StemCell Therapy

NEW YORK, Oct. 8, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE MKT:NBS), an emerging leader in the fast growing cell therapy market, announced today that data from its collaborative studies with the University of Michigan School of Dentistry further expands the therapeutic potential of its proprietary regenerative cell therapy product, "VSELSTM" (very small embryonic-like stem cells), by demonstrating bone regeneration capabilities in a study published online ahead of print1 in the journal Stem Cells and Development (DOI: 10.1089/scd.2012.0327). The paper highlights that human VSEL stem cells form human bone when implanted in the bone tissue of SCID mice.

VSELs are a population of stem cells found in adult bone marrow with potential regenerative properties similar to those of embryonic stem cells. NeoStem has shown that these cells can be mobilized into the peripheral blood, enabling a minimally invasive means for collecting what NeoStem believes to be a population of stem cells that have the potential to achieve the positive benefits associated with embryonic stem cells without the ethical or moral dilemmas or the potential negative effects known to be associated with embryonic stem cells.

This published controlled study, funded by NIH and led by Dr. Russell Taichman, Major Ash Collegiate Professor and Co-Director of the Scholars Program in Dental Leadership Department of Periodontics & Oral Medicine, University of Michigan and Dr. Aaron Havens, Department of Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry at University of Michigan, involved isolating G-CSF mobilized VSEL stem cells from the blood of healthy donors and transplanting them into burr holes made in the cranial bones of SCID mice. After three months, it was observed that the implanted VSEL stem cells had differentiated into human bone tissue in the crania of the mice. Dr. Taichman stated, "I believe this work represents a true partnership between Industry and Academic Institutions. Our findings that VSEL cells can generate human bone in animals would not have been feasible without the help and vision that Dr. Denis Rodgerson and his team at NeoStem brought to the table. It was my privilege to have been a part of this collaborative effort, and I see the resulting data as a significant milestone in stem cell therapy development. It is truly inspiring."

Dr. Robin Smith, Chairman and CEO of NeoStem, added, "This is very exciting data that we believe will be the foundation for future VSEL stem cell studies of bone regeneration in humans. We look forward to moving the development work from the laboratory into the clinic to develop a therapeutic stem cell product to enhance bone formation in humans."

About NeoStem, Inc.

NeoStem, Inc. continues to develop and build on its core capabilities in cell therapy, capitalizing on the paradigm shift that we see occurring in medicine. In particular, we anticipate that cell therapy will have a significant role in the fight against chronic disease and in lessening the economic burden that these diseases pose to modern society. We are emerging as a technology and market leading company in this fast developing cell therapy market. Our multi-faceted business strategy combines a state-of-the-art contract development and manufacturing subsidiary, Progenitor Cell Therapy, LLC ("PCT"), with a medically important cell therapy product development program, enabling near and long-term revenue growth opportunities. We believe this expertise and existing research capabilities and collaborations will enable us to achieve our mission of becoming a premier cell therapy company.

Our contract development and manufacturing service business supports the development of proprietary cell therapy products. NeoStem's most clinically advanced therapeutic, AMR-001, is being developed at Amorcyte, LLC ("Amorcyte"), which we acquired in October 2011. Amorcyte is developing a cell therapy for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and is enrolling patients in a Phase 2 trial to investigate AMR-001's efficacy in preserving heart function after a heart attack. Athelos Corporation ("Athelos"), which is approximately 80%-owned by our subsidiary, PCT, is collaborating with Becton-Dickinson in the early clinical exploration of a T-cell therapy for autoimmune conditions. In addition, pre-clinical assets include our VSELTM Technology platform as well as our mesenchymal stem cell product candidate for regenerative medicine. Our service business and pipeline of proprietary cell therapy products work in concert, giving us a competitive advantage that we believe is unique to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. Supported by an experienced scientific and business management team and a substantial intellectual property estate, we believe we are well positioned to succeed.

Forward-Looking Statements for NeoStem, Inc.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current expectations, as of the date of this press release, and involve certain risks and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include statements herein with respect to the successful execution of the Company's business strategy, including with respect to the Company's or its partners' successful development of AMR-001 and other cell therapeutics, the size of the market for such products, its competitive position in such markets, the Company's ability to successfully penetrate such markets and the market for its CDMO business, and the efficacy of protection from its patent portfolio, as well as the future of the cell therapeutics industry in general, including the rate at which such industry may grow. Forward looking statements also include statements with respect to satisfying all conditions to closing the disposition of Erye, including receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals in the PRC. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward- looking statements as a result of various factors, including but not limited to (i) the Company's ability to manage its business despite operating losses and cash outflows, (ii) its ability to obtain sufficient capital or strategic business arrangement to fund its operations, including the clinical trials for AMR-001, (iii) successful results of the Company's clinical trials of AMR-001 and other cellular therapeutic products that may be pursued, (iv) demand for and market acceptance of AMR-001 or other cell therapies if clinical trials are successful and the Company is permitted to market such products, (v) establishment of a large global market for cellular-based products, (vi) the impact of competitive products and pricing, (vii) the impact of future scientific and medical developments, (viii) the Company's ability to obtain appropriate governmental licenses and approvals and, in general, future actions of regulatory bodies, including the FDA and foreign counterparts, (ix) reimbursement and rebate policies of government agencies and private payers, (x) the Company's ability to protect its intellectual property, (xi) the company's ability to successfully divest its interest in Erye, and (xii) matters described under the "Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 20, 2012 and in the Company's other periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on its website. The Company does not undertake to update its forward-looking statements. The Company's further development is highly dependent on future medical and research developments and market acceptance, which is outside its control.

(1) Human Very Small Embryonic-Like Cells Generate Skeletal Structures, In Vivo. Havens A., et al., Stem Cells and Development.

View original post here:
NeoStem Announces Very Small Embryonic-Like Cells (VSEL(TM)) Publication in Stem Cells and Development

A company with the first FDA-approved personalized cell therapy for reducing wrinkles has raised $45 million in a private stock sale. The financing was sought to improve manufacturing capacity for the therapy and advance other uses for it such as treating burn victims, according to a company statement.

Fibrocell Sciences aesthetic therapeutic, Laviv, secured got the green light from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last year. Laviv uses individuals fibroblast cells to reduce nasolabial fold wrinkles, creases on the face that start from the outer corners of the nose and go down to the corners of the mouth. It also has an acne therapy in phase 3 clinical trials and a burn scar therapy in phase 2 trials.

The Exton, Pennsylvania biopharmaceutical companys personalized cell development platform technology isolates, purifies and multiplies a patients fibroblast cells, connective skin cells that make collagen.

Additionally, Fibrocell agreed to a strategic collaboration with biotechnology firm Intrexon which can provide genome engineering, cell processing, and cell system engineering, among other services, to help advance Fibrocells personalized cell therapy program.

As part of the financing deal, Third Security LLC will get two seats on Fibrocells board.

Personalized stem cell development fits into the broader category of personalized medicine, regarded as the future of medicine in which therapies will be better targeted to individuals and more effective.

Go here to read the rest:
Biopharma with personalized cell therapy raises $45M in stock sale, forges collaboration deal

From Nature magazine

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1aae064dddcda1c8093345cf6bee19f2

By Virginia Gewin of Nature magazine

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=0cad036be8a2c73a481ecc68f3420367

When the draft of the human genome was published  in 2000, researchers thought that they had obtained the secret decoder ring for the human body. Armed with the code of 3 billion basepairs of As, Ts, Cs and Gs and the 21,000 protein-coding genes, they hoped to be able to find the genetic scaffolds of life --both in sickness and in health. [More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7b0ed7df96d7add1e7b201dddb2869c5

Excerpted from The Forgotten Cure: The Past and Future of Phage Therapy , by Anna Kuchment . (Copernicus Books, 2011. Reprinted by   permission of Springer Science+Business Media)

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=24e2a1c4c798a3535a9c98999e220977

Some of California's top stem cell
researchers are going to have to sharpen their spreadsheets if they
want to win money from the state's $3 billion stem cell agency.

“Increasing the importance of
budgetary review will encourage applicants to propose rigorous,
realistic and vetted budgets, and will further our mission to be good
stewards of taxpayer dollars. These additions will not significantly
increase the workload burden on GWG members (grant reviewers) and
explicitly acknowledge that program goals, scientific plans, accurate budgeting and prudent spending are inextricably linked.”

• “To assist GWG review,
appropriate expertise on budget and financial matters (e.g., this
could be in the form of a specialist reviewer, or can also be
assigned to a GWG reviewer with the appropriate background and
expertise), will review applications for sound budgeting and provide
comments or questions to the GWG for consideration by the reviewers
before the reviewer’s final scores are entered.
• “If the financial/budgetary
matter potentially directly impacts on the design or feasibility of
conducting the project, the GWG may consider this issue in the
scoring; otherwise, budgetary and financial issues and questions will
not contribute to the scientific score.
• “As appropriate, review summaries
sent to the ICOC (the CIRM governing board) will identify scientific
as well as budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the
GWG, the review summaries will also identify potential resolution
should the ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.
• “CIRM officers should be provided
explicit discretion to consider the budget comments, as well as
budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the GWG, the
review summaries will also identify potential resolution should the
ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.”

• “Budget does not align with the
program deliverables and milestones. For example, the budget
includes activities not relevant to project objective(s) or that are
out of scope.
•”Budget does not contain adequate
expenses for known costs. For example, an applicant may budget
$100,000 for a GMP manufacturing run of a biologic in which it is
generally accepted knowledge that the actual expenses are typically
much greater.
•“Budget item significantly exceeds
a known cost or seems excessive without adequate justification. For
example, an applicant may propose a surgical expense of $100,000 per
patient for a procedure with Medicare reimbursement set at $15,000.
•“Cost allocations are not done
properly. For example, an applicant is developing the same
therapeutic candidate for 3 indications, and is applying for CIRM
funding for 1 of the 3, but is charging CIRM for the cost of the
entire manufacturing run.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/30DY8fml4zE/researcher-alert-california-stem-cell.html

UC Davis researcher Paul Knoepfler is
the rare stem cell scientist who blogs about his work as well as
writing about issues in the field.

“So what does this mean in the big
picture? 

“I believe that iPS cells and cancer
cells are, while not the same, close enough to be called siblings. As
such, the clinical use of iPS cells should wait for a lot more study.
Even if scientists do not use iPS cells themselves for transplants,
but instead use differentiated derivatives of iPS cells, the risk of
patients getting malignant cancers cannot be ignored. 

“At the same time, the studies
suggest possible ways to make iPS cells safer and support the notion
of reprogramming cancer cells as an innovative new cancer therapy. 

“Stay tuned in the next few days for
part 2 where I will discuss what this paper went through in terms of
review, etc. to get published. It wasn’t a popular story for some
folks.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/eNPFE1TC2TI/ucds-knoepflers-somewhat-provocative.html

From Nature magazine

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=1aae064dddcda1c8093345cf6bee19f2

When the draft of the human genome was published  in 2000, researchers thought that they had obtained the secret decoder ring for the human body. Armed with the code of 3 billion basepairs of As, Ts, Cs and Gs and the 21,000 protein-coding genes, they hoped to be able to find the genetic scaffolds of life --both in sickness and in health. [More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7b0ed7df96d7add1e7b201dddb2869c5

Excerpted from The Forgotten Cure: The Past and Future of Phage Therapy , by Anna Kuchment . (Copernicus Books, 2011. Reprinted by   permission of Springer Science+Business Media)

[More]

Source:
http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=24e2a1c4c798a3535a9c98999e220977

Some of California's top stem cell
researchers are going to have to sharpen their spreadsheets if they
want to win money from the state's $3 billion stem cell agency.

“Increasing the importance of
budgetary review will encourage applicants to propose rigorous,
realistic and vetted budgets, and will further our mission to be good
stewards of taxpayer dollars. These additions will not significantly
increase the workload burden on GWG members (grant reviewers) and
explicitly acknowledge that program goals, scientific plans, accurate budgeting and prudent spending are inextricably linked.”

• “To assist GWG review,
appropriate expertise on budget and financial matters (e.g., this
could be in the form of a specialist reviewer, or can also be
assigned to a GWG reviewer with the appropriate background and
expertise), will review applications for sound budgeting and provide
comments or questions to the GWG for consideration by the reviewers
before the reviewer’s final scores are entered.
• “If the financial/budgetary
matter potentially directly impacts on the design or feasibility of
conducting the project, the GWG may consider this issue in the
scoring; otherwise, budgetary and financial issues and questions will
not contribute to the scientific score.
• “As appropriate, review summaries
sent to the ICOC (the CIRM governing board) will identify scientific
as well as budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the
GWG, the review summaries will also identify potential resolution
should the ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.
• “CIRM officers should be provided
explicit discretion to consider the budget comments, as well as
budget or other issues. To the extent endorsed by the GWG, the
review summaries will also identify potential resolution should the
ICOC approve a given award with budget issues.”

• “Budget does not align with the
program deliverables and milestones. For example, the budget
includes activities not relevant to project objective(s) or that are
out of scope.
•”Budget does not contain adequate
expenses for known costs. For example, an applicant may budget
$100,000 for a GMP manufacturing run of a biologic in which it is
generally accepted knowledge that the actual expenses are typically
much greater.
•“Budget item significantly exceeds
a known cost or seems excessive without adequate justification. For
example, an applicant may propose a surgical expense of $100,000 per
patient for a procedure with Medicare reimbursement set at $15,000.
•“Cost allocations are not done
properly. For example, an applicant is developing the same
therapeutic candidate for 3 indications, and is applying for CIRM
funding for 1 of the 3, but is charging CIRM for the cost of the
entire manufacturing run.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/30DY8fml4zE/researcher-alert-california-stem-cell.html

UC Davis researcher Paul Knoepfler is
the rare stem cell scientist who blogs about his work as well as
writing about issues in the field.

“So what does this mean in the big
picture? 

“I believe that iPS cells and cancer
cells are, while not the same, close enough to be called siblings. As
such, the clinical use of iPS cells should wait for a lot more study.
Even if scientists do not use iPS cells themselves for transplants,
but instead use differentiated derivatives of iPS cells, the risk of
patients getting malignant cancers cannot be ignored. 

“At the same time, the studies
suggest possible ways to make iPS cells safer and support the notion
of reprogramming cancer cells as an innovative new cancer therapy. 

“Stay tuned in the next few days for
part 2 where I will discuss what this paper went through in terms of
review, etc. to get published. It wasn’t a popular story for some
folks.”

Source:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/blogspot/uqpFc/~3/eNPFE1TC2TI/ucds-knoepflers-somewhat-provocative.html

The scientists, from Kyoto University, first produced healthy mouse pups in 2011 using stem cell-derived sperm. They have now achieved the same by using eggs which were created in the same way.

Scientists are describing the Kyoto team's feat as a "significant achievement" which will have a profound impact on reproductive cell biology and genetics research.

In both cases, the scientists used ES (embryonic stem) cells and iPS (induced pluripotent stem) cells. ES are taken from embryos while iPS come from reprogrammed adult tissue cells that mimic stem cell behavior.

Theory suggests that both ES and iPS cells can produce all the cell types in the body. However, the majority of scientists have not been able to make them turn into germ cells, which eventually become eggs or sperm.

Mitinori Saitou and team hit upon a process that managed to turn stem cells into germ cells. They started off with ES and iPS cells and cultured them into a mix of proteins to produce primordial germ cell-like cells.

Their aim was to get precursor egg cells, known as oocytes. They mixed the primordial cells with fetal ovarian cells, and formed reconstituted ovaries which were grafted onto natural ovaries within live mice. Exactly four weeks and four days later, the primordial germ cell-like cells had turned into oocytes. The ovaries were removed from the mice and the oocytes harvested, fertilized in petri dishes, and the resulting embryos were implanted into surrogate mothers.

Within around three weeks, the surrogate mothers gave birth to healthy mouse pups.

The journal Science quoted Davor Solter, from Singapore's Institute of Medical Biology, as saying:

The team now plan to get a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that were at work when the germ cells were being formed.

They believe that they may eventually be able to coax the cells through the entire oocyte development process in a lab dish, effectively bypassing the grafting.

Go here to see the original:
From Stem Cells To Mouse Eggs To Baby Mice - No Father Involved

Published: Oct. 5, 2012 at 3:23 PM

KYOTO, Japan, Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Mouse stem cells have been used to create eggs and sperm producing healthy offspring, a result that may aid human fertility, Japanese scientists say.

If the procedure can be repeated in humans the technique could make it easier for women in their 30s or 40s to have children and could help men and women whose reproductive organs have been damaged by cancer treatments or other causes.

"These studies provide that next level of evidence that in the future fertility could be managed with stem cell intervention," Teresa Woodruff, chief of fertility preservation at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, told the Los Angeles Times.

Using stem cells to grow new eggs is particularly important since women are born with a set number and don't make more once they are gone.

The stem cell technique would in effect allow them to turn back their biological clocks, Stanford stem cell researcher Renee A. Reijo Pera said.

"This is a get-them-back strategy," she said.

About 10 percent of American women of childbearing age have trouble becoming or staying pregnant, and more than one-third of infertile couples are dealing with a medical problem in the prospective father, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said.

Dr. Mitinori Saitou and colleagues at Kyoto University detailed how they generated the functional mouse eggs in the journal Science and the same researchers reported doing the same thing with mouse sperm last year.

Read the original here:
Eggs produced from stem cells

Published: Oct. 7, 2012 at 1:05 AM

NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (UPI) -- An experimental treatment using skin cells to improve the vision of blind mice may help those with macular degeneration, U.S. researchers say.

Dr. Stephen Tsang of the Columbia University Medical Center in New York and colleagues said the findings suggest induced pluripotent stem cells -- derived from adult human skin cells but with embryonic properties -- could soon be used to restore vision in people with macular degeneration.

"With eye diseases, I think we're getting close to a scenario where a patient's own skin cells are used to replace retina cells destroyed by disease or degeneration," Tsang said in a statement. "It's often said that induced pluripotent stem cells transplantation will be important in the practice of medicine in some distant future, but our paper suggests the future is almost here."

Like embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells can develop into any type of cell.

None of these cells has been transplanted into people, but many ophthalmologists said the eye is the ideal testing ground.

"The eye is a transparent and accessible part of the central nervous system, and that's a big advantage," Tsang said. "We can put cells into the eye and monitor them every day with routine non-invasive clinical exams and in the event of serious complications, removing the eye is not a life-threatening event."

The study was published online in advance the print edition of Molecular Medicine

Excerpt from:
Skin stem cells may help avoid blindness

PARAMUS, N.J., Oct. 4, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --PROTEONOMIX, INC. (PROT), a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics based upon the use of human cells and their derivatives, announced today that the Company's clinical trial of UMK-121 has received IRB (Institutional Review Board) approval and is now ready for the recruitment of patients.

We thank the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey for providing the IRB and their invaluable contribution to this study of the UMK-121 drug therapy on patients with End Stage Liver Disease.

To better understand what a clinical trial is please visit the following links: Overview; Rising Cost of Clinical Trial; Additional information on Clinical Trials .

As previously announced, the Company entered into an Agreement to conduct the clinical trial with the UMDNJ. That Agreement required the Company to pay expenses associated with the clinical study which the Company has done to date.

Michael Cohen, President of the Company, stated: "The financing that was required to complete the Company's obligation with respect to the Trial was provided by the private placement of our Series E Preferred Stock on Friday, March 9, 2012. We previously announced that we have engaged the University to conduct the trial and thanked the University for their assistance with the finalization of the agreement to conduct a clinical trial of UMK-121. The Company has previously described the terms of the agreement to license and develop and the patent application of the UMK-121 technology. The Company will work together with the University and the principal investigators to initiate the clinical study. The approval of the IRB was required before the study could go forward. The investigators can now accept patients into the study."

About the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey

The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is New Jersey's only health sciences university with more than 6,000 students on five campuses attending three medical schools, the State's only dental school, a graduate school of biomedical sciences, a school of health related professions, a school of nursing and New Jersey's only school of public health. UMDNJ operates University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center in Newark, and University Behavioral HealthCare, which provides a continuum of healthcare services with multiple locations throughout the State.

About Proteonomix, Inc.

Proteonomix is a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics based upon the use of human cells and their derivatives. The Proteonomix family of companies includes Proteoderm, StromaCel, PRTMI and THOR Biopharma. Proteoderm is a wholly owned subsidiary that has developed an anti-aging line of skin care products. StromaCel develops therapeutic modalities for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and for treatment of patients who have suffered post-myocardial infarction. Proteonomix Regenerative Translational Medicine Institute, Inc. (PRTMI) intends to focus on the translation of promising research in stem cell biology and cellular therapy to clinical applications of regenerative medicine. Additional information is available at http://www.proteonomix.com and http://www.proteoderm.com.

Forward-looking statements:

View original post here:
Proteonomix, Inc. Announces IRB Approval for Its Clinical Trial of UMK-121 in Patients with End Stage Liver Disease

October 5, 2012

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online

Japanese scientists reported in the journal Science that they have created life using stem cells made from skin.

The skin cells were used to create eggs which were then fertilized to produce baby mice, who later had their own babies.

The technique has implications that may possibly help infertile couples have children, and maybe could even allow women to overcome menopause.

About one in 10 women of childbearing age face trouble becoming a parent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Last year, the scientists at Kyoto University were able to make viable sperm from stem cells. In the more recent study, the team was able to perform a similar accomplishment with eggs.

The researchers used two sources, including those collected from an embryo and skin-like cells, that were reprogrammed into becoming stem cells.

After turning the stem cells into early versions of eggs, they rebuilt an ovary by surrounding the early eggs with other types of supporting cells normally found in an ovary.

They used IVF techniques to collect the eggs, fertilize them with sperm from a male mouse and implant the fertilized egg into a surrogate mother.

See the original post:
Healthy Mice Created From Skin Stem Cells In Lab

And rightly so: stem-cell scientists have derived many types of cells from stem-cell precursors, but have in the past struggled with sex cells. The research by a team at Kyoto University provides a powerful model into mammalian development and infertility, but it is still a long way off from being used in human therapy.

Despite this fact, it did not stop the headlines in some of today's press screaming that infertile women could one day become pregnant by creating eggs from stem cells.

Evelyn Telfer, a reproductive biologist at the University of Edinburgh, told me this study has no clinical application to humans whatsoever because the tissue used in this study were all foetal and not adult cells.

Mitinori Saitou led a team using foetal mouse tissue from embryos or skin cells to create stem cells. Those stem cells were then genetically reprogrammed to become germ cells egg precursor cells.

These were then given a cocktail of "factors" to support their growth into mature eggs. The eggs were fertilised by IVF in the lab and then implanted into surrogate mice. Three baby mice were born and grew into fertile adults.

The fact that artificially manufactured eggs have gone on to produce healthy mice which are fertile is absolutely astounding and a great step forward for science. The results are published in the journal, Science.

But there are huge differences between human and mouse cells, not to mention the medical and ethical issues surrounding human ovarian tissue to culture cells.

Further clinical trials would be necessary using adult mouse cells first before we can start projecting that we can manufacture babies, and scientists need to learn so much more about how women form eggs.

So while this is major contribution to the field of reproductive biology, the study is not a ready-made cure for women with fertility problems.

Read more:
Stem cells: of mice and women?

Research performed on mice to create sperm and eggs from stem cells raises possibilities for humans, with big implications for same-sex couples.

A breakthrough in fertility research lays open the possibility that gay and lesbian couples could someday have children who are completely their own, genetically speaking.

Researchers at Kyoto University in Japan have created eggs from stem cells in mice and used them to produce healthy offspring, NPR reports. They first used embryonic stem cells, then repeated the results stem cells created from adult cells, such as blood or skin. The same team previously created sperm from stem cells. Stem cells can morph into any cell in the body, observed NPR reporter Rob Stein.

If the results from mice could be duplicated in humans a far-off possibility, granted, but scientists say mice are sufficiently similar to humans that it could happen same-sex couples could create their own sperm and eggs and join them to have a child.

There are lots of lesbian and gay couples who would be very excited about the possibility for the first time of being able to have children who are genetically their own, Hank Greely, a bioethicist at Stanford University, told Stein.

Such a breakthrough could also help women who have passed their childbearing years or who are infertile for medical reasons. It raises some questions, though, about the ethics of the procedure, scientists said. For instance, could prospective parents create a child with certain desired traits, and would it be morally acceptable for them to do so?

Its like any other technology, said Daniel Sulmasy, a professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago. Whatever weve done in humankind whether its discovering fire or creating the wheel you can use these things to do lots of good and you can use them immoral ways.

The Kyoto University study was published in this weeks issue of the journal Science.

Read more here:
Fertility Research Opens Possibilities for Gay and Lesbian Couples