Stem Cell Administration Study Demonstrates Improved Quality Of Life For Patients Suffering From Spinal Cord Injury

DaVinci Biosciences, in collaboration with Luis Vernaza Hospital in Ecuador, have announced the publication of study results demonstrating the safety and feasibility of its acute and chronic spinal cord injury treatment platform in Cell Transplantation, a peer-reviewed journal focused on regenerative medicine. The study demonstrates that administering adult autologous bone marrow derived stem cells via multiple routes is feasible, safe, and most importantly, improves the quality of life for both acute and chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. Continue Reading »

U.S. behind on embryonic stem cell research

When I taught at Rutgers University, my department chair was Wise Young, a pioneer in spinal chord rehabilitation. The Keck Center, where the research was done, was conveniently in the same building as my honors class, and they graciously gave us tours. This state-of-the-art facility is designed with low lab benches, so wheelchair-bound people can participate in the research and work in the lab. Dr. Young’s lab has been successful in getting a paralyzed rat with spinal chord injury to walk again. Because of the lack of funding in the U.S., foreign countries — especially China — have taken up the cause, and the U.S. is again left behind in scientific research. There is a network of 24 major spinal-cord injury centers in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Dr. Young writes: “For nearly eight years, the Bush Administration has suppressed not only embryonic stem cell (ESC) research but all stem cell research, even though stem cells are widely acknowledged by scientists to be the most important biomedical advance of the decade. Continue Reading »

Hans Keirstead to brief Congress on stem cell research

UCI scientist is behind the field’s first human clinical trial

Irvine, Calif., UC Irvine’s Hans Keirstead – the neurobiologist behind what will be the world’s first human embryonic stem cell clinical trial – will brief Congress on the state of the field 10-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 24, in Washington, D.C.

Keirstead will join Robert Klein, a spinal-cord-injury research advocate, and Thomas Okarma, Geron Corp. president and chief executive officer, for the briefing, in Room H-122 of the Capitol. Geron will conduct the clinical trial for Keirstead’s acute-spinal-cord-injury therapy. Continue Reading »

The Whole World Is Watching

Hope—and anxiety—run high as the first clinical trial of embryonic-stem-cell therapy begins this summer.

Six weeks before the hoopla over President Barack Obama’s executive order lifting restrictions on embryonic-stem-cell research, Hans Keirstead, a scientist at the University of California, Irvine, was already sipping champagne. In 2005 Keirstead had published a study showing that a therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells could make partially paralyzed rats walk. Continue Reading »

Therapeutic Hypothermia Is Promising Strategy To Minimize Tissue Damage

Recognition of the benefits of cooling strategies to protect the brain and spinal cord after traumatic injury has led to a wealth of cutting edge research, prime examples of which are featured in a special hypothermia issue of Journal of Neurotrauma, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The issue will be available free online at http://www.liebertpub.com/products/product.aspx?pid=39

The issue includes a series of original articles presenting experimental and clinical evidence to support the use of modest hypothermia in specific conditions. Continue Reading »

Bone marrow stem cell injections may help cure spinal cord injury

Washington: Injecting a patient’s own bone marrow-derived stem cells
into the spinal column using multiple routes can be an effective treatment for spinal cord injury (SCI), say researchers.

Scientists from DaVinci Biosciences, Costa Mesa, California, and Hospital Luis Vernaza in Ecuador say that such a treatment can return some quality of life for SCI patients without serious adverse events. Continue Reading »

Neuralstem’s Human Stem Cells Integrate into Nervous System of Rats with Animal Model of ALS

Make Synaptic Contact with Host Motor Neurons

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Transplanted human neural stem cells (hNSCs) developed by Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Alternext US: CUR) made synaptic contacts with the motor neurons of rats with ALS-like symptoms, a paper published in the current online edition of the Journal of Comparative Neurology reported. This constitutes evidence that the transplanted cells integrated into the nervous system of the host. The rats had a genetic mutation called SOD-1 G93A which gives them a disease similar to ALS in humans. Continue Reading »

FDA Clears Way For Human Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy

New York, NY (NBC) — The Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first-ever human trial of a medical treatment, derived from embryonic stem cells.

The company plans to start testing this embryonic stem cell therapy on patients with spinal cord injuries.

Members of one spinal cord injury peer support group are buzzing about Menlo Park Company’s efforts to use embryonic stem cell therapy on people with spinal cord injuries. Continue Reading »

American attitudes to stem-cell therapies are changing fast

Can I serve you now?

FOR the past eight years, America’s government has declined to fund new research into one of the world’s most promising medical technologies: the use of human embryonic stem cells to repair or replace damaged tissue in the diseased and injured. Embryonic stem cells are special for two reasons, one scientific and one ethical. The scientific reason is that they are able to turn into any of the body’s myriad cell types, which is why they might be used in this way. Continue Reading »

UCI behind world’s first embryonic stem cell study in humans

FDA approves Geron Corp. clinical trial for spinal cord injury treatment

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 23, 2009 A therapy developed at UC Irvine that made paralyzed rats walk again will become the world’s first embryonic stem cell treatment tested in humans. Continue Reading »