Category Archives: California Stem Cells

Stem cell characterization is the study of tissue-specific differentiation. Thera are various type of stem cell such as embryonic stem cell, epithelial stem cell and others. Further, various techniques are used to characterized stem cells such as immunological techniques, used for depiction of different population of stem cells. These techniques are generally based on immunochemistry using staining technique or florescent microscopy. Besides, stem cells characterization and analysis tools are used against target chronic diseases. In 2014, the San Diego (UCSD) Health System and Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at the University of California announced the launch of a clinical trial, in order to assess the safety of neural stem cellbased therapy in patients with chronic spinal cord injury.

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The factors driving the growth of stem cell characterization and analysis tools market due to increasing chronic disorders such as cancer, a diabetes and others. In addition, increasing awareness about among people about the therapeutic potency of stem cells characterization in the management of effective diseases is anticipated to increase the demand for stem cell characterization and analysis tools. Further, there are various technologies such as flow cytometry which is used to characterize the cell surface profiling of human-bone marrow and other related purposes are expected to increase the growth of stem cell characterization and analysis tools market. In addition, increasing investment by private and public organization for research activities are likely to supplement the market growth in near future.

On the other hand, the unclear guidelines and the technical limitation for the development of the product are expected to hamper the growth of stem cell characterization and analysis tools market.

Rapid increase in corona virus all around the world is expected to hamper the growth of stem cell characterization and analysis tools market. The virus outburst has become one of the threats to the global economy and financial markets. The impact has made immense decrease in revenue generation in the field of all healthcare industry growth for the market in terms of compatibility and it has led in huge financial losses and human life which has hit very hard to the core of developing as well as emerging economies in healthcare sector. It further anticipated that such gloomy epidemiological pandemic environment is going to remain in next for at least some months, and this is going to also affect the life-science market which also include the market of stem cell characterization and analysis tools market.

Based on the Products and Service Type, stem cell characterization and analysis tools market are segmented into:

Based on the Technology, stem cell characterization and analysis tools market are segmented into:

Based on the Applications, stem cell characterization and analysis tools market are segmented into:

Based on the End User, stem cell characterization and analysis tools market are segmented into:

Based on the segmentation, human embryonic stem cell is expected to dominate the market due to their indefinite life span and higher totipotency as compared to other stem cells. Further, on the basis of technology segmentations, cell production is anticipated to increase the demand for stem cell characterization and analysis tools due to their emerging applications for stem cells in drug testing in the management of the effective diseases. Furthermore, on the basis of application segmentations, oncology is expected to show significant growth rate due to increase in the number of pipelines products for the treatment of cancers or tumors. Based on the end user, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are expected to dominate the market due to rising global awareness about the therapeutics research activities.

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Geographically, the global stem cell characterization and analysis tools market is segmented into regions such as Latin America, Europe, North America, South Asia, East Asia Middle East & Africa and Oceania. North America is projected to emerge as prominent market in the global stem cell characterization and analysis tools market due to growing cases of target chronic diseases and increasing investments for research activities. Europe is the second leading region to dominate the market due to technological advancement and also surge in therapeutic activities, funded by government across the world. Asia-pacific is likely to witness maximum growth in near future due to increasing disposable income and with the development of infrastructure.

Some of the major key players competing in the global stem cell characterization and analysis tools market are Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., Caladrius Biosciences, Inc., U.S. Stem Cell, Inc., Astellas Pharma Inc., TEMCELL Technologies Inc., BioTime Inc., Cellular Engineering Technologies Inc., Cytori Therapeutics, Inc., and BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics Inc.

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Impact of COVID 19 pandemic on Stem Cell Characterization and Analysis Tools Market Structure and Its Segmentation - 3rd Watch News

Tanya Klowden is a physicist with a background in design and history whose work is focused on identifying the works and telling the stories of unrecognized and underappreciated artists and voices in history.

Over the past several weeks, the outcries over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, combined with recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky have grown to a dull roar, finally focusing our nation on the tremendous risk of violence and death borne on a daily basis by people of color within this country. As our broader population has begun to address the widespread and persistent violence that has plagued minority communities for generations, medical researchers in the past few weeks have expressed significant concern over another urgent threat, finding a much higher death rate from COVID-19 within our African-American communities here in California and in the country as a whole.

We have observed over the past several weeks what we already knew, or at least should have known, that disease falls hardest on the most underprivileged and that minorities in particular, independent of their economic status, are at a higher risk of death. The non-partisan APM research lab released figures showing that African-Americans have died from COVID-19 alone at a rate of 50.3 per 100,000 people- well over twice the rates for whites (20.7), Latinos (22.9) and Asian Americans (22.7). There are several reasons for this, none of which is biological susceptibility. Most of the difficulties are direct impacts of systematic racism, so it is important we look at some of these issues to better understand why they are amplifying, rather than suppressing, the impact of disease.

In fact, per capita public health spending (and public education spending) is measurably lower in most regions in this country with a significantly higher African-American population. While lower public health spending in your region will result in poorer outcomes all by itself, medical professionals find that they are also struggling with high levels of distrust from minorities, particularly from those in the older generations. The more privileged you are, the less likely you are to have ever been treated by, and simultaneously not trusted, your doctor. As a privileged person, you probably learned about the Hippocratic oath at a young age and always accepted that your doctor made a promise to help, not harm, in all circumstances.

To help place you in the mindset of someone who has been given no reason to trust doctors and every reason to fear them, I have for you the story of Henrietta Lacks. Henrietta Lacks was an African-American woman born in 1920. She worked as a tobacco farmer and was a mother from an early age. When she was thirty, after giving birth and hemorrhaging severely after, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She was given routine (at the time) treatment for her cancer and instructed to follow up with the hospital. During followup treatment she was admitted to the hospital at her request due to severe abdominal pain and remained hospitalized until her death two months later, in 1951.

For a very long time, that seemed to be the end of Henrietta Lacks story. What is both remarkable and deeply problematic is that her contributions to society did not end at her death. Henrietta Lacks has saved your life and my life and she is absolutely on the front-line fighting against Covid-19 right now.

During her treatments, healthy and cancerous tissue was sampled from her body without her knowledge or consent. Those cells were cultured and displayed the unique ability to reproduce endlessly and remain alive within a culture for far longer than any previous cell lines medicine had studied. Anonymized simply as the HeLa cell line, they became the standard for human medical research; Henriettas bodyweight in cell mass being grown millions of times over (over 50 million metric tons as of 2011) to meet the insatiable needs of modern medicine. Without Henrietta Lacks, there would have been no California Stem Cell Initiative and no California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, among numerous efforts that have enabled the rise of biotechnology and life science research in the state.

Not only was Henrietta herself never able to give consent to this or any use, her family did not even know of the existence and tremendous spread of her genetic material until early in the 21st century, by which time HeLa usage was so widespread there was no ability to grant or withdraw consent. As of 2013, the only gain her family has secured from her legacy is a promise from the NIH of acknowledgement in subsequent scientific papers and two seats on a panel regulating access to her DNA sequence going forward. While Henrietta Lacks story is extraordinary, her treatment by the medical community is in many ways typical of the healthcare African Americans have experienced over the last 70 years, with African-American healthcare prior to that being literally the stuff of nightmares. Within the past century, there are plentiful accounts of forced sterilizations, of being placed in trials without their knowledge or consent, of being accused of lying when recounting their history or symptoms, of being lied to, and even of being straight-up experimented on as an expendable population. In light of this history, it becomes much clearer why many minority groups would push back when told to sacrifice their jobs to keep others healthy, to stay home when the grocery store shelves are emptying, to leave the hospital when a relative is struggling for breath with no way of knowing what will happen to their loved one inside the hospital doors once they are not there to watch over them.

When this is compounded by widespread suspicion of any African-American individual wearing a mask who walks their dog or goes to a market to shop, the significant risk of grave harm is only compounded further. While the loudest voices against masks have been those of angry white people upset at the disruption of their privilege, minorities are very aware that at the intersection of masks, profiling, and persons of color the health risks of mask wearing are very real. In recent weeks, we have already seen violence inflicted on African-Americans for looking suspicious by being in public while following CDC guidelines. In April, a succinct tweet circulated stating it bluntly. I dont want to die and on the other hand, I dont want to die. Jokes from the privileged about committing crimes, being nefarious, or shady need to stop. None of that does what is urgently needed, which is to normalize mask usage among all groups so that it can help slow the spread of disease. We can instead treat people of color within our communities with respect, and listen to their perspectives in navigating through this global health crisis.

The pain and death we are inflicting on the African-American community may be far more apparent now, but we need to recognize and address the fundamental wrongs that extend far beyond policing, and even healthcare. We are not going to fix this environment overnight, but we definitely do not need to make it worse. Right now our minority communities urgently need funding. Public health funding is absolutely critical but these communities also need funding to provide masks and other desperately needed protective equipment to every individual who must spend long hours working in public spaces, funding to keep people securely housed, with ample access to healthy food, funding for widespread, low-cost (or free) internet connectivity so that the poorest children within our society can continue to be educated through distance-learning alongside their more privileged peers. Looking further ahead, we desperately need to nurture a new generation of African-American scientists and doctors by reaching out to students early, while they are still in primary school, and we need to rebuild bridges to the community with better, more accessible and trusted healthcare. Weve already collectively inflicted plenty of harm, we can at least start to make steps towards making their situation better.

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Inequality in COVID-19 Has Other Dangerous Consequences - Fox and Hounds Daily

SAN FRANCISCO, June 29, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Entitled "Randomized, Double Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Safety and Efficacy Study of Dutogliptin in Combination with Filgrastim in Early Recovery Post-Myocardial Infarction: rationale, design and first interim analysis", the presentation provides an initial insight into patient outcomes of the trial that is currently ongoing in multiple centers. Patients included in this trial experienced a severe form of Myocardial Infarction known as STEMI. Soon after the initial intervention to re-establish adequate blood flow to the coronary arteries, patients begin a two-week treatment with Recardio's dutogliptin, a small molecule that enables sustained homing of mobilised stem cells to the site of cardiac injury. By releasing paracrine factors, stem cells have been shown to have significant repair and regenerative effects that improve healing and recovery of cardiac function after the infarction.

More information about the clinical program is available by visiting the "clinicaltrials.gov" website at the following link:https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03486080

About Recardio

Recardio Inc. is a clinical-stage life science company focusing ontherapies for cardiovascular, oncology and infectious diseases. The company is located in San Francisco, California, and hasoperations in the USA and Europe.The company's lead drug candidate, dutogliptin, is a DPP-IV inhibitor that has demonstrated significant effects in activating various chemokines like SDF-1, a protein that is critical for cardiac regeneration. In addition to its current Phase 2 cardiovascular clinical program, Recardio will fully develop the therapeutic platform as a regenerative medication for patients with various cardiovascular diseases including acute myocardial infarction and chronic heart failure, with the potential of improving heart function, quality of life and survival.

For more information, visit:http://www.recardio.eu/or contact[emailprotected]

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Interim Analysis of Recardio's Phase II Clinical Trial to Be Presented at the 2020 Congress of the European Society of Cardiology - PRNewswire

By Alex Kormann Star Tribune

June 29, 2020 11:29am

Taylor Bustos rubbed her newly shaved head in the dimly lit basement of her temporary Rochester home as an intrepid thought seized her. This better freaking be the last time.

Two years ago, Bustos was happy. She was 20, recently married and had just found out she was pregnant with her first child. Taylor and her husband, Mark, 21, envisioned moving from Duluth to California and raising half a dozen kids. But those plans would have to wait.

Five months into her pregnancy, Bustos felt a lump on her neck. On Oct. 5, 2018, just a month after giving birth to her son, Solomon, she was diagnosed with nodular sclerosis classical Hodgkins lymphoma. Its the most common type of Hodgkins lymphoma, a cancer that affects the bodys immune system.

I was told, This is the good cancer, its curable, Bustos said. She underwent six months of chemotherapy at St. Lukes Radiation Oncology Associates in Duluth and was declared in remission in April 2019. After that, life went pretty much back to normal.

But last November, just before her first follow-up PET CT scan, Bustos prepared for the worst. A few weeks earlier, she had felt the lump in her neck return.

Soon later, she was back at St. Lukes, prepared to receive whatever news may come. Mark tossed a bright pink ball to Solomon to distract the boy and himself from the mounting anxiety as they waited for what felt like an eternity in the small examination room.

The young father was also trying to manage his stress from recently learning he was being laid off from his construction job. The doctor finally stepped in.

Taylor Bustos got a follow-up PET CT scan in her first follow-up scan since being declared cancer free six months earlier. It was not good news. More chemotherapy. She slept through most of her treatments as the potent drugs worked to rid her body of cancer. When Taylors hair started to fall out in clumps, Mark shaved her head. But again, her family didnt let her do this alone.

Im sitting there with a one-year-old and my husband of two years and theyre telling me at 22 years old that I have cancer for the second time, Bustos said.

She had gone into the meeting with the mind-set that she would never endure chemotherapy again. It was physically and mentally unlike any other suffering Ive ever gone through in my life and I didnt want to willingly say yes to going back there, Bustos said.

After a week of thinking and praying, Bustos stumbled across a Facebook post from a friend who had recently lost his father in a house fire. His words resonated so deeply with her that she decided she couldnt just lay down and die. This cancer could kill me, but dont I want my sweet son to know I tried? she said.

Once again, she went in for treatments, then slept for three days. The big difference this time was that, to make sure the cancer never came back, she was going to have to follow the doctors next recommendation.

On March 2, the Bustos family picked up and moved 200 miles across the state to Rochester for three months where she would undergo some of the most toxic chemotherapy available at the Mayo Clinic. The mix was so potent that she had to first undergo a stem cell collection; those stem cells would be transplanted afterward to regrow her immune system and other healthy cells decimated by the chemo.

Marks layoff, which at first seemed like a disaster, was now a gift. He could assume a larger role as the family caretaker. Some people might call that luck, but the Bustoss dont believe in luck. For them, it was an act of God.

When it came time to move, Taylors parents, Pam and Jerry, who live across the street from the Bustoses in Duluth, moved with them to help take care of Solomon and Taylor.

It really wasnt a difficult decision, said Jerry, who is a warehouse operator at a Duluth paper supply business.

For me, he said, I would do whatever it takes to get her healthy.

Above left, Taylor entered Mayo Clinic for a week of continuous chemotherapy treatment in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. When she got home, cuddles from son Solomon and sleeping in her own bed were two longed-for moments.

Their family squeezed as much as they could into their two cars, boxes stacked to the roof, rendering the rearview mirror useless. The family settled into a small house only a mile away from the Mayo Clinic.

Just over a week later, COVID-19 hit.

We knew Id have a weakened immune system and wed have to quarantine, Bustos said, but suddenly the whole world had to quarantine, too.

They stayed closely connected with their church through video chat and live streams. In solidarity, her entire family shaved their heads along with Bustos.

A little over a month after moving, Bustos prepared for her most difficult round of chemotherapy. All the effects of normal chemo, including nausea, exhaustion, loss of appetite and body pain would be amplified. And because of the coronavirus, she would be doing it alone. She packed her keyboard piano, a weeks worth of clothes, a few mementos from home and headed to the hospital. She would have to stay in a heavily filtered room by herself for a full week as she underwent treatment.

Masked nurses came and went as Bustos tried to picture what they looked like under all the PPE. Most days, she felt immensely lonely and sad. Originally, she was told shed be able to go home to see her family for one hour per day. The pandemic scrapped those plans. I would cry and nurses couldnt put their hand on my shoulder to tell me, Its OK, because of the coronavirus, Bustos said.

When she was finally able to return to her family a full week later, Bustos was ecstatic. To be able to be hugged was a very welcome relief from despair, she said.

She began to try and process what had happened to her over the last five months. She felt distant from and misunderstood by nearly everyone around her. It can look like its going well from the outside but when you literally want to die, the emotional side of things needs to be handled, she said.

Bustos has since begun therapy and is taking anti-depressants to help manage her mental pain.

As the family moved out of Rochester, the snow was gone. Birds chirped and flowers bloomed; a sign of rebirth and a new beginning.

When they pulled up in front of their apartment in Duluth, chalk drawings graced their sidewalk welcoming them home. Their front door was covered in balloons and a welcome banner was strung across the door frame, all put together by members of Bustoss church youth group.

Bustos collapsed on her old bed. She thought shed feel different in their own apartment, but it oddly felt the same. She had come to realize that home was no longer a physical space. Cancer changed that.

Home for me has become Mark and Solomon, she said, and so whether were in Rochester, Duluth or Timbuktu, Im home when Im with them.

Alex Kormann on Instagram: @alexkormann12

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In the middle of a pandemic, a young Minnesota mother fights her second cancer diagnosis - Minneapolis Star Tribune

RYE BROOK, N.Y., July 1, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Seeking to ignite the next major breakthroughs to treat blood cancers, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS), The Mark Foundation, and The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group today announced more than $6.75 million awarded to nine of the most exceptional scientists in the field.

The innovative Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program is designed to encourage researchers with deep experience in the blood cancers to conduct critical basic research in hopes of unleashing the next wave of novel approaches to treating leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myelodysplastic syndromes; together, these cancers are the 2nd leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S.

"Over our 70-year history, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been at the forefront of revolutionary cancer treatments from the early days of chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation to the leading edge discoveries of immunotherapy and precision medicine; our investment in research is nearly $1.3 billion over that time," said Lee Greenberger, LLS's chief scientific officer. "With this new initiative, LLS maintains its role as a driver of innovation, supporting early stage research to propel discoveries that might lead to the next generation of treatments and cures, and help accelerate promising therapies to patients."

The grants are awarded to researchers seeking to understand the biological underpinnings of various blood cancers, what causes them to develop and grow, or become resistant to treatments. Each project will be supported by an award of $750,000 over a three-year period.

"In science, collaboration can accelerate the pace of achievement," said Michele Cleary, Ph.D., CEO ofThe Mark Foundation for Cancer Research."Similarly, this three-way partnership among foundations will accelerate our understanding of cancer biology by empowering some of the brightest scientists to simultaneously probe unique but challenging areas of unmet need. We look forward to the discoveries that will result from these efforts."

Added Kathryn Richmond, Ph.D., MBA, director of the Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute,"Our organizationis committed to pushing the boundaries of bioscience and accelerating discoveries to make a difference for humankind, and we believe these grants will be a catalyst that will spark innovative new directions in blood cancer research."

"We are grateful that the Frontiers Group and Mark Foundation have aligned with us to fund some of the greatest minds in cancer discovery," said LLS's Greenberger. "Collaboratingwith foundations who share a common goal of fueling leading-edge research to advance cures and better, safer treatments for cancer patients is critical to advancing our mission."

The Blood Cancer Discoveries Grant Program recipientsare:

Robert Bradley, Ph.D. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center Dr. Bradley is investigating the mutations in the SF3B1 protein and their connection with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and leukemias, and exploring this protein as a therapeutic target.

Catriona Jamieson, M.D., Ph.D. University of California San Diego Dr. Jamieson is examining the role of two enzymes (APOBEC3 and ADAR1) known to mutate DNA and RNA and their role in AML and disease relapse, particularly in elderly patients.

Ronald (Ron) Levy, M.D. Stanford University School of Medicine Dr. Levy is investigating a pre-clinical "off-the-shelf" CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T-cell immunotherapy approach where the CAR cells are generated directly in the patient's body.

Ravindra (Ravi) Majeti, M.D., Ph.D. Stanford University School of Medicine Dr. Majeti is generating cell-based models to test the progression of preleukemic cells into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). His lab will use these models to test potential therapies and the role of the microenvironment in disease progression.

Markus Mschen M.D., Ph.D. City of Hope Dr. Mschen studies mechanisms of tumor-initiation in B-cell malignancies, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. These studies focus on negative regulators of the WNT/b-catenin pathway as potential diagnostic marker and therapeutic target.

Susan Schwab, Ph.D. New York University Dr. Schwab is examining the mechanism of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) cells that allow them to enter and accumulate in the central nervous system when the disease spreads to the brain.

Margaret Shipp, M.D. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ Harvard Medical School Dr. Shipp and her colleague, Scott J. Rodig, MD, Ph.D.,are mapping the immune microenvironment in classical Hodgkin lymphoma.

Robert Signer, Ph.D. University of California San Diego Dr. Signer is investigating how the biological process of building defective proteins (inaccurate protein synthesis) plays a role in the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in the hopes of developing targeted therapies to treat this condition.

Daniel T. Starczynowski, Ph.D Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation Dr. Starczynowski is investigating the role and potential therapeutic benefit of targeting of a protein called UBE2N in acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Click herefor more details on each awardee.

About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is a global leader in the fight against cancer. The LLS mission: cure leukemia, lymphoma, multiplemyeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. LLS funds lifesaving blood cancer research around the world, provides free information and support services, and is the voice for all blood cancer patients seeking access to quality, affordable, coordinated care.

Founded in 1949 and headquartered in Rye Brook, NY, LLS has chapters throughout the United States and Canada. To learn more, visitwww.LLS.org. Patients should contact the Information Resource Center at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., ET.

The LLS Children's Initiative: Cures and Care for Children with Cancer TheLLS Children's Initiativeis a $100 million multi-year effort to take on children's cancer through every facet of LLS's mission: research, patient education and support and policy and advocacy. The LLS Children's Initiative includes: more pediatric research grants, a global precision medicine clinical trial, expanded free education and support services for children and families and driving policies and laws that break down barriers to care. To learn more, visitwww.lls.org/childrens-initiative.

About The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research actively partners with scientists to accelerate research that will transform the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer. The Mark Foundation fulfills its mission by supporting groundbreaking science carried out by individual investigators, multi-disciplinary teams, and inter-institutional collaborations in the United States and across the globe. Recognizing the obstacles that prevent scientific advances from improving patient outcomes, The Mark Foundation maintains a nimble, high-impact approach to funding research through grants for basic and translational cancer research and investments in early-stage companies that bridge the gap between bench and bedside. Since its launch in 2017, the Mark Foundation has awarded over $90 million in grant funding to over 50 institutions in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe. To learn more, visit http://www.themarkfoundation.org

About The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group, a division of the Allen Institute,is dedicated to exploringthe landscape of bioscience to identify and foster ideas that will change the world. The Frontiers Group directs funding through award mechanisms to accelerate our understanding of biology, including: Allen Discovery Centers at partner institutions forleadership-driven, compass-guided research, and Allen Distinguished Investigatorsforfrontier explorations with exceptional creativity and potential impact.The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Groupwas foundedin 2016 by the late philanthropist and visionary Paul G. Allen. For more information, visit allenfrontiersgroup.org.

Contact: Andrea Greif [emailprotected] (914) 821-8958

SOURCE The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS)

https://www.lls.org

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The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research and The Paul G. Allen Frontiers Group Partner to Award $6.75M in New...

Residents of the Caribbean know that between a tropical storm and a major hurricane, there is a world of difference. Both bring rain and winds, but weathering and surviving a hurricane requires much greater response and resilience.

Dr. Javier Perez Fernandez, a specialist in critical care medicine and pulmonology at Baptist Health South Florida, views COVID-19 infections in a similar way. While some hospitalised patients face a tropical storm, others are battling a category five hurricane.

Through a new stem-cell treatment, Perez says doctors at Baptist Health and Miami Cancer Institute hope to control the magnitude of COVID-19 storms and mitigate the viruss effects in the most severely affected patients.

As researchers worldwide work against the clock to fight the novel coronavirus, Perez views the stem-cell treatment as one with potential for widespread adoption, including in the Cayman Islands.

It converts this category five hurricane that you have inside into a tropical storm, Perez said, explaining that while the treatment cannot cure the virus, it may save lives.

The investigational drug, developed from sentinel or original cells attached to the umbilical cord, takes aim at another kind of storm, produced when the bodys immune system goes into overdrive.

A cytokine storm, seen in fatal COVID-19 cases, occurs when cytokine molecules are released by the body as an immune system response to fight infection. An excessive release of these molecules can result in hyperinflammation, organ failure and death.

With a stem cell injection, however, Perez says doctors have been able to control this cytokine storm and reduce COVID-19 impacts, such as respiratory distress.

As the cytokine storms really affect the lungs, mostly weve seen significant changes on oxygenation of people while we are delivering the cells, Perez said.

Weve seen very good responses on the patients that we have infused, and we have seen responses that lead to a reduction in the oxygen level [administered] by 50% of what they were using.

The studys results are still not ready to disclose, and Perez said the rate of research is contingent on the number of patients admitted to critical care units at partner facilities.

In that sense, he hopes the study will remain unfinished, due to a lack of severely ill patients.

I think the main limitation for faster development has been the lower number of patients that we have on intensive care units, he said.

The stem cell study has incorporated partners from several US universities, including Florida International University and University of South Dakota, and RESTEM, a California biotechnology company that develops treatments for degenerative and immune-system disorders.

Once the treatment has gone through the full development and approval process, Perez sees Cayman as one of the locations that could benefit from its use.

Well be absolutely happy [to bring] not only that treatment but any other form of treatment, to be there for the people of Cayman, Perez said.

During the 17 June press briefing, Caymans Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Lee mentioned another novel COVID-19 treatment, a steroid called dexamethasone, that is showing promise in the United Kingdom.

Its been shown to reduce deaths by up to a third and has already received approval for emergency use in the United Kingdom, Lee said, adding that he anticipates the drug will be approved and made available elsewhere.

The drug, developed by scientists at the University of Oxford, is the first treatment shown to aid severely ill COVID-19 patients. Similar to the stem-cell treatment being studied by Baptist Health, dexamethasone treatment aims to reduce the effects of cytokine storms and mitigate the potentially deadly impact of an uncontrolled immune-system response.

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Stem cell study aims to fight the COVID-19 'storm' - Cayman Compass

In December 2015, as representatives from United Nations member states were finalising what would become the Paris Agreement on climate change, Duncan Cameron stood before a crowd of delegates and warned them about an environmental catastrophe happening right beneath their feet.

A soil biologist and co-director of the University of Sheffields Institute for Sustainable Food, Cameron had long known that the amount of farmland capable of growing nutrient-rich crops was shrinking, but he didnt know how fast. For the previous year, Camerons team had analysed the scattershot data available on arable land loss, and what they found was disturbing: in the past four decades, the world lost up to one-third of its arable land to soil degradation and resulting erosion. Without alternatives, already fragile agricultural systems are on the verge of collapse, raising the prospect of a world filled with farms that cant grow enough food.

Its quite a terrifying amount, Cameron says. We hear that we can solve a lot of these problems in terms of food insecurity by wasting less and getting more efficient, but that isn't going to give us everything we need. Now, an emerging group of startups and researchers are convinced that answers to the impending food crisis may not lie on land at all instead theyre looking to the ocean and to feed future populations with crops grown on floating farms and fed by seawater.

These ambitious initiatives target a thorny mess of environmental and humanitarian issues freshwater and land scarcity, global hunger, crop security, and agricultures enormous carbon footprint amongst others but the scientific and logistical challenges they face are enormous. In a field where there are few easy answers, one problem looms above all others: what do we do about all the salt?

Soil scientists and farmers have waged war against salt for decades. As sea levels rise, salt levels are creeping up in the rivers and underground aquifers that irrigate fields particularly those low-lying areas close to vast river deltas. Across the world, farmland is drying out which raises salt levels and interferes with nutrient uptake and damages tissues. Excessive salt causes massive global crop loss an estimated 21.7 billion each year and that's expected to increase as factors like sea level rise and higher-intensity weather events driven by climate change push ocean water further into farmland, hitting the poorest coastal communities hardest.

Once there, salt requires significant resources to remove from soil the most common methods involve large amounts of freshwater, which is already scarce for an estimated four billion people worldwide sending researchers on a long-running race to find staple crops that can grow despite constantly increasing salinity. Several countries including China, India, the Netherlands, and the United Arab Emirates have developed crop varieties that can withstand some soil salinity, but the real white whale is a staple crop that can thrive regardless of how much seawater is thrown at it.

In principle, it could be done, but it's complicated, says Exequiel Ezcurra, a plant ecologist at the University of California, Riverside who studies desert and ocean ecosystems. Ezcurra says that creating seawater-tolerant crops would require at least one, and possibly both, of the basic biological mechanisms plants like black mangroves have adapted to survive in salty waters. One mechanism is freshwater filtration in the roots, which for staple crops would require fundamentally altering the roots dermal tissue to keep salt out. The other is specialised glands in the leaves that excrete salt as the plant pumps seawater throughout its system.

Changing a staple crop to have either mechanism is a challenge so big, many researchers aim for far more modest gains in salt tolerance and arent yet gunning for crops that grow in straight seawater. Plant breeders have been working on salt-resistant crops for decades but in rice a crop notoriously sensitive to salinity even the most salt-resistant varieties cant cope with anything like the saltiness of seawater. I'm not saying that nobody will be able to do it. Probably somebody will at some point, Ezcurra says. I simply have never seen a patent or anybody being able to do that now.

Luke Young and Rory Hornby filed for a provisional patent in February for a technology they believe will break the seawater tolerance barrier. Young and Hornby are the cofounders of Agrisea, a Canadian startup thats working to develop gene-edited salt-tolerant crops with the goal of soon growing them in floating farms placed in sea-flooded plains or anchored directly in the ocean.

Agriseas proposed method involves first isolating stem cells from crops like rice, then using CRISPR gene editing technology to insert a DNA sequence specialised to the plant. The sequence targets one of eight different genes, each chosen because the only place in nature where all eight are switched on is in plants that have naturally adapted saltwater tolerance. The sequence alters how the gene expresses, then stem cells are grown into a full plant that produces its own seeds armed with the newly edited gene. Follow the same process for editing the remaining seven genes, and the Agrisea team says youll have a plant that can grow in the salty sea without fertiliser, freshwater, or pesticides.

Many researchers have edited single genes for salt tolerance, but editing a gene network is an approach Young and Hornby say are unique to Agrisea. But theyre not at the finish line yet.Thus far, Young and Hornby are working to grow rice plants in water one-third the salinity of seawater and plan to have small farms floating off the shores of Kenya and Grand Bahama Island by the end of the year. Young says that hes confident the process will work because similar strategies have been used in the past to gene edit plants for other traits and because I'm not proving something, I'm copying something. I'm copying what nature has already been able to do.

Julia Bailey-Serres, director of the Center for Plant Cell Biology at the University of California, Riverside, studies crop resilience and the molecular physiology of rice. She says that researchers routinely edit plants to knock out a genes function, but editing in a way that changes specific amino acids, which likely would be required for growing crops in the ocean, has only been done by a few researchers worldwide and not yet for the purposes of salt tolerance. That more granular type of editing will become more feasible in the future, she says, but I don't know if thats going to be in two years or 10 years.

Bailey-Serres adds that she would be excited to see Agrisea succeed and that any tolerance increases beyond one-third ocean salinity would be a huge win in places like Vietnam and Bangladesh where rice paddies are bombarded with seawater.

Agriseas approach to arable land scarcity relies on cracking the salt tolerance problem, but other teams are opting to sidestep the issue entirely. Floating farms that reduce demand for arable land have long been key to survival in many non-Western nations. These crops thrive in freshwater bodies like Myanmars Inle Lake, which locals have relied on for food possibly since as early as the nineteenth century in buoyant beds that bob along the surface as monsoons and floods sweep through. Floating farms have also gained interest in Western cities. Over the last few years, research groups and architectural firms in the UK, Spain, and Italy amongst others have produced designs for floating vertical farms and greenhouses that suck up seawater from the outside and desalinate it to nourish hydroponic crops grown inside.

These projects push crops out into the ocean, but Yanik Nybergs strategy is to bring the ocean in. Instead of making new space for crops offshore, Nybergs Scotland-based company Seawater Solutions takes degraded coastal farmland, seeds it with naturally salt-tolerant herbs like samphire and sea blite, then floods the area by removing seawalls or pumping in water from the ocean to create an artificial salt marsh. In this new wetland ecosystem, crops grow without fertilisers, pesticides, or freshwater. They also hold soil in place, preventing erosion, and feed on nitrates and carbon, both of which over-accumulate in waters near human populations due to factors like agricultural runoff and CO2 emissions. A solar-powered irrigation system recycles the remediated water back to its original source.

Seawater Solutions currently operates six marsh farms in Scotland and a handful of developing countries, including a nascent initiative to create a marsh farm in the middle of a desert in Malawi by tapping underground saltwater aquifers. These projects are small most around 10,000 square meters and are limited to global food markets that are much tinier than those for staple crops.

Duncan Cameron says that there isn't one right answer. Since the 2015 Paris climate talks, Camerons team has attacked arable land loss from a multitude of angles, including monitoring nutrients in soil, forecasting the agricultural impact of urban green spaces, and building a hydroponic greenhouse in Oman that relies on desalinated water pumped in from the ocean. Solving arable land scarcity will require novel approaches all focused around giving the worlds tired soil a much-needed break. We've got to take pressure off it somehow, he says.

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She just wanted to be somewhere safe, somewhere familiar, where people looked and spoke like her and she could stand to eat the food. Midnight Robber by Nalo Hopkinson

Midnight Robber (2000) is about a woman, divided. Raised on the high-tech utopian planet of Touissant, Tan-Tan grows up on a planet populated by the descendants of a Caribbean diaspora, where all labor is performed by an all-seeing AI. But when she is exiled to Touissants parallel universe twin planet, the no-tech New Half-Way Tree, with her sexually abusive father, she becomes divided between good and evil Tan-Tans. To make herself and New Half-Way Tree whole, she adopts the persona of the legendary Robber Queen and becomes a legend herself. It is a wondrous blend of science fictional tropes and Caribbean mythology written in a Caribbean vernacular which vividly recalls the history of slavery and imperialism that shaped Touissant and its people, published at a time when diverse voices and perspectives within science fiction were blossoming.

Science fiction has long been dominated by white, Western perspectives. Vernes tech-forward adventures and Wells sociological allegories established two distinctive styles, but still centered on white imperialism and class struggle. Subsequent futures depicted in Verne-like pulp and Golden Age stories, where lone white heroes conquered evil powers or alien planets, mirrored colonialist history and the subjugation of non-white races. The civil rights era saw the incorporation of more Wellsian sociological concerns, and an increase in the number of non-white faces in the future, but they were often tokensparts of a dominant white monoculture. Important figures that presaged modern diversity included Star Treks Lieutenant Uhura, played by Nichelle Nichols. Nichols was the first black woman to play a non-servant character on TV; though her glorified secretary role frustrated Nichols, her presence was a political act, showing there was space for black people in the future.

Another key figure was the musician and poet Sun Ra, who laid the aesthetic foundation for what would become known as the Afrofuturist movement (the term coined by Mark Dery in a 1994 essay), which showed pride in black history and imagined the future through a black cultural lens. Within science fiction, the foundational work of Samuel Delany and Octavia Butler painted realistic futures in which the histories and cultural differences of people of color had a place. Finally, an important modern figure in the decentralization of the dominant Western perspective is Nalo Hopkinson.

A similarly long-standing paradigm lies at the heart of biology, extending back to Darwins theoretical and Mendels practical frameworks for the evolution of genetic traits via natural selection. Our natures werent determined by experience, as Lamarck posited, but by genes. Therefore, genes determine our reproductive fitness, and if we can understand genes, we might take our futures into our own hands to better treat disease and ease human suffering. This theory was tragically over-applied, even by Darwin, who in Descent of Man (1871) conflated culture with biology, assuming the Wests conquest of indigenous cultures meant white people were genetically superior. After the Nazis committed genocide in the name of an all-white future, ideas and practices based in eugenics declined, as biological understanding of genes matured. The Central Dogma of the 60s maintained the idea of a mechanistic meaning of life, as advances in genetic engineering and the age of genomics enabled our greatest understanding yet of how genes and disease work. The last major barrier between us and our transhumanist future therefore involved understanding how genes determine cellular identity, and as well see, key figures in answering that question are stem cells.

***

Hopkinson was born December 20, 1960 in Kingston, Jamaica. Her mother was a library technician and her father wrote, taught, and acted. Growing up, Hopkinson was immersed in the Caribbean literary scene, fed on a steady diet of theater, dance, readings, and visual arts exhibitions. She loved to readfrom folklore, to classical literature, to Kurt Vonnegutand loved science fiction, from Spock and Uhura on Star Trek, to Le Guin, James Tiptree Jr., and Delany. Despite being surrounded by a vibrant writing community, it didnt occur to her to become a writer herself. What they were writing was poetry and mimetic fiction, Hopkinson said, whereas I was reading science fiction and fantasy. It wasnt until I was 16 and stumbled upon an anthology of stories written at the Clarion Science Fiction Workshop that I realized there were places where you could be taught how to write fiction. Growing up, her family moved often, from Jamaica to Guyana to Trinidad and back, but in 1977, they moved to Toronto to get treatment for her fathers chronic kidney disease, and Hopkinson suddenly became a minority, thousands of miles from home.

Development can be described as an orderly alienation. In mammals, zygotes divide and subsets of cells become functionally specialized into, say, neurons or liver cells. Following the discovery of DNA as the genetic material in the 1950s, a question arose: did dividing cells retain all genes from the zygote, or were genes lost as it specialized? British embryologist John Gurdon addressed this question in a series of experiments in the 60s using frogs. Gurdon transplanted nuclei from varyingly differentiated cells into oocytes stripped of their genetic material to see if a new frog was made. He found the more differentiated a cell was, the lower the chance of success, but the successes confirmed that no genetic material was lost. Meanwhile, Canadian biologists Ernest McCulloch and James Till were transplanting bone marrow to treat irradiated mice when they noticed it caused lumps in the mices spleens, and the number of lumps correlated with the cellular dosage. Their lab subsequently demonstrated that each lump was a clonal colony from a single donor cell, and a subset of those cells was self-renewing and could form further colonies of any blood cell type. They had discovered hematopoietic stem cells. In 1981 the first embryonic stem cells (ESCs) from mice were successfully propagated in culture by British biologist Martin Evans, winning him the Nobel Prize in 2007. This breakthrough allowed biologists to alter genes in ESCs, then use Gurdons technique to create transgenic mice with that alteration in every cellcreating the first animal models of disease.

In 1982, one year after Evans discovery, Hopkinson graduated with honors from York University. She worked in the arts, as a library clerk, government culture research officer, and grants officer for the Toronto Arts Council, but wouldnt begin publishing her own fiction until she was 34. [I had been] politicized by feminist and Caribbean literature into valuing writing that spoke of particular cultural experiences of living under colonialism/patriarchy, and also of writing in ones own vernacular speech, Hopkinson said. In other words, I had models for strong fiction, and I knew intimately the body of work to which I would be responding. Then I discovered that Delany was a black man, which opened up a space for me in SF/F that I hadnt known I needed. She sought out more science fiction by black authors and found Butler, Charles Saunders, and Steven Barnes. Then the famous feminist science fiction author and editor Judy Merril offered an evening course in writing science fiction through a Toronto college, Hopkinson said. The course never ran, but it prompted me to write my first adult attempt at a science fiction story. Judy met once with the handful of us she would have accepted into the course and showed us how to run our own writing workshop without her. Hopkinsons dream of attending Clarion came true in 1995, with Delany as an instructor. Her early short stories channeled her love of myth and folklore, and her first book, written in Caribbean dialect, married Caribbean myth to the science fictional trappings of black market organ harvesting. Brown Girl in the Ring (1998) follows a young single mother as shes torn between her ancestral culture and modern life in a post-economic collapse Toronto. It won the Aspect and Locus Awards for Best First Novel, and Hopkinson was awarded the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

In 1996, Dolly the Sheep was created using Gurdons technique to determine if mammalian cells also could revert to more a more primitive, pluripotent state. Widespread animal cloning attempts soon followed, (something Hopkinson used as a science fictional element in Brown Girl) but it was inefficient, and often produced abnormal animals. Ideas of human cloning captured the public imagination as stem cell research exploded onto the scene. One ready source for human ESC (hESC) materials was from embryos which would otherwise be destroyed following in vitro fertilization (IVF) but the U.S. passed the Dickey-Wicker Amendment prohibited federal funding of research that destroyed such embryos. Nevertheless, in 1998 Wisconsin researcher James Thomson, using private funding, successfully isolated and cultured hESCs. Soon after, researchers around the world figured out how to nudge cells down different lineages, with ideas that transplant rejection and genetic disease would soon become things of the past, sliding neatly into the hole that the failure of genetic engineering techniques had left behind. But another blow to the stem cell research community came in 2001, when President Bushs stem cell ban limited research in the U.S. to nineteen existing cell lines.

In the late 1990s, another piece of technology capturing the public imagination was the internet, which promised to bring the world together in unprecedented ways. One such way was through private listservs, the kind used by writer and academic Alondra Nelson to create a space for students and artists to explore Afrofuturist ideas about technology, space, freedom, culture and art with science fiction at the center. It was wonderful, Hopkinson said. It gave me a place to talk and debate with like-minded people about the conjunction of blackness and science fiction without being shouted down by white men or having to teach Racism 101. Connections create communities, which in turn create movements, and in 1999, Delanys essay, Racism and Science Fiction, prompted a call for more meaningful discussions around race in the SF community. In response, Hopkinson became a co-founder of the Carl Brandon society, which works to increase awareness and representation of people of color in the community.

Hopkinsons second novel, Robber, was a breakthrough success and was nominated for Hugo, Nebula, and Tiptree Awards. She would also release Skin Folk (2001), a collection of stories in which mythical figures of West African and Afro-Caribbean culture walk among us, which would win the World Fantasy Award and was selected as one ofThe New York Times Best Books of the Year. Hopkinson also obtained masters degree in fiction writing (which helped alleviate U.S. border hassles when traveling for speaking engagements) during which she wrote The Salt Roads (2003). I knew it would take a level of research, focus and concentration I was struggling to maintain, Hopkinson said. I figured it would help to have a mentor to coach me through it. That turned out to be James Morrow, and he did so admirably. Roads is a masterful work of slipstream literary fantasy that follows the lives of women scattered through time, bound together by the salt uniting all black life. It was nominated for a Nebula and won the Gaylactic Spectrum Award. Hopkinson also edited anthologies centering around different cultures and perspectives, including Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root: Caribbean Fabulist Fiction (2000), Mojo: Conjure Stories (2003), and So Long, Been Dreaming: Postcolonial Science Fiction & Fantasy (2004). She also came out with the award-winning novelThe New Moons Arms in 2007, in which a peri-menopausal woman in a fictional Caribbean town is confronted by her past and the changes she must make to keep her family in her life.

While the stem cell ban hamstrung hESC work, Gurdons research facilitated yet another scientific breakthrough. Researchers began untangling how gene expression changed as stem cells differentiated, and in 2006, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University reported the successful creation of mouse stem cells from differentiated cells. Using a list of 24 pluripotency-associated genes, Yamanaka systematically tested different gene combinations on terminally differentiated cells. He found four genesthereafter known as Yamanaka factorsthat could turn them into induced-pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), and he and Gurdon would share a 2012 Nobel prize. In 2009, President Obama lifted restrictions on hESC research, and the first clinical trial involving products made using stem cells happened that year. The first human trials using hESCs to treat spinal injuries happened in 2014, and the first iPSC clinical trials for blindness began this past December.

Hopkinson, too, encountered complications and delays at points in her career. For years, Hopkinson suffered escalating symptoms from fibromyalgia, a chronic disease that runs in her family, which interfered with her writing, causing Hopkinson and her partner to struggle with poverty and homelessness. But in 2011, Hopkinson applied to become a professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside. It seemed in many ways tailor-made for me, Hopkinson said. They specifically wanted a science fiction writer (unheard of in North American Creative Writing departments); they wanted someone with expertise working with a diverse range of people; they were willing to hire someone without a PhD, if their publications were sufficient; they were offering the security of tenure. She got the job, and thanks to a steady paycheck and the benefits of the mild California climate, she got back to writing. Her YA novel, The Chaos (2012), coming-of-age novelSister Mine (2013), and another short story collection, Falling in Love with Hominids (2015) soon followed. Her recent work includes House of Whispers (2018-present), a series in DC Comics Sandman Universe, the final collected volume of which is due out this June. Hopkinson also received an honorary doctorate in 2016 from Anglia Ruskin University in the U.K., and was Guest of Honor at 2017 Worldcon, a year in which women and people of color dominated the historically white, male ballot.

While the Yamanaka factors meant that iPSCs became a standard lab technique, iPSCs are not identical to hESCs. Fascinatingly, two of these factors act together to maintain the silencing of large swaths of DNA. Back in the 1980s, researchers discovered that some regions of DNA are modified by small methyl groups, which can be passed down through cell division. Different cell types have different DNA methylation patterns, and their distribution is far from random; they accumulate in the promoter regions just upstream of genes where their on/off switches are, and the greater the number of methyl groups, the lesser the genes expression. Furthermore, epigenetic modifications, like methylation, can be laid down by our environments (via diet, or stress) which can also be passed down through generations. Even some diseases, like fibromyalgia, have recently been implicated as such an epigenetic disease. Turns out that the long-standing biological paradigm that rejected Lamarck also missed the bigger picture: Nature is, in fact, intimately informed by nurture and environment.

In the past 150 years, we have seen ideas of community grow and expand as the world became more connected, so that they now encompass the globe. The histories of science fiction and biology are full of stories of pioneers opening new doorsbe they doors of greater representation or greater understanding, or bothand others following. If evolution has taught us anything, its that nature abhors a monoculture, and the universe tends towards diversification; healthy communities are ones which understand that we are not apart from the world, but of it, and that diversity of types, be they cells or perspectives, is a strength.

Kelly Lagor is a scientist by day and a science fiction writer by night. Her work has appeared at Tor.com and other places, and you can find her tweeting about all kinds of nonsense @klagor

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On the Origins of Modern Biology and the Fantastic: Part 19 Nalo Hopkinson and Stem Cell Research - tor.com

SHANGHAI, May27, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Shanghai Cell Therapy Group (SHCell) recently entered intoa six-year research collaborative project with Professor Qi-Long Ying from the University of Southern California (USC). Through the project, sponsored by $3.6 million from the Baize Plan Fund, the Ying laboratory aims to develop conditions for the long-term ex vivo expansion of mouse and human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells.

"Hematopoietic stem cells, or HSCs, are found in the bone marrow of adults," said Professor Qijun Qian, CEO of Shanghai Cell Therapy Group. "HSCs have the ability for long-term self-renewal and differentiation into various types of mature blood cells, and for rebuilding normal hematopoiesis and immune function in patients. They also have enormous potential to treat diseases, including tumors, autoimmune diseases, severe infectious disease, and inherited blood diseases, and to combat the effects of aging."

This research project will be conducted and supervised by Professor Qi-Long Ying, a Professor of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Professor Ying's pioneering stem cell research has won international acclaim, including the 2016 McEwen Award for Innovation, the highest honor in the field.

"We'll develop and optimize culture conditions for the long-term ex vivo expansion of HSCs," said Professor Ying. "We'll also test combinations of basal media, small molecules, cytokines and growth factors, and characterize ex vivo expanded hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. These cells will then be genetically modified and tested for their potential to treat different diseases, including blood disorders and cancers."

Professor Andrew P. McMahon, Director of Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research of USC, added: "Stem cell biology represents an exciting area in medicine with great therapeutic potential. I am delighted SHCell is supporting Professor Ying. A breakthrough in the ability to propagate and manipulate HSCs will have lasting clinical significance."

The project also plans to build animal models of different blood diseases and cancers and test the safety and effectiveness of genetically modified hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells before clinical translation. SHCell will actively explore clinical applications of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in the treatment of cancers or blood diseases.

As SHCell's first overseas collaboration, this project aims to advance the goals of the Baize Plan: to provide first-class cell treatments and cell therapies at an affordable price to cure cancer and increase life expectancy. SHCell hopes that this project will also accelerate original scientific breakthroughs in the stem cell field.

Shanghai Cell Therapy Group

Founded in 2013, Shanghai Cell Therapeutics Group Co., Ltd is located at the Shanghai Municipal Engineering and Technology Research Center, which was established by the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission. With a mission of "changing the length and abundance of life with cell therapy", SHCell has created a closed-loop industrial chain and an integrated platform for cell treatment and cell therapy. It comprises cell storage, cell drug research and cell clinical transformation with cell therapy as its core business.

The Baize Plan was proposed in 2016 by Wu Mengchao, an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and initiated by Professor Qian, aiming to provide first-class cell treatments and cell therapies at an affordable price with the goal of curing cancers and increasing life expectancy. The Baize Plan Fund was created by the Shanghai Cell Therapy Group to realize the vision of the Baize Plan.

University of Southern California (USC)

Founded in 1880, the University of Southern California is one of the world's leading educational and research institutions, and also the oldest private research university in California. Located in the heart of Los Angeles, the University of Southern California comprises 23 schools and units, and students are encouraged to explore different fields of study. The University of Southern California ranked #22 in National Universities in the 2020 edition of Best Colleges, published by U.S. News & World Report.

For more information, visit http://www.shcell.com/

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Shanghai Cell Therapy Group Launches Collaboration with USC researcher to Improve the ex vivo Expansion of Hematopoietic Stem Cells for Clinical...

United States, California, Irvine 05-27-2020 (PRDistribution.com) Latest Patent Further Strengthens Intellectual Property Portfolio Covering Novel Platform for Precisely ControllingRegenerative Protein Expressions Including Stem Cell Homing and Differentiation Control

Technology Has Key Potential Applications in Regeneration of Failing Heart, Brain, Kidney, Liver, Pancreas, Lungs, Aorta, Vision and Hearing as well as Transcutaneous Uses for Accelerated Wound Healing, Skin, Hair and Penile Function Regeneration (ED)Irvine, California, May 27th, 2020 Leonhardts Launchpads, an innovation and startup launch accelerator focused on developing novel therapeutics that harness the bodys innate mechanisms to regenerate failing organs and to heal tissues, today announced the issuance of a new U.S. patent providing broad protection for the companys first-of-its-kind combination bioelectrics and biologics technology platform, which has multiple potential therapeutic applications in organ regeneration and recovery. Previous stem cell therapies that delivered stem cells alone in a single application failed to regenerate organs fully. Electrical stimulation technologies to date have failed to zero in on and deliver the precise right bioelectric signaling sequences for controlling specific regenerative protein expressions when and where needed. This pioneering technology platform is the first to combine the powerful ability of bioelectric stimulation with repeat deliveries of not just stem cells but a whole host of support factors similar to an egg yolk designed to help cells survive, proliferate, engraft and differentiate with the intention of fully regenerating failing organs. stated primary inventor, Executive Chairman and CEO Howard J. Leonhardt. U.S. Patent 10,646,644 Issued May 12th, 2020 https://patents.justia.com/patent/10646644covers bioelectric stimulation controlled release of SDF1 and PDGF known stem cell homing and proliferation factors as well as use of a re-fillable micro infusion pump for slow infusion of a mixed composition of stem cells, exosomes, micro RNAs, nutrient hydrogel, growth factor cocktail, selected alkaloids and anti-inflammatory agents with the intention of regenerating organs and healing tissues. SDF1 and PDGF highlighted in these new patent claims also have strong capabilities in promoting arteriogenesis (mature blood vessel growth).The Leonhardt team has separately filed or acquired patent claims for bioelectric controlled expression of follistatin, klotho, tropoelastin, VEGF, IGF1, CXCL5, HIF1a, EGF, HGF, OPG, RANKL and COL17A1 all known to have a role in organ healing https://patents.justia.com/patent/20180064935. Separately the Leonhardts Launchpads startup CancerCell has 9 issued U.S. patents https://cancercellinc.com/list-of-the-issued-cancer-patents/ for bioelectric treatment of cancer and dozens of additional cancer treatment related claims pending https://patents.justia.com/patent/20190030330. The team has filed patent clams on the combination of bioelectric stimulation and PRF https://patents.justia.com/patent/20200000709. Other important patent filings have been submitted on bioelectric inflammation management https://patents.justia.com/patent/20190022389 and blood pressure management https://patents.justia.com/patent/20190022396The Leonhardts Launchpads technology platform is based on foundational scientific research that began in the late 1980s working with Dr. Race Kao and Dr. George Magovern Sr. in Pittsburgh when they injected satellite cells (myoblasts or muscle stem cells) to repair damaged heart tissue in dogs and published the results in The Physiologist in 1989. In 1995 Howard Leonhardt filed his first patent for a stem cell and biologics delivery system for organ repair ProCell https://patents.google.com/patent/US5693029A/en based on work that began in 1988. In 1998 the Leonhardt team began collaboration with Dr. Doris Taylor whom that year published a landmark paper in Nature Medicine https://www.nature.com/articles/nm0898-929 on repair of infarcted hearts with myoblast cells. Dr. Taylor currently still serves as co-chair of our Scientific Advisory Board today. In 1999 the Leonhardt team worked with Dr. Shinichi Kanno to publish in Circulation, the Journal of the American Heart Association, pioneering results with bioelectric stimulation driven VEGF protein expression for limb salvage via angiogenesis in animals https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1161/01.cir.99.20.2682 and filed a patent application for the same within a year. Since then the Leonhardt team and LeonhardtsLaunchpads and itsportfolio of startupshas had issued, pending,optioned orlicensed over 600patentclaims for organregeneration andrecovery. In 2001 Howard Leonhardt and Dr. Juan Chachques filed patents on bioelectric stimulation controlled myogenesis and dynamic cardiac support with an early less potent stem cell homing signal. That same year a Leonhardt led team working with Dr. Patrick Serruys completed the landmark first ever case of non-surgical cell based regeneration of a damaged human heart in The Netherlands. Howard Leonhardt began a collaboration at that time with Dr. Jorge Genovese co-inventor of this patent, and BioLeonhardts VP of Bioelectric Regeneration Research, that continues to this day. Over 200 dedicated talented people help Leonhardts Launchpads and its startups advance their developments almost every day see Team https://leonhardtventures.com/team/ and Scientific Advisory Board https://calxstars.com/scientific-advisory-board/.About Leonhardts Launchpads:Leonhardts Launchpads by Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc. in California, Leonhardts Launchpads Utah, Inc., Leonhardts Launchpads Australia PTY and Leonhardts Launchpads branches in Minneapolis, Pittsburgh and Brazil are the innovation and startup launch accelerator arms of Leonhardt Ventures (Leonhardt Vineyards LLC DBA Leonhardt Ventures). Leonhardt Ventures has been developing breakthrough medtech and biotech innovations since the 1980s. In the 1980s the team patented, developed and commercialized the PolyCath line of cardiovascular balloon catheters. In the 1990s they developed and completed the first non-surgical repair of an aortic aneurysm (Melbourne, Australia 1995) and patented what is still today the leading endovascular stent graft for aortic aneurysm repair. In that time period they also patented one of the first percutaneous heart valve systems. Since 2000 the team has been focused almost exclusively on stem cell, biologics and bioelectric based organ regeneration and healing. In May of 2001 the team completed the landmark first ever non-surgical case of cell therapy for heart damage recovery. In 2008 the team began exploring if what they had learned from research in regenerating hearts could be translated to other organs. The organization now has 30 related startups and organ specific innovations in its 2020 portfolio class https://leonhardtventures.com/development-pipeline/ in these groups (1) Heart & Cardiovascular, (2) Brain, (3) Cosmetic & Reproductive Health, (4) Major Organ Regeneration and (5) Cancer. The accelerator business model is to accelerate each organ specific innovation through first in human studies and then secure a strategic partner to advance the product through commercialization. Click on Leonhardt Ventures and Leonhardts Launchpads 2020 Annual Report for more information https://leonhardtventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4_23_2020.pdfand our web site at http://www.leonhardtventures.comSee previous PDGF related press release https://www.biospace.com/article/releases/-b-leonhardt-b-and-b-genovese-b-file-patent-for-bioelectric-controlled-expression-of-pdgf-a-powerful-organ-regeneration-cytokine-/See previous KLOTHO anti-aging related press release https://www.biospace.com/article/leonhardt-s-launchpads-announces-filing-of-patent-for-bioelectric-stimulation-controlled-klotho-expression-powerful-anti-aging-and-regeneration-promoting-protein-/Contact See contact page on web site for contact information for all locations and phone numbers https://leonhardtventures.com/contact/Leonhardts Launchpads[emailprotected]Warning and Disclaimers: Product(s) are not yet proven safe or effective. Patents pending may not be issued. Patents licensed or optioned may not be maintained. Patents issued may be invalidated. Products are in early stage development. Forward looking statements may change without notice. As an investment these startups mentioned are in the highest risk category for total loss and only suitable for sophisticated experienced accredited investors. The company does not have on hand sufficient resources to bring these products through clinical studies and may not obtain these resources. The company is under staffed and under funded compared to most other participants in this space. Due to a small staff at the accelerator to maintain all web sites and other published materials they may not be fully up to date and there may be out date inaccurate information. If you have any questions on our products or our company please write us to ask.Leonhardts Launchpads by Cal-X Stars,18575 Jamboree Rd #6, Irvine, CA 92612Leonhardts Launchpads Utah, Inc.Research Lab @ 2500 S State St. #D249, Salt Lake City, UT 84115

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Company Name: Leonhardts Launchpads by Cal-X Stars Business Accelerator, Inc.Full Name: Howard J. LeonhardtPhone: (424) 291-2133Email Address: Send EmailWebsite: http://www.leonhardtventures.com

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Leonhardts Launchpads Announces Issuance of New U.S. Patent for Bioelectric Plus Biologics Platform for Organ Regeneration and Healing - Life Pulse...