StemCell Therapy

Spinal cord injuries are among the most dramatic and devastating of all injuries, in part because they stem from traumatic accidents but also because there are very few treatment options.

While medical advances have been made in the areas of injury management and improved long-term functioning, for those dealing with spinal cord injuries the sad truth is that researchers have yet to come up with a cure for paralysis.

Victims of spinal cord injuries are left facing a lifelong disability, one that comes not only with a range of personal burdens but which also extracts its toll on the healthcare system studies have shown that the lifetime economic burden of spinal cord injuries in Canada ranges between $1.5 to $3.0 million per individual.

Yet cell therapies represent one area of current research that appears likely to deliver positive results. According to a new study from researchers with the University Health Network and the University of Toronto, the neuroregenerative potential of this approach is promising.

Cell therapy, which in general refers to any procedure involving the implantation of cells, comes in different guises in spinal cord research, depending on the type of cells employed. Clinical research is already being performed using stem cells, which have the ability to self-renew and to differentiate into a variety of specialized cells, and glial cells, which support neural functioning.

The aim in both cases is to introduce the new cells so as to encourage regrowth of nerve fibres where they have been severed and thereby restore nerve function, a seemingly impossible task, since along with the structural damage caused by spinal cord injury comes a series of secondary events such as scarring and inflammation which, although normal bodily repair processes, can effectively impede the chances at regrowth and reconnection of neural networks.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Reviewing the current state of affairs in spinal cord research, the researchers find that cell therapies, especially those that combine more than one approach, are showing promise but need further study and clinical trials. While combinatorial treatments using cell-coupling, trophic factors, biomaterials, and rehabilitation, may help to improve stem cell effectiveness among a heterogeneous patient population, there is still much research required to optimize their application, say the studys authors.

The researchers found that in early clinical trials, for example, cell therapies have shown modest improvements connected to functional recovery, yet they say that the results are encouraging and that even slight enhancements in sensation and function for those dealing with spinal cord injuries are often quite meaningful. It is clear that a lot remains to be understood in the translation of stem cell therapies, say the studys authors. However, given the significant strides in laboratory work, we should not lose sight of their potential.

The new research is published in the journal Expert Opinion on Biological Therapy.

The primary causes of spinal cord injuries are motor vehicle accidents and unintentional falls, each accounting for a little over 40 per cent of spinal cord injuries. According to Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, there are 1,500 new spinal cord injuries each year and a total of 86,000 Canadians currently living with spinal cord injuries.

Go here to see the original:
Stem cell therapy shows promise in treating spinal cord injuries ... - Cantech Letter

March 21, 2017 Credit: University of Bristol

Researchers have shown stem cells from the umbilical cord may hold the key to a new generation of graft and could reduce the number of surgeries required to treat young children born with certain types of congenital heart disease.

Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common type of birth defect. In the UK alone over 4,000 babies are diagnosed with CHD each year and thanks to advances in treatment and care, more than eight out of ten CHD babies grow up to be adults.

However, the only treatment for these conditions is corrective surgery where a piece of tissue, known as an implant, is used to replace the damaged area. Often surgery has to be repeated several times throughout childhood as the child's heart outgrows the artificial implant used to repair it.

Professors Massimo Caputo and Paolo Madeddu, in the Bristol Heart Institute, a newly created specialist research institute (SRI) at the University of Bristol, have developed cellular grafts using stem cells from the umbilical cord and placenta that are able to grow like living tissue and it is hoped would be able to grow along with a child's heart. These new grafts would mean that instead of having multiple operations to insert bigger grafts as the patient's heart grows only one operation would be needed.

These grafts have been tested in animal models that closely resemble the 'real-world' scenario and tested for their capacity to grow and regenerate the damaged heart. The researchers are also exploring which cells are best suited for the graft so that a wide range of treatment options and solutions could be tailored to the patients' needs. With the first two phases of research completed, the academics are now preparing to start a clinical trial in newborn babies.

Massimo Captuo, Professor of Congenital Heart Surgery from the School of Clinical Sciences, said: "We believe stem cells from the umbilical cord, usually discarded after birth, could hold the key to a new generation of graft. These grafts grow at the same rate as the children they're used to treat and reduce the risk of rejection after transplant as they contain the child's own DNA."

Paolo Madeddu, Professor of Experimental Cardiovascular Medicine from the School of Clinical Sciences, added: "The long-term outcomes for most young children remains poor and significantly affects their quality of life. By developing these new grafts, we hope to reduce the amount of surgeries that a child born with congenital heart disease must go through."

Explore further: Engineered blood vessels grow in lambs

In a hopeful development for children born with congenital heart defects, scientists said Tuesday they had built artificial blood vessels which grew unaided when implanted into lambs, right into adulthood.

Current cardiovascular valve or blood vessel implants are generally associated with a number of complications, have limited efficacy over time, and may necessitate repeated interventions over a patient's lifetime, especially ...

Mayo Clinic has announced the first U.S. stem cell clinical trial for pediatric congenital heart disease. The trial aims to determine how stem cells from autologous umbilical cord blood can help children with hypoplastic ...

In a first-in-children randomized clinical study, medical researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) at the University of Miami Miller School ...

Over one million children are born with congenital heart disease (CHD) each year. When children with CHD receive timely treatment, 85% can survive into adulthood to live healthy, productive lives. Sadly, 90% of the children ...

A new minimally invasive technique for repairing the most common cardiac birth defect in extremely premature newborns can be performed safely with a high success rate in babies as small as 755 grams - about 1.6 pounds - only ...

A small protein that could protect the brain from stroke-induced injury has been discovered by researchers from The University of Queensland and Monash University.

ATMs and coffee shops such as Tim Hortons, Starbucks and Second Cup make ideal locations for placing automated external defibrillators (AEDs), according to a new study led by U of T Engineering researchers Professor Timothy ...

About 12 percent of patients undergoing aortic valve replacement developed non-symptomatic blood clots around the valve leaflets (known as subclinical leaflet thrombosis) that reduced the motion of the valves, according to ...

Substituting rivaroxaban for aspirin in patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) appears to cause no significant increase in bleeding risk, according to a study led by scientists from the Duke Clinical Research Institute ...

People who received regular lifestyle counseling online were able to lower their blood pressure as much as a medication would, researchers said Saturday.

An international research team with prominent Canadian leadership has found that the blood thinner rivaroxaban is as safe as aspirin, and more effective at preventing recurrence of life-threatening blood clots in the legs ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

View post:
Stem cell therapy could help mend the youngest of broken hearts - Medical Xpress

A month ago, my 6-year-old wiggled her first tooth out, and the tooth fairy dutifully left a glitter-strewn $1 bill and a nice note. In response to my Facebook post announcing this major milestone, my mom pointed out an article about banking baby teeth because get this the living dental pulp inside baby teeth contains stem cells.

Stem cells might ring a bell for women who delivered babies in a hospital or birth center, because most of us were asked if we wanted to store or donate the stem-cell-rich umbilical cord blood. Stem cells are the bodys biological wild cards, with the potential to be transformed into a variety of other cells and used in medical therapies to replace damaged or malfunctioning cells. Think of it as a way to treat an ailment at a cellular level specific to the individual, rather than just treating symptoms.

For that reason, many parents decide to bank their babys umbilical cord upon birth.

Up to 40 percent of qualifying mothers with normal term pregnancies opt to donate cord blood to the public bank, and private donation is even more frequent, says Dr. Rebecca Haley, medical director of Bloodworks Northwest. Last year alone, 250 units of publicly banked cord blood were sent for transplant through the Cord Blood Coordinating Centerand used in treatments for leukemia, lymphoma, rare cancers and metabolic conditions.

But back to the baby teeth. Growing up around my dads dental office, I saw and learned some fascinating things, but stem cells inside teeth? It blew my mind to think that my childs baby tooth could hold the key to a life-saving treatment in her adulthood.

To collect and store dental stem cells, a dentist must extract the baby tooth when it starts to get wiggly and then prep it with materials from a special kit provided by the chosen dental stem cell bank. Currently there are five such banks located in the United States. Once the doctor preps the tooth, its sent overnight to the chosen bank, where, upon confirming the cells viability, theyre cryogenically preserved (i.e., frozen) until needed.

Currently, this relatively new service is only available privately, which means you have to pay a one-time processing fee that varies from $500 to $1,700, plus an annual storage fee of about $100 to $200. To differentiate themselves, some labs tout higher lab certification standards, options to duplicate cells to enlarge the specimen sample or provide an environmentally friendly processing kit to the dentist. Most labs also affiliate with larger ones, in case the business should change hands or something happens at the storage site.

But arent all stem cells the same? Isnt donating your babys cord, if you choose to do so, enough? Not exactly. There are important differences between dental (mesenchymal) and umbilical cord (hematopoietic) stem cells. Dental stem cells can become, among other options, bone or muscle cells to treat issues associated with those areas of the body, much like doctors already use umbilical cord stem cells in blood-based therapies to regenerate blood and bone marrow for cancer patients.

Also with dental stem cells, you have at least 24 chances (thats the number of baby teeth plus wisdom teeth) to gather them over the years your children lose their teeth. These cells can also be duplicated on a massive scale, so even a small viable sample can theoretically yield a large bounty. Conversely, with umbilical cord stem cells, you get just one chance to gather them at birth. The number of cord stem cells you get is all you get, as there is not yet a method for duplicating them. There are, however, public banks where people can donate or receive umbilical cord stem cells.

So why is it that you havent heard of dental stem cell banking? Its still a work in progress, with many treatments and therapies under development. The U.S. Food and Drug Administrationhas yet to approve the widespread use and application of dental stem cell therapies, with only animal studies and limited clinical human trials conducted thus far. Advocates are hopeful that the successes with umbilical cord stem cell therapies will hasten the approval process for dental stem cell therapies within the next decade.

Think of banking dental stem cells as biological insurance, says Arthur E. Greco, CEO of StemSave, a dental stem cell bank in New York City. He and other supporters of dental stem cells believe regenerative therapies are poised to revolutionize medicine.

Young people today are projected to have life spans of 100-plus years, says Greco. Regenerative therapies will play a central role in assuring that those longer life spans will be healthy as stem cell treatments are utilized to combat the normal degradation that occurs as we age.

While this may sound like science fiction, medicine is moving toward, customizing therapies and medications down to the cellular level. There is still much work and research needed, but by the time our kids hit middle age, this type of treatment could be a distinct reality.

This area of study is moving quickly, and significant clinical applications may be available in the future, says American Academy of Pediatric Dentistrynational spokesperson Dr. Amr M. Moursi. Parents should discuss the risks and benefits of dental stem cell banking with their pediatric dentist in order to make a well-informed decision.

While its not a decision to take lightly, Seattle pediatric dentist Dr. Purva Merchantembraces dental stem cell collection. Stem cells are becoming more and more invaluable in retaining genetic information that is specific to that particular individual, she says. This will help in customizing medication for certain genetic conditions.

If youre interested in dental stem cell banking, read up on all of the options and find the one that best fits your needs and budget for the long haul. After all, youre setting up a potential option for your childrens medical well-being that will follow them into adulthood. While some parents may be ready to jump on the dental stem cell bandwagon now, others might want to wait and keep tabs on future medical research partnerships and FDA trials. Either way, I bet youll never look at a loose baby tooth the same way again. I know I wont.

Continued here:
Banking on Baby Teeth: Dental Stem Cells and Regenerative ...

The restorative properties of stem cells:

Stem cells are unique because they drive the natural healing process throughout your life. Stem cells are different from other cells in the body because they regenerate and produce specialized cell types. They heal and restore skin, bones, cartilage, muscles, nerves and other tissues when injured.

As a result, amazing new medical treatments are being developed to treat a range of diseases contemporary medicine currently deems difficult or impossible to treat. Among them are:

While stem cells can be found in most tissues of the body, they are usually buried deep, are few in number and are similar in appearance to surrounding cells. With the discovery of stem cells in teeth, an accessible and available source of stem cells has been identified. The tooth is natures safe for these valuable stem cells, and there is an abundance of these cells in baby teeth, wisdom teeth and permanent teeth. The stem cells contained within teeth are capable of replicating themselves and can be readily recovered at the time of a planned dental procedure. Living stem cells found within extracted teeth were routinely discarded every day, but now, with the knowledge from recent medical research, Dr. Hershkin provides you the opportunity to save these cells for future use in developing medical treatments for your family.

Aside from being the most convenient stem cells to access, dental stem cells have significant medical benefits in the development of new medical therapies. Using ones own stem cells for medical treatment means a much lower risk of rejection by the body and decreases the need for powerful drugs that weaken the immune system, both of which are negative but typical realities that come into play when tissues or cells from a donor are used to treat patients.

Further, the stem cells from teeth have been observed in research studies to be among the most powerful stem cells in the human body. Stem cells from teeth replicate at a faster rate and for a longer period of time than do stem cells harvested from other tissues of the body.

Stem cells in the human body age over time and their regenerative abilities slow down later in life. The earlier in life that your familys stem cells are secured, the more valuable they will be when they are needed most.

Accessible The stem cells contained within teeth are recovered at the time of a planned procedure: Extraction of wisdom teeth, baby teeth or other healthy permanent teeth.

Affordable when compared with other methods of acquiring and preserving life saving stem cells: Peripheral blood, Bone Marrow, Cord blood etc, recovering Stem Cells from teeth is the most affordable and least invasive.

Convenience the recovery of stem cells from teeth can be performed in the doctors office anytime when a healthy tooth is being extracted.

Ease of Use The recovery of stem cells from teeth does not add any additional time on to a planned procedure.

Why should someone recover and cryopreserve their own stem cells from teeth?Healthy dental pulp contains stem cells that are among the most powerful stem cells in the body and replicate at a faster rate and for a longer period of time than other types of stem cells. Stem cells from teeth show great promise for future regenerative medical treatments of neuro-degenerative diseases, heart disease, diabetes, bone diseases and brain and nerve injuries.

Which teeth are candidates for stem cell recovery and cryopreservation?Any extracted tooth with a healthy pulp contains stem cells. Wisdom teeth, baby teeth and other permanent teeth i.e. healthy teeth that are fractured and teeth recommended for extraction for orthodontic purposes are all candidates for stem cell recovery and cryopreservation.

At what age am I no longer eligible to recover and preserve stem cells from teeth?Age does not seem to play a major factor. All extracted healthy teeth contain stem cells. The younger you are then the younger the cells and these may be more beneficial in future regenerative therapies.

Is one tooth enough or should I try to bank as many teeth as I can as the opportunities arise. I banked deciduous teeth, should I bank third molars?Diseases of different severity or tissue defects of different size will undoubtedly require different amounts of stem cells to heal. Conceptually, the more teeth are banked, the greater the potential for sufficient stem cells to treat various diseases.

Read the rest here:
Dental Stem Cells New York | Dental Stem Cell Recovery ...

Researchers at Okayama University report in Scientific Reports successful tooth regeneration in a postnatal large-animal model. The approach used involves the autologous transplantation of bioengineered tooth germ into a canine jawbone; the in vivo artificially created tooth has the structure, composition and physiological characteristics of a natural tooth.

Okayama, Japan (PRWEB UK) 19 March 2017

Source: Okayama University (JAPAN), Public Relations and Information Strategy For immediate release: 19 March 2017

Okayama University research: Bioengineered tooth restoration in a large mammal

Researchers at Okayama University report in Scientific Reports successful tooth regeneration in a postnatal large-animal model. The approach used involves the autologous transplantation of bioengineered tooth germ into a canine jawbone; the in vivo artificially created tooth has the structure, composition and physiological characteristics of a natural tooth.

Conventional therapies for restoring the loss of a tooth due to e.g. caries, gum disease or injury essentially consist of replacing the tooth with artificial material or an osseointegrated dental implant. Whole-organ regeneration technology is a promising alternative approach: a new tooth is grown from bioengineered tooth germ transplanted into the jawbone. Takuo Kuboki from Okayama University and colleagues have now demonstrated successful functional tooth restoration via the regenerative method for a postnatal large-animal model (a beagle dog).

The researchers first tested whether bioengineered tooth germ does indeed lead to the formation of a proper tooth. They dissected embryonic tooth germ cells and tissues of a dog 55 days prior to birth, and then reconstructed bioengineered tooth germ by means of a technique known as the organ germ method. The germs were then transplanted into mice. In many cases Kuboki and colleagues were able to identify the necessary conditions the germ resulted in tooth-crown formation, featuring both the hard and soft tissues present in natural teeth, after several weeks.

The scientists then performed autologous transplantation experiments. Rather than relying on a donor, autologous treatments make use of an organism's own stem cells (undifferentiated cells that can develop into specialized cells), avoiding immunological rejection. Applying this to their canine model, Kuboki and co-workers extracted deciduous teeth from the jawbone of a 30-day old beagle dog. Tooth germ engineered from the dog's permanent tooth cell and tissue was then transplanted, after two days of cell culture, into the dog's mandible, resulting in tooth eruption 180 days later.

Micro-CT analysis showed that the developmental process of the bioengineered tooth's formation was practically identical to that of a natural tooth, and, by means of scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, the bioengineered tooth was found to have the same structure and chemical composition of a natural one. Finally, the researchers demonstrated that the response of the regenerated tooth to a mechanical force was consistent with proper physiological functioning of the periodontal ligament (the tissue that connects the crown to the jawbone).

Regarding the future clinical application of the method to humans, the researchers pointed out that immature wisdom tooth germ would be a possible source of stem-cell germs, as it is available in the human postnatal jawbone. However, this would only pertain to younger people wisdom teeth mineralize after the age of 7; for elderly patients, other stem-cell sources would need to be identified. In any case, quoting Kuboki and colleagues, "this study highlights the feasibility of fully functional tooth restoration by autologous transplantation of bioengineered tooth germ".

Background Tooth structure and tooth loss remedies Teeth playing an essential role in the basic oral functions of mastication, swallowing and pronunciation comprise hard (such as enamel, dentin and cementum) and soft tissue (such as pulp and periodontal ligaments). As a remedy for tooth loss, fixed dental bridges or removable dentures made from artificial materials have been traditionally used, as well as osseointegrated dental implants: artificial teeth that are directly connected to the jawbone, without intervening soft tissue. Driven by recent advances in biomedical understanding and biotechnological engineering, regenerative technologies for the successful replacement of a lost tooth with uncompromised physiological tooth function such as the one now reported by Kuboki and colleagues are intensively researched today.

Donor-organ versus autologous transplantation The transplantation experiments carried out by the researchers are of the autologous type: a dog's own tooth germ stem cells were used to regenerate a missing tooth. An autologous transplantation avoids the potential problem of transplant rejection: when an organism receives a donor organ from another, genetically different organism, the former's immune system may attempt to destroy the transplant. Another complication can be graft-versus-host disease, caused by immune cells of the donated tissue recognizing the host as foreign and starting to attack host cells. It is therefore expected that future whole-tooth restoration in humans will be done by means of autologous transplantation techniques.

Organ germ method The approach of Kuboki and co-workers involves the bioengineered organ germ method, studied since about a decade ago. The method aims to regenerate ectodermal organs organs originating from the so-called ectoderm, the outer embryonic layer such as teeth, hairs and glands, by replicating the organ's developmental process starting from bioengineered organ germ. In a natural embryo, organ germ arises from the interaction between epithelium (the tissue at the outer layer of a body's surface) and mesenchyme (tissue sitting below the epithelium). Bioengineered organ germ is created by letting epithelial and mesenchymal tissue or cells interact.

Reference Mitsuaki Ono, Masamitsu Oshima, Miho Ogawa, Wataru Sonoyama, Emilio Satoshi Hara, Yasutaka Oida, Shigehiko Shinkawa, Ryu Nakajima, Atsushi Mine, Satoru Hayano, Satoshi Fukumoto, Shohei Kasugai, Akira Yamagushi, Takashi Tsuji & Takuo Kuboki. Practical whole-tooth restoration utilizing autologous bioengineered tooth germ transplantation in a postnatal canine model. Scientific Reports, 7, 44522. DOI : 10.1038/srep44522 (2017) http://www.nature.com/articles/srep44522

Reference (Okayama University e-Bulletin & OU-MRU) : Professor Kuboki's team e-Bulletin Vol.9Bio-hybrid implants: Restoring organ functions OU-MRU Vol.11Compound-protein combination shows promise for arthritis treatment OU-MRU Vol.19Study links signalling protein to osteoarthritis

About the author Vice-President and Professor Takuo Kuboki, D.D.S., Ph.D. Department of Oral Rehabilitation and Regenerative Medicine, Okayama University Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/implant/eng/index.html

Further information Okayama University Website: http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/index_e.html Okayama Univ. e-Bulletin: http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/user/kouhou/ebulletin/ About Okayama University (You Tube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDL1coqPRYI

Okayama University Medical Research Updates OU-MRU Vols 1 to 38. http://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/eng/research_highlights/index.html

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/03/prweb14162998.htm

Go here to read the rest:
Okayama University Research: Bioengineered Tooth Restoration in ... - Benzinga

POPSUGAR

6 Weird Things That Happen With Kids' Teeth POPSUGAR In a new push for banking stem cells, companies like Tooth Bank are storing dental stem cells, which have the ability to regenerate into various cell types. A dental professional extracts your child's baby tooth, then dental stem cells are harvested ... Tooth Regeneration Market Global Industry Insights, Trends, Outlook, and Opportunity Analysis, 2016-2024satPRnews (press release) all 13 news articles »

Original post:
6 Weird Things That Happen With Kids' Teeth - POPSUGAR

Powering Life

Scientists have discovered that a version of the Krebs cycle, the heart of the cellular metabolic network, can take place without the cellular proteins known as enzymes. Since the Krebs cycle does not require cellular proteins to occur, researchers now believe that metabolism may predate life. In fact, spontaneous chemical reactions may have served as the foundation for life on Earth.

Metabolism describes the web of chemical reactions that maintain the living state of cells and organisms. This includes both reactions that synthesize amino acids and lipids that cells need and reactions that break down molecules to generate energy. Cells use lipids and amino acids in membranes and proteins and to create the molecules that are consumed to generate energy.

The intriguing question scientists now face is this: how did this complex cycle evolve at all if it predated life?

Two main theories about the evolution of the Krebs cycle have been proposed. One says that RNA came first, prompting the evolution of the Krebs cycle. However, not only is RNA made from metabolic products, evolutionary principles suggest that the reactions must have predated life; existing in the first life forms immediately, these chemical reactions offered some kind of advantage, a selective pressure which eventually resulted in the evolution of enzymes.

The other theory is that some form of the Krebs cycle existed before life forms did, and was then adopted by living cells. The cycle then evolved inside and with life forms, developing enzymes to become more efficient. This theory was dismissed by many in the past, but these latest findings published in Nature Ecology & Evolutionlend it credence.

The research team exposed Krebs cycle chemicals to chemicals that would have been present in the sediments of early oceans. Eventually they triggered 24 chemical reactions in sequence something very similar to todays Krebs cycle. Thus far, however, they have only shown that this cycle runs in the oxidative direction, a development that would have taken place only once there was molecular oxygen in Earths atmosphere. They have yet to generate the reductive Krebs cycle that is still present in some ancient bacteria.

The researchers point out that there are still key components of life that this work does not explain, said Mark Ralser of the Francis Crick Institute in London, leader of the team who reported the findings.

With the metabolic pathway alone, you have a very good starting point for life, but it is not life, just a chemical-reaction network, Ralser said in an interview with New Scientist. You also need things like membranes to contain the reactions, and the genetic machinery that enables inheritance.

How do you bring these elements together in one environment and in non-extreme conditions, and make them work? Ralser asked. This is still a big challenge.

Read more from the original source:
We May Have Finally Found the Foundations Upon Which Life Evolved - Futurism

Palm Beach Post (blog)

Blinded by science: Women go blind after stem-cell treatment at Florida clinic Palm Beach Post (blog) In 2010, for example, a woman with the autoimmune disease lupus died after her own bone marrow cells were injected into her kidneys at a clinic in Thailand. In 2013, the Florida Department of Health revoked the medical license of Zannos Grekos over the ... Stem cell therapy is safe for stroke patients, study showsScience Daily all 32 news articles »

More here:
Blinded by science: Women go blind after stem-cell treatment at Florida clinic - Palm Beach Post (blog)

Science Daily

First patient cured of rare blood disorder Science Daily CDA is a rare blood disorder in which the body does not produce enough red blood cells, causing progressive organ damage and early death. ... "This procedure gives some adults the option of a stem cell transplant which was not previously available.". and more »

Read this article:
First patient cured of rare blood disorder - Science Daily

U.S. Stem Cell Clinic is in the spotlight after three patients reportedly lost their eyesight following procedures here.

The Sunrise facility offers stem cell treatments for a range of diseases and chronic disorders and yet it has no medical facility license.

Heres what you might not know: It doesnt need one.

The facility falls under a regulatory loophole. Regulators with Floridas Agency for Health Care Administration, which licenses health care facilities like hospitals and rehabilitation clinics, say they have no authority over stem cell operations. Neither does the Florida Department of Health, which only has regulatory power over personnel like licensed doctors and nurses working in these facilities.

Both state agencies say that authority lies with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Yet even here, guidelines for adipose stem cells (harvested from the clients themselves) are unclear.

The FDA could not discuss whether U.S. Stem Cell has faced or could face a potential investigation, spokeswoman Andrea Fischer said. She said the agency is working on guidelines that will clarify how human cells, tissues and products based on them should be regulated. The agency also been posting consumer warnings for years alerting patients to ask if theyre going to be part of an FDA-regulated clinical study.

We really dont know what standards these [clinics] have to conform to, said Dr. Thomas Albini, an associate professor of clinical ophthalmology at the University of Miamis Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. He recently co-authored a report in the New England Journal of Medicine about the U.S. Stem Cell cases.

If someone were licensed, that license would be on the line, he said.

There were no sanctions against the private, for-profit clinic after three women, in their 70s and 80s, lost their sight in 2015 following procedures where they had fat cells liposuctioned out of their belly area and injected into both of their eyes. The women had macular degeneration, a common disorder which eventually leads to blindness. They each paid $5,000 for the procedure.

Two traveled from out of state, and one came from Floridas west coast. At least two went to U.S. Stem Cell because of clinical trials listed on clinicaltrials.gov, a database managed by the National Institutes of Health, said Albini, who along with a Bascom Palmer colleague treated two of the patients shortly after their clinic visits. Their complications included detached retinas, optic nerve damage and eye hemorrhages.

The clinicaltrials.gov posting now says the study was withdrawn prior to enrollment.

On its website, the Sunrise facility says its team of medical researchers and practitioners can draw stem cells from their clients own fat tissue and reinject them into their bodies. There, the cells regenerative power can beat back medical disorders like Parkinsons, congestive heart failure and rheumatoid arthritis, according to the company.

In a written statement, the company, originally called Bioheart, said neither the clinic nor its affiliate, U.S. Stem Cell Inc., is currently treating eye patients.

Since 2001, our clinics have successfully conducted more than 7,000 stem cell procedures with less than 0.01% adverse reactions reported, the statement said. We are unable to comment further on specific cases due to patient confidentiality or legal confidentiality obligations.

The company declined to produce published papers about its research or any trials it had conducted.

Albini questions whether a true trial ever existed. Typically, participants of a clinical trial dont pay for treatment and continue to be monitored through followup appointments. Neither was the case for the three women who went to U.S. Stem Cell Clinic, Albini said.

He also said no legitimate researcher would do an experimental procedure, with no clinical track record, on both of a patients eyes, risking blindness. These people were way out of their league, he said.

Two of the women sued for negligence, failure to warn, and allegations regarding how the product manufactured from their own bodies was defective. Both settled, and their cases were dismissed. Attorneys for U.S. Stem Cell argued that the cases, as filed, involved medical negligence and, as such, needed to be refiled to conform with state law, according to court records.

Attorney Benjamin Bedard, who handled both dismissal filings, could not be reached for comment.

Albini said the FDA had him speak at a workshop in September regarding its concerns about experimental, unlicensed stem cell clinics.

My understanding is its a billion-dollar industry already, he said. We dont have great treatments for people with these conditions. There are people who want tomorrows medicines today and are willing to pay for it.

Staff researcher Barbara Hijek contributed to this report.

dlade@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4295

Go here to see the original:
Sunrise stem cell clinic behind blindness cases is largely unregulated - Sun Sentinel

Market Summary Follow

Puma Biotechnology Inc is a A biopharmaceutical company

PBYI - Market Data & News

PBYI - Stock Valuation Report

Puma Biotechnology Inc (PBYI) had a rough trading day for Tuesday March 21 as shares tumbled 9.45%, or a loss of $-4.2 per share, to close at $40.25. After opening the day at $44.75, shares of Puma Biotechnology Inc traded as high as $44.85 and as low as $39.80. Volume was 947,068 shares over 8,315 trades, against an average daily volume of 991,915 shares and a total float of 36.95 million.

As a result of the decline, Puma Biotechnology Inc now has a market cap of $1.49 billion. In the last year, shares of Puma Biotechnology Inc have traded between a range of $73.27 and $19.74, and its 50-day SMA is currently $36.22 and 200-day SMA is $42.55.

For a complete fundamental analysis of Puma Biotechnology Inc, check out Equities.coms Stock Valuation Analysis report for PBYI.

Want to invest with the experts? Subscribe to Equities Premium newsletters today! Visit http://www.equitiespremium.com/ to learn more about Guild Investments Market Commentary and Adam Sarhans Find Leading Stocks today.

Puma Biotechnology Inc is a biopharmaceutical company. It is engaged in the acquisition, development and commercialization of products to enhance cancer care.

Puma Biotechnology Inc is based out of Los Angeles, CA and has some 160 employees. Its CEO is Alan H. Auerbach.

Puma Biotechnology Inc is a component of the Russell 2000. The Russell 2000 is one of the leading indices tracking small-cap companies in the United States. It's maintained by Russell Investments, an industry leader in creating and maintaining indices, and consists of the smallest 2000 stocks from the broader Russell 3000 index.

Russell's indices differ from traditional indices like the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) or S&P 500, whose members are selected by committee, because they base membership entirely on an objective, rules based methodology. The 3,000 largest companies by market cap make up the Russell 3000, with the 2,000 smaller companies making up the Russell 2000. It's a simple approach that gives a broad, unbiased look at the small-cap market as a whole.

To get more information on Puma Biotechnology Inc and to follow the companys latest updates, you can visit the companys profile page here: PBYIs Profile. For more news on the financial markets and emerging growth companies, be sure to visit Equities.coms Newsdesk. Also, dont forget to sign-up for our daily email newsletter to ensure you dont miss out on any of our best stories.

All data provided by QuoteMedia and was accurate as of 4:30PM ET.

DISCLOSURE: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors, and do not represent the views of equities.com. Readers should not consider statements made by the author as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. To read our full disclosure, please go to: http://www.equities.com/disclaimer

Read the original here:
Puma Biotechnology Inc (PBYI) Plunges 9.45% on March 21 - Equities.com

Biotechnology has emerged as one of the most forward-looking fields of science in recent decades, and a large number of nations have set their sights on it as a long-term development pillar, given its wide range of applications and the leapfrogging of current information technology, which allows to further exploit its potential.

Biotechnology has already proven to be an option for growth in multiple economic sectors, finding applications of high importance in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, food, veterinary, cosmetic, environmental, agricultural, energy, among others, which make it an opportunity for those developing countries in search of a boost for the progress of their economies.

It is then in biotechnology that a country like Colombia, which occupies the second place after Brazil in world biodiversity, with around 10% of the fauna and flora of the planet, can find possibilities of great impact for its economic growth and technological development. However, it is not a simple challenge if one takes into account the little investment that, unfortunately, is destined for R&D in the country. For example, according to World Bank data for the year 2014, Colombia allocated about 0.2% of GDP for this purpose, an amount significantly lower than the world average of about 2%, and much lower than the number one country in this regard, South Korea, which investment in R&D is above 4% of GDP.

In this manner, the government, academics and companies must work together to transform this enormous biodiversity into a factory of knowledge and innovation that translates into solutions to both local and global problems, which in the long term will allow to narrow the economic-technological gap between Colombia and the most developed countries in the world.

Thus, in the commitment to research in general as a driving force for development, and in particular concerning the emerging biotechnology, intellectual property plays a decisive role for its progress; this is due to the fact that tools for the protection of inventions, such as patents, greatly influence the decision of companies to invest or not their capital in a particular sector, and even more in biotechnology, which is undoubtedly one of those with highest cost in both R&D and product development and process design.

Hence, it is possible to evidence in different countries a closely related upward trend between R&D spending and the filing of patent applications, making them a clear indicator of a country's innovation and inventive step. By way of example, this is clearly visible when comparing the number of patent applications filed in Colombia and South Korea, using data provided by the World Bank in this regard for the same year mentioned above. In Colombia, in 2014, 260 patent applications were filed by residents and 1898 by non-residents; values much lower than those in South Korea where the numbers amount to 164073 patent applications filed by residents and 46219 by non-residents for the same year.

Therefore, it is necessary a vision change from the government of Colombia that promotes the injection of public and private capital in R&D, which is supported by an intellectual property system that provides adequate legal protection to the inventions and compensates the economic efforts made in innovation. Taking into account the characteristics of the country, Colombia has the potential to establish, as one of the pillars of its economy, its own biodiversity together with biotechnology; however, to this day, this latter is greatly underestimated.

In this sense, the challenge for Colombia in the coming years is to recognize and take advantage of the immense potential for scientific research that it possesses, especially in terms of biotechnology, in order to have in the future the ability to offer products and services with high standards of quality and added value, derived from a sustainable exploitation of its natural resources that goes hand in hand with policies ensuring the technical, legal and economic conditions conducive to its realization.

Continue reading here:
Biodiversity, Biotechnology and Intellectual Property: their relevance for the development of Colombia - Lexology (registration)

In order to ensure that patient outcomes are constantly being improved upon it is important that the speed of change within the biotechnology sector occurs at an exponential rate. However, this continued drive for innovation puts immense pressure on IT departments to develop new technologies at speed, while also making sure that they do this cost effectively.

Add to this the fact that, more so than other industries, biotech firms are extremely tightly regulated. As a result, IT groups within this industry are often reluctant to introduce more complexity into what is already a very complex environment. To them, expanding a data centre can often feel a whole lot easier than navigating the regulations of the cloud. Despite this, growth in the demand for cloud computing in life sciences research and development is escalating due to the benefits it brings to the industry benefits like exceeding regulatory requirements, for example.

At iland, we have worked with many companies in the healthcare, life sciences and biotech industries. Therefore, we know from experience that the implementation of cloud computing in biotechnology empowers organisations with the control and flexibility needed to lead the way in both the research world as well as the businesses world. For example, we recently worked with a US based biotechnology organisation on their backup and disaster recovery (DR) strategy, and were able to drive global data centre consolidation with host-based replication to the iland cloud. As a result, their DR testing and auditing processes were greatly simplified and streamlined which drove significant cost savings as well as compliance assurance.

If you still need convincing here are three key benefits that we believe cloud brings to biotech organisations:

When the Human Genome Project began it was one of the most extensive research projects in the field to date costing billions of pounds and lasting over a decade. These days, thanks largely to cloud technology, it can bedone in just 26 hours. Things such as drug R&D, clinical research as well as a whole host of other areas have benefited just as much from the rapid growth of computational power. The better your technology is at crunching huge sets of data, the quicker you can innovate.

Cloud computing within the biotech sector can take big data analysis to the next level by means of performance, connectivity, on-demand infrastructure and flexible provisioning. Labs can also benefit from immense computing power without the cost and complexity of running big onsite server rooms. They can also scale up at will in order to make use of new research and ideas almost instantly.

Concerns have been voiced that so called scientific computing in the cloud may make results less reproducible. One concern is that cloud computing will be a computing 'black box' that obscures details needed to accurately interpret the results of computational analyses. In actual fact, by leveraging the application program interfaces (APIs) in the iland cloud, biotech customers are able to integrate cloud data back into on-premises IT systems to ensure that data analyses done in the cloud can be easily shared and consumed by other applications. Essentially, cloud computing services bring more players to the table to solve the giant puzzle. Its a win-win situation from an economic and patient standpoint, and several big name companies are jumping on the biotech cloud bandwagon.

Biotech companies need to maintain strong access and authentication controls, while also being able to collaborate easily.For this reason audit trails and other measures are often required to verify that information has not been improperly altered, and that good experimental and manufacturing procedures have been followed. At the same time biotechnologists need to be able to access and share data across multiple departments or even multiple companies.

Cloud computing in biotechnology makes this all possible. Theiland cloud, for instance, centralises data, ensuring security and data sovereignty while facilitating collaboration. It supports extensive user and role based access control, two-factor authentication and integrity monitoring to prevent improper access and changes. In addition to data encryption, vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection, these measures facilitate security and compliance, without disrupting the internal workflow.

Complex regulatory requirements and logistics combined with niche markets make efficiency paramount within biotechnology. Even minor mistakes as a result of sloppy process management can easily result in major issues. Real-time operational reporting dramatically improves efficiency, quality control and decision making, allowing organisations to react instantly to challenges and opportunities, both internal and external.

As well as enhanced billing visibility and resource management functions, the release of our latest Secure Cloud Services means that the iland cloud now includes on-demand security and compliance reports. This advanced cloud management functionality is designed to foster strategic, self-sufficient control of a cloud environment, optimising overall cloud usage and costs to drive business initiatives and growth.

Without a shadow of a doubt, cloud technology can help biotechnology companies build the future.From research and development to marketing, computing affects everything your organisation does. With rich experience in the biotech, healthcare and life sciences sector, you should talk to iland today to find out how our cloud hosting services can give you the power to develop at the speed of thought, not the speed of compliance or processing.

Read more: Why the cloud could hold the cure to diseases

Visit link:
Assessing biotechnology in the age of cloud computing - Cloud Tech

Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini. Photo: AP Photo/Lorenzo Galassi

A seventh patient of Italian surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who was fired from a Swedish university over accusations of misconduct, has died.

Macchiarini performed two synthetic trachea transplants on Yesim Cetir, 26, in Stockholm in 2012 and 2013, but she suffered brutal complications until her death.

In the early hours of Monday, her father Hayrullah Cetir announced on his Facebook account that Yesim died at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia.

"My daughter Yesim died tonight [Sunday] at 9.15pm may she rest in peace," he wrote, publishing a picture of her in a hospital bed.

Macchiarini operated on eight patients between 2011 and 2014, three of them at the prestigious Stockholm-based Karolinska Institute, which selects the winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Only one of the patients survived after having a synthetic trachea, designed and implanted by Macchiarini, removed during a surgery in Russia in 2014.

Cetir was the victim of two failed surgeries as her trachea was first badly damaged during treatment in Turkey before she received surgery in Stockholm.

She went to the United States to receive a trachea from a donor, without being able to recover.

"It is with great sorrow that I offer my sincere condolences to Yesim Cetir's family after having heard about her death. It would of course be inappropriate to discuss her earlier medical condition and treatment," Macchiarini said in a written comment to Swedish public broadcaster SVT.

The surgeon gained worldwide fame in 2011 by carrying out the world's first graft of an artificial plastic trachea, which was to be colonized by the patients' stem cells.

While he said in the medical journal The Lancet that the technique was working, successive deaths of his patients and falsifications in the article led him to be sacked.

Macchiarini was suspected of having embellished his resume to be hired by the Karolinska Institute. He is being investigated by Swedish police.

The scandal hit the Nobel Prize and caused several resignations within the institute.

Continue reading here:
Macchiarini's seventh transplant patient dies - The Local Italy

Courtesy of Vida Mehrannia

Ahmadreza Djalali, a researcher in disaster medicine, was arrested in Tehran in April 2016.

An Iranian researcher jailed in Tehran for the last 11 months is in declining health after spending more than two months on hunger strike. This month, researchers around the world made urgent appeals for his release.

Ahmadreza Djalali, a researcher in disaster medicine and a resident of Sweden, was arrested on an academic visit to Tehran in April 2016. On 11 March he was brought to a prison hospital after he refused to eat in protest at being threatened with the death sentence and at being denied his choice of lawyer. Djalali, who still awaits trial, has experienced kidney and heart pain and for a week in late February refused to take liquids, says his wife, Vida Merhannia. He has lost 30% of his body weight since he entered prison.

Djalali, 45, works on improving hospitals emergency responses to armed terrorism and radiological, chemical and biological threats. He has affiliations with Swedens Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and Italys University of Eastern Piedmont in Novara. But on 25 April 2016 he was arrested and accused of collaboration with a hostile government. According to his wife, he was kept in solitary confinement for three months, and forced to sign a confession.

Djalali began a first hunger strike in late December in protest against what he has told his wife is a false accusation. In late January, a judge on Irans revolutionary court threatened him with a death sentence. He stopped his strike on 15 February, but resumed it three days later after the judge ordered him to change his lawyer or choose a court-appointed one. His trial has not yet been scheduled.

On 9 March, Djalalis colleagues, together with the Committee of Concerned Scientists in New York and human-rights groups such as Amnesty International and Scholars at Risk, wrote to the Iranian authorities to ask that Djalali be given due legal process and released, unless charged with a recognizable criminal offence.

Djalalis case has drawn particular attention in Italy, in part because of his Eastern Piedmont connections. Parliamentarians there have protested to the Iranian ambassador, and Elena Cattaneo, a senator and stem-cell researchers at the University of Milan, said she would refuse to attend a July conference on stems cells in Iran in protest.

Its unclear why the Iranian government has arrested Djalali, says his colleague Luca Ragazzoni, a health researcher at the University of Eastern Piedmont, who worked with him from 2012 to 2015. In a separate case, physicist Omid Kokabee released from a Tehran jail in August 2016 after five years imprisonment believes he himself was punished for refusing to help a covert nuclear-weapons programme. But Ragazzoni says that disaster health research is less controversial. The data we work with are not sensitive, and we publish all our results: I dont see what else a government should be interested in, he says. He thinks the groups international collaborations may have raised suspicion.

The USIran nuclear deal in 2015 had sparked hopes of greater academic freedom in Iran. But since that agreement, other researchers besides Djalali have been imprisoned or sentenced. They include Homa Hoodfar, a CanadianIranian social anthropologist who was arrested in March 2016 and charged with dabbling in feminism and security matters, before being released on humanitarian grounds 112 days later; and retired Iranian polymer scientist Mohammad Hossein Rafiee-Fanood, who was sentenced to six years in prison in May 2015 for political activism, and was released on medical furlough last year.

Hamid Babaei, an Iranian mathematics student who was studying for a PhD in finance at the University of Lige in Belgium when he was arrested in August 2013, remains in prison on a six-year sentence for spying and contact with enemy states. He says that he was imprisoned for refusing to be an informant in Belgium for Irans intelligence ministry.

"Iranian scientists enjoy access to world institutions and the worldwide web of scientific information. But they do not enjoy freedom of political dissent. The nuclear deal has not changed this situation by an inch," says Eugene Chudnovsky, a physicist at the City University of New York who is co-chair of the Committee of Concerned Scientists.

The rest is here:
Jailed Iranian researcher's health worsening rapidly - Nature.com

March 20, 2017 New trial for blindness rewrites the genetic code. Credit: Shutterstock

Researchers have started a new gene therapy clinical trial to treat X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP), the most common cause of blindness in young people.

Retinitis pigmentosa is currently untreatable and leads to a slow and irreversible loss of vision.

The trial is being run by Nightstarx Ltd (Nightstar), a biopharmaceutical spinout company of Oxford developing gene therapies for inherited retinal diseases, and researchers from the University of Oxford. On 16 March 2017, a 29 year old British man became the first patient with X-linked retinitis pigmentosa to undergo gene therapy. The operation took place at the Oxford Eye Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Gene therapy uses a virus to insert the correct copy of a defective gene into cells, and has shown promise for treating genetic causes of blindness. Unfortunately, the gene involved with retinitis pigmentosa, RPGR, is highly unstable, making gene therapy particularly challenging. The RPGR gene's unusual genetic code has made it very difficult to work with in the laboratory.

However, a research team led by Professor Robert MacLaren from the University of Oxford has reprogrammed the genetic code of RPGR to make it more stable, but in a way that does not affect its function. This has allowed the gene to be delivered reliably by a viral vector into retinal cells.

The current trial is the first in the world to test a treatment for retinitis pigmentosa caused by RPGR.

Robert MacLaren, Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, who is leading the trial said: "The effect of RPGR-related disease on families with retinitis pigmentosa is devastating and we have spent many years working out how to develop this gene therapy. Changing the genetic code is always undertaken with great caution, but the new sequence we are using has proven to be highly effective in our laboratory studies.

"The genetic code for all life on Earth is made up of four letters G, T, A and C. In RPGR, however, half of the gene comprises only two letters A and G. This makes the gene very unstable and prone to mutations, making it a lead cause of blindness in patients with retinitis pigmentosa. RPGR is vital for the light sensitive cells at the back of the eye."

The trial has started at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and is sponsored by Nightstar, a University of Oxford spin-out company. It is supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Up to 30 patients will be enrolled.

David Fellows, Chief Executive Officer of Nightstar remarked: "We are delighted to report the advancement of this exciting gene therapy program into patients. If successful, this gene therapy has the potential to transform the lives of many patients (and their families) around the world."

Dr Aniz Girach, Chief Medical Officer of Nightstar commented: "The current trial is an open-label dose-escalation study designed to enrol at least 24 patients who will receive a single subretinal injection of the RPGR gene therapy. The primary goal of the study is to assess safety and tolerability of this gene therapy over a 12 month period."

Explore further: Mutations in CWC27 result in a spectrum of developmental conditions

An international team of researchers has discovered that mutations in the human gene CWC27 result in a spectrum of clinical conditions that include retinal degeneration and problems with craniofacial and skeletal development. ...

Silencing a gene called Nrl in mice prevents the loss of cells from degenerative diseases of the retina, according to a new study. The findings could lead to novel therapies for preventing vision loss from human diseases ...

Preceyes B.V., a spin-off of Eindhoven University of Technology, and Nightstar (UK) have entered into a collaboration for the development of a high-precision drug delivery technology in the eye. Nightstar will use the Preceyes ...

Using a new technology for repairing disease genesthe much-talked-about CRISPR/Cas9 gene editingUniversity of Iowa researchers working together with Columbia University Medical Center ophthalmologists have corrected ...

Researchers at UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and Moorfields Eye Hospital with funding from Fight for Sight, in collaboration with a team from Baylor College of Medicine in the USA, have discovered a new retinitis pigmentosa ...

Researchers at Ohio State University Medical Center and Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a viral vector designed to deliver a gene into the eyes of people born with an inherited, progressive form of blindness ...

New genes which help prevent prostate, skin and breast cancer development in mice have been discovered by researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The study identified genes that cooperate ...

Like almost all light-sensitive living beings, human beings follow biological rhythms set on a period of about 24 hours. The circadian clock (from Latin "circa" and "dies", which means "about a day") therefore describes the ...

The majority of genes associated with nephrotic syndrome (NS) in humans also play pivotal roles in Drosophila renal function, a conservation of function across species that validates transgenic flies as ideal pre-clinical ...

Britain's Newcastle University says its scientists have received a license to create babies using DNA from three people to prevent women from passing on potentially fatal genetic diseases to their childrenthe first time ...

Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers have discovered a common genetic variant that greatly impacts normal brain aging, starting at around age 65, and may modify the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. The ...

Studies of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases have identified hundreds of genetic regions thought to be associated with these conditions. At the same time, studies of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) have revealed ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See the original post here:
New trial for blindness rewrites the genetic code - Medical Xpress

Face blindness, or Prosopagnosis, is a common condition that affects aroundtwo in every 100 people in the UK, but relatively little is known about why it occurs and the psychological effect it has on peoples lives.

Researchers at Teesside University are hoping to raise awareness about this developmental disorder, which is an inability to recognise people from their facial features alone. In extreme cases, people cannot recognise family members and friends.

In extreme cases, people cannot recognise family members or friends.

Laura Sexton, a PhD student in Teesside Universitys School of Social Sciences, Business & Law, is carrying out research into face blindness with her supervisor, Dr Natalie Butcher, Senior Lecturer in Psychology. She says: Prosopagnosia affects people in different ways and for some they dont even realise it is a legitimate condition due to a general lack of awareness.

For others it can be very hard to cope with and leads to anxiety, stress, embarrassment and feelings of guilt.

Screening is important in that it allows us to develop a better understanding of the condition. First we need to determine if it is Prosopagnosia and not another underlying issue. Then we need to examine the severity of each case and find out peoples coping mechanisms and how it affects them psychologically.

The team have set up a screening centre, believed to be the first of its kind in the region, so that people who suspect they have the condition, can be tested for Prosopagnosia.

The team have set up a screening centre, believed to be the first of its kind in the region.

They are encouraging people who feel they may suffer from face blindness to come forward for screening tests in order to find out more about the condition.

People with face blindness often use non-facial cues to recognise others, such as their hairstyle, clothes, voice, or distinctive features. Many describe a fear and avoidance of social situations, such as family gatherings or meetings at work.

Thea Jourdan is the founder and editorial director of Hippocratic Post as well as being Editor of Apothecary, the journal of the Worshipful Society of the Apothecaries of London, and a contributor to the Good Health section of the Daily Mail. She sits on the executive committee of the Medical Journalists Association.

Read the rest here:
Shining a light on face blindness - The Hippocratic Post (blog)

Cloud computing within the biotech sector can take big data analysis to the next level by means of performance, connectivity, on-demand infrastructure and flexible provisioning

The continued drive for innovation puts immense pressure on IT departments to develop new technologies at speed, while also making sure that they do this cost effectively.

Add to this the fact that, more so than other industries, biotech firms are extremely tightly regulated. As a result, IT groups within this industry are often reluctant to introduce more complexity into what is already a very complex environment.

To them, expanding a data centre can often feel a whole lot easier than navigating the regulations of the cloud. Despite this, growth in the demand for cloud computing in life sciences research and development is escalating due to the benefits it brings to the industry benefits like exceeding regulatory requirements, for example.

iland haveworked with many companies in the healthcare, life sciences and biotech industries. Therefore, it knowsfrom experience that the implementation of cloud computing in biotechnology empowers organisations with the control and flexibility needed to lead the way in both the research world as well as the businesses world.

>See also:10 trends that will influence cloud computing in 2017

For example, ilandrecently worked with a US based biotechnology organisation on their backup and disaster recovery (DR) strategy, and were able to drive global data centre consolidation with host-based replication to the cloud. As a result, itsDR testing and auditing processes were greatly simplified and streamlined which drove significant cost savings as well as compliance assurance.

If you still need convincing here are three additional key benefits that cloud brings to biotech organisations.

When the Human Genome Project began it was one of the most extensive research projects in the field to date costing billions of pounds and lasting over a decade.

These days, thanks largely to cloud technology, it can be done in just 26 hours. Things such as drug R&D, clinical research as well as a whole host of other areas have benefited just as much from the rapid growth of computational power. The better your technology is at crunching huge sets of data, the quicker you can innovate.

Cloud computing within the biotech sector can take big data analysis to the next level by means of performance, connectivity, on-demand infrastructure and flexible provisioning.

Labs can also benefit from immense computing power without the cost and complexity of running big onsite server rooms. They can also scale up at will in order to make use of new research and ideas almost instantly.

Concerns have been voiced that so called scientific computing in the cloud may make results less reproducible. One concern is that cloud computing will be a computing black box that obscures details needed to accurately interpret the results of computational analyses.

>See also:How cloud computing can transform the pharmaceutical industry

In actual fact, by leveraging the application program interfaces (APIs) in the iland cloud, biotech customers are able to integrate cloud data back into on-premises IT systems to ensure that data analyses done in the cloud can be easily shared and consumed by other applications.

Essentially, cloud computing services bring more players to the table to solve the giant puzzle. Its a win-win situation from an economic and patient standpoint, and several big name companies are jumping on the biotech cloud bandwagon.

Biotech companies need to maintain strong access and authentication controls, while also being able to collaborate easily. For this reason audit trails and other measures are often required to verify that information has not been improperly altered, and that good experimental and manufacturing procedures have been followed.

At the same time bio-technologists need to be able to access and share data across multiple departments or even multiple companies.

Cloud computing in biotechnology makes this all possible it centralises data, ensuring security and data sovereignty while facilitating collaboration.

It supports extensive user and role based access control, two-factor authentication and integrity monitoring to prevent improper access and changes. In addition to data encryption, vulnerability scanning and intrusion detection, these measures facilitate security and compliance, without disrupting the internal workflow.

Complex regulatory requirements and logistics combined with niche markets make efficiency paramount within biotechnology. Even minor mistakes as a result of sloppy process management can easily result in major issues.

Real-time operational reporting dramatically improves efficiency, quality control and decision making, allowing organisations to react instantly to challenges and opportunities, both internal and external.

>See also:Managed cloud: making the most out of public cloud computing

As well as enhanced billing visibility and resource management functions, the release of the vendors secure cloud services means that the itscloud now includes on-demand security and compliance reports.

This advanced cloud management functionality is designed to foster strategic, self-sufficient control of a cloud environment, optimising overall cloud usage and costs to drive business initiatives and growth.

Without a shadow of a doubt, cloud technology can help biotechnology companies build the future. From research and development to marketing, computing affects everything an organisation does.

Sourced by Monica Brink, director of marketing, iland

Original post:
Exploring the cloud laboratory: biotechnology and cloud computing - Information Age

Puma Biotechnology Inc (NYSE:PBYI) has earned an average recommendation of Hold from the eight analysts that are covering the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have issued a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $70.50.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on PBYI. Royal Bank of Canada reissued a sector perform rating and issued a $17.00 price objective (down from $48.00) on shares of Puma Biotechnology in a research report on Thursday, March 2nd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a buy rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Puma Biotechnology in a research report on Wednesday, November 30th. Citigroup Inc reissued a buy rating and issued a $88.00 price objective on shares of Puma Biotechnology in a research report on Saturday, March 4th. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of Puma Biotechnology from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 10th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group AG reissued an outperform rating on shares of Puma Biotechnology in a research report on Wednesday, January 18th.

Puma Biotechnology (NYSE:PBYI) opened at 44.15 on Tuesday. Puma Biotechnology has a 52-week low of $19.74 and a 52-week high of $73.27. The firms market capitalization is $1.63 billion. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.87 and a 200-day moving average of $43.70.

Puma Biotechnology (NYSE:PBYI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, March 1st. The biopharmaceutical company reported ($2.04) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of ($1.92) by $0.12. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Puma Biotechnology will post ($8.32) EPS for the current fiscal year.

In related news, SVP Richard Paul Bryce sold 2,293 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.24, for a total transaction of $76,219.32. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 29,237 shares of the companys stock, valued at $971,837.88. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert Charnas sold 3,008 shares of the firms stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $31.83, for a total transaction of $95,744.64. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 28,461 shares in the company, valued at $905,913.63. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 15,503 shares of company stock worth $511,078. 22.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. raised its position in Puma Biotechnology by 2.4% in the third quarter. UBS Asset Management Americas Inc. now owns 12,891 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $864,000 after buying an additional 300 shares in the last quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its position in Puma Biotechnology by 1.0% in the third quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 52,275 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $3,505,000 after buying an additional 500 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Investment Management LLC raised its position in Puma Biotechnology by 1.2% in the third quarter. BlackRock Investment Management LLC now owns 92,595 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $6,208,000 after buying an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in Puma Biotechnology by 253.3% in the third quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,427 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $163,000 after buying an additional 1,740 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY raised its position in Puma Biotechnology by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. NY now owns 20,142 shares of the biopharmaceutical companys stock worth $618,000 after buying an additional 2,247 shares in the last quarter. 80.98% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Puma Biotechnology Company Profile

Puma Biotechnology, Inc is a biopharmaceutical company that focuses on the development and commercialization of products for the treatment of cancer. The Company focuses on in-licensing the global development and commercialization rights to over three drug candidates, including PB272 (neratinib (oral)), which the Company is developing for the treatment of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor type 2 (HER2), positive breast cancer, and patients with non-small cell lung cancer, breast cancer and other solid tumors that have a HER2 mutation; PB272 (neratinib (intravenous)), which the Company is developing for the treatment of patients with advanced cancer, and PB357, which is an orally administered agent.

Originally posted here:
The Brokerages Set Puma Biotechnology Inc (PBYI) PT at $70.50 - Petro Global News 24

"For over 15 years, Goodwin Biotechnology has been one of the pioneers in providing development services and GMP manufacturing of a broad portfolio of Antibody:Drug Conjugate (ADC) and Protein:Drug Conjugate (PDC) projects, including cytotoxic ADCs, Radio-Immunoconjugates, Antibody:Peptide Conjugates, Antibody:Dye Conjugates, PEGylated proteins, and other bioconjugates including Biobetters," said Muctarr Sesay, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Goodwin Biotechnology. "Our experience in Bioconjugation has resulted in several patents and publications, as well as proprietary processes that enable us to help our clients overcome some significant challenges in developing their next generation of bioconjugates. When including our experience in manufacturing vaccines for use in early- and late-stage clinical trials, we found the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation project to be highly intriguing."

"This is not an unusual approach for us when we initiate a project because we collaborate with many of our clients in the early stages of proof of concept/development by empirically recommending the appropriate processes to create a viable ADC or PDC candidate," Dr. Sesay continued. "We then blend that with a solutions-oriented approach to help our clients overcome significant challenges to ensure that the process for their candidate is robust, compliant, economical, and scalable."

"We are proud to help advance the treatment for this growing public health concern because we're confident in the expertise that our highly skilled scientists have developed in the areas of ADCs and PDCs, based on the successful work that we have done with over 400 client projects over the last 24 plus years," said Karl Pinto, Chief Executive Officer at Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc. "Our Bioconjugation capabilities complement our experience in successfully developing and manufacturing monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, and vaccines through mammalian cell culture expression systems. So, as part of our Single Source Solution, Goodwin is uniquely qualified to partner with our clients to meet their needs by developing customized and flexible approaches for manufacturing antibodies and recombinant proteins, for example, and / or design the appropriate conjugation activities to cost effectively deliver their product candidates on time."

About the Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation

The Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation (MMRF) is a subsidiary of Hennepin Healthcare System, Inc., and operates as the research arm of Hennepin County Medical Center, an acute care research and teaching hospital in Minneapolis. MMRF is one of the largest nonprofit medical research organizations in Minnesota and consistently ranks in the top 10 percent of all institutions receiving research funding from the National Institutes of Health. To learn more, visit mmrf.org.

About Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc.

Goodwin Biotechnology is a uniquely qualified CDMO that offers a Single Source Solution for our clients from cell line development (through our strategic partner), exploratory proof of concept projects through process development and cGMP contract manufacturing of monoclonal antibodies, recombinant proteins, vaccines, and Biologic Drug Conjugates including Antibody:Drug Conjugates (ADCs) for early and late stage clinical trials. By working with Goodwin Biotechnology, clients can enhance the value of their product candidates with clear development and manufacturing strategies, as well as a road map to meet the appropriate quality requirements from the milligram and gram range to kilogram quantities as the product candidates move along the clinical development pathway in a cost-effective, timely, and cGMP compliant manner to enhance patients' lives. With over 20 years of experience as an independent integrated contract manufacturer, Goodwin Biotechnology has worked as a strategic partner with numerous companies of all sizes from small university spin-offs to major research institutes, government agencies and large, established and multi-national biopharmaceutical companies. Based on the impressive track record, Goodwin Biotechnology has been awarded Frost & Sullivan's Customer Value and Leadership Award for Best Practices in Mammalian Contract Manufacturing in 2014.In addition, Goodwin Biotechnology was awarded 'Best in Sector: Biopharmaceutical Contract Development & Manufacturing' at Acquisition International magazine's 2015 Sector Performance Awards. Most recently, Goodwin Biotechnology received Global Health & Pharma's award for Best for BioProcess Development & cGMP Manufacturing in 2016, and Best in Mammalian Cell Culture Process Development & cGMP Manufacturing 2017. Click here to view the press releases!Additional information may be found at http://www.GoodwinBio.com.

Funding for this study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number U01DA038876. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

For more information, please contact:

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/the-minneapolis-medical-research-foundation-selects-goodwin-biotechnology-to-help-develop-and-manufacture-two-vaccines-to-treat-opioid-addiction-300426025.html

SOURCE Goodwin Biotechnology, Inc.

http://www.goodwinbio.com

Original post:
The Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation Selects Goodwin ... - PR Newswire (press release)