StemCell Therapy

No organ in the human body is as resistant to study as the brain. Whereas researchers can examine living cells from the liver, lung and heart, taking a biopsy of the brain is, for many reasons, more problematic.

The inability to watch living human brain cells in action has hampered scientists in their efforts to understand psychiatric disorders. But researchers have identified a promising new approach that may revolutionize the study and treatment of conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar dis­order. A team led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., took skin cells from a patient with schizophrenia, turned them into adult stem cells and then grew those stem cells into neurons. The resulting tangle of brain cells gave neuroscientists their first real-time glimpse of human schizophrenia at the cellular level. Another team, from Stanford University, converted human skin cells directly into neurons without first stopping at the stem cell stage, potentially making the process more efficient. The groups published their results recently in Nature ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

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NOVEMBER

4–5 According to the World Health Organization, one in four of us will develop at least one mental illness or behavioral disorder in our lifetime. Depression alone affects an estimated 121 million people worldwide. At the two-day EMBO/EMBL Science and Society Conference , biologists, psychologists and neuroscientists will explore the ethical and social implications of major mental illnesses as well as their causes and treatment. Attendees will debate the definitions of mental disorders, financial interests in the refinement of both diagnoses and drugs, and controversial new therapies, among other topics. [More]

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Exact details of the alternative natural and traditional therapies tried by Steve Jobs before he underwent surgery in 2004 and eventually died of pancreatic cancer earlier this month have not been disclosed. (A representative from Apple declined to comment on any aspect of the Apple co-founder's illness.) He reportedly restricted his diet to just fruits or just fruits and vegetables, tried out something called hydrotherapy and consulted psychics. In any case, a mounting body of scientific and anecdotal reports provides compelling evidence about the potential impact, both positive and negative, of so-called complementary practices on the health and longevity of cancer patients following their diagnosis. And, although Jobs's unconventional early-treatment choices may not have done much to stave off the spread of deadly cancer cells in his case, they provide an opportunity to discuss what makes cancer grow and how to stop it.

Jobs had a rare form of pancreatic cancer known as pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (pNET). Accounting for about 1 percent of all pancreatic cancers, pNET is a cancer of the endocrine cells, known clinically as the islets of Langerhans, which exist in small clusters throughout the pancreas. These cells produce hormones such as insulin, which lowers blood sugar, and glucagon, which increases it.

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Steve Jobs was a rare case, right down to his death. Announced Wednesday, Jobs's death from "complications of pancreatic cancer" only hints at the vast complexity of the disease to which he succumbed at the age of 56. [More]

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No organ in the human body is as resistant to study as the brain. Whereas researchers can examine living cells from the liver, lung and heart, taking a biopsy of the brain is, for many reasons, more problematic.

The inability to watch living human brain cells in action has hampered scientists in their efforts to understand psychiatric disorders. But researchers have identified a promising new approach that may revolutionize the study and treatment of conditions such as schizophrenia, autism and bipolar dis­order. A team led by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., took skin cells from a patient with schizophrenia, turned them into adult stem cells and then grew those stem cells into neurons. The resulting tangle of brain cells gave neuroscientists their first real-time glimpse of human schizophrenia at the cellular level. Another team, from Stanford University, converted human skin cells directly into neurons without first stopping at the stem cell stage, potentially making the process more efficient. The groups published their results recently in Nature ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group).

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/sciam/topic/gene-therapy

UCLA Life Sciences Public Lecture: "Bone Marrow Stem Cells: Developing New Therapies in the Fight Against Disease"- Donald Kohn, January 18, 2011 Dr. Donald Kohn, UCLA professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, his research group at the Kohn Lab focus on developing new therapies for genetic diseases of the blood cells using gene therapy methods to correct hematopoietic stem cells. His laboratory performs studies on gene transfer, expression and immune response and then translates the findings into clinical trials.

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Bone Marrow Stem Cells/Gene Therapy - Video

MSKCC scientists are engineering immune-system cells called T-cells so that they can identify and destroy leukemia and prostate cancer cells.

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Immune-based Gene Therapy for Cancer - Video

(Part 2 of 2) Nancy Rene, a patient advocate for the Sickle Cell Foundation of California, spoke to the CIRM Governing Board at the "Spotlight on Disease Team Awards: Stem Cell Therapy for Sickle Cell Anemia" seminar. Through photos and stories, Rene described the impact of sickle cell anemia on her grandson's life. She also spoke about the importance of support services for sickle cell patients and continued research for a cure.

Excerpt from:
Sickle Cell Anemia: Stem Cell Gene Therapy - A Patient's Perspective - Video

BEYOND THERAPY: BIOTECHNOLOGY AND THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS biotech.law.lsu.edu GENE TOOLS, LLC http://www.gene-tools.com DISTRESS OF HAIR LOSS The feasibility of targeted selective gene therapy of the hair follicle. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov TISSUE ENGINEERING IN PERSPECTIVE- Eugene Bell http://www.chemeng.queensu.ca THE HAIR FOLLICLE AND ITS STEM CELLS AS DRUG DELIVERY TARGETS http://www.metamouse.com Supramolecular Biomaterials. A Modular Approach towards Tissue Engineering http://www.csj.jp STEM CELL RESEARCH ec.europa.eu Liposomes for Use in Gene Delivery tulane.edu DYNAMIC CONSTITUTIONAL MATERIALS

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THE NEW MORGELLONS HAIR - Video

(Part 1 of 2) CIRM has funded a $9 million disease team to develop a more effective and safer bone marrow transplant to treat sickle cell disease. The team is led by Dr

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Sickle Cell Anemia: Stem Cell Gene Therapy - Donald Kohn - Video

Dutch tv journal of 15 June 2006 about new method to prevent immune reactions after cell transplantation. Suicide genes form the basis of a strategy for making cancer cells more vulnerable, more sensitive to chemotherapy.

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Gene therapy improves stem cell transplantation - Video

In 1989 when scientists discovered the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a serious hereditary disorder that primarily strikes children of European descent, it seemed as though a long-hoped-for cure might soon follow. After all, tests in many laboratories showed that providing normal copies of the gene should enable patients to make healthy copies of the protein specified by the gene. If successful, that feat would go a long way toward restoring health in the tens of thousands of people around the world who suffered from cystic fibrosis and typically died in their late 20s. (Half of all patients now live to their late 30s or beyond.) The question was whether researchers would be able to reliably insert the correct gene into the proper tissues in patients’ bodies to rid them of the illness forever.

That task proved harder than anyone had believed. Although scientists successfully engineered viruses to ferry copies of the correct gene into patients’ cells, the viruses did not do the job well. By the late 1990s additional unexpected complications made it increasingly obvious that another approach to addressing the fundamental problem in cystic fibrosis would need to be found.

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In 1989 when scientists discovered the defective gene that causes cystic fibrosis, a serious hereditary disorder that primarily strikes children of European descent, it seemed as though a long-hoped-for cure might soon follow. After all, tests in many laboratories showed that providing normal copies of the gene should enable patients to make healthy copies of the protein specified by the gene. If successful, that feat would go a long way toward restoring health in the tens of thousands of people around the world who suffered from cystic fibrosis and typically died in their late 20s. (Half of all patients now live to their late 30s or beyond.) The question was whether researchers would be able to reliably insert the correct gene into the proper tissues in patients’ bodies to rid them of the illness forever.

That task proved harder than anyone had believed. Although scientists successfully engineered viruses to ferry copies of the correct gene into patients’ cells, the viruses did not do the job well. By the late 1990s additional unexpected complications made it increasingly obvious that another approach to addressing the fundamental problem in cystic fibrosis would need to be found.

[More]

Chronic pain affects at least one in three adults in the U.S., which is more than the sum total of those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. For many of these 116 million Americans, their pain is severe and eludes available treatments. In addition to the human suffering, the monetary cost of medical treatment and lost productivity has reached $635 billion a year. [More]

Chronic pain affects at least one in three adults in the U.S., which is more than the sum total of those with heart disease, cancer and diabetes combined. For many of these 116 million Americans, their pain is severe and eludes available treatments. In addition to the human suffering, the monetary cost of medical treatment and lost productivity has reached $635 billion a year. [More]

From medicine to science

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I got very sick. I stayed in bed for many weeks and every day a nurse would come to give me a penicillin shot. The pain from shots turned into fear, in time fear turned into a plan for revenge. When I got better I demanded to have my own syringe and cruelly treated all teddy bears and dolls. If they didn’t look sick I made them sick, just to perform surgeries, sew wounds and give shots. I even offered my service to family members; unfortunately, they stubbornly kept on being healthy.

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From medicine to science

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, I got very sick. I stayed in bed for many weeks and every day a nurse would come to give me a penicillin shot. The pain from shots turned into fear, in time fear turned into a plan for revenge. When I got better I demanded to have my own syringe and cruelly treated all teddy bears and dolls. If they didn’t look sick I made them sick, just to perform surgeries, sew wounds and give shots. I even offered my service to family members; unfortunately, they stubbornly kept on being healthy.

[More]

One day 12-year-old Elizabeth McIngvale became obsessed with the number 42, which happened to be her mother’s age at the time, 11 years ago. When she washed her hands, she had to turn the sink on and off 42 times, get 42 pumps of soap and rinse her hands 42 times. Sometimes she decided that she actually needed to do 42 sets of 42. When she dressed, she put her right leg in and out of her pant leg 42 times, then the left. Even getting up from a chair took 42 attempts. She was afraid that if she did not follow her self-prescribed ritual, something terrible would happen to her family--they might die in a car accident, for instance. “Everything I did was completely exhausting and grueling,” she recalls. “I was probably doing 12 to 13 hours a day of rituals.”

McIngvale was diagnosed with obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD), a psychiatric illness that afflicts 2 to 3 percent of Americans, not all of them as severely as McIngvale. Individuals with OCD experience debilitating recurrent and persistent thoughts, or obsessions, which they try to suppress or eliminate with rituals, known as compulsions. Compared with people who have other anxiety or mood disorders, adults with OCD are more likely to be single and unemployed. In fact, OCD is among the 10 most disabling medical and psychiatric conditions.

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The underpinnings of autism are turning out to be even more varied than the disease's diverse manifestations. In four new studies and an analysis published June 8 researchers have added some major landmarks in the complex landscape of the disease, uncovering clues as to why the disease is so much more prevalent in male children and how such varied genetic mutations can lead to similar symptoms. [More]

One day 12-year-old Elizabeth McIngvale became obsessed with the number 42, which happened to be her mother’s age at the time, 11 years ago. When she washed her hands, she had to turn the sink on and off 42 times, get 42 pumps of soap and rinse her hands 42 times. Sometimes she decided that she actually needed to do 42 sets of 42. When she dressed, she put her right leg in and out of her pant leg 42 times, then the left. Even getting up from a chair took 42 attempts. She was afraid that if she did not follow her self-prescribed ritual, something terrible would happen to her family--they might die in a car accident, for instance. “Everything I did was completely exhausting and grueling,” she recalls. “I was probably doing 12 to 13 hours a day of rituals.”

McIngvale was diagnosed with obsessive- compulsive disorder (OCD), a psychiatric illness that afflicts 2 to 3 percent of Americans, not all of them as severely as McIngvale. Individuals with OCD experience debilitating recurrent and persistent thoughts, or obsessions, which they try to suppress or eliminate with rituals, known as compulsions. Compared with people who have other anxiety or mood disorders, adults with OCD are more likely to be single and unemployed. In fact, OCD is among the 10 most disabling medical and psychiatric conditions.

[More]