Mother Nature Gives Clues For Improving Stem Cell Techniques, TAU Scientists Discover - Uncategorized

Hikers know that moss on a tree trunk always points north. According to new research by Israeli and German scientists, this ancient plant may also provide a new “compass” for stem cell research, telling scientists how better to program stem cells for medical purposes.

Dr. Nir Ohad of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Plant Sciences and Prof. Ralf Reski of the University of Freiburg have discovered a new use for the Polycomb group proteins (PcG) found in moss. They reported their findings recently in the journal Development. PcG proteins play an important role in telling stem cells how to develop, they believe. The research is being funded by the German-Israeli Foundation.

Moss is a kind of plant that shares basic development processes with those found in humans. “We may not have found the switch that turns stem cells into tissue,” comments Dr. Ohad, “but we have found a key component which makes this switch work.”

Stopping the runaway gene

In their new paper, the researchers describe an ancient mechanism that alters the way DNA organizes inside the cell nucleus, which in turn, affects gene expression. This finding has important implications in stem cell therapies, which can go awry if implanted stem cells aren’t reprogrammed properly.

The researchers examined the “central regulatory function” of the PcG complex and how it programs an organism’s development, including the first divisions of cells as a new organism is born. Insights from this research have implications for plant and human development alike, and with time could be applied to cancer research. “As far as we know, there are some instances in cancer where the cellular mechanisms are defective or impaired,” Dr. Ohad says. “When this happens, it can lead to the misregulation of the genetic code, which can then lead to the breakdown of a healthy cell.”

He adds that this “switch,” which ensures the proper development of the organism, emerged early in the evolution of all organisms with a nucleus and organized DNA, long before animals and plants evolved into vastly different species and genera.

Towards a less “moss-ist” world

In some scientific disciplines, mosses are considered “lower-class,” or less advanced, organisms. But Dr. Ohad defends mosses as highly adaptive organisms, which after 450 million years are still with us. “The original moss – Physcomitrella patens – hasn’t endured all these years, but its descendents have,” he says. He adds that the study of the biology of moss is similar to the study of the biology of other ancient creatures, like crocodiles and flies, helping scientists to understand the evolution and function of basic biological mechanisms.

The researchers suggest that the basic function of the PcG mechanism in moss, common to its function in plants and humans, is in regulating cell differentiation, describing the point at which a stem cell “decides” to become a leaf or flower, for example.

“As they develop, stem cells go from having a non-defined function to a specific one,” says Dr. Ohad. “If you don’t know how to manipulate the type of tissue you want to modulate, replace or heal, you might cause the malfunction of another type of tissue.”

According to Dr. Ohad, this research has direct implications for the study of plant biology, providing basic information on how the plant body and reproduction are regulated. It gives science a tool to control tissue specification, timing of reproduction and the development of traits in seeds that serve as the source for human and animal feed.

Source:
George Hunka

American Friends of Tel Aviv University

Mother Nature Gives Clues For Improving Stem Cell Techniques, TAU Scientists Discover

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165728.php

Technorati Tags: Cell Nucleus, Polycomb Group Proteins, Ralf Reski

An early laboratory success is taking University of Michigan researchers a step closer to parathyroid gland transplants that could one day prevent a currently untreatable form of bone loss associated with thyroid surgery.

The scientists were able to induce embryonic stem cells to differentiate into parathyroid cells that produced a hormone essential to maintaining bone density. The laboratory results in live cell cultures, published in Stem Cells and Development, need to be tested in further pre-clinical studies.

Parathyroid glands, four glands each the size of a rice grain that lie next to the thyroid in the neck, are easily damaged when surgeons operate on patients with cancerous or benign thyroid tumors. Without their calcium-regulating hormone, patients can develop osteomalacia, a severe form of bone loss similar to rickets that affects tens of thousands of people in the United States with muscle cramps and numbness in the hands and feet.

“We used human embryonic stem cells as a model for ways to work out the recipe to make parathyroid cells,” says Gerard M. Doherty, M.D., chief of endocrine surgery and Norman W. Thompson Professor of Endocrine Surgery at U-M Medical School.

The research illustrates the payoff of rapidly increasing knowledge about how embryonic stem cells give rise to other kinds of cells. That knowledge can be the springboard for influencing other cells to regenerate damaged parts of the body.

Doherty’s team used embryonic stem cells from a Bush administration-approved embryonic stem cell line to test a way to produce functioning, differentiated parathyroid cells to transplant into a patient and restore function.

With the recipe worked out, Doherty’s team anticipates developing a treatment that doesn’t use embryonic stem cells.

“We anticipate taking a person’s own cells and making them into parathyroid cells,” Doherty says. Using the patient’s own cells should eliminate the risk of rejection.

What’s next

Having demonstrated a method for leading embryonic stem cells to produce parathyroid cells, the team hopes to be able to repeat those steps using cells from the patient’s own thymus gland. The method involves no genetic modification of cells, a key goal of Doherty’s team.

“We want to have a process that will allow us to reintroduce cells into the patient’s body safely,” Doherty says.

Any successful treatment in people is five to 10 years away.

Additional U-M authors: Eve L. Bingham, Shih-Ping Cheng, Kathleen M. Woods Ignatoski

Funding: Michigan Center for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research, U-M Department of Surgery

Citation: Stem Cells and Development, September 2009,18(7): 1071-1080.

Source: University of Michigan Health System

Stem Cell Success Could Help Regenerate Parathyroids

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165640.php

Technorati Tags: a-patient-and, a-severe-form, Cells, doherty, human-embryonic, medical-school, michigan, Michigan Center, patient, professor, United States, university, woods-ignatoski

New England Cord Blood Bank, Inc. (NECBB), a global cord blood processing and storage facility, announced today that the company has seen a consistent and robust increase in the cord blood units being used for transplants within the past few years.

Since 2006, according to NECBB records, the number of banked units used in transplants has doubled. The company attributes this increase in cord blood usage to the ever evolving research surrounding cord blood stem cells.

“We have always reminded parents that stem cell therapies are advancing very quickly and it is difficult to know what the possibilities are. The fact that more parents are using cells they stored suggests that the scope of treatments available is encouraging,” said Dr. David Matzilevich, Chief Scientific Officer of NECBB. “We are confident that the cells found in cord blood are extremely valuable and will only prove to be more so as time goes on.”

Over 80 diseases can be treated with the use of cord blood, including some types of juvenile diabetes and chronic leukemia. Cord blood collection poses no threat to the baby and therefore, circumvents the ethical issues of embryonic stem cells. The cells are taken from the cord after it is cut from the mother and baby.

For over 20 years, cord blood transplants have produced positive results. In 1988, a three-year- old girl received a cord blood transplant to treat Fanconi’s anemia. In 1991, another child was treated for myelogenous leukemia with cord blood stem cells and the transplant was a success. Since then, two-thirds of cord blood transplants performed have been for malignant conditions and overall have shown a high rate of success. The rising numbers of transplants reported by NECBB proves further that the achievements of cord blood banking will only grow.

Due to the success of private cord blood banking, NECBB plans to expand its facility and add a public component to the bank. The company plans to partner with smaller hospitals and private obstetric practices across the state and country to continue banking quality cord blood both publicly and privately, and will continue to be a leading resource for families considering banking their newborn’s cord blood.

Source
New England Cord Blood Bank

New England Cord Blood Bank Reports Increased Use Of Banked Stem Cells

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165571.php

Technorati Tags: a-cord-blood, achievements, Blood Bank, child, Cord Blood, Cord Blood Banking, invalid, source, transplant, value, within-the-past

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the first clinical trial to test a new stem cell treatment for the fatal neurodegenerative disease
ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) this month (ALS) can go ahead.

The federal agency gave the green light earlier this month, allowing principal investigator and neurologist Dr Eva Feldman, the DeJong Professor of
Neurology at the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School to start Phase 1 testing of the safety and efficacy of an investigational new drug
(IND) from Neuralstem, a company based in Rockville, Maryland.

The drug, which comprises the company’s own patented neural stem cells, is administered as a series of injections at different sites along the spinal
cord.

Feldman, who directs the ALS clinic at U-M, and the U-M Program for Neurology Research & Discovery, worked with Neuralstem to develop the
protocol for carrying out the injections.

The trial is expected to take place only at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, subject to approval from its Internal Review Board. If the board gives
its approval, the site principal investigator of the trial is expected to be Dr Jonathan Glass, director of Emory’s Neuromuscular Laboratory and also its
ALS Center which has a world-wide reputation.

Feldman told the press earlier this month that they were very excited to be starting the trial:

“This is a major stride forward in what still could be a long road to a new and improved treatment for ALS,” she added.

Feldman explained that ALS is a terrible disease that kills the patient by paralysis. She said work with animals showed that spinal cord stem cells
worked in two ways: they protected motor neurons that were at risk and they also made new connections between them and the neurons controlling
muscles.

“We don’t want to raise expectations unduly,” said Feldman, “but we believe these stem cells could produce similar results in patients with ALS,” she
said.

The trial will study the safety of Neuralstem’s cells and the surgical procedures and devices required for multiple injections of the drug directly into
the grey matter of the spinal cord.

Also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, ALS affects about 30,000 Americans, with about 7,000 new diagnoses a year. The disease gradually destroys
neurons or nerve cells that control voluntary muscles to the point where eventually patients can’t move or even speak.

There are currently no known treatments that can slow the progression of the disease.

For the first phase of the trial, which is being paid for by the drug company, Feldman and colleagues will be treating 12 of 18 recruited patients with
varying degress of ALS. The 12 patients will receive between five and ten injections of stem cells into the lumbar region of the spinal cord. They will
be examined regularly for up to two years after the operation at which point the data will be reviewed.

If the results are favorable, the drug will still have to undergo Phase II and Phase III trials and then win final FDA approval before the treatment is
available to the public.

Richard Garr, Neuralstem’s CEO and President, told the press that:

“While this trial aims to primarily establish safety and feasibility data in treating ALS patients, we also hope to be able to measure a slowing down of
the ALS degenerative process.”

He declared confidence in Feldman and Glass and their team, saying “there is no better team to conduct this study for us”.

In pre-clinical work Neuralstem’s cells have reportedly extended the life of rats with ALS and reversed paralysis in rats with Ischemic Spastic
Paraplegia (there were two studies about this work, one in collaboration with Johns Hopkins researchers was published in Transplantation in
2006, and the other with researchers at University of California San Diego was published in Neuroscience in 2007.)

Neuralstem said that its patented technology enables for the first time, neural stem cells of the human brain and spinal cord to be made in commercial
quantities, and it also controls the differentiation of the cells into mature, physiologically relevant human neurons and glia cells.

In addition to ALS, the company is hoping to use its new technology to target other major central nervous system diseases such as Ischemic Spastic Paraplegia, Traumatic Spinal
Cord Injury and Huntington’s disease.

In a press statement, U-M said Feldman has no financial interest in or financial arrangement with Neuralstem.

Sources: UMHS Newsroom, Neuralstem.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD

Copyright: Medical News Today

Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today

ALS Stem Cell Trial Gets FDA Go Ahead

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165528.php

Related Blogs

• Related Blogs on ALS Stem Cell Trial Gets FDA Go Ahead

Technorati Tags: ALS, california, first, georgia, life, medical, Neuralstem, president, press, professor, safety, spinal, study, work

Directed by: Philipp von Kap-herr A SelectFilm Production, 2008.

Technorati Tags: banking, blood, Blood Cell, cell, Conservation, cord, Cord Blood Stem Cell, Cord Blood Stem Cell Banking, Cryo, Erlangen, Eticur, Nabelschnur, SelectFilm, Stammzellen, stem, umbilical, university

Regenerative medicine researchers at the University of Pittsburgh received two grants totaling more than $5 million from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to explore new methods for cultivating replacement cells from existing tissues and organs.

A $2.9 million, five-year Transformative R01 (T-R01) grant presented to Eric Lagasse, a professor of pathology in Pitt’s School of Medicine and a researcher in Pitt and UPMC’s jointly operated McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, will support the development of a novel concept: using the body’s many lymph nodes as sites for growing replacement cells for other tissues and organs, in essence using them as bioreactors to grow cells within the living body. Ipsita Banerjee, a professor of chemical and petroleum engineering in Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering and a McGowan faculty member, received a $2.2 million, five-year New Innovator award to unravel how embryonic stem cells develop into mature cells and possible techniques for influencing their growth to suit specific organs.

The grants were presented as part of the 2009 NIH Director’s High-Risk Research Awards, a cluster of five-year grants presented to researchers exploring ideas with the potential to advance their fields and medical treatment. On Sept. 24, the NIH announced 115 awards totaling $348 million, including 42 T-R01 Awards, 18 Pioneer Awards, and 55 New Innovator Awards for early-stage investigators. This marks the inaugural year for the T-R01 grants – which support innovative and high-risk projects that could profoundly impact biomedical research and medical treatment – and also is a record year for the number of New Innovator and Pioneer Awards bestowed. Fellow New Innovator and T-R01 recipients include researchers from the Cleveland Clinic, Columbia University, Duke University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Stanford University, and the University of Pennsylvania.

Lagasse’s work focuses on lymph nodes, which are important in responses to bacterial and viral infection and are found throughout the body. Even spread out, the total mass of the nodes makes them a feasible place to grow liver cells, for example, which must also be available in abundance and with ample blood flow to provide life-sustaining hepatic function, Lagasse said. His team will explore growing liver and other tissues in such “ectopic” sites, meaning outside of where it would normally reside. The same principle of using lymph nodes as a site for ectopic cell factories might work for replacing pancreas cells that make insulin for patients with diabetes or immune system T-cells for patients who have AIDS and other diseases of immunologic-impairment.

“Our regenerative medicine approach for healing damaged tissues and organs might not have moved forward without this new grant concept,” Lagasse noted. “This funding supports assessment and rapid translation from the bench to the bedside of nontraditional treatments.”

Banerjee will investigate the process through which embryonic stem cells become mature, organ-specific cells and how scientists can control that development. Using a bottom-up approach, Banerjee will cultivate stem cells into pancreatic cells, noting molecular-level information that could be integrated into dictating cell development, such as the influence of environmental factors and gene and protein networks.

“I want to take a completely different approach to addressing the complex process of cell development, which will potentially advance our understanding of regenerative medicine and stem cell bioengineering as a whole,” Banerjee said.

Two Pitt researchers have received NIH Director’s awards in the past. In 2007, Eva Szigethy, of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC and an assistant professor of psychiatry and pediatrics at Pitt, received a New Innovators grant to use inflammatory bowel disease as a model for investigating the interactions between the brain, gut, and immune system in determining how adolescents cope with chronic illness.

The following year, Barry London, a Pitt professor of medicine, was presented with a Pioneer Award to develop new techniques to image electrical activity of the heart and identify those at risk of sudden cardiac death.

Source:
Morgan Kelly

University of Pittsburgh

A Novel Concept Of Growing Cells On Lymph Nodes: Pitt Researchers Receive $5 Million From NIH For Regenerative Medicine

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165400.php

Technorati Tags: ALS, banerjee, lagasse, massachusetts, president, spinal, study, Tissues

Researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s (WPI) Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center at Gateway Park have received a total of $1.3 million in new awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) to fund ongoing research in several areas of the life sciences, including a study of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, work aimed at using adult stem cells to repair damaged hearts, and a project that seeks to create engineered blood vessels.

“Over the past five years, WPI has invested more than $100 million in the life sciences, much of that to create the Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, which houses interdisciplinary research programs that span five academic departments,” said John Orr, provost. “The center has served as a catalyst for meaningful research that is addressing critical problems in healthcare, environmental science, and other fields. It is exciting to see that the importance and promise of this work has been recognized by the NIH, the NSF, and other federal agencies.”

“These NIH and NSF programs are awarded only to scientists working at the leading edge of their respective fields,” noted Congressman James McGovern, D-Massachusetts. “So it is very gratifying to see researchers at WPI continuing to break new ground and attracting this important federal support. This research not only impacts people’s health, but also helps us sustain and grow the life sciences sector in Central Massachusetts.”

The WPI researchers receiving new NIH and NSF awards include

• Jos Argello, PhD, professor of chemistry and biochemistry, who will receive a two-year, $439,943 award from the NIH to further his studies of the biochemical processes that M. tuberculosis and other virulent bacteria use to repel attacks by a host’s immune system. These bacteria defend themselves by secreting complex molecules containing metals like zinc and copper that can overcome the host’s protective efforts. In the new study, Argello and his team will try to identify the specific biochemical steps involving the transport of metal ions that contribute to the bacterial defense mechanism in M. tuberculosis. They will then disrupt the process at various points to see if they can prevent infection in a mouse model. The work could lead to targets for a new class of antibiotics that could replace medications to which M. tuberculosis have become resistant. Argello will collaborate with Christopher Sassetti, PhD, assistant professor of molecular genetics and microbiology at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, who also works on M. tuberculosis.

• Marsha Rolle, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, who will receive a two-year, $215,962 NIH award to continue research aimed, ultimately, at the development of engineered replacement blood vessels. She will study how smooth muscle cells interact to form structural links (the extracellular matrix) that contribute to the formation of blood vessels. Rolle will further optimize a model system for growing smooth muscle cells in rings that approximate the cross sections of a blood vessel. (The biomechanical properties of the rings will be evaluated in collaboration with co-investigator Kristen Billiar.)
• Kristen Billiar, PhD, associate professor of biomedical engineering, who will receive $215,661 over two years from the NIH to study the mechanical properties of heart valve tissues and the effects that motion and inflammation have on the stiffness of heart valves. The study aims to better understand the mechanobiology of heart valves, both for its relationship to heart disease and to glean knowledge to apply to the development of engineered heart valve replacements.
• Terri Camesano, PhD, associate professor of chemical engineering, who will receive $198,870 from the NSF to purchase an atomic force microscope specifically designed to examine biological processes. Camesano will use the device in her ongoing research into biomechanical processes by which bacteria adhere to surfaces, the first step of infection. The microscope will also be a shared resource, available for use by other WPI faculty and students.
• Glenn Gaudette, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, who will receive $197,601 from the NIH over two years to supplement his ongoing NIH-funded work on processes involved in using stem cells derived from human bone marrow to restore function to damaged hearts.
• Tanja Dominko, DVM, PhD, associate professor of biology and biotechnology, will receive a one-year, $104,000 award from the NIH to supplement her ongoing NIH-funded studies of how various types of cells, including stem cells, can be manipulated for wound healing and tissue regeneration.

Source:
Michael Cohen

Worcester Polytechnic Institute

$1.3 Million In Federal Awards For WPI To Continue Cardiac, Vascular And Tuberculosis Research

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165230.php

Technorati Tags: a-decade-ago, body, kristen-billiar, life, medical, njit, ongoing, source, work

Stem cell researcher Treena Livingston Arinzeh will discuss current stem cell applications at NJIT, including the regeneration of bone and cartilage for bone fracture and osteoarthritis treatments, spinal cord repair, and liver regeneration at NJIT’s first Research Caf.

The event will be held Sept. 29, 2009, at 4:30 PM in the faculty dining area on the third floor of the NJIT Campus Center. The public is invited and refreshments will be served.

Arinzeh, an associate professor and interim chair of the biomedical engineering department at NJIT, has earned national recognition for her commitment to making adult stem cell therapy a future reality. Her research interests include applied biomaterials and tissue engineering; cell-biomaterial interaction; materials processing; surface characterization and modification of biomaterials. Other interests include materials testing; in vivo models; tissue-engineering scaffolds for repair of bone and other related musculoskeletal tissues. She also studies nerve tissue regeneration.

Since the discovery of the embryonic stem cell about a decade ago, stem cells have been of great interest in the medical community because of their ability to turn into any cell type in the body and therefore, their potential to regenerate tissue in the body.

These are not the only stem cells. Stem cells have been used for treating blood disorders in humans for the past several decades. Adult stem cells that come from blood and bone marrow were discovered well before embryonic stem cells. They differ from embryonic stem cells in that they can’t turn into every cell type of the body. They can only turn into certain cell types and therefore, have limited clinical application.

Source:
Sheryl Weinstein

New Jersey Institute of Technology

Stem Cell Applications And Research Highlight NJIT’s First Research Cafe

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165227.php

Technorati Tags: a-decade-ago, body, commitment, invalid, medical, njit, potential, related, technology

I’ve tried to contact the cord blood registry to get this information and they refuse to just give me the price. Then they continually call to see if I am interested. I just wanted a rough estimate on the cost of it to see if it is even an option financially for me.

Technorati Tags: Contact, Cord Blood Registry, Rough Estimate

Two Duke University Medical Center scientists have won prestigious National Institutes of Health Director’s awards to pursue novel research.

Tannishtha Reya, Ph.D., an associate professor of pharmacology and cancer biology, has won an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award and Michel Bagnat, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell biology, won an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award.

Each of the 18 Pioneer Awards provides $2.5 million in direct costs over five years. The 55 New Innovator Awards provide $1.5 million in direct costs, also for five years.

Reya, co-director of the Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Program at the Duke University School of Medicine, studies the chemical signals that control stem cell growth. She has successfully shown in several recent papers how the same signals can also fuel cancer growth – thus identifying new targets for therapy.

The proposal that won the award focuses on a new direction in Dr. Reya’s lab: imaging stem cell growth and cancer formation in living organisms. These studies will provide key insights into the behavior of stem cells under physiological conditions.

“I was very excited to hear about the Pioneer Award,” Reya said. “Not only is this a great honor, but it will allow us to undertake a series of high-impact experiments that may require us to take some risks that we otherwise would not have been able to carry out. In the long term, understanding the environment in which stem cells live may provide new ways to manipulate their growth for patients who need new blood cells, and new approaches to stopping leukemias.”

Bagnat won his award to pursue research on fluid secretion that depends on a gene known to have several mutations linked to cystic fibrosis. The gene, CFTR, encodes for a protein that works as an ion channel across cell membranes. The studies will focus on fluid secretion related to the gene and will use genetics to identify regulators of the CFTR channel.

“I was very pleased to hear that I won this award, and now I have a chance to develop experiments that reflect the ideas I have,” Bagnat said after hearing about his award. “The award will give me and my colleagues time and resources to pursue important questions.”

He studies the zebrafish, because its genetics are well established and zebrafish embryos are transparent and readily available for imaging. His laboratory plans to use this visual advantage to study physiology and address how fluid secretion and pressure contribute to organ development.

The Pioneer Awards are designed to support individual scientists of exceptional creativity who propose pioneering approaches to major challenges in biomedical and behavioral research. Awardees are required to commit the major portion (at least 51%) of their research effort to activities supported by the Pioneer Award.

The New Innovator Award addresses two important goals: stimulating highly innovative research and supporting promising new investigators. To win the award, investigators must have exceptionally innovative research ideas, but not the preliminary data required to fare well in the traditional NIH peer review system. The procedure for evaluation emphasizes the individual’s creativity, the innovativeness of the research approaches, and the potential of the project to have a significant impact on an important biomedical or behavioral research problem.

Source:
Mary Jane Gore

Duke University Medical Center

2 Highly Prized NIH Director’s Awards Won By Duke Biomedical Scientists

Originally from:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/165129.php

Technorati Tags: a-great-honor, duke, health, innovativeness, Innovator Award, medical-center, pioneer, research, source, Stem Cells, university