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Business-friendly Changes Proposed for Revenue Sharing by Stem Cell Agency

Posted: June 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm


The $3 billion California stem cell
agency, which hopes to generate income for the state through the sale
of stem cell therapies, is moving to make its profit-sharing rules
more friendly to business.

The proposed changes will come up Monday morning before the Intellectual Property and Industry Subcommittee of the
CIRM governing board.
No stem cell research funded by CIRM
has yet been commercialized. Its intellectual property regulations,
which determine payback criteria, were developed shortly after CIRM
was created in 2004. Ed Penhoet, one of the founders of
Chiron and now a venture capitalist, chaired the panel that worked
out the rules. He has since left the CIRM board.
A CIRM staff memo described the payment
rules in the case of a "blockbuster" therapy as "uneven"
and "lumpy." The memo said they "could be a
disincentive for the engagement of industry." Other rules were described as creating
"administrative challenges and uncertainty." The proposed changes, the memo said,
would address those issues and ensure a "comparable economic
return to California."
Here are links to the specific changes
-- see here and here.
Public sites where interested parties
can take part in the discussion are located in San Francisco, La
Jolla, Los Angeles and Irvine. Specific addresses can be found on themeeting agenda.
The proposed changes must go before the
full governing board and then into the state's administrative law
process before taking full effect.  

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Business Success Rate at Stem Cell Agency: Zero in Latest Round After 14 Fail

Posted: June 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm


California biotech companies chalked up
a zero in the latest funding round by the state's $3 billion stem
cell agency, although 14 tried to run a gauntlet that industry has
complained about for years.

All $69 million in last month's
translational research round went to 21 academic and nonprofit insitutions. No business received an award. One firm, Eclipse
Therapeutics of San Diego, appealed to the agency's governing board but was not successful despite having a higher scientific score
than at least two winners.
The miniscule amount of funding for
commercial enterprises – less than 4 percent of $1.4 billion handed
out so far – has been a matter of concern for some time for both
industry and some members of the CIRM governing board. Most
recently, industry executives complained at an April hearing of the
Institute of Medicine panel looking into CIRM's operations.
Even a 2010 review commissioned by CIRM said the agency needed to do
better by business.
The question of funding goes beyond a
simple matter of fairness or "good science," as CIRM
describes its funding goal. Without efforts by industry to turn
research into cures, CIRM will not be able to fulfill promises to
voters in 2004 when they approved creation of the stem cell agency.
CIRM last month approved a set of five-year goals that push more
aggressively for development of commercial products, but the goals
lacked such things as a financing round devoted solely to business
applicants.
In last month's translational round,
applicants went through a three-step process, which is conducted
primarily behind closed doors. First came what CIRM calls
pre-applications. Those were reviewed by CIRM staff with the help of
outside advisors if necessary. Applicants who cleared that hurdle were allowed to apply for the full, peer-reviewed round. During that
process, the CIRM Grants Working Group reviews applications,
makes decisions and sends them to the full CIRM board for
ratification and possible changes. The board almost never has
rejected a grant approved by reviewers. But the board has ultimate
authority and sometimes funds applications that reviewers have
rejected. The applicants' names are withheld from the board and the
public during the process, although some of the board discussion and
the final vote is conducted in public. CIRM does not release the
names of rejected applicants unless they appeal.
In the translational round, a total of 42
pre-applications out of 167 were approved by staff, according to
CIRM. Thirty-eight came from nonprofits and academics out of the 153
such institutions that applied. Four out of 14 business
pre-applications advanced to full applications but none made the
final cut. All of the winning applications were linked to
institutions that have representatives on the CIRM governing board.
Those representatives are not allowed to vote on or take part in
discussion involving applications to their institutions.
The primary decision tool used by the
grant review group is a scientific score. In last month's round,
scores of approved grants ranged from 88 to 53. However, eight grants
that were ranked above 53 were rejected by the board. One of those
higher-ranking applications came from San Diego's Eclipse
Therapeutics, which scored 58. The low-ranking grants were approved
for what CIRM describes as "programmatic" reasons.
More than three weeks ago, the
California Stem Cell Report asked CIRM for figures on the
numbers of applications in the translational round, including those
for business. CIRM said the figures had not been compiled and would
not be available until after the awards were made on May 24. The
numbers were finally supplied yesterday.
Our take: The number of applicants, and
their breakdown, is basic information that should be part of board's
decision-making process. The statistics should be routinely available
well in advance of the board's meeting. Indeed, the agency in its
earlier days used to routinely publish the figures. It may be now
that generating them is more time-consuming than necessary. The
recent performance evaluation of the agency said CIRM needs to make
major improvements in how it handles critical information needed for
its top management and board.
Whatever the reason, given CIRM's poor
track record with business, the agency's directors should diligently
track industry's success rate on applications. If proposals ranked as
low as 53 are approved while higher ranking applications from
business are bypassed, it warrants more than cursory examination.

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'Ugly' Stem Cell Headlines and a Stem Cell Essay Contest

Posted: June 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm


California stem cell researcher Paul Knoepfler has been busy recently pumping out a plethora of items on his blog, including his own stem cell essay contest and a summary of "ugly" stem cell headlines.
He also rails, albeit briefly, against the Los Angeles Times "hate fest" against the California stem cell agency and offers some advice on developments involving prostate cancer, an affliction that he suffered from a few years ago.
Knoepfler, a UC Davis scientist, puts some cash on the line in his essay contest, with a prize of a $50 iTunes card plus publication of the winning piece. He is looking for a "convincing, non-fiction essay on stem cells thinking entirely outside the box." No more than 500 words. He has two categories, one for persons under 18 and one for persons over that age. June 30 is the deadline for submissions.
Knoepfler also wrote about Twitter and how it can be used by scientists in a useful item called "The scientist's top 10 guide to Twitter." We recommend it.

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Two California Stem Cell Agency Directors Plump for Proposition 29

Posted: June 10, 2012 at 3:56 pm


Two directors of the $3 billion
California stem cell agency have popped up in the battle over the
anti-tobacco initiative on tomorrow's ballot in the Golden State.

They are Sherry Lansing and
Kristiina Vuori, who were the subjects of a column by Michael
Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times dealing with Proposition
29, the "Son of CIRM" measure that would raise
$800 million for research by increasing the price of cigarettes by $1
a pack. In addition to serving on the CIRM board, Lansing heads her
own anti-cancer foundation and is chair of the board of the UC
regents. Vuori is head of the Sanford-Burnham Institute in La
Jolla.
Proposition 29 is patterned after the
measure that created the stem cell agency. The organization established by Proposition 29 would also be governed by a board that is run by
representatives of organizations almost certain to receive the bulk
of the funding, as is the case with CIRM.
In an op-ed piece on Friday, Lansing and
Vuori said the Times and Hiltzik had fallen for "a smokescreen"
put up by tobacco companies which are spending something in the
neighborhood of $40 million to defeat the initiative. Lansing and
Vuori said the measure is needed to stop smoking by young people as
well as providing cash for research for tobacco-related diseases.
Young people are more sensitive to price increases of cigarettes than
adults, according to research.
Lansing and Vuori referred to a column
in which Hiltzik opposed the measure because it would divert money
from more immediate state needs, including health and welfare
programs for children, education and the poor. (See here for thecolumn and here, here and here for related items.)
In his most recent column, Hiltzik
said,

"The...problem with Proposition 29
is its pigeonholing of the money for cancer research rather than for
immediate needs here in California that are absolutely dire. It’s
all well and good to say that cancer research benefits everyone, but
the real question is whether it should be the absolute top priority
for a state that can’t afford to keep its children fed or offer
them medical care in the here and now. 

"Lansing and Vuori say the fact
that Prop. 29 'fails to provide funding for schools, roads or
affordable housing' is irrelevant, because it was 'was never intended
to solve these problems.'

"In the context of the state’s
needs, this is a rather callous approach to take. Let’s spell out
why, so Lansing and Vuori won’t be so inclined to dismiss these
necessities of life so casually."

Hiltzik cited a list of state
government cuts that have meant the loss of health coverage for
400,000 California children, eliminated welfare benefits for 578,000
poor California families and would mean an end to state college
student aid for 72,000 young people from less affluent families.
Hiltzik continued,

"That’s just the beginning of
what might be cut because the state needs money—and won’t be able
to lay its hands on the hundreds of millions of dollars that Lansing,
Vuori, and their research colleagues are angling for. They don’t
want voters to be reminded that there are competing demands for the
tobacco money, and they do so by failing to mention that they exist,
and also by presenting the spending on cancer research as the voters’
only choice. 

"It’s the only choice because
the promoters of Proposition 29 designed it that way. Advocates of
programs like this love to pass them in via voter initiatives because
they leave no room to measure them against alternative needs."

 A final note: The New York Times
carried a piece yesterday on Proposition 29 that drew 481 comments.
The article said, 

"Organizers argued that the tax would have
less chance of passing if voters thought it would go into the state
coffers, and said that their only goal here was cutting down on
smoking."

 Also yesterday, Willie Brown, the former mayor
of San Francisco and a keen observer of California politics,
predicted voter approval of the measure along with an increase in
cigarette smuggling from adjacent states and the sale of discount
smokes at the 58 Indian casino sites in the state. 

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Human bones grown from fat in laboratory

Posted: June 10, 2012 at 12:13 pm

"We use three dimensional structures to fabricate the bone in the right shape and geometry. We can grow these bones outside the body and then transplant it to the patient at the right time.

"By scanning the damaged bone area, the implant should fit perfectly and merge with the surrounding tissue. There are no problems with rejection as the cells come from the patient's own body."

The technology, which has been developed along with researchers at the Technion Institute of Research in Israel, uses three dimensional scans of the damaged bone to build a gel-like scaffold that matches the shape.

Stem cells, known as mesenchymal stem cells, which have the capacity to develop into many other types of cell in the body, are obtained from the patient's fat using liposuction.

These are then grown into living bone on the scaffold inside a "bioreactor" an automated machine that provides the right conditions to encourage the cells to develop into bone.

Already animals have successfully received bone transplants. The scientists were able to insert almost an inch of laboratory-grown human bone into the middle section of a rat's leg bone, where it successfully merged with the remaining animal bone.

The technique could ultimately allow doctors to replace bones that have been smashed in accidents, fill in defects where bone is missing such as cleft palate, or carry out reconstructive plastic surgery.

Professor Kadouri said work was also under way to grow the soft cartilage at the ends of bones, which is needed if entire bones are to be produced in a laboratory.

Bone grafts currently involve taking bits of bone from elsewhere in the patients body and transplanting them to the area which is damaged to encourage healing.

More than 250,000 bone grafts are performed in the UK each year, including repairs to damaged jaws and the replacement of bone lost in operations to remove tumours.

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Human bones grown from fat in laboratory

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Functioning liver from stem cells

Posted: June 9, 2012 at 4:11 pm

Functioning liver from stem cells

(AFP) / 9 June 2012

Japanese researchers have created a functioning human liver from stemcells, a report said, raising hopes for the manufacture of artificial organs for those in need of transplants.

A team of scientists transplanted induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

Stemcells are frequently harvested from embryos, which are then discarded, a practice some people find morally objectionable. But iPS cells which have the potential to develop into any body tissue can be taken from adults.

A team led by professor Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University developed human iPS cells into precursor cells, which they then transplanted into a mouses head to take advantage of increased blood flow.

The cells grew into a human liver 5 millimetres in size that was capable of generating human proteins and breaking down drugs, the Yomiuri reported. The breakthrough opens the door to the artificial creation of human organ. Taniguchis research could be an important bridge between basic research and clinical application but faces various challenges before it can be put into medical practice, the Yomiuri said.

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Scientists Discover A Stem Cell That Causes Heart Disease

Posted: June 9, 2012 at 4:11 pm

Editor's Choice Main Category: Heart Disease Also Included In: Stem Cell Research Article Date: 09 Jun 2012 - 2:00 PDT

Current ratings for: 'Scientists Discover A Stem Cell That Causes Heart Disease'

3.94 (18 votes)

4 (1 votes)

The research is profound because it contradicts much of the generally accepted theories of what causes arterial hardening, and the concept may also relate to many other diseases could the associated stem cells be pinpointed.

What senior author Song Li, a bioengineering professor at UC Berkeley and a researcher at the Berkeley Stem Cell Center, and his team have uncovered is a dormant stem cell in blood vessel walls, that seems to sit inactive for most of a person's lifetime, before coming to life and causing less functional cells to begin to grow. Li says these new types of cells that start growing in later life, are the root cause of arterial hardening and clogging that are associated with deadly strokes and heart attacks.

Originally, it was thought that the smooth muscle cells in the arteries lining become scarred over time, and this leads to the narrow and brittle arteries that play a major part in causing cardiovascular disease. Not so says Liu: Essentially, what the scientists are saying is that the smooth muscle cells are not to blame. Rather a different kind of stem cell, that Li calls multipotent vascular stem cells, kicks in, and begins growing cells that look much like the smooth muscle cells, but don't function correctly. The cells were not found previously, because there are so few of them, that they were hard to isolate.

Li continues:

It almost sounds like something from Blade Runner, where the replicant humans have been deliberately designed to deteriorate and die at a much faster rate than the natural ones. What purpose would it serve the body under standard evolutionary terms to have cells activating later in life that effectively lead to its demise? With the arteries poorly formed, with wrong cell types, the blood flow becomes slowed and can then stopped completely. This causes strokes or heart attacks, depending on the location of the blockage. Strokes and heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in the United States.

Creating drugs or other genetic treatments to shut down these stem cells or even deactivate them while a person is still young has the potential in the future to prevent arteriole hardening, reverse the damage already done, and even make this type of cardiovascular disease a thing of the past. Perhaps the futuristic Woody Allen movie "Sleeper" where people smoke tobacco and eat a high fat diet because it's healthier is not so far fetched after all.

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Scientists Discover A Stem Cell That Causes Heart Disease

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Functioning liver from stem cells

Posted: June 9, 2012 at 6:15 am

Functioning liver from stem cells

(AFP) / 9 June 2012

Japanese researchers have created a functioning human liver from stemcells, a report said, raising hopes for the manufacture of artificial organs for those in need of transplants.

A team of scientists transplanted induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells into the body of a mouse, where it grew into a small, but working, human liver, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

Stemcells are frequently harvested from embryos, which are then discarded, a practice some people find morally objectionable. But iPS cells which have the potential to develop into any body tissue can be taken from adults.

A team led by professor Hideki Taniguchi at Yokohama City University developed human iPS cells into precursor cells, which they then transplanted into a mouses head to take advantage of increased blood flow.

The cells grew into a human liver 5 millimetres in size that was capable of generating human proteins and breaking down drugs, the Yomiuri reported. The breakthrough opens the door to the artificial creation of human organ. Taniguchis research could be an important bridge between basic research and clinical application but faces various challenges before it can be put into medical practice, the Yomiuri said.

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Stem cells used to repair eyes

Posted: June 8, 2012 at 8:14 pm

All in the eyes...the medical breakthrough is a world first. Source: Supplied

A MEDICALl breakthrough by Australian scientists has shown how sheets of stem cells grown on contact lenses can repair damaged eyes.

The treatment transfers minuscule strips of adult stem cells from specifically designed contact lenses onto the eye, to help rebuild the surface of the cornea.

The world-first research could pave the way for an effective treatment for painful caustic or thermal burns, or severe inflammation of the surface of the eye.

Centre for Eye Research Australia researcher Karl David Brown said it was the first time they had proved cells had transferred from the contact lens to the eye to rebuild the surface.

During the trial, limbal stem cells, which function naturally to repair the eye, were taken from the edge of the cornea. Sheets containing hundreds of thousands of cells were grown on contact lenses.

They were inserted in the eye and left for four days. During this time the cells transferred from the lens to the wounded eye.

There are already experimental treatments using human amnion, a membrane that surrounds an embryo, but sourcing the donor tissue after a baby is born and ensuring it is of sufficient quality is difficult.

Brown said the benefit of this new technique was that the cells could be harvested from the patient's own eyes or, if they are too damaged, from donor tissue. Small human trials of the technique are about to start.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that the human trials will yield positive results," Brown said.

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Stem cells used to repair damaged eyes in world-first trial

Posted: June 8, 2012 at 8:14 pm

A medical breakthrough by Australian scientists has shown how sheets of stem cells grown on contact lenses can repair damaged eyes.

The treatment transfers minuscule strips of adult stem cells from specifically designed contact lenses onto the eye, to help rebuild the surface of the cornea.

The world-first research could pave the way for an effective treatment for painful caustic or thermal burns, or severe inflammation of the surface of the eye.

Centre for Eye Research Australia researcher Karl David Brown said it was the first time they had proved cells had transferred from the contact lens to the eye to rebuild the surface.

During the trial, limbal stem cells, which function naturally to repair the eye, were taken from the edge of the cornea. Sheets containing hundreds of thousands of cells were grown on contact lenses.

They were inserted in the eye and left for four days. During this time the cells transferred from the lens to the wounded eye.

There are already experimental treatments using human amnion, a membrane that surrounds an embryo, but sourcing the donor tissue after a baby is born and ensuring it is of sufficient quality is difficult.

Brown said the benefit of this new technique was that the cells could be harvested from the patient's own eyes or, if they are too damaged, from donor tissue. Small human trials of the technique are about to start.

"I'm cautiously optimistic that the human trials will yield positive results," Brown said.

Click for more from the Herald Sun.

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