Category Archives: Stem Cell Therapy

Stem cell therapy may one day be used to cure disorders such as Fragile-X syndrome, or Cystic fibrosis and other genetic maladies.

Matthew Vella

The Maltese government wants the European Commission to abandon plans to provide funds for research activities on stem cells that involve "the destruction of human embryos".

In a declaration on the ethical principles for the Horizon 2020 programme, which is an 80 billion fund for the EU's programme for research and innovation to create new jobs, the Maltese government said it wanted more detailed guidelines on the bioethical principles that will guide research programmes.

Horizon 2020 will allow the financing of research on human stem cells - both adult and embryonic - as long as it is permitted by the national laws of member states.

The fund however will not finance human cloning, genetic modification, or the creation of human embryos intended for the purpose of research or stem cell procurement.

The European Commission does not explicitly solicit the use of human embryonic stem cells, but Horizon 2020 allows the use of human stem cells according to the objectives of the research, and only if it has the necessary approvals from the member states.

The Maltese declaration echoes previous statements by the Commission of Catholic Bishops of the EC (Comece), which said Horizon 2020 did not include greater protection of human embryos from stem cell research.

Malta says it does not want any such embryos to be used for stem cell research. The statement by the Maltese government said the Horizon 2020 programme "does not take sufficiently into account the therapeutic potential of human adult stem cells."

Malta wants Europe to commit to a reinforcement of research on human adult stem cells, and that Europe should abstain from financing matters of fundamental ethical principles, which differ among member states.

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Malta opposing EU financing for stem cell research on embryos

Public release date: 30-May-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Vanessa McMains vmcmain1@jhmi.edu 410-502-9410 Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions

This year the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund awarded 29 of 40 grants to Johns Hopkins researchers for the study of stem cell metabolism and regulation, the creation of new cell models for human diseases such as schizophrenia and Rett syndrome, which previously could be studied only in animals, and the development of new potential therapies.

Researchers whose preliminary data promised greater discoveries were awarded Investigator-Initiated grants. Jeff Bulte, Ph.D., professor of radiology, biomedical engineering and chemical and biomolecular engineering and a member of the Institute for Cell Engineering, hopes to develop a cell therapy for treatment of type 1 diabetes an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system kills the insulin-producing cells that help regulate blood sugar. By developing cloaked stem and insulin-producing cells that can evade immune system detection, Bulte and his team hope to replace damaged cells and restore insulin levels in patients.

Grants were awarded to:

Several Johns Hopkins investigators were awarded Exploratory grants for researchers either new to the stem cell field or with untested but promising new ideas. Miroslaw Janowski , M.D., Ph.D., a research associate in radiology, plans to develop a stroke treatment by guiding newly introduced brain cells with magnets through blood vessels to the site of injury.

Exploratory grants were awarded to:

Postdoctoral trainees also will receive funding for research projects. A fellow in biomedical engineering, Pinar Huri, Ph.D., will use her award to develop bone grafts with blood vessels inside made from fat tissue-derived stem cells. The grafts would be used in patients with severely damaged bone in need of reconstructive surgery.

Postdoctoral grants were awarded to:

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29 Johns Hopkins stem cell researchers awarded funding

OTTAWA Dr. Bernard Thebaud believes he can use the healing juices from stem cells the much ballyhooed future of modern medicine to rejuvenate the lungs of premature babies.

The renowned neonatologist and scientist has proven his treatment works in rats in Edmonton, and in a baboon in San Antonio, Texas. Next, he will design clinical trials to test his pioneering therapy in babies in Ottawa.

Dr. Thebaud is the latest recruit to the Sprott Centre for Stem Cell Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

Lured here from the University of Alberta, Dr. Thebaud hopes that within five years he can take his research from bench to bedside by launching the first clinical trials in newborns.

He believes his therapy, derived from stem cells isolated from discarded umbilical cords, can help people suffering from other lung diseases, such as asthma and fibrosis.

In an interview, the 47-year-old, who is originally from France, said Ottawa was the only city where he could do this research.

To get this work into patients, I need to be around a critical mass of top stem cell biologists, he said.

I dont want to be too clich, but if you are in the computer business you go to the Silicon Valley; if you are in oil in gas you have to be in Alberta; if you are in stem cells, Ontario is the province. And Ottawa is where they read, breathe, sleep and eat stem cells.

To land Thebaud, three Ottawa institutions had to team up.

When he formally starts in the fall, he will be a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital and CHEO research institutes, a pediatrician at CHEO and Ottawa Hospital, and a professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Ottawa.

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Ottawa’s latest brain gain brings promising new stem-cell therapy

Toni Clarke BOSTON Globe and Mail Update Published Friday, May. 18, 2012 12:38PM EDT Last updated Friday, May. 18, 2012 12:56PM EDT

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. OSIR-Q said on Thursday that Canadian health regulators have approved its treatment for acute graft-versus host disease in children, making it the first stem cell drug to be approved for a systemic disease anywhere in the world.

Osiris shares rose 14 per cent to $6.00 in extended trading after the news was announced.

Graft versus host disease (GvHD) is a potentially deadly complication from a bone marrow transplant, when newly implanted cells attack the patient's body. Symptoms range from abdominal pain and skin rash to hair loss, hepatitis, lung and digestive tract disorders, jaundice and vomiting.

The disease kills up to 80 per cent of children affected, Osiris said. To date there have been no approved treatments for the disease. Canadian authorities approved the therapy, Prochymal, for use in children who have failed to respond to steroids.

Prochymal was approved with the condition that Osiris carry out further testing after it reaches the market. C. Randal Mills, the company's chief executive, said in an interview that could take three to four years.

Some investment analysts have been skeptical about Prochymal's future. In 2009, two late-stage clinical trials failed to show the drug was more effective overall than a placebo in treating the disease, though it showed promise in certain subgroups of patients.

Since then, the company has mined data from all its clinical trials to show that in patients with severe refractory acute GvHD those who have more or less failed all other therapies Prochymal demonstrated a clinically meaningful response at 28 days after therapy began in 61-64 per cent of patients.

In addition, treatment with Prochymal resulted in a statistically significant improvement in survival when compared with a historical control population of pediatric patients with refractory GvHD.

The Canadian authorities approved the drug on the basis of that data, the company said.

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Prochymal approval makes Canada first country to OK stem cell therapy

A UC Irvine stem cell researcher won a $4.8-million grant to fund research toward a treatment for multiple sclerosis.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded immunologist Thomas Lane, of the campus' Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, an Early Transitional Award last week to create a new line of neural stem cells to treat multiple sclerosis, according to a UCI press release.

"I am delighted that [the California Institute] has chosen to support our efforts to advance a novel stem cell-based therapy for multiple sclerosis," Peter Donovan, director of the research center, said in the release.

Lane is collaborating with Jeanne Loring, director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, and Claude Bernard, a multiple sclerosis researcher at Monash University in Australia.

The research project "really embodies what [the California Institute] is all about, which is bringing science together to treat horrible diseases like multiple sclerosis," said Lane, who is a professor of molecular biology and biochemistry.

Multiple sclerosis is a central nervous system disease that causes inflammation and a loss of myelin, a fatty tissue that insulates and protects nerve cells.

The three are working on a stem cell treatment that will stop myelin loss while promoting the growth of new myelin to mend damaged nerves.

Loring creates the neural stem cells, said Lane, while he is testing the therapeutic effects the cells have on multiple sclerosis cells in animals.

The stem cells are already having a positive effect and the scientists are trying to understand why. They hope to identify the cells that have the most promise before going to clinical trials.

"I really want to thank the [California Institute] for allowing, and for funding, us," Lane said.

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UCI researcher wins large research grant

ORANGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

A CHOC Childrens research project, under the direction of Philip H. Schwartz, Ph.D., senior scientist at the CHOC Childrens Research Institute and managing director of the facilitys National Human Neural Stem Cell Resource, has been awarded a $5.5 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). The grant will be used to develop a stem cell-based therapy for the treatment of mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS I), a fatal metabolic disease that causes neurodegeneration, as well as defects in other major organ systems.

Based on a number of medical and experimental observations, children with inherited degenerative diseases of the brain are expected to be among the first to benefit from novel approaches based on stem cell therapy (SCT).

Dr. Schwartz explains, While uncommon, pediatric genetic neurodegenerative diseases account for a large burden of mortality and morbidity in young children. Hematopoietic (bone marrow) stem cell transplant (HSCT) can improve some non-neural symptoms of these diseases, but does not treat the deadly neurodegenerative process. Our approach targeting the effects of the disease on organs besides the brain with HSCT and neurodegeneration with a second stem cell therapy specifically designed to treat the brain is a strategy for whole-body treatment of MPS I. Our approach is also designed to avoid the need for immunosuppressive drugs to prevent rejection of the transplanted cells.

This research is designed to lead to experimental therapy, based on stem cells, by addressing two critical issues: early intervention is required and possible in this patient population; and teaching the immune system not to reject the transplanted cells is required. This research also sets the stage for efficient translation of this technology into clinical practice, by adapting transplant techniques that are standard in clinical practice or in clinical trials, and using laboratory cell biology methods that are easily transferrable to clinical cell manufacturing.

Nationally recognized for his work in the stem cell field, Dr. Schwartz research focuses on the use of stem cells to understand the neurobiological causes of autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.

Named one of the best childrens hospitals by U.S. News & World Report (2011-2012) and a 2011 Leapfrog Top Hospital, CHOC Children's is exclusively committed to the health and well-being of children through clinical expertise, advocacy, outreach and research that brings advanced treatment to pediatric patients.

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CHOC Children’s Research Project Awarded $5.5 Million Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine