StemConnect

Sen. Frerichs talks with organization about legislation for state of Illinois

Arthur Dmitruk, junior in LAS, has a very close friend who recently became paralyzed. Dmitruk is hoping stem cell research can cure his friend and others like him.

Sydney, Sep 27, 2007 (RWE via COMTEX) -- STCSF | charts | news | PowerRating -- A BIOTECH AT AN EXCITING STAGE OF ITS DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY (RWE Aust Business News) OVERVIEW

Stem Cell Sciences plc (ASX:STC) is at an exciting stage of its research into technology which could unlock the key to treat cancer, Alzheimer's, stroke and epilepsy.
 
Ferret's Stock to Watch: STEM CELL SCIENCES PLC
 (tradingmarkets.com)

Saying it was more suited for corporations than for educational institutions, University of Maryland officials have refused to sign the agreement that would release their portion of $15 million in grant money awarded from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.

Officials of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute â€" as well as the founder and CEO of the only private company to win a grant from the stem cell fund â€" said they have spent recent weeks airing their concerns over the document to the Maryland Technology Development Corp., known as TEDCO.

Stem cell funding stalled by contract
 (mddailyrecord.com)

Sen. Frerichs talks with organization about legislation for state of Illinois

Arthur Dmitruk, junior in LAS, has a very close friend who recently became paralyzed. Dmitruk is hoping stem cell research can cure his friend and others like him.

Sydney, Sep 27, 2007 (RWE via COMTEX) -- STCSF | charts | news | PowerRating -- A BIOTECH AT AN EXCITING STAGE OF ITS DEVELOPMENT TECHNOLOGY (RWE Aust Business News) OVERVIEW

Stem Cell Sciences plc (ASX:STC) is at an exciting stage of its research into technology which could unlock the key to treat cancer, Alzheimer's, stroke and epilepsy.
 
Ferret's Stock to Watch: STEM CELL SCIENCES PLC
 (tradingmarkets.com)

Saying it was more suited for corporations than for educational institutions, University of Maryland officials have refused to sign the agreement that would release their portion of $15 million in grant money awarded from the Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund.

Officials of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute â€" as well as the founder and CEO of the only private company to win a grant from the stem cell fund â€" said they have spent recent weeks airing their concerns over the document to the Maryland Technology Development Corp., known as TEDCO.

Stem cell funding stalled by contract
 (mddailyrecord.com)

Cloning. Stem cells. Regenerative medicine. These are terms you may have heard or read about in the news over the last decade.

For students in Stem Cells and Cloning taught by Visiting Professor of Biology Bill Anderson, these are topics they will be examining first hand â€" literally. They will perform experiments most undergraduates just read about. Some of the laboratory exercises include splitting flatworms to observe re-growth of entire body parts and instructing mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells to develop into specialized tissue.

Stem cell lab pushes conventional boundaries
 (phoenix.swarthmore.edu)

Stempro hESC SFM is the first serum- and feeder-free media for hESCs that has been shown to maintain these cells in a genetically normal state
Invitrogen has launched a new fully-defined, serum- and feeder-free media specifically formulated for the growth and expansion of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs).

Human embryonic stem cell media 'breakthrough'
 (laboratorytalk.com)

University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers University have come together to propose a new organization called the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey. If funding passes for the institute, this statewide initiative would build a research building dedicated to the study of stem cells, with over 400 million dollars from the state to do so.
 
UMDNJ conceives stem cell institute
 (media.www.dailytargum.com)

Paying close attention to how a canary learns a new song has helped scientists open a new avenue of research against Huntington's disease - a fatal disorder for which there is currently no cure or even a treatment to slow the disease.
In a paper published Sept. 20 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have shown how stem-cell therapy might someday be used to treat the disease. The team used gene therapy to guide the development of endogenous stem cells in the brains of mice affected by a form of Huntington's. The mice that were treated lived significantly longer, were healthier, and had many more new, viable brain cells than their counterparts that did not receive the treatment.
 
Stem-cell therapy opens new avenue of research against Huntington's disease
 (news-medical.net)

A New Jersey judge ruled Monday that a ballot measure authorizing the state to borrow $450 million to fund stem cell research would remain on the November ballot, despite the objections of anti-abortion activists. The measure would allow the state to use money to fund federally restricted embryonic stem cell research as well as research on adult stem cells for ten years.

The New Jersey Right to Life (NJRTL) claims that the wording of the measure fails to disclose that it will "finance the creation, experimentation and then destruction of cloned human beings through the entire period of normal gestation." But Superior Court Judge Neil H. Shuster ruled that the ballot question was "fair, balanced, and neutral" and that legislation authorizing the referendum specifically prohibits human cloning.
 
Stem Cell Measure Will Remain on New Jersey Ballot
 (feminist.org)

Lung cells made from embryonic stem cells have been injected into live animals for the first time. All the mouse cells settled in the lungs, raising hopes that the human equivalent could find and repair damage in people with lung disease.
 
Stem cells may breathe new life into lung therapy
 (newscientist.com)

Steve Stice, who has dedicated his research using embryonic stem cells to improving the lives of people with degenerative diseases and debilitating injuries, newly has discovered the process to produce billions of neural cells from a few stem cells, could now aid in national security.

In collaboration with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Stice hopes to use his recently developed neural cell kits to detect chemical threats.
 
New Use of Stem Cell to Fight Terror
 (stemcell.taragana.net)

 The NIH unveiled its new plan last week for funding research on alternative sources of embryonic stem cellsâ€"essentially embryonic stem cells that aren’t derived from embryos. This plan comes under the aegis of the president’s Executive Order 13435, which requires the Department of Health and Human Services to “conduct and support research on the isolation, derivation, production, and testing of stem cells that are capable of producing all or almost all of the cell types of the developing body ... but are derived without creating a human embryo ... or subjecting to harm a human embryo or fetus.”
 
Jumping the Gun on Alternative Sources of Stem Cells
 (americanprogress.org)

For more than a decade, Steve Stice has dedicated his research using embryonic stem cells to improving the lives of people with degenerative diseases and debilitating injuries. His most recent discovery, which produces billions of neural cells from a few stem cells, could now aid in national security.

“It's like a canary-in-a-coal-mine scenario,” said Stice, a University of Georgia animal science professor and Georgia Research Alliance eminent scholar in the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

New Use For Stem Cells Found In War On Terrorism
(sciencedaily.com)

Sydney, Sep 26, 2007 (RWE via COMTEX) -- STCSF | charts | news | PowerRating -- (RWE Aust Business News) Stem Cell Sciences plc (ASX:STC) will lead an EU-funded, multinational novel drug screening collaboration using stem cells.

The project, named NEUROscreen, will use Stem Cell Sciences' proprietary neural stem (NS) cell technology and has received a contribution from the EU's 6th Framework Program for Research and Technical Development (FP6).

The EU's contribution to the NEUROscreen project is worth 2.4 million euro over three years, of which approximately 420,000 euro will flow directly to SCS over the three year period.
 
Stem Cell Sciences to lead EU-funded drug discovery
(tradingmarkets.com)

Scientists have discovered a new way of treating liver failure that could save the lives of thousands of patients on transplant waiting lists.

The technique involves inserting stem cells into the damaged organ so that it is encouraged to repair itself and create new tissue.

According to the researchers, the treatment will allow patients to live long enough for a new organ to found and could even enable the liver to completely heal itself so a transplant is no longer needed.
 
Stem cell therapy 'could cut liver transplants'
(telegraph.co.uk)

NEW YORK, Sept. 18 PRNewswire â€" iiBIG is pleased to announce the never- before assembly of Global Cancer Experts at the 2008 Global Cancer Congress: Lighting the Onco-Pipeline â€" Innovations in Stem Cell, Biomarker, Chemistry & Novel Therapeutic R&D, January 28-29, 2008 in Tampa, Florida. iiBIG is particularly pleased to join forces with our Florida affiliates from University of South Florida, University of Florida, Shands Cancer Center, Scripps Florida, and the other Florida cancer and academic institutes along with our nationally recognized distinguished faculty at this cutting-edge event.
 
Lighting the Onco-Pipeline, Stem Cell Cancer, and More at Global Cancer Congress, January 28-29, 2008, Tampa
(digital50.com)

Human white blood cells, engineered to recognize other malignant immune cells, could provide a novel therapy for patients with highly lethal B cell cancers such as acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), according to researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC).

By administering repeated doses of T cells designed to express an artificial receptor which recognizes human B cells, the researchers were able to eradicate cancer in 44 percent of mice bearing human ALL tumors.

Re-engineered Human T Cells Effectively Target And Kill Cancerous B Cells
(sciencedaily.com)

Düsseldorf's Rheinische Post newspaper reported the success story of stem cell therapy conducted on a 64-year-old patient.

Bodo-Eckehard Stauer, the director of the cardiology department at Düsseldorf University Hospital, told the Rheinische Post that the patient was "on the verge of dying" after having suffered a severe heart attack. The man spent seven weeks in the intensive care unit with no sign of improvement.

Doctors: Stem Cell Therapy Breakthrough for Heart Patients
(dw-world.de)

While humans are still waiting for stem cell treatments to become available, animals like horses and dogs already are getting this opportunity. Poway, Calif.-based Vet-Stem, which is a world leader in veterinary regenerative medicine, has been using its licensed stem cell therapy in horses for three years and is now extending its commercial service to include dogs, who are treated with their own stem cells to repair tendons and ligaments. The first and only company in the United States to offer fat-derived stem cell treatments for commercial use, Vet-Stem has trained 65 board-certified small-animal surgeons to treat osteoarthritis.
 
Stem Cell Cures Arthritis & Repairs Tendons & Ligaments in Dogs & Horses
(stemcell.taragana.net)

ReachBio LLC announced today the official opening of its business operations. The company will focus on providing specialized contract assay and contract research services utilizing in vitro and in vivo stem cell and progenitor cell assays to biopharma, biotechnology, agri-chemical, and other related industries. In particular, the company will draw on their unique depth of experience in clinical and industrial stem cell and progenitor cell biology to offer services for evaluating the toxic, inhibitory or stimulatory effects of compounds on hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic cells.

These sensitive, multiparametric high-content assays can evaluate such things as bone marrow toxicity (hematotoxicity, myelotoxicity, lymphotoxicity, neutropenia, etc.), stem cell engraftment kinetics, maximum tolerated dose, and colony forming cell (CFC) content in clinical samples (i.e., cord blood, disease-specific samples and samples from patients undergoing clinical trials). ReachBio will also offer assay design and validation services, as well as a unique on-site contract assay service for clients with particularly demanding assay requirements.
 
ReachBio, LLC Launched by Experienced Stem Cell Management Team
(newswiretoday.com)

Endometriosis, a disorder in which womb lining cells grow abnormally in the abdomen, causing scar tissue now can be treated by stem cell research as Australian scientists have discovered the process of isolating stem cell from the lining of women’s wombs.

This discovery also could lead to tissue engineering which could be used to build up natural tissue to repair pelvic floor prolapse, a condition affecting more than 50% of women after childbirth.

Stem Cell Cures Pelvic Floor Prolapse In Women Through Tissue Engineering
(stemcell.taragana.net)

A pioneering Australian biologist who was among the first scientists to grow human embryonic stem cells in a laboratory will lead California's $3-billion effort to translate such research into cures for diseases.

The unexpected announcement that Alan Trounson, 61, director of the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories in Melbourne and a founder of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, would be the new president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine came during a teleconferenced meeting of the institute's oversight board Friday.
 
Stem cell pioneer to lead state's institute
(latimes.com)

 (NewsRx.com) -- How do adult stem cells protect themselves from accumulating genetic mutations that can lead to cancer?
For more than three decades, many scientists have argued that the "immortal strand hypothesis" - which states that adult stem cells segregate their DNA in a non-random manner during cell division -- explains it. And several recent reports have presented evidence backing the idea.

But in this week's issue of the journal Nature, University of Michigan stem cell researcher Sean Morrison and his colleagues deal a mortal blow to the immortal strand, at least as far as blood-forming stem cells are concerned.
 
U-M researchers dispute widely held ideas about stem cells
(newsrx.com)