYA LUMELSKY , SANG-HUN LEE , JOHN NGUYEN , ROSARIO SNCHEZ-PERNAUTE , KRYS BANKIEWICZ & RON MCKAY Nature AOP published online 20 June 2002; doi:10.1038/nature00900 | First Paragraph | Full Text (HTML / PDF) |

Pluripotency of mesenchymal stem cells derived from adult marrow YUEHUA JIANG , BALKRISHNA N. JAHAGIRDAR , R. LEE REINHARDT , ROBERT E. SCHWARTZ , C. DIRK KEENE , XILMA R. ORTIZ-GONZALEZ , MORAYMA REYES , TODD LENVIK , TROY LUND , MARK BLACKSTAD , JINGBO DU , SARA ALDRICH , AARON LISBERG , WALTER C. LOW , DAVID A. LARGAESPADA & CATHERINE M. VERFAILLIE Nature AOP published online 20 June 2002; doi:10.1038/nature00870 | First Paragraph | Full Text (HTML / PDF) |

Biomedicine: Stem-cell competition STUART H. ORKIN & SEAN J. MORRISON The debate continues over the relative merits of using embryonic and adult stem cells for research and perhaps, one day, to treat patients. Two new papers look at the abilities of these remarkable cells. Nature 418, 2527 (4 July 2002) | Full Text | PDF |

Stem cell hopes double Embryo and adult stem cell findings may re-fuel cloning research debates | Link |

Stem cells hype and hope RON MCKAY Nature 406, 361364 (2000); doi:10.1038/35019186 | Full Text (HTML / PDF) |

Can they rebuild us? PETER ALDHOUS The idea of therapeutic cloning, which offers the potential of growing replacement tissues perfectly matched to their recipients, is falling from favour. But there are alternatives, as Peter Aldhous found out. Nature 410, 622625 (2001); doi:10.1038/35070659 | Full Text (HTML / PDF) |

Stem cells | Link |

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