StemCell Therapy

Adult diamondback moth. Photo by Lyle Buss

The diamondback moth (DBM) is a pest of epic proportions to farmers worldwide. Growers of cabbage and collard crops know this all too well. Controlling the notorious DBM has become more difficult in recent times with incidence of pesticide resistance increasing. With that, the search for viable management continues to expand. For the last two years, Cornell scientists have been working with British-based biotech company Oxitec and testing its self-limiting gene capabilities on DBM in a protected environment. The team at Cornell has been waiting for a go-aheadfrom USDA to take the experiment out from behind closed doors and into one if its cabbage fields in Upstate New York. It looks like the wait is over.

USDAs Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has officially announced the availability of a final environmental assessment and finding of no significant impact and will concurrently issue a permit for the field release of a genetically engineered DBM.

The pest moths are genetically engineered for repressible female lethality and to express red fluorescence as a marker. The purpose of the field release is to assess the feasibility and efficacy of these moths in reducing populations of DBM. Based on the finding of no significant impact, APHIS has determined that an environmental impact statement need not be prepared.

Notice of these actions will be published in theFederal Register.

The Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York (NOFA-NY) has since released a statement denouncing USDAs decision. A portion of the statement reads as follows: NOFA-NY considers the release of a novel genetically engineered organism to be a major activity with potentially significant and heretofore unknown health and environmental effects, said NOFA-NY Policy Advisor Liana Hoodes. It is now up to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to ensure the safety of its citizens before granting the necessary state permit. We call on the NYS DEC to require a full environmental impact statement and public hearings during a complete review under State Environmental Quality Review Act.

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Can Genetic Engineering Put an End to Diamondback Moth Plague ... - Growing Produce

CHINA, July 12, 2017 - Purple rice developed by Chinese scientists. A new genetic engineering technique developed by Chinese scientists has been used to develop purple rice packed with antioxidant-boosting pigments called anthocyanins.

A study published in Molecular Plantshows how the scientists created the technique, which is capable of delivering many genes at once, and used it to make rice endosperm seed tissue that provides nutrients to the developing plant embryo. Although anthocyanins are naturally abundant in some black and red rice varieties, they are absent in polished rice grains because the husk, bran, and germ have been removed, leaving only the endosperm.

Previous attempts to engineer anthocyanin production in rice have failed because the underlying biosynthesis pathway is highly complex, and it has been difficult to efficiently transfer many genes into plants. Genetic engineering approaches have previously been used to develop rice enriched in beta-carotene and folate, but not anthocyanins.

We have developed a highly efficient, easy-to-use transgene stacking system called TransGene Stacking II that enables the assembly of a large number of genes in single vectors for plant transformation, says senior study author Yao-Guang Liu of the South China Agricultural University. We envisage that this vector system will have many potential applications in this era of synthetic biology and metabolic engineering. The researchers plan to evaluate the safety of purple endosperm rice as biofortified food and will try to engineer the biosynthesis of anthocyanins in other crops to produce more purple endosperm cereals.

Continued here:
Purple rice developed by Chinese scientists - Agri-Pulse

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On a hill above the cold waters around Prince Edward Island, technicians painstakingly create fertilized Atlantic salmon eggs that include growth-enhancing DNA from two other fish species. The eggs will be shipped to tanks in the high rainforest of Panama, where they will produce fish that mature far more quickly than normal farmed salmon.

More than 20 years after first seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, AquaBounty Technologies of Maynard, Massachusetts, plans to bring these "AquAdvantage" fish to the U.S. and Canadian markets next year. And in the small town of Albany, Indiana, workers will soon begin converting a land-based aquaculture facility to produce about 1,300 U.S. tons of these salmon annually, in the first U.S. facility to generate GE animals for human consumption.

The company also plans to open a second aquaculture facility at Prince Edward Island if it can rise above its latest round of legal battles and persuade grocery stores and restaurants to snap up the genetically engineered fish. Before the FDA cleared the salmon for consumption in 2015, in its first approval of GE animal protein as human food, it received 1.8 million messages opposing these fish. Perhaps more substantively, many outside researchers remain concerned about AquaBounty's plans.

Safety and nutrition

Aquaculture specialists generally aren't skeptical about whether the fish will be healthy to eat, although that's one issue hinted at in a lawsuit multiple organizations, including Friends of the Earth, have filed against the FDA. Dana Perls, senior food and technology campaigner with Friends of the Earth in Berkeley, California, says the FDA didn't fully examine questions about eating the salmon initially raised by Health Canada, that country's public health department including susceptibility to disease and potential allergic reactions.

"This is a poorly studied, risky, and unlabeled genetically engineered fish," she says, adding that more than 80 U.S. grocery chains have committed not to buy it. However, Health Canada eventually concluded that fillets derived from AquAdvantage salmon "are as safe and nutritious as fillets from current available farmed Atlantic salmon," and approved the fish for consumption in 2016.

"There's no reason to suspect these fish from a food safety perspective," says Cyr Couturier, chair of aquaculture programs at Memorial University's Marine Institute in St. John's, Newfoundland. "They have no unnatural products that humans wouldn't otherwise consume."

Similar transgenic salmon created by a decades-long Fisheries and Oceans Canada research program tested well within normal salmon variations, adds Robert Devlin, engineering research scientist at the agency in North Vancouver, British Columbia. But critics do raise two other main concerns about AquaBounty's quest: the economic sustainability of the land-based approach, and the environmental risk to ecosystems if the fish escape.

Fish on land

AquaBounty will raise its GE fish in land-based recirculating aquaculture systems, known as RAS basically huge aquaria designed to minimize water use, maximize resources and accommodate high stocking densities. "While farming salmon in sea cages is less expensive and less technologically complex than a land-based farm," the company's website points out, "sea cages are susceptible to a number of hazards such as violent storms, predators, harmful algal blooms, jellyfish attacks, fish escapes, and the transmission of pathogens and parasites from wild fish populations."

Given the potential opportunity to achieve greater production control and avoid some of the environmental concerns of sea farms, many RAS projects have launched around the world in the past decade. However, most of these projects are small, and many have failed or are struggling.

The big problem is cost. RAS facilities need much more capital than ocean farms with similar production rates, and they're expensive to operate.

"Land-based systems use a lot of freshwater, even though it's recirculated, and a lot of electricity," notes Couturier. Such systems "operate at an economic disadvantage because much of their cost goes toward creating growing conditions occurring naturally within the ocean," summed up one 2014 report that found producing Atlantic salmon in Nova Scotia would not be economically feasible.

AquaBounty, which is buying its Indiana plant from a collapsed RAS venture, expects to beat these odds mainly because its GE salmon reach market size in about half the time of normal farmed salmon in 1618 months rather than 2836 months, the company says. Ravenous as they are, with their growth hormones continually wired on, the fish still require about a quarter less feed than normal fish. (Although farmed salmon are very efficient at converting food to flesh a pound of feed converts close to a pound of flesh feed remains a major expense.)

The company also says that salmon in its RAS facilities won't need vaccines or antibiotics because it will tightly control conditions. However, "they will have some disease issues of course, as will any animal that's reared in high densities," Couturier predicts.

If AquaBounty can compete on cost, there will be some justification for promoting its product as "the world's most sustainable salmon." In addition to requiring less feed, growing fish in Indiana or Prince Edward Island can slash the high carbon costs of flying fish from Norway or Chile, two leading suppliers of farmed salmon in the U.S.

Still, says Couturier, "I wish them all the best, but I think it will be a small-scale niche for at least a decade."

Losing GE fish

Many aquaculture scientists remain uneasy about the environmental risk to wild ecosystems if transgenic fish slip out of their farms. Although other agencies will presumably be involved in assessing risk as the projects advance, "the FDA has no in-house capacity to evaluate or understand the ecological consequences of transgenics in an aquatic ecosystem," says Conner Bailey, professor emeritus of rural sociology at Auburn University in Alabama. "And once you get anything into an aquatic ecosystem, it's really hard to control."

AquaBounty's protection scheme begins with multiple levels of physical barriers in its RAS facilities. Additionally, the salmon are all female and "triploid" (their DNA is in three rather than two sets of chromosomes) so they can't reproduce. However, scientists say neither of these measures can be 100 percent effective at preventing transgenic fish from escaping, disrupting local ecosystems, and potentially breeding in the wild.

More generally, while AquaBounty is committed to land-based systems, there are concerns that it's also creating far more GE eggs than it needs for its own production. Other industry groups, such as the Atlantic Salmon Federation, worry that other producers AquaBounty sells to might not be so careful, or that other companies around the world might move ahead with similar projects but without the same precautions. And all bets on risk are off if GE fish are raised in the ocean, where fish routinely escape, sometimes in large numbers.

Devlin's group has extensively modeled the results of accidental releases, studying groups of transgenic and non-transgenic fish in "naturalized" aquatic test beds that are exposed to variations in conditions, such as food supply. Transgenic fish often behave quite differently, and the results have varied from peaceful coexistence to one experiment in which fully transgenic fish killed off all their competitors.

"In the multitude of different environments that exist in nature, the uncertainty is too great to make a reliable prediction of what the impact would be," he says.

GE or selective breeding?

Does the fast growth of AquAdvantage salmon justify taking on these unknown risks? Scientists point out that today's selective breeding research programs, built on genomics and other tools of modern biology, also have turbocharged fish development. "Some strains of rainbow trout, which have been selected for fast growth for 150 years, grow incredibly fast compared to wild-type fish," Devlin says. In fact, he says, his lab work across various species suggests that "the absolute fastest growth you can achieve either by domestication or by transgenesis seems to be very similar."

"Today's farmed salmon have had more than 10 generations of selection applied to them, and they are growing at more than double the rate compared to the 1970s," says Bjarne Gjerde, senior scientist at Nofima in Troms, Norway.

Farmed fish also must excel in many traits besides growth, such as disease resistance and food quality, he emphasizes. "Most of the traits we are breeding for are governed by many, many genes with small effects," he says. "That's a real challenge if you just want to take short cuts with genetic engineering."

When and if AquaBounty rises above all its challenges into a groundbreaking success in North America, the firm will send a signal around the world to unleash efforts for commercializing GE fish, observers say. Friends of the Earth's Perls remains hopeful that legal barriers and consumer boycotts will stop AquaBounty in its tracks. If not, "GE salmon could set a precedent to the approval of other GE animals in the pipeline, from fish to chickens, pigs, and cows," she says. "It is critical that we don't approve other GE animals without robust regulations and full environmental reviews to ensure that we're prioritizing human and environmental safety over profit."

"Fish are probably where transgenic animals will emerge, because it's much cheaper to maintain a herd of catfish or salmon than cattle or sheep or pigs," says Bailey.

This story was first published by Ensia, an environmental news magazine from the University of Minnesota.

This article originally appeared at PRI's The World.

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Genetically engineered salmon is coming to America - The Week Magazine

SINGAPORE - The use of stem cells to reverse liver cirrhosis - or the hardening of the liver - is being explored in a clinical trial.

Conducted by a multi-centre team led by the National University Hospital (NUH), doctors aim to determine if stem cell therapy can improve liver function.

Previously, liver cirrhosis, caused by various diseases such as chronic hepatitis B and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, was thought to be irreversible.

A liver transplant provides a definitive cure to end-stage cirrhosis.

However, in Singapore, less than 5 per cent of end-stage liver cirrhosis patients receive a liver transplant.

The number of people on the waiting list for a liver transplant has been increasing over the years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Health.

In 2007, there were nine on the waiting list, compared with 57 last year. There are around 50 waiting for a liver transplant this year.

Also, many patients do not fulfil the eligibility criteria to receive a liver transplant due to other health complications or being above the age limit of 70 years.

The $2.6 million study, which was launched on Tuesday (July 11),is funded by the National Medical Research Counciland 46 patients will be recruited for it. It will run for four years and patients will not need to bear the costs of the stem cell treatment.

Stem cells will be taken from a patient's own bone marrow and will be isolated and injected directly into the patient's liver to initiate the repair.

Similar therapy treatments have been conducted overseas in countries such asEgypt and India, although they have not been fully evaluated for efficacy.

Associate Professor Dan Yock Young, a senior consultant in the division of gastroenterology and hepatology at NUH, said: "We are conducting the study in a systematic and scientific mannerto get definitive evidence of the effects of the treatment."

He also notes that the stem cell therapy is not a substitute for a liver transplant. "This treatment is not intended to pull patients off the waiting list, but provide an option for those who are not eligible for a transplant."

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Clinical trial for stem-cell therapy to reverse liver cirrhosis - The Straits Times

All of our blood vessels are lined with a type of cell called endothelial cells. To form vessels, individual endothelial cells begin to create empty holes in themselves, called vacuoles. They then connect with other endothelial cells that have done the same thing and the linked vacuoles form tubes, which ultimately become capillaries. Here, the researchers took endothelial cells and mixed them with either fibrin -- a protein involved in blood clotting -- or a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), which can be easily 3D-printed. When mixed with fibrin, the endothelial cells formed tubes fairly easily, but that wasn't the case with the GelMA. However, when the researchers added in another type of cell, a stem cell found in bone marrow, the endothelial cells were then able to form tubes in the GelMA.

"We've confirmed that these cells have the capacity to form capillary-like structures, both in a natural material called fibrin and in a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate, or GelMA," Gisele Calderon, the lead author of the study, said in a statement, "The GelMA finding is particularly interesting because it is something we can readily 3D print for future tissue-engineering applications."

The benefits of this method over others include cells that can be patient-specific, reducing the risk of immune system complications, and growth environments that are well suited for organ and vasculature growth -- they're reproducible, not likely to induce immune responses and help boost cell growth and vessel development. Along with making 3D-printed organs more viable, this method will also allow for the development of tissue that could make for more effective and efficient drug testing. In a statement, Jordan Miller, whose lab the work was done in, said, "Preclinical human testing of new drugs today is done with flat two-dimensional human tissue cultures. But it is well-known that cells often behave differently in three-dimensional tissues than they do in two-dimensional cultures. There's hope that testing drugs in more realistic three-dimensional cultures will lower overall drug development costs."

You can watch a video of the cells beginning to form tubes here and Calderon explaining her work in the video below.

Read the original here:
Researchers are closer to working capillaries in 3D-printed organs - Engadget

Fear becomes a constant companion when ones child is desperately ill.

Kim Lahti-Scranton knows this all too well as her daughter Jane is fighting for her life at BC Childrens Hospital.

As much as Janes journey is all-consuming, Kim is helping a desperate woman to get young people to donate bone marrow in order to find a better match for her son, Noah, who is in critical need of a bone marrow transplant soon.

The Scranton family is living in Vancouvers Ronald McDonald House and shares a kitchen with 17-year-old Noah Stoltes family.

Noah survived a first round of cancer when he was 10. In April, the family was given the terrifying news that he had relapsed.

His mom thought they were going to find a match within family; theyre 100 per cent Dutch, says Kim, noting family members are usually the best choice, but his three sisters are only a 50 per cent match.

Out of the worldwide pool of donors, there are two people who are a 75 per cent genetic match and are being considered, one of whom lives in Europe. The lower the match, the more chance there is for complications and a less than optimal outcome.

There is a time crunch as Noah needs to have a transplant sometime in September and it can take a couple of months from registration to donation.

One of Kims nephews is an NHL player, who used his connections to help Noahs aunt interest 85 people in becoming bone marrow donors in Edmonton.

Unable to get help from Canadian Blood Services to organize a similar drive in Vancouver because of staffing issues, Kim and Noahs mother, Stacey VanderLee Stolte, went to a Vancouver Canadians game to raise awareness and hopefully encourage people to sign up to be on the registry for stem cell or bone marrow donation.

We were met with a whole range of responses from people who were incredibly receptive, to people who completely ignored us and everything in between, says Kim. We got some interesting comments like no kid would want my bone marrow, Ive done too many drugs, to other people saying no because they thought if they were a match that donating bone marrow would be too painful.

Dr. Lucy Turnham, a clinical associate who oversees the outpatient oncology clinic at BC Childrens Hospital, has performed Janes procedures and says males between the ages of 17 and 35 are the best resource.

Its one of the most wonderful charitable donations you can do, Turnham says, noting many people never receive a call. It has a huge impact on a patient who has no other options.

Turnham explains that donors are educated before they do a swab. If they are told they are a match, they can still say no at any time. They then undergo further testing and maybe counselling at that point, and can still back out an any time.

If they had said yes and the patient begins treatment to get rid of the diseased cells prior to transplant, and then the donor backs out, the patients life is at serious risk, so it is important to know what you are getting into before saying yes, Kim stresses. If the donor says yes to the procedure, they are told beforehand when the treatment would start and told when the last chance to back out would be.

Stem cell donations can be made in two ways: the donor is hooked to a machine with IVs in each arm. Blood is taken from one arm, stem cells are removed, the blood is replaced through the IV in the other arm where the body grows more stem cells.

Or, the donor is anesthetized, a needle is placed into the hip bone from the back and part of the bone marrow is sucked out.

You might be a little bit sore afterwards, but for less than 24 hours, Turnham says, noting women can be donors but not if they have been pregnant. Young bone marrow is more robust and we regenerate marrow and blood all the time.

Becoming a donor is not a speedy process for people living in smaller communities, but would-be donors can receive a swab kit through the mail and return it postage-free.

Marc Plante, a representative with the national office of Canadian Blood Services, says people can go to http://www.blood.ca and proceed to the Stem Cells tab at the top of the page.

If you have an opportunity to save a life and just put up with a couple of days of discomfort, I would do it in a heartbeat, says Kim, who must also face the reality that Jane could one day be in the same dilemma. If most people had the opportunity to save a life, they would do it.

The Scrantons have been living at Ronald McDonald House for several months, while Jane receives treatment.

Shes as good as can be expected; shes very compromised and we need to make sure shes not exposed to anything, says Kim, noting the first, and this, the fourth phase of treatment, are considered to be the toughest. She has nothing to fight off infection.

There is another terrifying aspect to this disease.

As well as living with the fear of potential relapse, some of the chemo drugs being used to treat Jane increase the risk of heart disease and cause secondary cancer, neuro-cognitive issues and behavioural issues.

We dont know if its coming or what it will be, but we dont have a choice, we have to save her life now and deal with the consequences later, Kim says. Youre just kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop, for things to take a turn, its not fun. And while Jane will require a lot of follow-up assessment in the years to come, the tough little hero turns six on Aug. 12.

She has everything she needs; I just want people to sign up for the bone marrow registry or donate blood, Kim says, noting she is grateful for the communitys support throughout the ordeal.

If you cant donate but would like to help Jane celebrate, you can take birthday cards to the Salmar Grand Theatre where manager Daila Duford will make sure they get to their destination.

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Bone marrow transplant last chance - Revelstoke Review

A few small scars on Ashli Stempels lower back are the only evidence that a drill burrowed into her hipbone last year at Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston. The surgery was to harvest the stem cells in her bone marrow to save her older brother Andrew Stempels life.

At age 27, Andrew was diagnosed with cancer of the white blood cells called Hodgkins lymphoma. Donating her bone marrow so that Andrews body could manufacture healthy blood cells, was a small price to pay to give him a shot at survival, Ashli says.

Since the transplant last August after years of treatment and testing Andrew has been cancer-free and Ashli now volunteers periodically in their hometown of Greenfield, where she serves on the Town Council, to spread awareness about this life-saving treatment.

Our bodies are a cure for some cancers, says Ashli Stempel on a recent Saturday as she handsout sign-up forms atGreenfields Energy Park for the Be A Matchnational donor registry. If even one person joins the registry that is awesome.

Its a sunnyday and Stempel, 30,wearing a black and white spaghetti-strap dress stands behind a booth smiling and talking to passersby.

Everybody wants to cure cancer, but I think not everybody understands that we, ourselves, can be the cure for some types of cancers, she says. I can say that I killed cancer and I am pretty excited about that.

In the hollow spaces in a bodys bones, stem cells inside the bone marrow tissue work to create red blood cells, which feed oxygen to the organs, and make white blood cells to fight infections. The bone marrow also produces blood platelets to help form clots but when a cancer of the blood like, leukemia or lymphoma strikes, these life-supporting systems are thrown out of whack, leaving the bodys immune system unable to fight diseases, infection or the cancer.

Chemotherapy and radiation also can kill off bone marrow tissue, leaving patients with more damage to their immune systems, says physician assistant Susanne Smith, donor services clinician at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Womens Hospitals Cancer Center in Boston.

When transplanted into a cancer patients bloodstream, stem cells, a precursor to all the immune system cells in the body, colonize the bones and help fight any remaining cancer, says Smith.

In many cases (a transplant) is the only cure for a leukemia or lymphoma diagnosis chemotherapy can only get a patient so far, says Mary Halet, director of community engagement at the Be The Match Registry, the Minneapolis organization that manages the largest bone marrow registry in the world. But first, a patient must find a tissue match, that is, a donor who has a similar protein marker called the human leukocyte antigen, which is found on most cells in the body.

There are up to 14,000 patients every year who could benefit from a bone marrow transplant, but many of these people will not receive a donation, says Halet. In most cases, the patient will not finda tissue match in his or her own family andmust seek help from a stranger, she says. A patients likelihood of finding a matching bone marrow donor ranges from 66 percent to 97 percentdepending on ethnic background. White patients have a 97 percent chance of finding a match, while black patients only find a match 66 percent of the time.The difference reflects the complexity of the tissues makeup and the number of donors.

Thats why Halets organization promotes recruitment events like the one Ashli Stempel held in Greenfield.

Stempel says she was ecstatic when she found out that she was a match for her brother. She was in her late 20s at the time, a bubbly woman working in communications at Smith College in Northampton, who grew up in a close-knit family.

Her brother, who was working as a retail manager in the Boston area, had discovered a bump on his collarbone.

I woke up one morning and there was a non-painful lump, Andrew Stempel says.

He ignored it for as long as he could before seeing a doctor who diagnosed it as a swollen lymph node caused by Hodgkins lymphoma.

Cancer is a very scary word. I think what you learn going through it is that it is not such a scary word, you can survive, says Ashli Stempel.

The Stempel family had seen that firsthand years earlier when Andrew and Ashlis mother, Deborah, recovered from breast cancer.

Still, that didnt lessen the anxiety for Andrew. As soon as the doctor said the word cancer, he says, his life started to unravel with a battery of experimental drugs, chemotherapy and radiation.

In the begining there was a lot of uncertainty, he says.

Even through his cancer went into remission after a year, doctors did not expect it to remain that way without high doses of chemo or radiation. The plan was to do a bone marrow transplant for long-term survival.

Still, using donated bone marrow meant taking the risk that Andrews body would reject it, which could be fatal.

So, doctors first wanted to try using Andrews own tissue. That would require removing some of his bone marrow, treating it and then injecting it back into his bloodstream.

Within months of the procedure, however, Andrews cancer returned, indicating to doctors that his body wasnt strong enough to fight it on its own.

Ashli was tested via a mouth swab and Andrew was relieved to learn that she was a tissue match.

I was just overwhelmed with happiness, he says.

Ashli went through a month-long screening process to ensure that she was healthy enough to be a donor. People who have infectious diseases like HIV or hepatitis cannot be donors, nor can those with immune systems weakened by autoimmune diseases. Doctors also prefer to use bone marrow from young donors under the age of 44, says Halet. The registry wont accept donors over 60.

When we are young, our immune systems are at their healthiest and the older we get the less robust they are, she says.

It took two years from the time Ashli first learned she was a match for her brother for the transplant to take place.

Not long aftershe woke up from the surgery, Ashli saw the bone marrow that had been taken from her, a two-literjug ofmilky, red liquid. It was whisked away to another partof the hospital where it ended up in a drip bag connected to a vein in Andrews arm.

Doctors saw hisred and white blood cell counts go up immediately after the transplant.

My sisters cells were working, he says. It was amazing.

Even though the transplant was a success, Andrew had to stay in the hospital for a month. Chemotherapy had caused sores in his mouth, he lost his ability to taste food along withhis appetiteand he droppednearly 30 pounds.

It was tough, day to day, but progressively got better, he says.

Since he was essentially receiving a new immune system, like a newborn baby he also had to be shielded from germs, says Ashli.

When his wife, Meghan Stempel, came to visit him, she needed to wear a facemask and gloves. Even when he returned home, he had to be careful. Hetook a year off from his job to recover, spending many afternoons resting on the couch watching TV. After spending months working to building hisstrength back up,he says, most of his weakness has subsided.

I feel a thousand times better, he says.

He is now cancer free and is returning to hisjob as a retail managerat Sherwin Williams this week.

Following her operation, Ashli took off a few weeks from her job in communications at Smith College, but was back on her feet within a couple days. Her hips were sore which meant limping around the house for a short time.

I was in pain, of course, she says. But its a quick recovery.

A few weeks ago Ashli decided to signup for the national bone marrow donor registry through Be A Matchto donate for a second time.

Her name will stay in the system for the foreseeable future. A match could come up or it might never.

Maybe I will be called on to do it again, who knows?

To learn more about becoming a bone marrow donor or to sign up for the registry, go tobethematch.org.

Potential donors can fill out an online form and the registry will mail a mouth swab kit, which can be returned by mail.

If called, a potential donor will undergo a series of blood tests which will evaluate the suitabililty and safety of the match. Though doctors say risks are low for donors, possible complications include infection and bleeding.

Once a donor is cleared, the transplant procedure could occur within a few weeks or a few months, depending on a recommendation from the patients doctor.

The bone marrow transplant is an outpatient procedure for the donor.Recovery time is only a few days anddonors are typically back to their normal routine in two to seven days.

Donors are told their commitment means being willing to devote up to 30 hours spread over four to six weeks to attend appointments and give the donation.

All medical costs for the donation procedure are covered by the National Marrow Donor Program, which operates the Be The Match Registry, or by the cancer patients medical insurance.

Sometime travel is required. Most travel expenses are covered by Be The Match.

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Ashli Stempel helped save her brother's life. She hopes to inspire others. - GazetteNET

PHILADELPHIA When doctors saw the report on Bill Ludwigs bone-marrow biopsy, they thought it was a mistake and ordered the test repeated. But the results came back the same: His lethal leukemia had been wiped out by an experimental treatment never used in humans.

We were hoping for a little improvement, remembers the 72-year-old retired New Jersey corrections officer, who had battled the disease for a decade. He and his oncologist both broke down when she delivered the good news in 2010. Nobody was hoping for zero cancer.

The pioneering therapy with Ludwig and a few other adults at the University of Pennsylvania hospital paved the way for clinical trials with children. Six-year-old Emily Whitehead, who was near death, became the first pediatric recipient in 2012. Like Ludwig, she remains cancer-free.

Such results are why the treatment is on track to become the first gene therapy approved by the Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory committee will decide Wednesday whether to recommend approval of the approach, which uses patients own genetically altered immune cells to fight blood cancers.

If the panel gives the nod, the agency probably will follow suit by the end of September. That would open the latest chapter in immunotherapy a true living drug, says Penn scientist Carl June, who led its development.

The CAR T-cell treatment, manufactured by the drug company Novartis, initially would be available only for the small number of children and young adults whose leukemia doesnt respond to standard care. Those patients typically have a grim prognosis, but in the pivotal trial testing the therapy in almost a dozen countries, 83 percent of patients went into remission. A year later, two-thirds remained so.

And childhood leukemia is just the start for a field that has attracted intense interest in academia and industry. Kite Pharma of Santa Monica, Calif., has applied for FDA approval for aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and a similar Novartis application is close behind. Researchers also are exploring CAR T-cell therapys use for multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, the disease that afflicted Ludwig. Theyre also tackling a far more difficult challenge using the therapy for solid tumors in the lungs or brain, for example.

The excitement among doctors and researchers is palpable. Were saving patients who three or four years ago we were at our wits end trying to keep alive, said Stephen Schuster, the Penn oncologist who is leading a Novartis lymphoma study. Both the study and a Kite trial have shown that the treatment can put about one-third of adults with advanced disease those who have exhausted all options into remission.

Yet along with the enthusiasm come pressing questions about safety, cost and the complexity of the procedure.

It involves extracting white blood cells called T cells the foot soldiers of the immune system from a patients blood, freezing and sending them to Novartiss sprawling manufacturing plant in Morris Plains, N.J. There, a crippled HIV fragment is used to genetically modify the T cells so they can find and attack the cancer. The cells then are refrozen and sent back to be infused into the patient.

Once inside the persons body, the T-cell army multiplies astronomically.

Novartis hasnt disclosed the price for its therapy, but analysts are predicting $300,000 to $600,000 for a one-time infusion. Brad Loncar, whose index fund focuses on cancer immunotherapy treatment, hopes the cost doesnt prompt a backlash. CAR-T is not the EpiPen, he said. This is truly pushing the envelope and at the cutting edge of science.

The biggest concerns, however, center on safety. The revved-up immune system becomes a potent cancer-fighting agent but also a dangerous threat to the patient. Serious side effects abound, raising concerns about broad use.

Treating patients safely is the heart of the rollout, said Stephan Grupp of the Childrens Hospital of Philadephia, who as director of its Cancer Immunotherapy Program led early pediatric studies as well as Novartiss global trial. The efficacy takes care of itself, but safety takes a lot of attention.

One of the most common side effects is called cytokine release syndrome, which causes high fever and flulike symptoms that in some cases can be so dangerous that the patient ends up in intensive care. The other major worry is neurotoxicity, which can result in temporary confusion or potentially fatal brain swelling. Juno Therapeutics, a biotech firm in Seattle, had to shut down one of its CAR T-cell programs because five patients died of brain swelling. Novartis has not seen brain swelling in its trials, company officials said.

To try to ensure patient safety, Novartis isnt planning a typical product rollout, with a drug pushed as widely and aggressively as possible. The company instead will designate 30to 35 medical centers to administer the treatment. Many of them took part in the clinical trial, and all have gotten extensive training by Grupp and others.

Grupp said he and his staff learned about the side effects of CAR T-cell therapy and what to do about them through terrifying experience that began five years ago with Emily Whitehead.

The young girl, who had relapsed twice on conventional treatments for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, was in grave condition. Grupp suggested to her parents that she become the first child to get the experimental therapy.

I said, Surely, this has been tried on kids somewhere else in the world, recalled her father, Thomas Whitehead of Philipsburg, Pa. But Steve said, Nope, some adults got it, but that was a different kind of leukemia.

After getting the therapy, Emilys fever soared, her blood pressure plummeted, and she ended up in a coma and on a ventilator for two weeks in the hospitals intensive care unit. Convinced his patient would not survive another day, a frantic Grupp got rushed lab results that suggested a surge of interleukin 6 was causing her immune system to relentlessly hammer her body. Doctors decided to give Emily an immunosuppressant drug called tocilizumab.

She was dramatically better within hours. She woke up the next day, her 7th birthday. Tests showed her cancer was gone.

The approval of CAR T-cell therapy would represent the second big immunotherapy advance in less than a decade. In 2011, the FDA cleared the first agent in a new class of drugs called checkpoint inhibitors. It has approved four more since then.

There are big differences between the two approaches. The checkpoint inhibitors are targeted at solid tumors, such as advanced melanoma, lung and bladder cancer, while CAR-T cell therapy has been aimed at blood disorders. And although checkpoint inhibitors are off the shelf, with every patient getting the same drug, the other is customized to an individual. Many immunotherapy experts think the greatest progress against cancer will occur when researchers figure out how to combine the approaches.

For the Penn team, the CAR T-cell story goes back decades, starting at the then-National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, where June and a postdoc fellow named Bruce Levine worked on new HIV treatments. In the process, they figured out a way to turbocharge T cells to make them more powerful and plentiful.

The pair moved to Philadelphia in 1999 and dove into cancer research. Two years later, Junes wife died of ovarian cancer, something he has credited as spurring him to work even harder in the field. In the years that followed, researchers across the country, including at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle racked up an array of tantalizing discoveries involving T cells.

Fast-forward to 2010, when Ludwig, who lives in Bridgeton, N.J. became Penns first patient to receive CAR T-cell therapy. Two other men got the treatment not long after. One is still in remission; the other relapsed and died.

But after those three patients, the Penn researchers ran out of money for more treatments. To try to raise interest and funding, they decided to publish the results of their work. The article that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine in August 2011 created a firestorm, June said one that brought them new resources. David Porter, a Penn oncologist working with June, was on vacation in western Maryland and had to stop at a Kohls to buy a dress shirt for the immediate TV interviews.

The pediatric trial opened the following spring with Whitehead. Six months later, Penn licensed its technology to Novartis in exchange for financial support, which included a new cell-manufacturing facility on campus.

With FDA approval seeming imminent, the researchers who were so instrumental in the therapys development and testing are almost giddy. Grupp is especially pleased that the advance will be available first to children. Usually everything is developed first for adults, he noted recently, and children are an afterthought.

Read more:

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Gene therapy in hemophilia advances with big drops in patient bleeding rates - STAT

After rattling investors with early signs of an immune reaction in a couple of cases as well as an unexpected infusion for a suspected knee bleed, Spark Therapeutics $ONCE says that its early Phase I/II study for its hemophilia B gene therapy is staying on track, slashing the rate of annual infusions and the bleed rate among the 10 patients on the pioneering therapy SPK-9001.

The annual infusion rate has new dropped 99%, down to a mean of 1 compared to 67.5 ahead of treatment. Five of the 10 are now past the one-year mark since their treatment, with no bleeding issues. The group of 10 posted an average bleed rate of 0.4 compared to 11.1 ahead of once-and-done therapy.

Singling out the first patient, whos now past the 18-month mark, researchers say hes had zero bleeds with no Factor IX infusions. Both cases of elevated liver enzymes indicating an immune response to the delivery vector were resolved with steroids and neither have had bleeds or the need for infusions.

Spark has now accumulated close to 10 years of patient responses to its therapy, an important first step in laying out the potential for gene therapy to end hemophilia.

The latest update arrived at a scientific conference in Berlin marked by the dramatic showdown between Shire and its rival Roche, which fielded more newly contested boasts about its would-be hemophilia blockbuster emicizumab. Alnylam and Sanofi also stepped up with a promising look at the latest Phase II data on their RNAi approach underscoring some significant gains in the field for a variety of new approaches to the rare blood disorder.

We continue to be encouraged by the SPK-9001 clinical trial results observed to date, with all participants having discontinued routine infusions of factor IX concentrates, said Katherine A. High, M.D., president and chief scientific officer at Spark Therapeutics. The growing body of data showing a sustained response is a promising sign for this investigational hemophilia B gene therapy program.

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Pioneering gene therapy patients stay on track, boosting Spark's ... - Endpoints News

A new method efficiently transfers genes into cells, then activates them with light. This could lead to gene therapies for cancers

Mineko Kengaku, Tatsuya Murakami, and their colleagues from Kyoto Universitys Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS) have developed a new method that modifies the surface of nanorods, making them more efficient in transporting cancer-killing genes into cells.

The method involves coating gold nanorods, which produce heat when exposed to a near-infrared laser, with the lipids oleate and DOTAP. The lipids enhance the nanorods' ability to interact with and penetrate cells.

The team also developed a gene carrier, known as a plasmid vector, which includes a heat shock protein that is activated in response to heat.

First, the vector was bound to the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) gene, and then transferred into mammalian cells by the lipid-coated gold nanorods. Exposing cells to near-infrared laser for ten seconds heated up the gold nanorods, turning on the EGFP gene. Surrounding, non-targeted cells showed little to no EGFP expression.

A protein called TRAIL was then added to the plasmid vector. TRAIL induces cell death in cancer cell lines. Infrared illumination of cells transfected by TRAIL-carrying nanorods led to a high cell death rate in surrounding cancer cells.

The lipid-coated gold nanorods could potentially help with molecular cancer therapies.

This new system provides a unique opportunity for site-directed, light-inducible transgene expression in mammalian cells by a near-infrared laser, with minimal phototoxicity, conclude the researchers in their study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided by Kyoto University. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference

Nakatsuji, H., Kawabata, G. K., Kurisu, J., Imahori, H., Murakami, T., & Kengaku, M. (2017). Surface chemistry for cytosolic gene delivery and photothermal transgene expression by gold nanorods. Scientific reports, 7(1), 4694.

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Breakthrough Nanorod Tech Could Deliver Gene Therapy Directly to Cancer Cells - Technology Networks

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (NASDAQ: BMRN) announced today an update to its previously reported interim results of an open-label Phase 1/2 study of BMN 270, an investigational gene therapy treatment for severe hemophilia A. The updated results will be presented by John Pasi, Ph.D. F.R.C.P, at Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry and Haemophilia Clinical Director at Barts Health NHS Trust and primary investigator for the BMN 270 Phase 1/2 clinical trial, during an oral presentation at the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) 2017 Congress being held July 8-13, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. Professor Pasi will present the data in a late breaking abstract on July 11, 2017, which will be the only clinical data in gene therapy for hemophilia A to be presented at the meeting.

In the open-label Phase 1/2 study, a total of 15 patients with severe hemophilia A1(defined by the World Federation of Hemophilia (WFH) as having Factor VIII activity levels less than 1%, expressed as a percentage of normal factor activity in blood) received a single dose of BMN 270, seven of whom were treated at a dose of 6e13 vg/kg and an additional six of whom were subsequently treated at a lower dose of 4e13 vg/kg. The other two patients in the study were treated at lower doses as part of dose escalation in the study and did not achieve therapeutic efficacy. According to the WFH rankings of severity of hemophilia A, the normal range of Factor VIII activity levels for people without disease is between 50% and 150%, expressed as a percentage of normal factor activity in blood, and the mild hemophilia A range of Factor VIII activity levels is between 5% and 40%. (See Table 6 for further information on severity levels)

As of the May 31, 2017 data cutoff, all patients at the 6e13 vg/kg dose had reached 52 weeks of post-treatment follow-up. Median and mean Factor VIII levels from week 20 through 52 for the 6e13 vg/kg dose cohort have been consistently within the normal levels post treatment as a percentage calculated based on the numbers of International Units per deciliter (IU/dL) of plasma. (See Table 1). At one year after dosing, the median and mean Factor VIII levels of the 6e13 vg/kg cohort continue to be above 50%. (See Table 6)

Table 1: Factor VIII Levels (%) of 6e13 vg/kg Dose Patients* by Visit (N=7)

Week**

20

24

28

32

36

40

44

48

52

6e13 vg/kg Dose

N***

7

7

7

6

7

7

7

7

7

Median

Factor VIII Level**** (%)

97

101

122

99

99

111

105

105

89

Mean

Factor VIII Level**** (%)

118

129

123

122

116

124

122

106

104

Range

(low, high)

(12, 254)

(12, 227)

(15, 257)

(26, 316)

(31, 273)

(17, 264)

(20,242)

(23,196)

(20, 218)

*All patients had severe hemophilia A, defined as less than 1% of Factor VIII activity levels, expressed as a percentage of normal factor activity in blood. **Weeks were windowed by +/- 2 weeks ***For week 32, one patient had no Factor VIII reading ****Bolded numbers are in the normal range of Factor VIII as defined by the World Federation of Hemophilia, http://www.wfh.org/en/page.aspx?pid=643 (link current as of June 30, 2017). Factor VIII levels are determined by one-stage assay.

The median and mean Factor VIII levels from week 8 to 24 for all patients observed at the 4e13 vg/kg dose are in the mild level. Three of these subjects who have been observed for 24 weeks are at the upper end of mild. (See Table 2 for Factor VIII levels and Table 6 for severity levels)

Table 2: Factor VIII Levels (%) of 4e13 vg/kg Dose Patients* by Visit (N=6)

Week**

4

8

12

16

20

24

4e13 vg/kg Dose

n

6

6

6

3

3

3

Median

Factor VIII Level*** (%)

4

15

21

35

37

33

Mean

Factor VIII Level*** (%)

5

13

19

33

38

33

Range

(low, high)

(2,10)

(3,21)

(6,32)

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BioMarin's Investigational Gene Therapy for Hemophilia A at 6e13 ... - PR Newswire (press release)

July 11, 2017 06:30 ET | Source: uniQure N.V.

LEXINGTON, Mass. and AMSTERDAM, the Netherlands, July 11, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- uniQure N.V. (NASDAQ:QURE), a leading gene therapy company advancing transformative therapies for patients with severe medical needs, today presented new clinical data demonstrating that the presence of pre-existing anti-AAV5 neutralizing antibodies (NABs) does not predict the potential efficacy of AAV5-mediated gene transfer in patients with hemophilia B. Clinically meaningful factor IX (FIX) activity levels from the ongoing Phase I-II trial of AMT-060 were observed at NAB titers up to 1:341, determined as corresponding up to the 90th percentile of a healthy control population. NABs were quantified in the blood sera of these patients using a highly sensitive assay. These clinical data were presented today in a poster presentation at the 26th Biennial Congress of theInternational Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis(ISTH), taking place this week in Berlin, Germany.

The presence of pre-existing NABs to adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors has long posed a critical challenge for the clinical application of gene therapies, as patients who currently screen positive for NABs are generally excluded from treatment. Researchers from uniQure recently presented data in non-human primates suggesting that AAV5 could successfully mediate gene transfer in the presence of NABs at levels as high as 1:1031.

In a poster presentation at the ISTH meeting, a re-analysis was described of pre-gene transfer screening samples from the 10 patients who have been treated in the ongoing Phase I/II trial of AMT-060 for hemophilia B. The patients had tested negative for preexisting anti-AAV5 NAbs using a green fluorescent proteinbased (GFP) assay before receiving treatment. These samples were later re-assessed using a highly sensitive luciferase-based (LUC) NAB assay. Anti-AAV5 NABs were detected retrospectively in three patients who had been treated with the low dose (5x1012 gc/kg) of AMT-060. However, all three patients presented increases in FIX expression and, especially, the patient with the highest NAB level (titer 1:341) had the highest FIX-activity (steady-state FIX 6.8% of normal; latest FIX measurement 10.7% of normal) among all five patients treated in the low-dose cohort. None of the three patients who tested positive for NAB titers, experienced over time elevations in liver enzymes post gene transfer, FIX activity loss, or clinically relevant T-cell responses to the capsid.

These clinical data show that hemophilia B patients presenting with neutralizing antibodies may be considered eligible for AAV5-mediated gene transfer, stated Matthew Kapusta, chief executive officer at uniQure. This development potentially expands the applicability of AAV5 gene therapies to nearly all hemophilia B patients. We believe these factors contribute to making AAV5 a potential best-in-class vector for delivering gene therapies more effectively and safely to a greater portion of patients in need of treatment.

About uniQure uniQure is delivering on the promise of gene therapy single treatments with potentially curative results. We are leveraging our modular and validated technology platform to rapidly advance a pipeline of proprietary and partnered gene therapies to treat patients with hemophilia, Huntingtons disease and cardiovascular diseases. http://www.uniQure.com

uniQure Forward-Looking Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are often indicated by terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "could," "estimate," "expect," "goal," "intend," "look forward to", "may," "plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "should," "will," "would" and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information available to management only as of the date of this press release. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the development of our gene therapy product candidates, including the future development of AMT-060, the success of our collaborations and the risk of cessation, delay or lack of success of any of our ongoing or planned clinical studies and/or development of our product candidates. Our actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements for many reasons, including, without limitation, risks associated with corporate reorganizations and strategic shifts, collaboration arrangements, our and our collaborators clinical development activities, regulatory oversight, product commercialization and intellectual property claims, as well as the risks, uncertainties and other factors described under the heading "Risk Factors" in uniQures 2016 Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on March 15, 2017. Given these risks, uncertainties and other factors, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, and we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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uniQure Presents New Clinical Data in Hemophilia B Patients Demonstrating Therapeutic Efficacy of AAV5 Gene ... - GlobeNewswire (press release)

Scientists in the U.S. have identified a molecular pathway that appears to play a key role in the link between a high-fat diet (HFD) and the development of colorectal cancer. The research, led by the Cleveland Clinics Sheerlarani Karunanithi, and Matthew Kalady, suggests that it may one day be possible to develop drugs that reduce tumor growth associated with obesity and a diet that is high in fat.

Their research is published today, in Stem Cell Reports, in a paper titled, RBP4-STRA6 Pathway Drives Cancer Stem Cell Maintenance and MediatesHigh-Fat Diet-Induced Colon Carcinogenesis.

The Cleveland Clinic teams review of published research indicated that high expression levels of two vitamin A signalling proteinsserum retinol binding protein (RPB4), stimulated by retinoic acid 6 (STRA6)in colorectal cancer tumors is associated with poor prognosis, increased tumor metastasis and recurrence, and resistance to cancer therapy. The RBP4-STRA6 pathway triggers the JAK2-STAT3 signaling cascade.

The researchers engineered STRA6- or RBP4-knockdown cancer cells to demonstrate that the RBP4-STRA6 pathway is important for promoting cancer cell proliferation and survival and for maintaining the expression of core stem cell transcription factors. They also found that the RBP4-STRA6 pathway plays a key role in maintaining colon cancer stem cells (CSCs), both in cell lines and in patient-derived xenografts.

The teams previous work had shown that knocking down STRA6 in a xenograft cancer model decreased tumor growth. In a new round of studies, they injected RBP4-knockdown cancer cells into experimental mice, and found that RBP4 deficiency resulted in the development of fewer tumors, and slower tumor growth and progression.

With evidence building for the role of RBPA4-STRA6 pathway in colorectal cancer development and progression, the team turned to look at diet-related cancer. A prior study had already suggested that HFDinduced obesity leads to increased intestinal stem cells and may impact colorectal cancer risk. This finding, combined with independent research establishing a role for the RBPA4-STRA6 pathway in diet-induced metabolic syndrome, prompted the Cleveland Clinic team to look at the relationship between HFD, cancer development, and the RBPA4-STRA6 pathway.

They injected either STRA6-deficient colorectal cancer cells or unmodified cancer cells into obesity-resistant mice fed either a normal diet or an HFD. HFD mice injected with unmodified cancer cells exhibited significantly increased tumor growth compared with mice fed a normal diet. In contrast, there was no relative increase in tumor growth among HFD animals receiving the STRA6-deficient tumor cells.

Our data clearly indicate that RBP4-STRA6 pathway is necessary for the optimal expression of stem cell markers such as NANOG, SOX2, and LGR5, and thereby for maintaining the colon CSC pool, the authors conclude in their published paper. "We have known the influence of diet on colorectal cancer, commented Matthew Kalady, M.D., colorectal surgeon, and co-director of the Cleveland Clinic Comprehensive Colorectal Cancer Program. However, these new findings are the first to show the connection between high-fat intake and colon cancer via a specific molecular pathway. We can now build upon this knowledge to develop new treatments aimed at blocking this pathway and reducing the negative impact of a high-fat diet on colon cancer risk."

The interesting finding here is that the high fat diet-induced effects appear to also involve the stem cell program, which is interesting for tumor growth and has implications on therapies, as tumor stem cells are also therapeutically resistant, the authors told GEN. In terms of treatments, what we might envision is targeting a new component of the signaling axis we identified to reduce cancer growth. The pathways we have identified are known to control many aspects of cell behavior, but the input to these signaling programs is new and may represent a possible target. In terms of next steps, one would be to see whether this can be applied to other obesity-driven tumors. Can lessons from colon cancer be leveraged to other tumor types? We also are interested in inhibiting this new signaling axis as well as trying to understand more about this signaling program, as we may be able to identify signaling nodes that can be efficiently targeted.

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Colon Cancer-Driven Stem Cells Linked to High-Fat Diet - Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News

The Sun

Injecting stomach fat into the scalp could CURE baldness in just six ... The Sun INJECTING stomach fat into the scalp could be a radical new way of combating baldness, experts have revealed. The pioneering new method involves sucking ... and more »

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Injecting stomach fat into the scalp could CURE baldness in just six ... - The Sun

Subjects receiving Kerastem therapy had a mean increase of 31 new hairs per sq. cm. of scalp at 6 months compared to Baseline

San Diego, California (PRWEB) July 11, 2017

Kerastem, the leader in cell-based approaches to hair growth, announced today that clinical data utilizing the Kerastem therapy for the treatment of female and male patterned baldness (genetic alopecia) was published in the peer reviewed Journal of Stem Cells and Cloning (Stem Cells and Cloning: Advances and Applications 2017, 10:1-10--https://doi.org/10.2147/SCCAA.S131431). The authors reported that all six (100%) subjects receiving Kerastem Therapy had an increase from baseline hair counts at 6 months, with initial results as early as 6 weeks. The investigators performed a single scalp injection of Kerastem Cell Therapy in 9 healthy hair loss patients, and a total of 6 patients were followed for a period of 6 months.

The authors reported a mean increase of 31 hairs per cm2 of scalp at 24 weeks compared to baseline, corresponding to a 23% increase (p = 0.017). Kerastem Therapy subjects saw up to a 53% increase in the number of hairs at 6 months. According to lead investigator Dr. David Perez-Meza, "We are very pleased with the clinical outcomes of our hair regeneration study, as they represent this procedure is safe and that results that are on par or better than those of traditional medical approaches to hair loss."

US PHASE II CLINICAL TRIAL ENROLLED (STYLE) The Kerastem therapy is based on the emerging science that adipose (fat) plays an important role in the normal hair growth cycle. The clinical approach utilizes purified adipose combined with stem and regenerative cells to deliver cell enriched tissue to the affected scalp. According to Dr. Eric Daniels, Chief Medical Officer of Kerastem, "Fat and fat derived cells are now appreciated as a dynamic, and vital participant in the normal cycle of hair growth. This data set from the United Kingdom further supports this position and we look forward to releasing top-line 24-week data from our fully enrolled STYLE trial later this year." Outside of the United States, the company is actively involved in market development, with Kerastem therapy currently being offered at a number of clinics in Europe & Japan. To learn more about Kerastem or the STYLE Clinical Trial, please visit http://www.kerastem.com.

ANDROGENETIC ALOPECIA MARKET SIZE Hair loss affects more than 21 million women and 40 million men in the United States alone. The global hair loss market is valued at more than $7 Billion and currently has limited options for women and men with early hair loss.

About Kerastem Kerastem is a leader in the development and commercialization of cell-based approaches to hair growth. The private company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bimini Technologies. The Bimini portfolio also includes Puregraft, the world's leading fat transfer solution.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements This press release may include "forward-looking statements" intended to qualify for the safe harbor from liability established by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements generally can be identified by phrases such as "will," "near future," "positioned," "provide," or other words or phrases of similar import that are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Similarly, statements herein that describe Kerastem LLC's business strategy, outlook, objectives, plans, intentions, or goals also are forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, including: the clinical and commercial potential and success of the company's product line; general economic and business conditions; and other risks and important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this announcement, and Kerastem LLC undertakes no obligation to update the forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances after the date on which they were made.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/07/prweb14496474.htm

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Kerastem UK Hair Growth Data Published - Benzinga

Photo: Courtesy Of UC Berkeley / UC Berkeley

These mice ate the same high-fat diet in a UC Berkeley study, but the sense of smell was removed for the one on the right, helping it stay slim.

These mice ate the same high-fat diet in a UC Berkeley study, but the sense of smell was removed for the one on the right, helping it stay slim.

Real or not? Drink the ultimate San Francisco martini, made with a locally made vodka diluted with fog-derived water.

Real or not? Drink the ultimate San Francisco martini, made with a locally made vodka diluted with fog-derived water.

Real or not? If you're tired of traditional burritos, try a new fusion kind that turns a sushi roll into, well, a large burrito-sized sushi roll. Sheets of seaweed serve as the outer layer, with pieces of tuna sushi inside.

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Real or not? In a nod to the city's gold mining history, try a decadent, $100 gold pizza the pie comes with white truffles, 24-month aged prosciutto, mushrooms and more. Oh! And there's gold flakes on top.

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Fake. Although delicious-sounding, no such thing exists. Yet.

Fake. Although delicious-sounding, no such thing exists. Yet.

Real or not? Boring IPAs, step aside: Liven things up with a taco-inspired beer. With this IPA, drinkers will notice a tropical aroma, followed by notes of traditional Mexican seasonings, such as cumin, coriander and cilantro.

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Real: Cellarmaker Brewing Co. first brewed this beer in 2013, but brought back "Taco Hands" (as it's called) in time for Cinco de Mayo last year.

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Real or not? Craftsman & Wolves, makers of the "The Rebel Within" a brunchtastic muffin complete with egg inside is now going to serve its muffin sans egg.

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Real or not? Sweet ice cream is for the unadventurous. Step outside the box with a prosciutto-flavored ice cream that is a cold and savory treat.

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Real or not? This is most likely the ultimate pork dish. If you're a fan, try a wood-oven roasted pig head that is cooked until its skin is crispy, complete with gold leaf melted on the tip of the snout.

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Real or not? If you're a fan of both coffee and wine, not have both at once? Wine-infused coffee beans are the next frontier for those looking for a drink that infuses both worlds in a single cup.

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Real or not? This is certainly not your normal slice of Kraft American cheese: Along with its normal goat cheese bits, is a specialty cheese that incorporates vegetable ash into the mix.

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Real or not? In a bid to rescue any dented or ugly leftover vegetables from the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market, this business gathers them and creates a protein-laden power bar for customers.

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Fake. Although the fictional power bar does fulfill a number of foodie credos (Locally sourced? Check. Nutritious? Check.), this one is false.

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Real or not? If you're a beer fan in the know, you know to look out for Girl Scout Cookie beers. This line of beers is based on five different cookies from the Girl Scout line, including Samoa, Do-Si-Dos, Thin Mint, Trefoil and Tagalongs.

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Real or not? Vegetarians can finally move away from the portobello mushroom "burger" and finally have a burger that is veggie, but has all the meaty burger qualities that carnivores love. This new veggie burger "bleeds," sears and develops a burger "crust" to the patty all while helping to alleviate the environmental impact of meat production.

Real or not? Vegetarians can finally move away from the portobello mushroom "burger" and finally have a burger that is veggie, but has all the meaty burger qualities that carnivores love. This new veggie burger

Just smelling food can make you fat, UC Berkeley study says

On the bustling streets of San Francisco, people can sense whats grilling, baking and frying in restaurants from North Beach to Noe Valley without even looking at the menus, as myriad cuisines serve up a smorgasbord of aromas for the nostrils.

But what most foodies and waist-watchers strolling by dont realize is that just smelling burgers, pizza, sushi, falafel or any of the other sweet and savory offerings could be causing them to gain weight.

A study by UC Berkeley researchers found that a sense of smell can influence the brains decision to burn fat or store it in the body or a least the bodies of mice.

Researchers Andrew Dillin and Celine Riera studied three groups of mice normal mice, super-smellers and ones without a sense of smell and saw a direct correlation between their ability to smell and how much weight they gained from a high-fat, Burger King diet, Dillin said.

Each mouse ate the same amount of food, but those with a super sense of smell gained the most weight.

The normal mice ballooned, too up to 100 percent from the weight they were when the research started.

But the mice who couldnt smell anything gained only 10 percent of their weight. Obese mice who had their sense of smell wiped out slimmed down to the size of normal counterparts without a change in diet.

Riera said the study, which was published this month in the journal Cell Metabolism, reveals that outside influences such as smell can affect the brains functions related to appetite and metabolism.

Other studies have shown that olfactory systems, the organs and lobes related to smell, can influence things like sexual behavior or fertility, but this study isnt related to internal functions or hormones, said Riera, a former UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow now at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

In the context of food and appetite, this is really novel, she said.

Using the studys methods in humans could be possible.

After eating, a persons sense of smell decreases. So, if a person was eating with a lessened sense of smell, the brain could be tricked into thinking its already been fed and choose to burn the calories instead of store them, Riera said.

People struggling with obesity could have their sense of smell wiped out or temporarily reduced to help them control cravings and burn calories and fat faster.

But there are risks.

People that dont have a sense of smell can get depressed, because the sense of smell is very important for behavior, Riera said. They lose all pleasure of eating.

People who lose their sense of smell from aging, injury or diseases like Parkinsons can also struggle with keeping weight on.

The mice in the study who lost their sense of smell also saw a significant increase in the hormone noradrenaline a stress response from the nervous system that can lead to a heart attack if levels are too high.

Eliminating a humans sense of smell would be a radical step, said Dillin, an expert in stem cell research. But it could also be an option for obese people who are considering such weight-reduction alternatives as stomach stapling or gastric-band surgery, even with the potential for high levels of noradrenaline.

In both humans and mice, decreasing or wiping out the sense of smell is only temporary. In the study, researchers injected a toxin that destroyed olfactory neurons in the nose, but they avoided the stem cells which allowed the neurons to grow back in three to eight weeks.

To use the method in a human population, scientists would need to know how many of the olfactory neurons to destroy and how often, Dillin said.

Because once the sense of smell comes back, the weight could also return.

Maybe once a year you block your sense of smell for a while and then you lose the weight from the year and do it all over again, Dillin said. We dont know yet. Theres a lot we still need to do.

Alison Graham is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: agraham@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @alisonkgraham

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Just smelling food can make you fat, UC Berkeley study says - SFGate

Video abstract presented by David Perez-Meza

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David Perez-Meza,1 Craig Ziering,2 Marcos Sforza,3 Ganesh Krishnan,4 Edward Ball,5 Eric Daniels6

1Ziering Medical, Marbella, Spain; 2Ziering Medical, Los Angeles, CA, USA; 3The Hospital Group, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, 4Ziering Medical, Birmingham, 5Ziering Medical, London, UK; 6Kerastem Technologies, San Diego, CA, USA

Abstract: Great interest remains in finding new and emerging therapies for the treatment of male and female pattern hair loss. The autologous fat grafting technique is >100 years old, with a recent and dramatic increase in clinical experience over the past 1015 years. Recently, in 2001, Zuk etal published the presence of adipose-derived stem cells, and abundant research has shown that adipose is a complex, biological active, and important tissue. Festa etal, in 2011, reported that adipocyte lineage cells support the stem cell niche and help drive the complex hair growth cycle. Adipose-derived regenerative cells (also known as stromal vascular fraction [SVF]) is a heterogeneous group of noncultured cells that can be reliably extracted from adipose by using automated systems, and these cells work largely by paracrine mechanisms to support adipocyte viability. While, today, autologous fat is transplanted primarily for esthetic and reconstructive volume, surgeons have previously reported positive skin and hair changes posttransplantation. This follicular regenerative approach is intriguing and raises the possibility that one can drive or restore the hair cycle in male and female pattern baldness by stimulating the niche with autologous fat enriched with SVF. In this first of a kind patient series, the authors report on the safety, tolerability, and quantitative, as well as photographic changes, in a group of patients with early genetic alopecia treated with subcutaneous scalp injection of enriched adipose tissue. The findings suggest that scalp stem cell-enriched fat grafting may represent a promising alternative approach to treating baldness in men and women.

Keywords: stem cell, alopecia, adipose, stromal vascular fraction, transplantation

This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License. By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.

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Hair follicle growth by stromal vascular fraction-enhanced adipose transplantation in baldness - Dove Medical Press

The secret to living to 100? This woman is convinced its wine.

Florence Bearse of Bangor, Maine, who recently celebrated her 100th birthday, told WLBZ the key to living a long life is a glass of wine.

I like my wine. Dont take it away from me, she told the broadcaster.

On her birthday, Bearse drank a glass of red, and was also treated to birthday cake, gifts and balloons. Working in the restaurant industry, WLBZ notes, Bearse said she learned how to dedicate her life to serve others.

READ MORE: 100-year-old Doug Snair may be the luckiest Canadian alive

This isnt the first time booze has been lauded for leading to a long life. Other centenarians have attributed their longevity to alcohol: in 2016, Antonio Docampo, who was 107, drank a mix of brandy and red wine daily, Mic reports.

And 105-year-old Eileen Ash, a yoga-loving grandmother in Norwich, England, said two glasses of red wine every day was the true key to living a long and healthy life, the BBC reports.

Vancouver-basedregistered dietitian Desiree Nielsen says the official rule on moderate drinking within a healthy lifestyle, is to consume no more than one standard drink a day for women and two a day for men.

The clincher here is what constitutes a standard drink. A 750-ml bottle should pour five to six drinks. Some wine goblets can easily drain a third of the bottle, she tells Global News.

READ MORE: 100-year-old South Carolina woman marks birthday by attempting to break world record

There have been countless studies on the health benefits of wine, especially red wine. One University of Alberta report found a glass of red wine was equivalent to an hour at the gym, Huffpost U.K. reports, while another study found red wine in moderation could also be beneficial to heart health.

The vast majority of research points to the polyphenols in red wine not white being the beneficial component, Nielsen says. White wine is made by removing the skin of the grapes before fermentation, which is where most of the phytochemical compounds are found. So if youre drinking as part of a healthy lifestyle, red is the better choice.

However, Nielsen says, if you dont drink much, you shouldnt start just because of this research (or because of anecdotes told by booze-loving 100-year-olds). You can get plenty of anti-inflammatory polyphenols from berries, green tea and naturally processed cocoa, she says.

While there is evidence that a moderate amount of wine may have health benefits, we also have to weigh that against the potential risks for the individual, she explains. If there is a strong family history of cancer, it is worth noting that any amount of alcohol consumption above zero increases risk a bit.

READ MORE: Is wine actually good for you? We asked 2 Harvard-educated doctors

If anti-inflammatory living and cardiovascular health are concerns, she says, red wine isnt a bad idea.

To keep your body as healthy as possible, I recommend going at least two or three days without any alcohol consumption, in line with national guidelines. Even better, keep drinks to the weekend most weeks, but just remember, you cant save up your weekly allotment and spend it all in two days.

arti.patel@globalnews.ca

2017Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

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100-year-old woman says the key to longevity is drinking wine - Globalnews.ca

A wise person once said, Great eyebrows dont happen by chance. They happen by appointment.

Although microblading has been a popular procedure in Asia and in Europe for over 25 years now, its relatively new in South Africa. Meaning, there arent too many places to get your eyebrows done yet. However, there are a few studios and practices introducing it to satisfy the otherwise meagerness Joburg market. This procedure can be performed in many different ways. And, anyone with a tattoo license may perform the cosmetic procedure. Henceforth, the procedure may often be performed by untrained professionals. Given the nature of this procedure, it also comes highly advised to do some research to verify the credentials of the practitioner you select. Here are a few trusted professionals in Joburg to hopefully help make your decision.

Brow Specialist Samantha Divaris and her team of highly skilled professionals run thisdexterous studio in glamorousbustle of Melrose Arch. Diviaris boastsa Masters in Health and Skincare Therapy from the renowned Beauty Therapy Institute in Cape Town amongst other impressive qualifications. The self- confessed perfectionist developed her love and passion for eyebrows 13 years ago. Amongst her team is brow and microblading specialist Monique. 7 years of experience in the beauty industry and being internationally accredited explainjust some of Moniques credentials.

Positioned in Weltevreden Park, Roodepoort, the boutique hasonly been open since 2016. However, the boutique isowned by the incredibly impressiveJess Hollingdrake. Afterqualifyingwith international Masters Training in Microblading, Colour Knowledge and PigmentRemoval, Jess established herself as one of the first microblading artists in South Africa. This small boutique salon is situated in a small boutique garden setting.

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Want To Try Microblading In Joburg? - Longevity LIVE