Stem-cell legislation a turning point for Iowa

In the next few days, the Iowa General Assembly will have the opportunity of a generation: It can improve the quality of life for tens of thousands of Iowans by passing the Iowa Stem Cell Research and Cures Initiative.

Stem cells hold enormous promise for treating and curing conditions such as diabetes, cancer, blindness, and paralysis from spinal-cord injury, liver disease, heart disease, burns, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, and many others. Continue Reading »

Centocor Successor’s Goal: Stem-Cell Treatments

PHILADELPHIA _ Not in her wildest dreams did Anne Faulkner Schoemaker imagine she would one day run the small Malvern, Pa., company on the frontier of stem-cell science that was the vision of her late husband, Dutch-born entrepreneur Hubert J.P. Schoemaker.

“But here I am,” said the interim chief executive officer of Neuronyx Inc., in the office once occupied by the man who was an inspiration and mentor to many of the Philadelphia area’s Biotechnology industry scientists and executives. Continue Reading »

Stem cell agency awards millions

20 state universities, labs – including UC Irvine – share nearly $45 million.

BURLINGAME — California’s stem cell agency on Friday doled out nearly $45 million in research grants to about 20 state universities and nonprofit research laboratories, far exceeding the federal government’s annual outlays for the controversial work.

In issuing the first significant research grants in its two-year history, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine became the biggest financial backer of human embryonic stem cell research.

The University of California, Irvine received six grants totaling $3.6 million. Continue Reading »

Paralyzed men can be fathers

CHICAGO — In the weeks following the car accident that left him paralyzed below the waist, Geoff Luther was haunted by worries that he’d lost the chance to be a father.

Then 27, he hadn’t yet fallen in love with the woman of his dreams. When he did, he wanted to start a family with her. But how?

“It was some of the stuff I was thinking about the most,” said Luther, who rolled his S-10 Blazer on black ice. “What about having children? What about getting married? Can you naturally conceive a family?” Continue Reading »

‘Smart’ prosthetics: restoring independence to people with disabilities

People with paralysis can stand and move without a wheelchair. They can operate computers to read email and play video games. Brown University neuroscientist John Donoghue said these recent achievements are previews of a major promise of neurotechnology – restoring movement control and communication to people immobilized by injury or disease.

“We’re at the dawn of a new age of neurotechnology,” Donoghue said. “Thanks to advances in biology, medicine, computer science and engineering, we can repair the human nervous system – not with tissue but with technology. Nearly 100,000 people have cochlear implants that provide a sense of sound to the deaf. Continue Reading »

Over $40 Million In Stem Cell Grants Awarded

Gov. Schwarzenegger In Burlingame

Feb. 16 – KGO – It was an historic day for stem cell research. The first grants were made today to the California agency that was created by voters two years ago, to spend three billion dollars in public funds to find medical cures.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, (R) California: “They’re our newest action heroes.”

Governor Schwarzenegger is referring to the scientists and doctors who are the first to receive stem cell research grants. The 29 board members of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine had 231 applications to consider. Continue Reading »

70% of Spinal Cord Injuries in Children Result from Motor Vehicle Accidents; Most Not Wearing Seatbelts

Newswise — Of the nearly 1,500 spinal cord injuries (SCIs) sustained by children age 18 and younger every year, approximately 70 percent are a result of a Motor vehicle accident. In 68 percent of those accidents, the child is not wearing a seatbelt. These findings—from one of the first studies to report on the incidence and causes of pediatric SCI—are authored by physician-scientists at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center, and published in a recent issue of the Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics.

Other common causes of pediatric SCI include accidental fall (14 percent), firearm injury (9 percent) and sports injury (7 percent). Alcohol and drugs were involved in 30 percent of all cases. Continue Reading »

Neuronal Differentiation Of Human Neural Stem Cell Grafts In Adult Rat Spinal Cord

Human neural stem cell grafts can show neuronal differentiation in the normal and injured spinal cord of adult rats. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Neuralstem Inc, led by Vassilis Koliatsos, grafted neural stem cell grafts derived from spinal cord of a single eight week fetus, into the lower spinal cord of normal or injured immune deficient adult rats. As part of the differentiation, the researchers found that some of these cells grew axons (the long arms of nerve cells) and some were able to form cell to cell contacts (synapses) with Motor neurons of the host rats. These results challenge previous assumptions that the spinal cord is unable to support the differentiation of neurons from stem cell grafts. Continue Reading »

Study: Spinal cord can repair itself

BALTIMORE, Feb. 14 (UPI) — U.S. scientists say they have disproved the long-held theory that the spinal cord is incapable of repairing itself.

The Johns Hopkins University researchers say human nerve stem cells they transplanted into damaged spinal cords of rats have survived, grown and in some cases connected with the rats’ own spinal cord cells. Continue Reading »

California Stem Cell Debate Goes Back To Court

SAN FRANCISCO (Dow Jones) — The fight over control of $3 billion worth of funding for stem cell research in California goes back to court this week, as one side in the legal battle challenges an earlier court ruling on the constitutionality of the California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act.

The California Stem Cell Research and Cures Act, or Prop. 71, was approved by voters in 2004 and created a state-controlled agency to oversee the issuance of $3 billion in bonds. Those bonds translate into about $300 million a year in grants over 10 years for stem cell research at California universities and research institutions. Continue Reading »