StemCell Therapy

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Millions More Adult Stem Cells from 2 Stem Cell Enhancer ...

Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, an early-stage preimplantation embryo.[1][2] Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 45 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50150 cells. Isolating the embryoblast or inner cell mass (ICM) results in destruction of the blastocyst, which raises ethical issues, including whether or not embryos at the pre-implantation stage should be considered to have the same moral status as more developed human beings.[3][4]

Human ES cells measure approximately 14 m while mouse ES cells are closer to 8 m.[5]

Embryonic stem cells, derived from the blastocyst stage early mammalian embryos, are distinguished by their ability to differentiate into any cell type and by their ability to propagate. Embryonic stem cell's properties include having a normal karyotype, maintaining high telomerase activity, and exhibiting remarkable long-term proliferative potential.

Embryonic stem cells of the inner cell mass are pluripotent, that is, they are able to differentiate to generate primitive ectoderm, which ultimately differentiates during gastrulation into all derivatives of the three primary germ layers: ectoderm, endoderm, and mesoderm. These include each of the more than 220 cell types in the adult body. Pluripotency distinguishes embryonic stem cells from adult stem cells found in adults; while embryonic stem cells can generate all cell types in the body, adult stem cells are multipotent and can produce only a limited number of cell types. If the pluripotent differentiation potential of embryonic stem cells could be harnessed in vitro, it might be a means of deriving cell or tissue types virtually to order. This would provide a radical new treatment approach to a wide variety of conditions where age, disease, or trauma has led to tissue damage or dysfunction.

Additionally, under defined conditions, embryonic stem cells are capable of propagating themselves indefinitely in an undifferentiated state and have the capacity when provided with the appropriate signals to differentiate, presumably via the formation of precursor cells, to almost all mature cell phenotypes.[6] This allows embryonic stem cells to be employed as useful tools for both research and regenerative medicine, because they can produce limitless numbers of themselves for continued research or clinical use.

Because of their plasticity and potentially unlimited capacity for self-renewal, Embryonic stem cell therapies have been proposed for regenerative medicine and tissue replacement after injury or disease. Diseases that could potentially be treated by pluripotent stem cells include a number of blood and immune-system related genetic diseases, cancers, and disorders; juvenile diabetes; Parkinson's; blindness and spinal cord injuries. Besides the ethical concerns of stem cell therapy (see stem cell controversy), there is a technical problem of graft-versus-host disease associated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation. However, these problems associated with histocompatibility may be solved using autologous donor adult stem cells, therapeutic cloning. The therapeutic cloning done by a method called somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) may be advantageous against mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutated diseases.[7] Stem cell banks or more recently by reprogramming of somatic cells with defined factors (e.g. induced pluripotent stem cells). Embryonic stem cells provide hope that it will be possible to overcome the problems of donor tissue shortage and also, by making the cells immunocompatible with the recipient. Other potential uses of embryonic stem cells include investigation of early human development, study of genetic disease and as in vitro systems for toxicology testing.

According to a 2002 article in PNAS, "Human embryonic stem cells have the potential to differentiate into various cell types, and, thus, may be useful as a source of cells for transplantation or tissue engineering."[8]

Current research focuses on differentiating ES into a variety of cell types for eventual use as cell replacement therapies (CRTs). Some of the cell types that have or are currently being developed include cardiomyocytes (CM), neurons, hepatocytes, bone marrow cells, islet cells and endothelial cells.[9] However, the derivation of such cell types from ESs is not without obstacles and hence current research is focused on overcoming these barriers. For example, studies are underway to differentiate ES in to tissue specific CMs and to eradicate their immature properties that distinguish them from adult CMs.[10] Lately,two teams in San Diegos ViaCyte and Bostons Harvard University successively announced their progress on embryonic stem cells for curing diabetes, which was suggested to be the beginning of the golden age of stem cell therapeutics.[11]

Besides in the future becoming an important alternative to organ transplants, ES are also being used in field of toxicology and as cellular screens to uncover new chemical entities (NCEs) that can be developed as small molecule drugs. Studies have shown that cardiomyocytes derived from ES are validated in vitro models to test drug responses and predict toxicity profiles.[9] ES derived cardiomyocytes have been shown to respond to pharmacological stimuli and hence can be used to assess cardiotoxicity like Torsades de Pointes.[12]

ES-derived hepatocytes are also useful models that could be used in the preclinical stages of drug discovery. However, the development of hepatocytes from ES has proven to be challenging and this hinders the ability to test drug metabolism. Therefore, current research is focusing on establishing fully functional ES-derived hepatocytes with stable phase I and II enzyme activity.[13]

Read more here:
Embryonic stem cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

15:48 Russia further delays delivery of Admiral Gorshkov to India:Russia has delayed delivery of a trouble-plagued aircraft carrier for at least a year on Friday, a blow to India's efforts to quickly build up naval strength as increasingly assertive Asian rival China expands its maritime reach. Read 15:47 Attack on teenage girl exposed extremist mindset in Pak: Kayani: In other news: A day after a teenage rights activist was shot in the head by Taliban militants, Pakistan Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani today condemned the attack on the girl as a "heinous act of terrorism" and warned that it had exposed the "extremist mindset" confronting the country.

Kayani visited a military hospital in Peshawar to meet 14-year-old schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai, who was shot and seriously injured by the militants during an attack yesterday in the former Taliban stronghold of Swat, located 160 km from Islamabad. T

he powerful army chief used the occasion to send out a message to the militants, saying incidents like the attack on Malala "clearly expose the extremist mindset the nation is facing." Kayani said the terrorists had underestimated the "resolve and resilience" of the people.

15:43 The Nobel Prizes were established in the will of 19th century Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. Each award is worth 8 million kronor, or about $1.2 million. The awards are always handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death in 1896, writes the NYT.

About half of all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them will help scientists to come up with better drugs.

The Nobel week started Monday with the medicine prize going tostem cellpioneers John Gurdon of Britain and Japan's Shinya Yamanaka. Frenchman Serge Haroche and American David Wineland won the physics prize Tuesday for work on quantum particles.

15:38 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited the two researchers for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors.'

15:26 Two Americans share Nobel prize for chemistry: Nobel Prize in Chemistry has been awarded jointly to Americans Robert J. Lefkowitz and Brian K. Kobilka. Details in a bit.

"Out of the total affected population of 4.89 million, the number of children was 1.8 million and many of them were affected twice," 'Save the Children' Chief Executive Officer Thomas Chandy said after visiting some flood affected areas yesterday.

In any emergency in any part of the world, children were the worst sufferers and they were unable to deal with the hardship caused by displacement, lack of food and clean water, he said.

Read the original here:
Live! Two Americans share Nobel prize for chemistry

By Tan Ee Lyn

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka warned patients on Tuesday about unproven "stem cell therapies" offered at clinics and hospitals in a growing number of countries, saying they were highly risky.

The Internet is full of advertisements touting stem cell cures for just about any disease -- from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, eye problems, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to spinal cord injuries -- in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Turkey and Russia.

Yamanaka, who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday with John Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, called for caution.

"This type of practice is an enormous problem, it is a threat. Many so-called stem cell therapies are being conducted without any data using animals, preclinical safety checks," said Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan.

"Patients should understand that if there are no preclinical data in the efficiency and safety of the procedure that he or she is undergoing ... it could be very dangerous," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Yamanaka and Gurdon shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs.

"I hope patients and lay people can understand there are two kinds of stem cell therapies. One is what we are trying to establish. It is solely based on scientific data. We have been conducting preclinical work, experiments with animals, like rats and monkeys," Yamanaka said.

"Only when we confirm the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapies with animals will we initiate clinical trials using a small number of patients."

Yamanaka, who calls the master stem cells he created "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS), hopes to see the first clinical trials soon.

More here:
Nobel laureate Yamanaka warns of rogue "stemcell therapies"

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka warned patients on Tuesday about unproven "stem cell therapies" offered at clinics and hospitals in a growing number of countries, saying they were highly risky.

The Internet is full of advertisements touting stem cell cures for just about any disease -- from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, eye problems, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to spinal cord injuries -- in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Turkey and Russia.

Yamanaka, who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday with John Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, called for caution.

"This type of practice is an enormous problem, it is a threat. Many so-called stem cell therapies are being conducted without any data using animals, preclinical safety checks," said Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan.

"Patients should understand that if there are no preclinical data in the efficiency and safety of the procedure that he or she is undergoing ... it could be very dangerous," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Yamanaka and Gurdon shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs.

"I hope patients and lay people can understand there are two kinds of stem cell therapies. One is what we are trying to establish. It is solely based on scientific data. We have been conducting preclinical work, experiments with animals, like rats and monkeys," Yamanaka said.

"Only when we confirm the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapies with animals will we initiate clinical trials using a small number of patients."

Yamanaka, who calls the master stem cells he created "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS), hopes to see the first clinical trials soon.

Read more:
The next frontier in stem cell treatments: phony therapies

Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka warned patients on Tuesday about unproven "stem cell therapies" offered at clinics and hospitals in a growing number of countries, saying they were highly risky.

The Internet is full of advertisements touting stem cell cures for just about any disease -- from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, arthritis, eye problems, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to spinal cord injuries -- in countries such as China, Mexico, India, Turkey and Russia.

Yamanaka, who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday with John Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge, Britain, called for caution.

"This type of practice is an enormous problem, it is a threat. Many so-called stem cell therapies are being conducted without any data using animals, preclinical safety checks," said Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan.

"Patients should understand that if there are no preclinical data in the efficiency and safety of the procedure that he or she is undergoing ... it could be very dangerous," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Yamanaka and Gurdon shared the Nobel Prize for the discovery that adult cells can be transformed back into embryo-like stem cells that may one day regrow tissue in damaged brains, hearts or other organs.

"I hope patients and lay people can understand there are two kinds of stem cell therapies. One is what we are trying to establish. It is solely based on scientific data. We have been conducting preclinical work, experiments with animals, like rats and monkeys," Yamanaka said.

"Only when we confirm the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapies with animals will we initiate clinical trials using a small number of patients."

Yamanaka, who calls the master stem cells he created "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS), hopes to see the first clinical trials soon.

"There is much promising research going on," he said.

Read more:
Nobel prize winner in medicine warns of rogue 'stem cell therapies'

Newswise CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (October 1, 2012) Three Members of the Whitehead Institute faculty are poised to play significant roles in the establishment of a new stem cell research center based at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skolkovo Tech) in suburban Moscow.

Whitehead Founding Member Rudolf Jaenisch, and Members Richard Young and Peter Reddien, will contribute their research, educational, and entrepreneurial expertise to the Skolkovo Center for Stem Cell Research (SCSCR). The center is among the first of three core research facilities to be created at Skolkovo Tech, a private graduate research university in Skolkovo, Russia, established in 2011 in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Skolkovo Techs research centersknown as Centers for Research, Education, and Innovation (CREIs) are intended to advance scientific understanding in a particular field, develop cutting-edge technologies for potential commercialization, attract world-class scientists to Skolkovo, and train the next generations of promising students. CREIs are international partnerships consisting of researchers from at least three universities or research institutes: Skolkovo Tech, a Russian university or institute, and a non-Russian university. As part of SCSCR, the Whitehead scientists will join a team under the direction of Peter Lansdorp, Director of the European Research Institute for the Biology of Aging at University of Groningen Medical Center UMCG in the Netherlands.

This is a very promising experiment, Lansdorp says. By stimulating international collaboration, it is certain to advance stem cell science while at the same time helping Russian studentstrained by leading stem cell scientists from Whitehead Institute and the Netherlandsto become productive scientists in Moscow."

Within SCSCR, Lansdorp, Jaenisch, Young, Reddien and others will tackle some of the most fundamental challenges to the development of stem-cell-based therapeutics, including optimizing methods for cellular reprogramming, pluripotent stem cell differentiation, and the identification of gene networks involved in stem cell regulation and regeneration.

Although funding details for the stem cell center are not yet final, Skolkovo officials say that a typical CREI receives about $10 million worth of funding, depending on the scope of each research program.

Skolkovos research centers are unique in their synergy between scientific knowledge and practical application, which originates through various institutes working together in a new way, says Skolkovo Tech President Edward Crawley. Russian researchers gain access to cutting edge technologies and the opportunity to integrate into the world's scientific community, our international partners will benefit from the academic knowledge and new ideas produced within Russian institutes, and Skolkovo Tech will attract the world's best scientists to create its educational and research programs.

Written by Matt Fearer

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Whitehead Members to Help Establish International Stem Cell Research Center

Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq: HBIO), a life sciences tools company, says the first two successful stem cells laryngotracheal transplants have been completed in Russia using the companys specially-designed bioreactor to grow the cells, which were taken from the patients bone marrow.

Last November, the Holliston, Mass.-based company announced that a simpler procedure, a tracheal transplant, had been completed using stem cells grown in the bioreactor. A few month later, the company announced that the recipient of the tracheal transplant, Christopher Lyle, had died.

The transplants, which required more than six months of preparation, were performed on the first two patients enrolled in an ongoing clinical trial at Krasnodar Regional Hospital in Russia. The company said the procedures are the result of a global collaboration involving organizations in the U.S., Sweden, Russia, Germany, and Italy. The patients were treated as part of a $4.8 million Russian government grant designed to foster international collaboration.

Both of the patients are under 35 and suffered severe damage to their tracheas due to car accidents and subsequent comas they sustained. The company said both patients were able to breathe and speak normally after the procedure.

See the rest here:
Harvard Bioscience plays role in stem cell transplants

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q57ftl/global_flow_cytome) has announced the addition of the "Global Flow Cytometry Market" report to their offering.

Flow cytometry is a laboratory analytical technique that can rapidly measure multiple parameters of individual cells or particles as they pass through a beam of light, typically a laser. The global flow cytometry market remains one of the fastest-growing segments of life sciences and clinical diagnostics markets. In the current life sciences research, pharmaceutical drug discovery and development, and clinical diagnostics markets, flow cytometry offers some of the brightest promise for growth and innovation.

The purpose of this TriMark Publications report is to provide a detailed analysis of the global flow cytometry market, including size, growth, technology platforms, applications, new instrumentation, industry trends and the internal structure of the sector. The study covers highly attractive growth areas such as stem cell research, biomarkers and companion diagnostics, CD4 testing, high throughput screening and immunology and vaccine development.

It also analyzes almost all of the companies known to be marketing, manufacturing or developing flow cytometry products in the U.S. and worldwide. Additionally, this review provides detailed tables, charts and figures with past and projected sales data by geographic region for North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the emerging BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) markets.

Companies Mentioned

- AbD Serotec (part of MorphoSys)

- ALPCO Diagnostics

- Apogee Flow Systems

- Bay Bioscience

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Research and Markets: Global Flow Cytometry Market

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (TSE:4502), today announced updated survival data from a pivotal Phase II clinical trial of single-agent brentuximab vedotin in patients with relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) after autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) showing that the median overall survival has not been reached after a 26.5 month median follow-up. The data will be reported during an oral presentation at the 17th European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Meeting being held June 14-17, 2012 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Brentuximab vedotin is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) directed to CD30, a defining marker of the majority of types of HL.

Heavily pretreated Hodgkin lymphoma patients who relapse following autologous stem cell transplant often have a poor prognosis and there is a high unmet medical need for effective treatment options, said Scott Smith M.D., Ph.D., Loyola University Medical Center. These updated overall survival results from the pivotal trial are encouraging and suggest that brentuximab vedotin may play an important role in the treatment of patients with relapsed or refractory disease.

Long-term Follow-up Results of an Ongoing Pivotal Study of Brentuximab Vedotin in Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma

A pivotal trial was conducted in 102 patients with relapsed or refractory HL after ASCT. The primary endpoint was objective response rate (ORR) per independent review. The secondary endpoints were complete remission (CR) rate, duration of response, progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and safety and tolerability. At the time of the long-term follow-up analysis, the median observation time from first dose was 26.5months. Data, to be presented by Dr. Smith, include:

Patients received 1.8milligrams per kilogram of brentuximab vedotin every 3 weeks as a 30-minute outpatient intravenous infusion for up to 16cycles. Patients received a median of nine cycles of brentuximab vedotin while on trial. The median age of patients in the pivotal trial was 31 years. Enrolled patients had received a median of 3.5 (range 113) prior cancer-related systemic therapies, excluding ASCT. Seventy-one percent of patients had primary refractory disease, defined in the study protocol as patients who relapsed within three months of attaining CR or failed to achieve a CR, and 42 percent had not responded to their most recent prior therapy.

Details of the oral presentation are as follows:

About Brentuximab Vedotin

Brentuximab vedotin is an ADC comprising an anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody attached by a protease-cleavable linker to a microtubule disrupting agent, monomethyl auristatin E (MMAE), utilizing Seattle Genetics proprietary technology. The ADC employs a linker system that is designed to be stable in the bloodstream but to release MMAE upon internalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells.

Brentuximab vedotin is not approved for use outside the United States. The marketing authorization application for brentuximab vedotin in relapsed or refractory Hodgkin lymphoma and sALCL, filed by Takeda Global Research & Development Centre (Europe), was accepted for review by the European Medicines Agency for review in June 2011.

See more here:
Millennium Highlights Updated Survival Data from ADCETRIS® (Brentuximab Vedotin) Pivotal Trial in Patients with ...

Science is social, but when political ideology takes precedence over experimental evidence the results can be fatal.

"Eduard Kolchinsky" by Nathaniel Gold

The United States is in the midst of a partisan political battle over science. Whether the issue is evolution, global warming, stem cell research, or HPV vaccines, conservative politicians either disregard the evidence that would undermine their position or remain proudly ignorant of scientific reality. For example, in the lead up to the mid-term elections, Republican House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (VA-7) singled out the National Science Foundation as part of his YouCut Citizen Review that asked conservative voters to sift through a list of already approved federal science grants and contact their Congressperson about wasteful spending that should be cut. This, in addition to the ongoing battles to stop the teaching of evolution, and prevent the evidence of global warming from informing energy policy, has made science the subject of political attacks today more than during any other period in U.S. history.

The goal, as Republican strategist Frank Luntz famously wrote in a leaked memo, is entirely ideological. There is still a window of opportunity to challenge the science, he wrote, referring to global warming. A compelling story, even if factually inaccurate, can be more emotionally compelling than a dry recitation of the truth. This is the backdrop to the so-called Climategate scandal in which hacked e-mails written by climate scientists became the justification for right-wing attacks upon, not only the science they rejected, but also the integrity of the scientists themselves.

History offers compelling examples of what can go wrong when science is sidelined in favor of political ambition. Perhaps the most extreme case would be that of the Soviet Union where biologists, in particular, were censored, arrested, or even executed because their evidence contradicted the official Party line. Under the influence of the charismatic agronomist Trofim Lysenko, who claimed that genetics was a fraud and that environment alone influenced heredity, Russian biology became stunted for a generation. His promise of unprecedented agricultural yields coincided with a Soviet ideology that believed human nature could be moulded to support the interests of the state. Those scientists who challenged the results of his highly flawed experiments, particularly after the August, 1948 session of VASKhNIL (the Lenin All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences), were singled out as critics not only of Lysenkoism but of Soviet ideology itself.

Eduard Izrailevich Kolchinsky grew up in the generation after Lysenkos downfall and has worked for more than forty years to bring the previously censored history of evolutionary biology to light in his native Russia. Born on September 16, 1944, at the same time that Allied forces were entering Germany in World War II, Kolchinsky has been fascinated with the intersection between biology and politics throughout his career. Receiving his PhDs in Philosophy of Biology and the History of Science, his first book, The Evolution of Evolution (1977) co-written with Kirill Zavadsky, became highly influential and continues to be cited to this day. Among Kolchinskys many international honors he was recently invited to be a Fellow in the Linnaean Society of London. He is currently the director of the St. Petersburg branch of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology (IHST) in the Russian Academy of Sciences as well as a professor of Philsophy at St. Petersburg State University.

I recently arrived in Russia to begin my fellowship with the Institute and to present my research at an international conference being held later this week. I had the opportunity earlier to sit down with Professor Kolchinskyalong with Marina Loskutova, IHST senior researcher, who assisted with translationto ask him about the dangers of mixing science with politics and what lessons can be learned by exploring this previously unknown history of the Soviet Union.

Eduard Izrailevich Kolchinsky, January 2012. Image courtesy of the Institute for the History of Science and Technology, RAS.

Eric Michael Johnson: Readers of Scientific American are certain to have an idea of what it was like to live in the Soviet Union. Some of these ideas may be accurate, others not. But few will have any idea about what it was like to be an evolutionary scientist during the Soviet period. What were the major issues that scientists had to deal with then and what, in your opinion, are the greatest misconceptions about this time?

The rest is here:
The Failed Synthesis: Eduard Kolchinsky on the Dangers of Mixing Science and Politics

In the middle of all the shops, eateries and art galleries on South Main in Memphis, you'll see a red, blue and white flag. That would be the Russian flag, and inside 509 S. Main you can get a taste of the world's largest country -- the Russian Federation.

The Russian Cultural Center opened early this year with the mission of telling Memphis and the Mid-South about a country of almost 150 million that few Americans know much about.

Photo by Dale Anderson // Buy this photo

Beck Niyazov, a native of the former Soviet Union, and Anna Terry are members of New World Connection, the organization that founded the Russian Cultural Center in Memphis. They see the center ultimately as a means to develop business opportunities between Russia and the United States.

"There's so much misinformation about Russia," said Anna Terry, president of New World Connection, the group that created the center. "Americans really don't know much about Russia. They think of the Soviet Union and the Cold War. That was two decades ago. It's all very different now."

The old Soviet Union, that longtime adversary of the U.S., was dissolved in May 1991, and during the past 20 years, a new modern country has emerged, one that Memphians need to get to know better, Terry said.

It was "film night" at the center, and a classic Russian movie was being screened for an audience of about 25.

"People the world over love Memphis' food, culture and music," she said. "So we want to bring some of Russia's food, music and culture to Memphis."

Film night was just one of several events hosted by and planned for the center. Since it opened, there have been history lectures, art showings and musical performances.

Last month, Dr. Valery Kukekov, a stem cell research scientist at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, was the guest lecturer, presenting an exhibit of his artwork as part of the center's program, "Great Russian Memphians."

See original here:
Russian cultural center seeks to show Memphis new face of old adversary

(RTTNews.com) - Cytori Therapeutics (CYTX) said Wednesday it has obtained approval to sell the Celution 800 System in Russia for various medical uses.

These clinical uses are based on those in the current European CE Mark, and include the use of the Celution system and its output of adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells for plastic surgery and select soft tissue therapies, Cytori said.

The company said the Celution system and related products will be sold into Russia for these indications exclusively through its distribution partner Human Stem Cells Institute of Moscow (HSCI).

"This regulatory achievement and the distribution partnership with HSCI gives us immediate access to the Russian market through an established and scientifically driven organization with a sales and marketing team already trained and knowledgeable in cell therapy," said Clyde Shores, Executive Vice-President of Marketing & Sales.

"We anticipate beginning to see the incremental impact from Russian sales starting in the second half of 2012. This approval is an important achievement and helps fulfill our stated 2012 goal to obtain additional market approvals for our technology."

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

http://www.rttnews.com

Link:
Cytori Obtains Russian Approval To Sell Celution 800 System - Quick Facts

In this phase 3, multicentre, open-label, randomised trial at 66 hospitals in Europe, India, Russia, South America, the UK, and the USA, patients with histologically confirmed aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma who had relapsed after two or more previous chemotherapy regimens were randomly assigned (1:1) by an interactive voice response system to treatment with pixantrone dimaleate (85 mg/m2 intravenously on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle, for up to six cycles) or to a comparator (vinorelbine, oxaliplatin, ifosfamide, etoposide, mitoxantrone, or gemcitabine) given at prespecified standard doses and schedules. Patients were stratified by region, International Prognostic Index score, and previous stem-cell transplantation. Patients and investigators were not masked to treatment assignment; however, an independent assessment panel was masked. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with a complete or unconfirmed complete response in the intention-to-treat (ITT) population at the end of treatment. Primary analyses of efficacy were based on the independent assessment panel's data review. The study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT00088530.

Read more here:
Pixantrone dimaleate versus other chemotherapeutic agents as a single-agent salvage treatment in patients with ...

South Korean Hwang Woo Suk was long regarded as a cloning pioneer - until he was charged with having faked much of his stem cell research. Now, he is back with a new project: he wants to clone a woolly mammoth.

South Korean researcher and cloning pioneer Hwang Woo Suk hasn't been in the scientific spotlight ever since he claimed to have successfully created human embryonic stem cells by cloning six years ago, and that research turned out to be fake.

Now, the controversial veterinarian and researcher is in the headlines again. He wants to use frozen tissue samples to recreate an animal that last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago: a woolly mammoth.

Hwang Woo Su successfully cloned Snuppy in 2005

The scientist recently signed an accord to that effect with a university in Russia's Sakha Republic.

Vast areas of the republic are covered in permafrost that has begun to thaw over the years due to climate change, uncovering the well-preserved remains of several mammoths that had lain frozen in the ice for more than 10.000 years.

To clone new life from the remains, Hwang needs an intact cell nucleus that he hopes could contain the animal's entire genetic information. The scientist would then have to replace the nuclei of egg cells from a related species - in this case an Indian elephant - with those taken from the mammoth's cells.

It is possible - in principle. Three years ago, as part of a mammoth cloning project in Japan, researchers there managed to clone a mouse from the cells of a rodent that had been frozen for 16 years. Nothing has been heard of this project since then.

Fragmented DNA

Alex Greenwood, a biologist at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW) in Berlin, is skeptical about the mammoth-cloning project. A first look into the microscope may give scientists reason for hope because they can discern contours of cells and even cell nuclei in the mammoth tissue. But the structures are not intact, Greenwood said, "They are frozen imprints of ancient cells."

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Controversial scientist plans to clone a mammoth

Sergei Karpukhin / Reuters

A boy looks at the skeleton of a mammoth in the Ice Age Museum in Moscow.

Good news for anyone who wishes we could revert to prehistoric times, or really, anyone who thinks woolly mammoths are awesome. Scientists in Asia have announced plans to recreate the giant creature that stomped around the Earth some 4,500 years ago.

On Tuesday, scientist Hwang Woo-suk of South KoreasSooam Biotech Research Foundation signed an agreement with Vasily Vasiliev of RussiasNorth-Eastern Federal University to clone a mammoth, AFP reports.

(MORE: Japanese Scientist Says Well Have Mammoths by 2015)

Hwang, once lauded as a pioneer in the field of cloning, lost a bit of credibility in 2006 when some of his breakthrough human stem cell research turned out to be fabricated. However, experts have verified his work in creating the worlds first cloned dog, Snuppy, in 2005. Hwangs next goal could also come to fruition now that portions of Siberias permafrost have thawed and left behind mammoth remains. Sooam officials said the foundation will launch research this year.

So how exactly does one go about cloning a woolly mammoth? The scientists plan to replace the nuclei of elephant egg cells with those of a mammoth, producing embryos with mammoth DNA. Then, those embryos will be planted into the wombs of elephants for delivery. The mammoth cells would come from internal organs, skin, bones and blood. Finding well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene will be the most difficult task, the researchers told the AFP.

Though the initiative is quite ambitious, the researchers said theyre confident, given their previous success in cloning animals and the success of their colleagues. South Korean scientists have already cloned animals including a cat, dogs, a pig, a cow and a wolf.

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The Woolly Mammoth's Return? Scientists Plan to Clone Extinct Creature

Hendrik Poinar, a scientist who believes he is close to cracking the woolly mammoth's genetic code, says that cloning extinct species is now possible. NBC's Jim Maceda reports.

By Alan Boyle

Russian and South Korean scientists, including the cloning expert who was the focus of a stem-cell scandal six years ago, have signed a deal to try re-creating a woolly mammoth using cells recovered from 10,000-year-old frozen remains.

The papers for the joint research project were signed on Tuesday by Hwang Woo-Suk, chief technology officer for South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation; and Vasily Vasiliev, vice director of Russia's North-Eastern Federal University, during a ceremony at Hwang's office in Seoul.

Hwang is infamous for his role in human embryonic stem-cell research: In 2004 and 2005, he and his colleagues claimed to have extracted stem cells from what they characterized as the world's first cloned human embryos. But in late 2005, his work was found to have been based on fabricated data, and he was barred from continuing research with human cells.

Despite the disgrace, Hwang continued working with animal cloning techniques. Before the scandal broke, his team announced that they produced the world's first cloned dog, nicknamed Snuppy, and that claim has stood up to scrutiny. Last October, Hwang's team at Sooam unveiled eight cloned coyotes that had been produced by injecting nuclei from coyote skin cells into dog eggs. At the time, he said he was interested in cloning an endangered African dog species known as the lycaon ... and was interested in cloning a mammoth, too.

In December, Japanese news media said that scientists recovered a seemingly viable sample of bone marrow from a frozen mammoth thigh bone in Russia's Sakha Republic, and that a mammoth could be cloned back from extinction within five years. This week, Agence France-Presse reported that North-Eastern Federal University is working with the Japanese scientists and with the Koreans. The Beijing Genomics Institute is said to be taking part in the Korean-Russian project as well.

Reports from Seoul suggest that the mammoth-cloning effort could be launched this year if the Russians can ship the remains to Sooam's laboratory. "The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," a colleague of Hwang's at Sooam, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP.

Jung Yeon-Je / AFP - Getty Images

South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk, (far left) and Vasily Vasiliev, vice director of North-Eastern Federal University of Russia's Sakha Republic (far right), exchange agreements during a signing ceremony on joint research at Hwang's office in Seoul on Tuesday.

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Disgraced scientist leads mammoth-cloning effort

A research lab led by controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk said it would attempt to implant DNA from the extinct mammal into an elephant egg cell to create a new embryo.

They hope it will lead to the birth of a new baby mammoth for the first time since the prehistoric giants last roamed the earth 10,000 years ago.

Sooam Biotech Research Foundation said today it had signed a deal with Russia's North-Eastern Federal University to cooperate on the project.

Scientists will attempt to "restore" cells taken from mammoth remains that were entombed in ice until they were recently uncovered by the thawing permafrost.

First they must find well-preserved tissues with undamaged genes, such as bone marrow. The next step is to replace the nucleus of an Indian elephant egg cell with the mammoth DNA.

If all goes to plan, test tube embryos will be implanted in an elephant's womb and the first woolly mammoth would be born 22 months later.

Sooam researcher Hwang In-Sung said: "The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells.

"This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals."

The lab has successfully cloned living animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf, but using ancient DNA from a long-extinct species has never been done.

Hwang Woo-Suk, who created the world's first cloned dog Snuppy in 2005, was a national hero in South Korea until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked.

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Woolly mammoths 'will be brought back to life' by cloning

The deal was signed by Vasily Vasiliev, vice rector of North-Eastern Federal University of the Sakha Republic, and controversial cloning pioneer Hwang Woo-Suk of South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, on Tuesday.

Hwang was a national hero until some of his research into creating human stem cells was found in 2006 to have been faked. But his work in creating Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog, in 2005, has been verified by experts.

Stem cell scientists are now setting their sights on the extinct woolly mammoth, after global warming thawed Siberia's permafrost and uncovered remains of the animal.

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South Korean scientist Hwang Woo-Suk (L) and Vasily Vasiliev (R), vice director of North-Eastern Federal University of Russia's Sakha Republic, exchange agreements during a signing ceremony on joint research at Hwang's office in Seoul. The research collaboration agreement will help Russian and S.Korean scientists to recreate a woolly mammoth which last walked the earth some 10,000 years ago.

The South Korean foundation said it would transfer technology to the Russian university, which has already been involved in joint research with Japanese scientists to bring a mammoth back to life.

"The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," another Sooam researcher, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP. His colleagues would join Russian scientists in trying to find well-preserved tissue with an undamaged gene.

By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth's somatic cells, embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery, he said.

Sooam will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer. The somatic cells are body cells, such as those of internal organs, skin, bones and blood.

"This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals," Hwang In-Sung said.

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S.Korean, Russian scientists bid to clone mammoth

Russian-South Korean project includes participation of disgraced stem cell researcher who faked his results.

Scientists from South Korea and Russia have signed onto a project that sounds like it got lifted off the pages of "Jurassic Park" to bring a woolly mammoth back to life.

This undated handout provided by ExhibitEase LLC shows a 3D computer-generated Image of woolly mammoth emerging from ice block.

Even more controversial than the storyline is the participation of a disgraced cloning expert from South Korea in the project. Hwang Woo-Suk, now with South Korea's Sooam Biotech Research Foundation, was found to have falsified data claiming a stem cell research breakthrough and then forced to resign his post at Seoul National University in 2009.

In 2005, Suk reported in a paper published in the journal Science that his team had come up with a procedure to clone individual stem cell colonies from 11 patients. That built upon a 2004 article which he published. A subsequent investigation by the university found the papers to have been fabrications. Separately, he was later convicted of embezzlement

Still, Suk continues to enjoy notoriety in his native country as the first scientist to clone a dog. Whether he can apply that expertise to reproduce a now-extinct animal may hinge on a variable entirely out of his hands. This isn't the first time scientists have set their sights on cloning a mammoth. Scientists in Russia researching the project have had their progress blocked by not having nuclei with undamaged mammoth genes. That changed last August when paleontologists reported discovering a well-preserved mammoth's thigh bone in Siberia, raising the chances for a successful cloning procedure.

"The first and hardest mission is to restore mammoth cells," another Sooam researcher, Hwang In-Sung, told AFP.

Assuming that the researchers can find nuclei with undamaged genes, they would implant the embryos into elephant wombs for delivery. Although mammoths became extinct about 10,000 years ago, they are considered to be close enough relatives to the modern elephant.

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Scientists sign on to recreate woolly mammoth--just for fun