Blazin #39; For Rikky 2014
A kid that was told he would never walk, and with the miracle of stem cells he just may get that chance! When we were 20 weeks pregnant and the Spina Bifida was seen on the ultrasound, our...

By: Heath Reese

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Blazin' For Rikky 2014 - Video

Sheryl Ubelacker, The Canadian Press Published Thursday, September 18, 2014 2:46PM EDT Last Updated Thursday, September 18, 2014 6:31PM EDT

TORONTO -- Canadian researchers have found a way to boost the number of stem cells in umbilical cord blood so more patients with leukemia and other blood-related cancers could receive potentially life-saving transplants.

The key to the breakthrough technique is a molecule developed at the Universite de Montreal, coupled with a bioreactor designed at the University of Toronto, which allows scientists to significantly expand the number of stem cells from a single unit of cord blood.

"Basically it's going to give access to about 10 times as many cords in (cord blood) banks," said Dr. Guy Sauvageau, principal investigator of stem cell genetics at the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer at the Montreal university. "It's as if you were to multiply by 10 today the number of cord blood units in the world."

The molecule, called UM171, was discovered serendipitously. It had been created by a chemist at the institute working on another program but didn't work for its intended purpose, "so they just threw it in what we call a library of compounds," Sauvageau said Thursday from Montreal.

When his research team began testing compounds from among thousands in the library, UM171 "was the only one that really worked."

Stem cells from donated umbilical cord blood are able to give rise to all the types of cells that make up blood, including the immune cells that protect the body and fight infection. The same is true of bone marrow, but finding a suitable donor is more difficult.

For some people with blood-related cancers like leukemia, myeloma and lymphoma, getting a stem cell transplant to replace their own blood system is often the treatment of last resort.

But the biggest hurdle for doctors is finding enough cord blood stem cells that are a compatible match and won't cause severe rejection symptoms in recipients, he said. Typically, there are not enough stem cells in a single cord blood unit to regenerate an adult's blood system; only five per cent of cord blood bank units can be used for large adults.

"And there's another reason why this is becoming more of a problem, because we have more and more ethnic groups in our society and these people's access to a matched unrelated donor is more limited than for most Caucasians."

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Researchers develop molecule that boosts cord blood stem cells

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Newswise NEW YORK, September 18, 2014 Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have found a way to boost dramatically the efficiency of the process for turning adult cells into so-called pluripotent stem cells by combining three well-known compounds, including vitamin C.

Using the new technique in mice, the researchers increased the number of stem cells obtained from adult skin cells by more than 20-fold compared with the standard method. They say their technique is efficient and reliable, and thus should generally accelerate research aimed at using stem cells to generate virtually any tissue. Stem cells are immature or uncommitted cells that are theoretically capable of becoming any cell type.

This big boost in efficiency gives us an opportunity now to study stem cell programming mechanisms at high resolution, says Matthias Stadtfeld, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology and a member of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology at NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the research.

This is a very exciting advance, says Ruth Lehmann, PhD, director of the Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology and the Skirball Institute at NYU Langone and chair of the Department of Cell Biology. The new technology developed by the Stadtfeld lab to reprogram differentiated cells efficiently and effectively brings the prospect of stem cell technology for safe use in regenerative medicine ever so much closer."

The standard method for reprogramming skin, blood, or other tissue-specific cell types into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) was reported in 2006 by the laboratory of Kyoto Universitys Shinya Yamanaka, who later won a Nobel Prize for the achievement. The method involves the artificial expression of four key genes dubbed OKSM (for Oct4, Klf4, Sox2 and myc) whose collective activity slowly prods cells into an immature state much like that of an early embryonic cell.

In principle, one could take a sample of cells from a person, induce the cells to become iPSCs, then multiply the iPSCs in a lab dish and stimulate them to mature towards desired adult cell types such as blood, brain or heartwhich then could be used to replace injured or diseased tissue in that same individual.

But there are many formidable technical obstacles, among which is the low efficiency of currently used protocols. Converting most cell types into stable iPSCs occurs at rates of 1 percent or less, and the process can take weeks.

Researchers throughout the world have been searching for ways to boost this efficiency, and in some cases have reported significant gains. These procedures, however, often alter vital cellular genes, which may cause problems for potential therapies. For the new study, reported online today in Stem Cell Reports, Dr. Stadtfeld and his laboratory team decided to take a less invasive approach and investigate chemical compounds that transiently modulate enzymes that are present in most cells. We especially wanted to know if these compounds could be combined to obtain stem cells at high efficiency, Dr. Stadtfeld says.

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NYU Langone Scientists Report Reliable and Highly Efficient Method for Making Stem Cells

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Newswise Investigators from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Universit de Montral have just published, in the prestigious magazine Science, the announcement of the discovery of a new molecule, the first of its kind, which allows for the multiplication of stem cells in a unit of cord blood. Umbilical cord stem cells are used for transplants aimed at curing a number of blood-related diseases, including leukemia, myeloma and lymphoma. For many patients this therapy comprises a treatment of last resort.

Directed by Dr. Guy Sauvageau, principal investigator at IRIC and hematologist at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, this world breakthrough has the potential to multiply by 10 the number of cord blood units available for a transplant in humans. In addition, it will considerably reduce the complications associated with stem cell transplantation. And it will be particularly useful for non-Caucasian patients for whom compatible donors are difficult to identify.

A clinical study using this molecule, named UM171 in honor of the Universit de Montral, and a new type of bioreactor developed for stem culture in collaboration with the University of Toronto will be initiated in December 2014 at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital.

According to Dr. Guy Sauvageau, This new molecule, combined with the new bioreactor technology, will allow thousands of patients around the world access to a safer stem cell transplant. Considering that many patients currently cannot benefit from a stem cell transplant for lack of matching donors, this discovery looks to be highly promising for the treatment of various types of cancer.

The Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital will serve as production unit for these stem cells, and grafts will then be distributed to patients in Montreal, Quebec City and Vancouver for this first Canadian clinical study. Tangible results should be available one year later, that is, in December 2015. The significance of this new discovery is such that over time, conclusive clinical results could revolutionize the treatment of leukemia and other blood-related illnesses.

These extraordinary advances result from the efforts of a remarkable team that includes extremely gifted students and postdoctoral investigators working in the IRIC laboratories, adds Dr. Guy Sauvageau. Among them, the first authors of this publication: Iman Fars, doctoral student, and Jalila Chagraoui, research officer, along with the professionals in IRICs medical chemistry core facility under the direction of Anne Marinier, who optimized the therapeutic properties of this new molecule.

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Umbilical cord blood from newborn children is an excellent source of hematopoietic stem cells for stem cell transplants, since their immune system is still immature and the stem cells have a lower probability of inducing an adverse immune reaction in the recipient.

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World Breakthrough: A New Molecule Allows for an Increase in Stem Cell Transplants

7 hours ago A new method resulted in a colony of stem cells, glowing green, derived from one adult immune cell. Credit: Laboratory of Matthias Stadtfeld at NYU Langone Medical center

Scientists at NYU Langone Medical Center have found a way to boost dramatically the efficiency of the process for turning adult cells into so-called pluripotent stem cells by combining three well-known compounds, including vitamin C. Using the new technique in mice, the researchers increased the number of stem cells obtained from adult skin cells by more than 20-fold compared with the standard method. They say their technique is efficient and reliable, and thus should generally accelerate research aimed at using stem cells to generate virtually any tissue. Stem cells are immature or uncommitted cells that are theoretically capable of becoming any cell type.

"This big boost in efficiency gives us an opportunity now to study stem cell programming mechanisms at high resolution," says Matthias Stadtfeld, PhD, assistant professor of cell biology and a member of the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology at NYU Langone Medical Center, who led the research.

"This is a very exciting advance," says Ruth Lehmann, PhD, director of the Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology and the Skirball Institute at NYU Langone and chair of the Department of Cell Biology. "The new technology developed by the Stadtfeld lab to reprogram differentiated cells efficiently and effectively brings the prospect of stem cell technology for safe use in regenerative medicine ever so much closer."

The standard method for reprogramming skin, blood, or other tissue-specific cell types into "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPSCs) was reported in 2006 by the laboratory of Kyoto University's Shinya Yamanaka, who later won a Nobel Prize for the achievement. The method involves the artificial expression of four key genes dubbed OKSM (for Oct4, Klf4, Sox2 and myc) whose collective activity slowly prods cells into an immature state much like that of an early embryonic cell.

In principle, one could take a sample of cells from a person, induce the cells to become iPSCs, then multiply the iPSCs in a lab dish and stimulate them to mature towards desired adult cell types such as blood, brain or heartwhich then could be used to replace injured or diseased tissue in that same individual.

But there are many formidable technical obstacles, among which is the low efficiency of currently used protocols. Converting most cell types into stable iPSCs occurs at rates of 1 percent or less, and the process can take weeks.

Researchers throughout the world have been searching for ways to boost this efficiency, and in some cases have reported significant gains. These procedures, however, often alter vital cellular genes, which may cause problems for potential therapies. For the new study, reported online today in Stem Cell Reports, Dr. Stadtfeld and his laboratory team decided to take a less invasive approach and investigate chemical compounds that transiently modulate enzymes that are present in most cells. "We especially wanted to know if these compounds could be combined to obtain stem cells at high efficiency," Dr. Stadtfeld says.

Two of these compounds influence well known signaling pathways, called Wnt and TGF-, which regulate multiple growth-related processes in cells. The third is vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid). Best known as a powerful antioxidant, the vitamin was recently discovered to assist in iPSC induction by activating enzymes that remodel chromatinthe spiral scaffold for DNAto regulate gene expression.

Simon Vidal, a graduate student in the Stadtfeld lab, and Bhishma Amlani, a postdoctoral researcher, looked first at mouse skin fibroblasts, the most common cell type used for iPSC research. Adding to fibroblasts engineered to express OKSM either vitamin C, a compound to activate Wnt signaling, or a compound to inhibit TGF- signaling increased iPSC-induction efficiency weakly to about 1% after a week of cell culture. Combining any two worked a bit better. But combining all three brought the efficiency to about 80 percent in the same period of time.

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Team reports reliable, highly efficient method for making stem cells