Category Archives: Maryland Stem Cells

The Maryland Stem Cell Research Commission (The Commission) recently announced over $7M in Maryland Stem Cell Fund (MSCF) grant awards for its second round of 2020 MSCF fund recipients. The MSCF, which is a program of the Maryland Technology Development Corporation (TEDCO), has awarded $157M in funding to BioHealth Capital Region (BHCR) companies seeking to accelerate stem cell research, therapies and commercialization of products since 2007.

The $7M in new funding follows MSCFs announcement in September 2019 of over $1.3M in grants for the first cohort of 2020 recipients, bringing the total 2020 MSCF award tally to approximately $8.3M for the year. The financial awards are delivered across a wide range of areas, including clinical, commercialization, validation, launch, discovery, and post-doctoral fellowships. The first cohort of funding included three commercialization and two validation awards; the second, larger recipient pool included one clinical, one commercialization, one validation, four launches, 11 discovery, and five post-doctoral awards.

Notable BHCR MSCF recipients included:

Dr. Luis Garza of Johns Hopkins University (JHU) received a clinical grant to support clinical trials for his autologous volar fibroblast injection into the stump site of amputees. The trials are exploring ways to make the skin where a prosthetic limb meets the stump site tougher and less irritable to the wearer. Skin irritation is a major issue for those with prosthetic limbs and is often a cause for individuals to stop wearing their prosthesis.

Vita Therapeutics, a company that spun out of JHU, was awarded a 300K MSCF grant to support the commercialization of the companys satellite stem cell therapy for limb-girdle Muscular Dystrophy. According to the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), Limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMD) are a group of rare progressive genetic disorders that are characterized by wasting (atrophy) and weakness of the voluntary muscles of the hip and shoulder areas (limb-girdle area). Vita Therapeutics is led by CEO Douglass Falk, who is a JHU alum.

Jamie Niland, VP of Baltimore, Marylands Neoprogen Inc. received part of $892,080K in funding that was part of MSCFs first 2020 grant round. Jamie is the son of Bill Niland, Neoprogens current CEO and the former leader of Baltimore, Maryland life science community anchor Harpoon Medical, which was acquired by Edwards Scientific in 2017. The award was for Neoprogens neonatal cardiac stem cells for the heart tissue regeneration program.

Dr. Brian Pollok of Rockville, Marylands Propagenix, Inc., was also the recipient of a commercialization award for his Apical Surface-Outward (ASO) airway organoids, which is a potential novel cell system for drug discovery and personalized medicine. Propagenix develops innovative new technologies that address unmet needs in epithelial cell biologyfor applications in life science research as well as in precision diagnostics, and next-generation therapeutics such as immune-oncology, tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine, according to the companys website.

In addition, Dr. Ines Silva, R&D Manager of REPROCELL, USA received an MSCF commercialization grant for its work on building a commercial neural cell bank from patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells. REPROCELL was founded in Japan in 2003 and acquired BioServe in Beltsville, Maryland in 2014.

Dr. Sashank Reddy, the founder of JHU startup LifeSprout and Medical Director, Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures Johns Hopkins University, received a portion of the $1,334,462 distributed for launch grants in 2020. The grant will go to support the launch of regenerative cell therapies for soft tissue restoration. LifeSprout recently closed a $28.5M seed round.

Past MSCF grant recipients include Frederick, Marylands RoosterBio, Inc. and Theradaptive, Inc., and Baltimore, Marylands Gemstone Biotherapeutics and Domicell, Inc., among others.

TEDCOs MSRF program continues to lend its deep support and ample funding to build and grow Marylands burgeoning and exciting regenerative medicine industry. Well be keeping a close eye on these companies as they grow and make future contributions to the thriving BHCR biocluster.

Steve has over 20 years experience in copywriting, developing brand messaging and creating marketing strategies across a wide range of industries, including the biopharmaceutical, senior living, commercial real estate, IT and renewable energy sectors, among others. He is currently the Principal/Owner of StoryCore, a Frederick, Maryland-based content creation and execution consultancy focused on telling the unique stories of Maryland organizations.

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Over $8M in 2020 Stem Cell Funding Awards Continue to Fuel Marylands Leading Cell Therapy Industry - BioBuzz

Scientists in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Texas A&M University are seeking to advance the field of 3D bioprinting functional tissues, by conducting research into the development of new biomaterials.

Dr. Akhilesh K. Gaharwar, an associate professor in the department, has created a highly 3D printable bioink, which can be used as a platform for generating anatomical-scale functional tissues. The new material developed by Gaharwars research group, known as Nanoengineered IonicCovalent Entanglement (NICE) bioink, has been designed to overcome the deficiencies of current bioinks in relation to structural stability. Commenting on the benefits of the NICE bioink, Gaharwar states: The next milestone in 3D bioprinting is the maturation of bioprinted constructs toward the generation of functional tissues.

Our study demonstrates that NICE bioink developed in our lab can be used to engineer 3D-functional bone tissues.

Bioprinting bone tissue

In their study, Gaharwars research group first outlined the emergence of 3D bioprinting as a technique for fabricating patient-specific, implantable constructs for regenerative medicine. Using hydrogels and combining them with cells and growth factors, these bioinks are 3D printed to create tissue-like structures intended to imitate the function of natural tissues.

One particularly useful application of the technology is in patient-specific bone grafting, a surgical procedure that replaces missing bone in order to repair bone fractures. As traditional treatments for managing bone defects and injuries are slow and expensive, Gaharwar states that developing replacement bone tissues with bioprinting could create exciting new treatments for patients. These can be used to treat defects and conditions such as arthritis, bone fractures, dental infections and craniofacial defects.

Recent advancements in the field have come from Rice University and the University of Maryland (UMD). Scientists at these institutions have outlined a new proof-of-concept for 3D printing artificial bone tissue to help repair damage related to arthritis and sporting accidents.

In late 2019 onboard the ISS, 3D Bioprinting Solutions, a Russian bio-technical research laboratory, 3D bioprinted bone tissue in zero gravity. Leveraging its Organ.Aut 3D bioprinter, the labs researchers hope to one day create real bone implants for astronaut transplantation on long interplanetary missions.

Nanoengineered bioinks for stronger bone structures

In the bioprinting process, cell-laden biomaterials flow through a nozzle in liquid form, however immediately solidify as soon as theyre deposited. It is necessary for bioinks to act as cell carriers and structural components, which requires them to be highly printable while providing a robust and cellfriendly microenvironment.

As outlined in the research paper, Gaharwars team explain that current bioinks in use lack the sufficient biocompatibility, printability, structural stability and tissuespecific functions needed for preclinical and clinical applications of bioprinting. The potential applications of bioprinting have been limited due to the lack of bioinks capable of meeting the demands of both 3D printing and tissue engineering. For example, ideal bioinks must be capable of extruding into stable 3D structures, while also protecting cells during and after printing, and providing an appropriate environment that can be remodeled into the target tissue. Unfortunately, conventional hydrogels are weak and poorly printable, explain the authors.

In response to this issue, Gaharwars research group has developed the NICE bioink formulation specifically for 3D bone bioprinting. NICE bioinks are a combination of two reinforcement techniques (nonreinforcement and ionic-covalent network). Used together, they provide an effective reinforcement that results in much stronger bone structures. Explaining the benefits of the material, the researchers write: The NICE bioinks allow precise control over printability, mechanical properties and degradation characteristics, enabling custom 3D fabrication of mechanically resilient, cellularized structures.

Once the bioprinting process is complete, the cell-laden NICE networks are crosslinked to form stronger scaffolds. Using this technique, Gaharwar and his team have been able to produce full-scale, cell-friendly reconstructions of human body parts, including ears, blood vessels, cartilage and bone segments.

In their tests, the researchers found that the enclosed cells began depositing new proteins containing a cartilage-like extracellular matrix that subsequently calcifies to create a mineralized bone over a three-month period. Five percent of these 3D bioprinted scaffolds consisted of calcium, which is similar to cancellous bone, the network of spongy tissue typically found in vertebral bones.

Gaharwars research group used a genomics technique called whole transcriptome sequencing (RNA-seq) to examine how these bioprinted structures were able to induce stem cell differentiation. RNA-seq works by capturing a snapshot of all genetic communication inside the cell at a given moment. The team worked with Dr. Irtisha Singh, assistant professor at the Texas A&M Health Science Center, who served as a co-investigator.

Using their bioink and research results, Gaharwars team plans to demonstrate in vivo functionality of the 3D bioprinted bone tissue.

The study, Nanoengineered Osteoinductive Bioink for 3D Bioprinting Bone Tissue is published in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces. It is written by David Chimene, Logan Miller, Lauren M. Cross, Manish K. Jaiswal, Irtisha Singh, and Akhilesh K. Gaharwar.

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Featured image shows Dr. Akhilesh Gaharwar. Photo via Texas A&M Engineering.

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Researchers develop nanoengineered bioink to 3D print functional bone tissue - 3D Printing Industry

You cannot defeat a plague or a pandemic outside of prisons if you let it run free inside the prisons, which is basically whats happening, said Van Jones, head of a criminal justice advocacy group. News on prisons is from Maine, Nevada, Maryland, California, and New York, as well.

The Hill:Advocates Call On States To Release More Inmates Amid PandemicAdvocacy groups and medical experts said Wednesday that governors should release more low-level criminals to help contain the spread of the coronavirus. The public health benefits, they argued, extend far beyond prison walls. Prisons have been a hotbed of coronavirus outbreaks since social distancing is nearly impossible given the number of shared cells and communal spaces. Theres also a severe lack of masks and gloves for inmates. (Bucchino, 5/20)

Bangor Daily News:As Maine Prisons Record 1st Case Of Coronavirus, We Need To Find It And Shut It Off NowThe Maine Department of Corrections is waiting on test results for more than 120 inmates after one tested positive at a prison in Windham, the first step in determining whether a Cumberland County correctional facility is home to the states next coronavirus outbreak. (Andrews and Ferguson, 5/20)

Las Vegas Review-Journal:Nevada Reports First Coronavirus Case Among States PrisonersThe Nevada Department of Corrections announced on Wednesday a comprehensive plan to test prisoners for the new coronavirus. Officials made the announcement shortly after the first case of a Nevada prisoner testing positive for the virus was reported. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, which was last updated Wednesday morning, an inmate at High Desert State Prison has tested positive for the virus. (Newberg, 5/20)

The Baltimore Sun:Maryland To Test All Detainees, Staff At Prisons And Juvenile Facilities For CoronavirusFollowing calls from prisoner advocates and employee unions, Maryland will undertake universal testing at state prisons and juvenile centers, Gov. Larry Hogan announced Wednesday. Six state prison inmates have died from the coronavirus so far, and hundreds of inmates and employees have tested positive for the virus. Juvenile facilities have also experienced outbreaks, including the Silver Oak Academy in Carroll County, where dozens of children and staff tested positive. (Wood and Jackson, 5/20)

The Guardian:'People Are Sick All Around Me': Inside The Coronavirus Catastrophe In California PrisonsMore than 3,200 prisoners in California have contracted Covid-19 and at least 16 inmates have died, in a public health catastrophe that advocates say was both predictable and preventable. Inmates and advocates told the Guardian that at six prisons and jails with rapidly escalating outbreaks, basic protocols to prevent the virus from spreading are being ignored, and that they fear imminent mass fatalities and hospitalizations. (Levin, 5/20)

CNN:Michael Cohen To Be Released Thursday And Will Serve Remaining Prison Sentence At HomePresident Donald Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen will be released early from prison on Thursday and is expected to serve out the remainder of his sentence at home as coronavirus continues to spread behind bars, according to a person familiar with the matter. Cohen will be released on furlough while he completes the process of being moved to home confinement, the person said. (Shortell and LeBlanc, 5/20)

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'Virus Goes In, Virus Goes Out': Advocates Call For Release Of More Low-Level Prisoners To Stem Infection Rate - Kaiser Health News

In the spring of 2019, neuroscientist Heather Cameron set up a simple experiment. She and her colleagues put an adult rat in the middle of a plastic box with a water bottle at one end. They waited until the rat started drinking and then made a startling noise to see how the animal would respond. The team did this repeatedly with regular rats and with animals that were genetically altered so that they couldnt make new neurons in their hippocampuses, a brain region involved in learning and memory. When the animals heard the noise, those that could make new hippocampal neurons immediately stopped slurping water and looked around, but the animals lacking hippocampal neurogenesis kept drinking. When the team ran the experiment without the water bottle, both sets of rats looked around right away to figure out where the sound was coming from. Rats that couldnt make new neurons seemed to have trouble shifting their attention from one task to another, the researchers concluded.

Aging humans, in whom neurogenesis is thought to decline, often have trouble remembering details that distinguish similar experiences.

Its a very surprising result, says Cameron, who works at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland. Researchers studying neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus typically conduct experiments in which animals have had extensive training in a task, such as in a water maze, or have experienced repetitive foot shocks, she explains. In her experiments, the rats were just drinking water. It seemed like there would be no reason that the hippocampus should have any role, she says. Yet in animals engineered to lack hippocampal neurogenesis, the effects are pretty big.

The study joins a growing body of work that challenges the decades-old notion that the primary role of new neurons within the adult hippocampus is in learning and memory. More recently, experiments have tied neurogenesis to forgetting, one possible way to ensure the brain doesnt become overloaded with information it doesnt need, and to anxiety, depression, stress, and, as Camerons work suggests, attention. Now, neuro-scientists are rethinking the role that new neurons, and the hippocampus as a whole, play in the brain.

Most of the research into neurogenesis involves boosting or inhibiting animals generation of new neurons, then training animals on a complex memory task such as finding a treat in a maze, and later retesting the animals. Decreasing neurogenesis tends to hamper the animals ability to remember.

Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease

Training mice or rats on a memory task before manipulating neurogenesis has also been found to affect the strength of the trained memory. Boosting neurogenesis reduced the memorys strength, perhaps an extreme form of forgetting that at normal levels avoids the remembering of unnecessary details.

Alzheimers disease and other forms of dementia

Research has linked decreased neurogenesis with more anxious and depressive behaviors in mice. Stress can reduce neurogenesis, ultimately leading mice to be more anxious in future stressful situations.

PTSD, anxiety, depression

Research has linked decreased neurogenesis with trouble switching focus.

Autism

The first hint that adult animal brains may make new neurons appeared in the early 1960s, when MIT neurobiologist Joseph Altman used radioactive labeling to track the proliferation of nerve cells in adult rats brains.Other data published in the 1970s and 1980s supported the conclusion, and in the 1990s, Fred Rusty Gage and his colleagues at the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, used an artificial nucleotide called bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) to tag new neurons born in the brains of adult rats and humans. Around the same time, Elizabeth Gould of Princeton University and her collaborators showed that adult marmoset monkeys made new neurons in their hippocampuses, specifically in an area called the dentate gyrus. While some researchers questioned the strength of the evidence supporting the existence of adult neurogenesis, most of the field began to shift from studying whether adult animal brains make new neurons to what role those cells might play.

In 2011, Ren Hen at Columbia University and colleagues created a line of transgenic mice in which neurons generated by neuro-genesis survived longer than in wildtype mice. This boosted the overall numbers of new neurons in the animals brains. The team then tested the modified mices cognitive abilities. Boostingnumbers of newly born neurons didnt improve the mices performances in water mazes or avoidance tasks compared with control mice. But it did seem to help them distinguish between two events that were extremely similar. Mice with more new neurons didnt freeze as long as normal mice when put into a box that was similar to but not exactly the same as one in which theyd experienced a foot shock in earlier training runs.

These results dovetailed with others coming out at the time, particularly those showing that aging humans, in whom neurogenesis is thought to decline, often have trouble remembering details that distinguish similar experiences, what researchers call pattern separation. The line of thinking is that the memories that are most likely to be impacted by neurogenesis are memories that are really similar to each other, says Sarah Parylak, a staff scientist in Gages lab at the Salk Institute.

As insights into pattern separation emerged, scientists were beginning to track the integration of new rodent neurons into existing neural networks. This research showed that new neurons born in the dentate gyrus had to compete with mature neurons for connections to neurons in the entorhinal cortex (EC), a region of the brain with widespread neural networks that play roles in memory, navigation, and the perception of time. (See Memories of Time on page 32.) Based on detailed anatomical images, new dentate gyrus neurons in rodents appeared to tap into preexisting synapses between dentate gyrus neurons and EC neurons before creating their own links to EC neurons.

To continue exploring the relationship between old and new neurons, a group led by the Harvard Stem Cell Institutes Amar Sahay, who had worked with Hen on the teams 2011 study, wiped out synapses in the dentate gyruses of mice. The researchers overexpressed the cell deathinducing protein Krppel-like factor 9 in young adult, middle-aged, and old mice to destroy neuronal dendritic spines, tiny protrusions that link up to protrusions of other neurons, in the brain region. Those lost connections led to increased integration of newly made neurons, especially in the two older groups, which outperformed age-matched, untreated mice in pattern-separation tasks. Adult-born dentate gyrus neurons decrease the likelihood of reactivation of those old neurons, Sahay and colleagues concluded, preventing the memories from being confused.

Parylak compares this situation to going to the same restaurant after it has changed ownership. In her neighborhood in San Diego, theres one location where shes dined a few times when the restaurant was serving different cuisine. Its the same location, and the building retains many of the same features, so the experiences would be easy to mix up, she says, but she can tell them apart, possibly because of neurogenesiss role in pattern separation. This might even hold true for going to the same restaurant on different occasions, even if it served the same food.

Thats still speculative at this point. Researchers havent been able to watch neurogenesis in action in a living human brain, and its not at all clear if the same thing is going on there as in the mouse brains they have observed. While many scientists now agree that neurogenesis does occur in adult human brains, there is little consensus about what it actually does. In addition to the work supporting a role for new neurons in pattern separation, researchers have accumulated evidence that it may be more important for forgetting than it is for remembering.

In recent years, images and videos taken with state-of-the-art microscopy techniques have shown that new neurons in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus go through a series of changes as they link up to existing networks in the brain.

A neural stem cell divides to generate a new neuron (green).

As the new neuron grows, it rotates from a horizontal to a vertical position and connects to an interneuron (yellow) in a space called the hilus that sits within the curve of the dentate gyrus. The young neuron also starts making connections with well-established dentate gyrus neurons (blue) as well as neurons in the hippocampus (red).

Once connections are formed, mature neurons send signals into the new neuron, and the cell starts firing off more of its own signals. At around four weeks of age, the adult-born neuron gets hyperexcited, sending electrical signals much more often than its well-established neuronal neighbors do.

As the new neuron connects with still more neurons, interneurons in the hilus start to send it signals to tamp down its activity.

It seems counterintuitive for neurogenesis to play a role in both remembering and forgetting, but work by Paul Frankland of the Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute in Toronto suggests it is possible. In 2014, his team showed that when mice made more new neurons than normal, they were more forgetful. He and his colleagues had mice run on wheels to boost levels of neurogenesis, then trained the animals on a learning task. As expected, they did better than control mice who hadnt exercised. (See How Exercise Reprograms the Brain, The Scientist, October 2018.) In other animals, the researchers boosted neurogenesis after the mice learned information thought to be stored, at least in the short term, in the hippocampus. When we did that, what we found was quite surprising, Frankland says. We found a big reduction in memory strength.

His team was puzzled by the result. Adding to the confusion, the researchers had observed a larger effect in memory impairment with mice that learned, then exercised, than they had seen in memory improvement when the mice ran first and then learned. As he dug into the literature, Frankland realized the effect was what other neuroscientists had called forgetting. He found many theoretical papers based on computational modeling that argued that as new neurons integrate into a circuit, the patterns of connections in the circuit change, and if information is stored in those patterns of connections, that information may be lost. (See Memory Munchers on page 21.)

The notion surprised other neuroscientists, mainly because up to that point theyd had two assumptions related to neurogenesis and forgetting. The first was that generating new neurons in a normal animal should be good for memory. The second was that forgetting was bad. The first assumption is still true, Frankland says, but the second is not. Many people think of forgetting as some sort of failure in our memory systems, he explains. Yet in healthy brains theres tons of forgetting happening all of the time. And, in fact, its important for memory function, Frankland says. It would actually be disadvantageous to remember everything we do.

Experiments have tied neurogenesis to forgetting, anxiety, depression, stress, and attention.

Parylak says this idea of forgetting certainly has provoked a lot of discussion. Its unclear, for example, whether the mice in Franklands experiments are forgetting, or if they are identifying a repeat event as something novel. This is the point, she explains, where doing neurogenesis research in humans would be beneficial. You could ask a person if theyd actually forgotten or if they are making some kind of extreme discrimination.

Despite the questions regarding the results, Frankland and his colleagues continued their work, testing mices forgetfulness with all types of memories, and more recently they asked whether the forgetting effect jeopardized old and new memories alike. In experiments, his team gave mice a foot shock, then boosted hippocampal neurogenesis (with exercise or a genetic tweak to neural progenitor cells), and put the mice in the same container theyd been shocked in. With another group of mice, the researchers waited nearly a month after the foot shock before boosting neurogenesis and putting the mice back in the container. Boosting the number of new neurons, the team found, only weakened the newly made memory, but not one that had been around for a while. This makes a lot of sense, Frankland says. As our memories of everyday events gradually get consolidated, they become less and less dependent on the hippocampus, and more dependent on another brain region: the cortex. This suggests that remote memories are less sensitive to changes in hippocampal neurogenesis levels.

The hippocampus tracks whats happened to you, Frankland says. Much of thats forgotten because much of it is inconsequential. But every now and then something interesting seems to happen, and its these eventful memories that seem to get backed up in other areas of the brain.

Researchers think neurogenesis helps the brain distinguish between two very similar objects or events, a phenomenon called pattern separation. According to one hypothesis, new neurons excitability in response to novel objects diminishes the response of established neurons in the dentate gyrus to incoming stimuli, helping to create a separate circuit for the new, but similar, memory.

At NIMH, one of Camerons first studies looking at the effects of neurogenesis tested the relationship between new neuronal growth and stress. She uncovered the connection studying mice that couldnt make new neurons and recording how they behaved in an open environment with food at the center. Just like mice that could still make new neurons, the neuro-genesis-deficient mice were hesitant to go get the food in the open space, but eventually they did. However, when the animals that couldnt make new neurons were stressed before being put into the open space, they were extremely cautious and anxious, whereas normal mice didnt behave any differently when stressed.

Cameron realized that the generation of new neurons also plays a role in the brain separate from the learning and memory functions for which there was growing evidence. In her experiments, we were looking for memory effects and looked for quite a while without finding anything and then stumbled onto this stress effect, she says.

The cells in the hippocampus are densely packed with receptors for stress hormones. One type of hormone in particular, glucocorticoids, is thought to inhibit neurogenesis, and decreased neurogenesis has been associated with depression and anxiety behaviors in rodents. But there wasnt a direct link between the experience of stress and the development of these behaviors. So Cameron and her colleagues set up an experiment to test the connection.

When the team blocked neurogenesis in adult mice and then restrained the animals to moderately stress them, their elevated glucocorticoid levels were slow to recover compared with mice that had normal neurogenesis. The stressed mice that could not generate new neurons also acted oddly in behavioral tests: they avoided food when put in a new environment, became immobile and increasingly distressed when forced to swim, and drank less sugary water than normal mice when it was offered to them, suggesting they dont work as hard as normal mice to experience pleasure. Impaired adult neurogenesis, the experiments showed, played a direct role in developing symptoms of depression, Cameron says.

The notion that neurogenesis and stress might be tied directly to our mental states led Cameron to look back into the literature, where she found many suggestions that the hippocampus plays a role in emotion, in addition to learning and memory. Even Altman, who unexpectedly identified neurogenesis in adult rodents in the 1960s, and colleagues suggested as much in the 1970s. Yet the argument has only appeared sporadically in the literature since then. Stress is complicated, Cameron says; its hard to know exactly how stressful experiences affect neurogenesis or how the generation of new neurons will influence an animals response to stress. Some types of stress can decrease neurogenesis while others, such as certain forms of intermittent stress, can increase new neuronal growth. Last year, Cameron and colleagues found that generating new neurons helps rats used to model post-traumatic stress disorder recover from acute and prolonged periods of stress.

Neurogenesis appears to play a role in both remembering and forgetting.

Her work has also linked neurogenesis to other characteristics of rodent behavior, including attention and sociability. In 2016, with Gould at Princeton and a few other collaborators, she published work suggesting that new neurons are indeed tied to social behavior. The team created a hierarchy among rats, and then deconstructed those social ranks by removing the dominant male. When the researchers sacrificed the animals and counted new neurons in their brains, the rats from deconstructed hierarchies had fewer new neurons than those from control cages with stable ranks. Rats with uncertain hierarchies and fewer new neurons didnt show any signs of anxiety or reduced cognition, but they werent as inclined as control animals to spend time with new rats put into their quarters, preferring to stick with the animals they knew. When given a drugoxytocinto boost neurogenesis, they once again began exploring and spending time with new rats that entered their cages.

The study from Camerons lab on rats ability to shift their attention grew out of the researchers work on stress, in which they observed that rodents sometimes couldnt switch from one task to the next. Turning again to the literature, Cameron found a study from 1969 that seemed to suggest that neurogenesis might affect this task-switching behavior. Her team set up the water bottle experiments to see how well rats shifted attention. Inhibiting neurogenesis in the adult mice led to a 50 percent decrease in their ability to switch their focus from drinking to searching for the source of the sound.

This paper is very interesting, says J. Tiago Gonalves, a neuroscientist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York who studies neurogenesis but was not involved in the study. It could explain the findings seen in some behavioral tasks and the incongruences between findings from different behavioral tasks, he writes in an email to The Scientist. Of course, follow-up work is needed, he adds.

Cameron argues that shifting attention may be yet another behavior in which the hippocampus plays an essential role but that researchers have been overlooking. And there may be an unexplored link between making new neurons and autism or other attention disorders, she says. Children with autism often have trouble shifting their attention from one image to the next in behavioral tests unless the original image is removed.

Its becoming clear, Cameron continues, that neurogenesis has many functions in the adult brain, some that are very distinct from learning and memory. In tasks requiring attention, though, there is a tie to memory, she notes. If youre not paying attention to things, you will not remember them.

Many, though not all, neuroscientists agree that theres ongoing neurogenesis in the hippocampus of most mammals, including humans. In rodents and many other animals, neurogenesis has also been observed in the olfactory bulbs. Whether newly generated neurons show up anywhere else in the brain is more controversial.

There had been hints of new neurons showing up in the striatum of primates in the early 2000s. In 2005,Heather Cameronof the National Institute of Mental Health and colleagues corroborated those findings, showing evidence of newly made neurons in therat neocortex, a region of the brain involved in spatial reasoning, language, movement, and cognition, and in the striatum, a region of the brain involved in planning movements and reacting to rewards, as well as self-control and flexible thinking (J Cell Biol, 168:41527). Nearly a decade later, using nuclear-bomb-test-derivedcarbon-14 isotopesto identify when nerve cells were born,Jonas Frisnof the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and colleagues examined the brains of postmortem adult humans and confirmed thatnew neurons existed in the striatum(Cell, 156:107283, 2014).

Those results are great, Cameron says. They support her idea that there are different types of neurons being born in the brain throughout life. The problem is theyre very small cells, theyre very scattered, and therere very few of them. So theyre very tough to see and very tough to study.

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What Do New Neurons in the Brains of Adults Actually Do? - The Scientist

Earlier, treating orthopedic problems just led to temporary cure but not the root cause of the problem. However, the case is not the same now. With emerging research and experience, Dr. David C. Karli says that regenerative medicine can completely repair the tissues using stem cell therapies. From professional athletes to ordinary people who strive to live a healthy and active life, regenerative medicine is a new ray of hope providing a healthy alternative for sports and musculoskeletal conditions and injuries.

Dr. David C. Karli is an Ivy-trained physician, a pioneer in orthopedic regenerative medicine and sports medicine, and the founder of Greyledge Technologies, one of the first FDA-audited biotech companies that prepare biologic implants to repair humans diseased or damaged tissues. Talking about the advancements in regen medicine, he says, Regenerative medicines multidisciplinary approach can cater to solutions for several untreatable orthopedic problems. With experts around the world pooling their knowledge, skills, and resources, a breakthrough in orthopedic treatment is leading to a miracle cure.

What is Regenerative Medicine?

Regenerative medicine is an interdisciplinary field that helps repair or replaces damaged or diseased human cells or tissues to restore normal function. The relatively new field of study comprises a broad range of scientific disciplines like molecular biology and genetics to immunology and biochemistry. Dr. Karli specializes in orthopedic applications where a patients diseased cells are replaced and re-implanted by the autologously collected healthy cells from the same patient.

About Dr. David C. Karli

Dr. David Karli graduated from Elizabethtown College, Pennsylvania, in 1993. Followed by receiving his MD degree from the University of Maryland, he pursued his residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation at Harvard Medical School, where he served as a chief resident in his final year. While serving as an attending physician at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Karli collaborated with his orthopedic surgeon colleagues and participated in the development of rehabilitation protocols for spinal disorders. He joined the Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, where his research interest led him to take up Regenerative Medicine and successfully launch and develop Greyledge Technologies. This company focuses on autologous blood-based biotherapies for orthopedic injuries.

In his 23 years of experience, Dr. Karli has authored several research papers and publications on stem cell therapies and rehabilitation and lectured on spinal and musculoskeletal topics. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Also, Dr. Karli is an active member of several societies, including the Regenerative Medicine Organization., the American Academy of PM&R, and the International Spinal Injection Society.

Greyledge Technologies

He founded the company Greyledge Technologies in 2010 with the mission to redefine orthopedic treatments and enhance the bodys response to injury. Greyledge Technologies develops biologic products by processing materials like human blood and bone marrow into implantable preparations. These biologic preparations are further developed and inserted into the human body replacing the diseased cells hence, stimulating the healing process and self-repair.

At Greyledge Technologies, every patient is completely assessed and analyzed not only to guarantee that theyre fit to undergo the procedure yet additionally to create a personalized dynamic strategy that each patient can follow. The whole treatment takes a certain number of days wherein the family members and caretakers are informed about the medicinal dosages to follow after the procedure. After surgery, every patient is regularly followed-up by the rehabilitation team.

When asked in-depth about practicing regenerative medicine at Greyledge Technologies, Dr. Karli said, The treatment is entirely safe and effective as it requires no big surgeries or complicated operations. As the cells used are autologous, they do not pose any chances of immune rejection or untoward irreversible side effects. Neither do the cells need to be preserved. This makes the procedure swift and safe for all ages.

Dr. Karli says, Regenerative Medicine is emerging as one of the trending treatment options for patients who have lost all hope. Whats brilliant about this treatment is that it has the capability to thoroughly repair the damaged tissues at the molecular, structural, and functional level.

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David C. Karli is Offering a New Ray of Hope Through Regenerative Medicine - RESPECT.

As the world waits for a coronavirus vaccine, tens of thousands of people could die. But some scientists believe a vaccine might already exist.

Surprising new research in a niche area of immunology suggests that certain live vaccines that have been around for decades could, possibly, protect against the coronavirus. The theory is that these vaccines could make people less likely to experience serious symptoms or even any symptoms if they catch it.

At more than 25 universities and clinical centers around the world, researchers have begun clinical trials, primarily in health care workers, to test whether a live tuberculosis vaccine that has been in use for 99 years called the bacillus Calmette-Gurin, or B.C.G., vaccine, could reduce the risks associated with the coronavirus.

Another small but esteemed group of scientists is raising money to test the potential protective effects of a 60-year-old live polio vaccine called O.P.V.

Its counterintuitive to think that old vaccines created to fight very different pathogens could defend against the coronavirus. The idea is controversial in part because it challenges the dogma about how vaccines work.

But scientists understanding of an arm of immunology known as innate immunity has shifted in recent years. A growing body of research suggests that live vaccines, which are made from living but attenuated pathogens (as opposed to inactivated vaccines, which use dead pathogens) provide broad protection against infections in ways that no one anticipated.

We cant be certain as to what the outcome will be, but I suspect itll have an effect on the coronavirus, said Jeffrey Cirillo, a microbiologist and immunologist at Texas A&M University who is leading one of the B.C.G. trials. Question is, how big will it be?

Scientists stress that these vaccines will not be a panacea. They might make symptoms milder, but they probably wont eliminate them. And the protection, if it occurs, would most likely last only a few years.

Still, these could be a first step, said Dr. Mihai Netea, an immunologist at Radboud University in the Netherlands who is leading another one of the trials. They can be the bridge until you have the time to develop a specific vaccine.

The first evidence to suggest that live vaccines could be broadly protective trickled in nearly a century ago, but no one knew what to make of it. In 1927, soon after B.C.G. was rolled out, Carl Naslund of the Swedish Tuberculosis Society observed that children vaccinated with the live tuberculosis vaccine were three times less likely to die of any cause compared with kids who werent.

One is tempted to explain this very low mortality among vaccinated children by the idea that B.C.G. vaccine provokes a nonspecific immunity, he wrote in 1932.

Then, in clinical trials conducted in the 1940s and 50s in the United States and Britain, researchers found that B.C.G. reduced nonaccidental deaths from causes other than tuberculosis by an average of 25 percent.

Also in the 1950s, Russian researchers, including Marina Voroshilova of the Academy of Medical Science in Moscow, noticed that people who had been given the live polio vaccine, compared with people who hadnt, were far less likely to fall ill with the seasonal flu and other respiratory infections. She and other scientists undertook a clinical trial involving 320,000 Russians to more carefully test these mysterious effects.

They found that among individuals who had received the live polio vaccine, the incidence of seasonal influenza was reduced by 75 percent, said Konstantin Chumakov, Voroshilovas son, who is now an associate director for research in the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations Office of Vaccines Research and Review.

Recent studies have produced similar findings. In a 2016 review of 68 papers commissioned by the World Health Organization, a team of researchers concluded that B.C.G., along with other live vaccines, reduce overall mortality by more than would be expected through their effects on the diseases they prevent.

The W.H.O. has long been skeptical about these nonspecific effects, in part because much of the research on them has involved observational studies that dont establish cause and effect. But in a recent report incorporating newer results from some clinical trials, the organization described nonspecific vaccine effects as plausible and common.

Dr. Stanley Plotkin, a vaccinologist and emeritus professor at the University of Pennsylvania who developed the rubella vaccine but has no involvement in the current research, agreed. Vaccines can affect the immune system beyond the response to the specific pathogen, he said.

Peter Aaby, a Danish anthropologist who has spent 40 years studying the nonspecific effects of vaccines in Guinea-Bissau, in West Africa, and whose findings have been criticized as implausible, is hopeful that these trials will be a tipping point for research in the field. Its kind of a golden moment in terms of actually having this taken seriously, he said.

The possibility that vaccines could have nonspecific effects is brow-furrowing in part because scientists have long believed that vaccines work by stimulating the bodys highly specific adaptive immune system.

After receiving a vaccine against, say, polio, a persons body creates an army of polio-specific antibodies that recognize and attack the virus before it has a chance to take hold. Antibodies against polio cant fight off infections caused by other pathogens, though so, based on this framework, polio vaccines should not be able to reduce the risk associated with other viruses, such as the coronavirus.

But over the past decade, immunologists have discovered that live vaccines also stimulate the innate immune system, which is less specific but much faster. They have found that the innate immune system can be trained by live vaccines to better fight off various kinds of pathogens.

For instance, in a 2018 study, Dr. Netea and his colleagues vaccinated volunteers with either B.C.G. or a placebo and then infected them all with a harmless version of the yellow fever virus. Those who had been given B.C.G. were better able to fight off yellow fever.

Research by Dr. Netea and others shows that live vaccines train the bodys immune system by initiating changes in some stem cells. Among other things, the vaccines initiate the creation of tiny marks that help cells turn on genes involved in immune protection against multiple pathogens.

This area of innate immunity is one of the hottest areas in fundamental immunology today, said Dr. Robert Gallo, the director of the Institute of Human Virology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and co-founder of the Global Virus Network, a coalition of virologists from more than 30 countries. In the 1980s, Dr. Gallo helped to identify H.I.V. as the cause of AIDS.

Dr. Gallo is leading the charge to test the O.P.V. live polio vaccine as a treatment for coronavirus. He and his colleagues hope to start a clinical trial on health care workers in New York City and Maryland within six weeks.

O.P.V. is routinely used in 143 countries, but no longer in the United States. An inactivated polio vaccine was reintroduced here in 1997, in part because one out of every 2.7 million people who receive the live vaccine can actually develop polio from it.

But O.P.V. does not pose this risk to Americans who have received a polio vaccine in the past. We believe this is very, very, very safe, Dr. Gallo said. Its also inexpensive at 12 cents a dose, and is administered orally, so it doesnt require needles.

Some scientists have raised concerns over whether these vaccines could increase the risk for cytokine storms deadly inflammatory reactions that have been observed in some people weeks after they have been infected with the coronavirus. Dr. Netea and others said that they were taking these concerns seriously but did not anticipate problems. For one thing, the vaccines will be given only to healthy people not to people who are already infected.

Also, B.C.G. may actually be able to ramp up the bodys initial immune response in ways that reduce the amount of virus in the body, such that an inflammatory response never occurs. It may lead to less infection to start with, said Dr. Moshe Arditi, the director of the Infectious and Immunological Diseases Research Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, who is leading one of the trial arms.

The science on this is still early days. Several pre-prints scientific papers that have not yet been peer-reviewed published over the past few months support the idea that B.C.G. could protect against the coronavirus. They have reported, for instance, that death rates are lower in countries that routinely vaccinate children with B.C.G. But these studies can be fraught with bias and difficult to interpret; its impossible to know whether the vaccinations, or something else, provided the protection.

Such studies are at the very bottom of the evidence hierarchy, said Dr. Christine Stabell Benn, who is raising funds for a Danish B.C.G trial. She added that the protective effects of a dose of B.C.G given to adults decades ago, when they were infants, may well differ from the protective effects the vaccine could provide when given to adults during an outbreak.

In the end, said Dr. Netea, only the clinical trials will give the answer.

Thankfully, that answer will come very soon. Initial results from the trials that are underway may be available within a few months. If these researchers are right, these old vaccines could buy us time and save thousands of lives while we work to develop a new one.

Melinda Wenner Moyer is a science and health writer and the author of a forthcoming book on raising children.

View original post here:
Could Innate Immunology Save Us From the Coronavirus? - The New York Times

ANNAPOLIS Restaurants, bars and gyms in Maryland were ordered to close by the end of Monday in a continuing effort to stem the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Gov. Larry Hogan made the announcement during a Monday news conference in which he also ordered that there be no public gatherings of any kind of 50 people or more.

This carries the full force of the law and will be strictly enforced, said Hogan.

We are no longer asking for anybodys cooperation, he said. Were not fooling around anymore.

As part of the order, the governor said that restaurants that have delivery and drive-through services would be allowed to continue to operate.

Essential businesses such as grocery stores, banks and pharmacies, gas stations were ordered to remain open and operating, Hogan said.

It is impossible to know how long this threat will continue, he said.

The governor announced the closures, which he called unprecedented, with another broad set of executive orders and mandates he said are intended to slow the spread of the virus.

On Monday morning, Hogan said there were now 37 reported cases in the state. Maryland reported its first three cases on March 5, the same day the governor declared a state of emergency.

Weve never faced anything like this before, said Hogan. This is going to be much harder, take much longer, and be much worse than almost anyone is currently understanding.

Under the state of emergency, Hogan has ramped up the states efforts to restrict the spread of the virus.

Hogan said too many people were ignoring warnings and risking the health of the general public.

Every single one of us needs to take serious actions to immediately limit day-to-day interactions and activities, he said.

COVID-19 is from a family of coronaviruses that include severe acute respiratory syndrome SARS and Middle East respiratory syndrome. The virus takes its name for the spikes that appear on the surface of its cells that resemble crowns.

Symptoms of COVID-19 can include fever, cough and breathing trouble. Most people who catch the virus develop only mild symptoms. But some people, usually those with other medical complications, develop more severe symptoms, including pneumonia, which can be fatal.

The Monday announcement was the latest in a series of changes forced by virus.

On Sunday, leaders in the Maryland General Assembly said they would truncate the 90-day session by almost three weeks because of the public health threat. State buildings and the State House and legislative buildings were closed to the public on Friday.

In addition to the business closures, Hogan barred public gatherings of 50 or more people lower than the 250 he announced last week.

The Maryland Department of Health will begin an assessment of closed hospital facilities in an effort to add 6,000 additional beds to an estimated 9,000 within Maryland.

Fran Phillips, deputy state health secretary, said the agency is looking to anticipate and prepare for a surge in medical need.

Hogan activated 5,000 trained volunteers in the Maryland Medical Reserve Corps. He also authorized medical professionals with a valid out-of-state licenses or whose Maryland licenses have expired to work in the state.

The Maryland National Guard and Air National Guard were activated on Thursday. Currently, about 400 guard members have been activated with plans to activate a total of 2,200 guard soldiers and airmen, according to Major General Timothy Gowen, adjutant general of the Maryland National Guard.

Hogan issued an executive order prohibiting utilities and cable and internet providers from disconnecting customers for nonpayment. He also ended evictions while the state of emergency is in effect.

The Maryland State Department of Education has applied for a federal waiver to assist in providing meals to students who depend on schools being open to access food.

Karen Salmon, state schools superintendent, said officials expect to hand out 100,000 meals at nearly 140 locations over the next two weeks while schools are closed.

It is not immediately known how long schools will be closed. Salmon said the initial two weeks was to give us time to assess the situation, and that an extension of that closure hasnt been ruled out.

She said the schools will provide three meals daily and a snack while waiting for the federal government to approve the waiver request.

We havent gotten the waiver yet but we went ahead and said were doing it anyway, said Salmon.

Read the original here:
Watch: Hogan orders closure of bars, restaurants, theaters and gyms, restricts gatherings - Maryland Daily Record

As with the early medical cannabis plays, a cluster of ASX-listed stocks has wasted little time attaching itself to the c word. Were talking of course about the coronavirus COVID-19 but sadly not another c word: cure.

Or not yet.

According to broker Morgans daily tally, the virulent bug has so far infected 95,332 people, with 38,564 current cases (6,883 of them critical).

Of the remaining 56,768 cases with an outcome, 53,483 recovered and 6,883 achieved a definitive performance indicator.They died.

Okay, a circa 7 per cent mortality rate or even a 1 or 2 per cent rate is nothing to sneeze at, so to speak. But we do wish breathless TV reporters would cease referring to it as the deadly virus, but that would be like asking them to stop referring to a horror smash rather than a sad everyday road accident.

While were on it, we also implore folk to stop hoarding toilet paper: after all, its the coronavirus, not the Caroma-virus.

Named after its crown-like shape but not the Royal Family per se, the common coronavirus is responsible for past pestilences including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

The virus may indeed fizzle out, as the earlier SARS plague did.

But for the time being, we need the best and brightest minds in the labs to come up with a treatment or more likely a vaccine.

There are some promising developments overseas, which your columnist will return to if he hasnt succumbed as well (he did shake hands with someone who went to a Chinese restaurant a couple of weeks back).

Among the local biotechs and we use the term loosely theres been no lack of endeavour in linking their efforts to the virus.

But to be fair, in some cases investors did it for them.

Take Biotron (ASX:BIT), which was an obvious subject of attention given the company is focused on developing antiviral drugs for HIV and hepatitis.

Biotron also has a program for pan respiratory viruses and mentioned corona in a June 2019 presentation. Some punters latched on to the fact that it wasnt referring to a 1970s Toyota or Mexican beer and the Hot Copper pundits were off and running.

Biotron CEO Dr Michelle Miller has been more circumspect.

Yes, she says, the company has some good advanced compounds to work on, but the reality is that theres nothing that would be ready to fight the current outbreak.

Dr Miller says while the companys work on pan respiratory viruses continues, theres not much to add at this stage.

LISTEN TO: Health Kick Podcast: Coronavirus, HIV and hepatitis are in the sights of Aussie biotech Biotron

Uscom (ASX:UCM) shares went on a run after the company reported increased orders for its haemodynamic monitoring devices in China.

Uscom stands for Ultra-Sonic Cardiac Output Monitors.

The Uscom 1A device is a non-invasive diagnostic that monitors cardiovascular functions, using Doppler ultrasound to detect abnormalities.

Chinese health authorities have recommended Uscom 1A as a monitoring device for severe coronavirus cases, while international guidelines also suggest using the device for paediatric sepsis.

Uscom reported that in the first five weeks of 2019, Chinese sales orders rose 124 per cent, from 17 units to 38 units.

Uscom chief Professor Rob Phillips says the company is well positioned with the virus, but notes that Uscom is not a coronavirus story as such: fatalities from cardiovascular pulmonary failure result from conditions such as pneumonia.

Happily for Uscom, the outbreak comes as the company hones-in on the Chinese market with a new direct sales model.

READ: Dr Borehams Crucible: Uscom gets an A+ for everything but its share price

The molecular diagnostics house has a suite of approved tests that cover gastro-enteric strains, flavivirus/alphavirus, sexually-transmitted diseases and drum roll respiratory pathogens.

Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) Easyscreen tests cover pan coronaviruses, which until now has not been able to distinguish COVID-19 from, say, SARS.

But thats all changed, with the company introducing a supplementary test that does just that. Management is fast-tracking a validation program to obtain the data required for international regulatory approvals as rapidly as possible.

However, Genetic Signatures cant be accused of beating up its prospects: management says while the bug presents significant opportunities, the outcome of the emerging pandemic is uncertain.

While the early-stage coronavirus is detected by a blood test, chest x-rays are then used to gauge the severity of the illness and assess fluid in the lungs.

Micro-X (ASX:MX1) is all about developing lightweight and portable x-ray machines for medical applications, as well as other purposes such as defence and airports.

The companys first product, Carestream DRX Revolution Nano is approved in the US and Europe.

In mid-February the company said it had procured orders for $780,000 of machines from governments of two Asian countries, in response to the coronavirus threat. This week, another $1m of orders, all marked for urgent delivery, flooded in.

While these are terrible circumstances with the coronavirus spreading so quickly, we are pleased that our equipment will soon be able to assist medical teams with their responses in affected countries, Micro-X CEO Peter Rowland says.

Why waste a crisis? No fewer than four ASX stocks are capitalising on demand for hand and surface sanitisers to halt the bug in the first place.

Antimicrobial solutions house Zoono Group (ASX:ZNO) proclaims that its impressively-monikered Z-71 Microbe Shield, as used in its hand sanitisers, kills COVID-19 99.99 percent of the time.

Zoono is selling into China via a tie up with Eagle Health (ASX:EHH), which manufactures and distributes product into 26 provinces.

READ: Health: Zoono is not one to waste a crisis as epidemics beef up revenue

Aeris Environmental (ASX:AEI) goes one step better, claiming its Aeris Active product kills influenza and noroviruses in 99.999 percent of cases.

For those remaining 0.001 percent, bad luck and dont buy a lottery ticket.

Interestingly, that announcement did not refer specifically to the coronavirus. But earlier, Aeris announced the Singapore National Environment Agency had listed Aeris Active as one of the general disinfectants effective against the virus.

Meanwhile, fruit juice maker Food Revolution Group (ASX:FOD) has turned from filling its bottles with squeezed oranges to stuffing them with alcohol-based hand sanitiser under the Sanicare brand.

Who would have thought? The swift repositioning results from a 1,260sqm upgrade at the companys plant at Mill Park in outer Melbourne, which enables all sorts of gels, powders, oils and cosmetics to be bottled.

Mainstream sanitiser products such as Dettol and Lysol (made by multinational Reckitt and Benckiser) are flying off the shelves.

But is a good scrub with soap and water just as effective? Australian National University microbiologist Professor Peter Collignon opines theres little difference between hand washing and the alcohol-based sanitisers.

One is just more convenient than the other and contains alcohol, he says. You can put it in your pocket and dont have to be near a sink or basin to use it.

So whos actually tackling the disease? Offshore, theres a conga line of developers having a crack at a vaccine.

In Israel, scientists at the Galilee Research Institute claim to be on the cusp of finalising a product that is capable of getting regulatory assent within 90 days.

Thats what you call fast-track approval.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the same team of scientists has been developing a prophylactic against infectious bronchitis virus, which affects poultry.

The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in pre-clinical trials carried out at the countrys Veterinary Institute.

In the US, Gilead Sciences plans to recruit 1,000 patients with coronavirus for a clinical trial to test its experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir (as used to tackle Ebola virus).

With the backing of the World Health Organisation, the drug is also being trialed in China.

Maryland-based, Nasdaq-listed Novavax says it is cloning the coronavirus to develop a vaccine, in the same way it developed one for MERS in 2013.

Novavax is looking at several vaccine candidates for animals and hopes to find one for human testing by the end of May.

Our previous experience working with other coronaviruses, including both MERS and SARS, allowed us to mobilise quickly, Novavax CEO Stanley Eck said.

Fellow Nasdaq minnow Moderna has shipped an experimental vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for testing.

Backed by billionaire hedge fund founder Jim Simons, Long Island-based private outfit Codagenixexpects to have a vaccine ready for animal testing in four to six weeks, with one suitable for testing about six weeks later.

The Codagenix know-how is based on recoding the genomes of viruses to render them harmless. The technique is not exactly unknown, as its been used to eradicate polio and small pox.

And who can forget Australias very own Relenza anti-influenza Biota, which became Alpharetta Georgias Nabi, changed its name to Aviragen and then was subsumed as a sub-division of San Franciscos Vaxart, popping its head above the parapet to also claim an anti-viral program for COVID-19.

READ: Biotech big guns are buying up the minnows

The South China Morning Post reports that a 65-year-old woman on her COVID-19 deathbed walked out of Chinas Kunming Hospital after being given a stiff shot of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).

Two trials are also underway to test the therapy against pneumonia, at a Beijing Military Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (yep, in the coronavirus capital).

Could the excitement rub-off on our ASX-listed plays Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP), Orthocell (ASX:OCC) and Regeneus (ASX:RGS)?

Cynatas Dr Ross Macdonald says the reports look authentic; and he believes that MSCs could be an effective adjunct in managing patients with serious issues pertaining to COVID-19.

This is not because MSCs are inherently anti-viral or can act as a vaccine, but more because they have shown benefit in major pathologies associated with infection, he says.

Cynata, we stress, has not mentioned coronavirus in its dispatches and nor has any of the other non-China MSC plays or not yet anyway.

But still, what decent CEO would not give his company a plug?

The clear advantage of (Cynatas) Cymerus technology (is) the ability to make large quantities of consistent, robust MSCs without having to find gazillions of donors, Dr Macdonald says.

Your columnist stresses that the coronavirus influence on the sector is not all positive, with some biotechs likely to be affected by supply or other disruptions.

In mid-February, Cochlear (ASX:COH) quickly stepped off the mark by announcing its earnings for the 2019-20 year were likely to come in at $270-290m, compared with the previously guided $290-300m.

The reason is that hospitals in China and Hong Kong have delayed cochlear implant procedures to avoid the risk of infection.

The aforementioned Uscom notes that with labs preoccupied with the virus, short-term revenues are less predictable. In other words, the coronavirus is a distraction as well as an opportunity.

IDT Australias (ASX:IDT)Dr David Sparling told Biotech Daily that his company had no direct supply chain exposure to China at all, and was doubtful that even the companys gowns and protective gear had much to do with the Middle Kingdom.

If you throw enough money and resources at tackling a disease you will get a result, right?

Er, not quite: cures for well-researched ailments such as Alzheimers disease, multiple sclerosis and an array of cancers remain elusive.

But when youve got an ailment that is crippling the global economy, the imperative to find a solution is somewhat more intensive.

Our best guess is that like SARS and MERS, COVID-19 will hang around for years to come, but the ill-effects will be made more tolerable with an effective vaccine and/or improved immunity over time.

In other words, it will become just another disease in the pantheon of maladies blighting humanity.

In the race for a cure, Gileads Remdesivir looks interesting, given it has been used before.

As for the opportunists in the sanitiser game, the surge in demand means tangible revenue gains and good on them.

But lets be clear: theyre hardly breaking new ground technology-wise and their gains will only be short term as other suppliers enter the market.

As for a cure, or lack of one, we suggest that investors hedge their bets with an exposure to the funeral stocks Invocare (ASX:IVC)and Propel Funeral Partners (ASX:PFP).

After all, theyre the last people to let you down.

Disclosure: Dr Boreham is not a qualified medical practitioner and does not possess a doctorate of any sort. If he doesnt shake hands with you or spare you a square of toilet paper, dont be offended.

This column first appeared in Biotech Daily.

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See the original post:
Dr Borehams Crucible: The small cap biotechs trying to make a buck from coronavirus - Stockhead

This story originally appeared onStockhead.

As with the early medical cannabis plays, a cluster of ASX-listed stocks has wasted little time attaching itself to the c word. Were talking of course about the coronavirus COVID-19 but sadly not another c word: cure.

Or not yet.

According to broker Morgans daily tally, the virulent bug has so far infected 95,332 people, with 38,564 current cases (6,883 of them critical).

Of the remaining 56,768 cases with an outcome, 53,483 recovered and 6,883 achieved a definitive performance indicator. They died.

Okay, a circa 7 per cent mortality rate or even a 1 or 2 per cent rate is nothing to sneeze at, so to speak. But we do wish breathless TV reporters would cease referring to it as the deadly virus, but that would be like asking them to stop referring to a horror smash rather than a sad everyday road accident.

While were on it, we also implore folk to stop hoarding toilet paper: after all, its the coronavirus, not the Caroma-virus.

Named after its crown-like shape but not the Royal Family per se, the common coronavirus is responsible for past pestilences including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

The virus may indeed fizzle out, as the earlier SARS plague did.

But for the time being, we need the best and brightest minds in the labs to come up with a treatment or more likely a vaccine.

There are some promising developments overseas, which your columnist will return to if he hasnt succumbed as well (he did shake hands with someone who went to a Chinese restaurant a couple of weeks back).

Among the local biotechs and we use the term loosely theres been no lack of endeavour in linking their efforts to the virus.

But to be fair, in some cases investors did it for them.

Take Biotron (ASX:BIT), which was an obvious subject of attention given the company is focused on developing antiviral drugs for HIV and hepatitis.

Biotron also has a program for pan respiratory viruses and mentioned corona in a June 2019 presentation. Some punters latched on to the fact that it wasnt referring to a 1970s Toyota or Mexican beer and the Hot Copper pundits were off and running.

Biotron CEO Dr Michelle Miller has been more circumspect.

Yes, she says, the company has some good advanced compounds to work on, but the reality is that theres nothing that would be ready to fight the current outbreak.

Dr Miller says while the companys work on pan respiratory viruses continues, theres not much to add at this stage.

Uscom (ASX:UCM) shares went on a run after the company reported increased orders for its haemodynamic monitoring devices in China.

Uscom stands for Ultra-Sonic Cardiac Output Monitors.

The Uscom 1A device is a non-invasive diagnostic that monitors cardiovascular functions, using Doppler ultrasound to detect abnormalities.

Chinese health authorities have recommended Uscom 1A as a monitoring device for severe coronavirus cases, while international guidelines also suggest using the device for paediatric sepsis.

Uscom reported that in the first five weeks of 2019, Chinese sales orders rose 124 per cent, from 17 units to 38 units.

Uscom chief Professor Rob Phillips says the company is well positioned with the virus, but notes that Uscom is not a coronavirus story as such: fatalities from cardiovascular pulmonary failure result from conditions such as pneumonia.

Happily for Uscom, the outbreak comes as the company hones-in on the Chinese market with a new direct sales model.

The molecular diagnostics house has a suite of approved tests that cover gastro-enteric strains, flavivirus/alphavirus, sexually-transmitted diseases and drum roll respiratory pathogens.

Genetic Signatures (ASX:GSS) Easyscreen tests cover pan coronaviruses, which until now has not been able to distinguish COVID-19 from, say, SARS.

But thats all changed, with the company introducing a supplementary test that does just that. Management is fast-tracking a validation program to obtain the data required for international regulatory approvals as rapidly as possible.

However, Genetic Signatures cant be accused of beating up its prospects: management says while the bug presents significant opportunities, the outcome of the emerging pandemic is uncertain.

While the early-stage coronavirus is detected by a blood test, chest x-rays are then used to gauge the severity of the illness and assess fluid in the lungs.

Micro-X (ASX:MX1) is all about developing lightweight and portable x-ray machines for medical applications, as well as other purposes such as defence and airports.

The companys first product, Carestream DRX Revolution Nano is approved in the US and Europe.

In mid-February the company said it had procured orders for $780,000 of machines from governments of two Asian countries, in response to the coronavirus threat. This week, another $1m of orders, all marked for urgent delivery, flooded in.

While these are terrible circumstances with the coronavirus spreading so quickly, we are pleased that our equipment will soon be able to assist medical teams with their responses in affected countries, Micro-X CEO Peter Rowland says.

Why waste a crisis? No fewer than four ASX stocks are capitalising on demand for hand and surface sanitisers to halt the bug in the first place.

Antimicrobial solutions house Zoono Group (ASX:ZNO) proclaims that its impressively-monikered Z-71 Microbe Shield, as used in its hand sanitisers, kills COVID-19 99.99 percent of the time.

Zoono is selling into China via a tie up with Eagle Health (ASX:EHH), which manufactures and distributes product into 26 provinces.

Aeris Environmental (ASX:AEI) goes one step better, claiming its Aeris Active product kills influenza and noroviruses in 99.999 percent of cases.

For those remaining 0.001 percent, bad luck and dont buy a lottery ticket.

Interestingly, that announcement did not refer specifically to the coronavirus. But earlier, Aeris announced the Singapore National Environment Agency had listed Aeris Active as one of the general disinfectants effective against the virus.

Meanwhile, fruit juice maker Food Revolution Group (ASX:FOD) has turned from filling its bottles with squeezed oranges to stuffing them with alcohol-based hand sanitiser under the Sanicare brand.

Who would have thought? The swift repositioning results from a 1,260sqm upgrade at the companys plant at Mill Park in outer Melbourne, which enables all sorts of gels, powders, oils and cosmetics to be bottled.

Mainstream sanitiser products such as Dettol and Lysol (made by multinational Reckitt and Benckiser) are flying off the shelves.

But is a good scrub with soap and water just as effective? Australian National University microbiologist Professor Peter Collignon opines theres little difference between hand washing and the alcohol-based sanitisers.

One is just more convenient than the other and contains alcohol, he says. You can put it in your pocket and dont have to be near a sink or basin to use it.

So whos actually tackling the disease? Offshore, theres a conga line of developers having a crack at a vaccine.

In Israel, scientists at the Galilee Research Institute claim to be on the cusp of finalising a product that is capable of getting regulatory assent within 90 days.

Thats what you call fast-track approval.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the same team of scientists has been developing a prophylactic against infectious bronchitis virus, which affects poultry.

The effectiveness of the vaccine has been proven in pre-clinical trials carried out at the countrys Veterinary Institute.

In the US, Gilead Sciences plans to recruit 1,000 patients with coronavirus for a clinical trial to test its experimental anti-viral drug remdesivir (as used to tackle Ebola virus).

With the backing of the World Health Organisation, the drug is also being trialed in China.

Maryland-based, Nasdaq-listed Novavax says it is cloning the coronavirus to develop a vaccine, in the same way it developed one for MERS in 2013.

Novavax is looking at several vaccine candidates for animals and hopes to find one for human testing by the end of May.

Our previous experience working with other coronaviruses, including both MERS and SARS, allowed us to mobilise quickly, Novavax CEO Stanley Eck said.

Fellow Nasdaq minnow Moderna has shipped an experimental vaccine to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for testing.

Backed by billionaire hedge fund founder Jim Simons, Long Island-based private outfit Codagenix expects to have a vaccine ready for animal testing in four to six weeks, with one suitable for testing about six weeks later.

The Codagenix know-how is based on recoding the genomes of viruses to render them harmless. The technique is not exactly unknown, as its been used to eradicate polio and small pox.

And who can forget Australias very own Relenza anti-influenza Biota, which became Alpharetta Georgias Nabi, changed its name to Aviragen and then was subsumed as a sub-division of San Franciscos Vaxart, popping its head above the parapet to also claim an anti-viral program for COVID-19.

The South China Morning Post reports that a 65-year-old woman on her COVID-19 deathbed walked out of Chinas Kunming Hospital after being given a stiff shot of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).

Two trials are also underway to test the therapy against pneumonia, at a Beijing Military Hospital and Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University (yep, in the coronavirus capital).

Could the excitement rub-off on our ASX-listed plays Mesoblast (ASX:MSB), Cynata Therapeutics (ASX:CYP), Orthocell (ASX:OCC) and Regeneus (ASX:RGS)?

Cynatas Dr Ross Macdonald says the reports look authentic; and he believes that MSCs could be an effective adjunct in managing patients with serious issues pertaining to COVID-19.

This is not because MSCs are inherently anti-viral or can act as a vaccine, but more because they have shown benefit in major pathologies associated with infection, he says.

Cynata, we stress, has not mentioned coronavirus in its dispatches and nor has any of the other non-China MSC plays or not yet anyway.

But still, what decent CEO would not give his company a plug?

The clear advantage of (Cynatas) Cymerus technology (is) the ability to make large quantities of consistent, robust MSCs without having to find gazillions of donors, Dr Macdonald says.

Your columnist stresses that the coronavirus influence on the sector is not all positive, with some biotechs likely to be affected by supply or other disruptions.

In mid-February, Cochlear (ASX:COH) quickly stepped off the mark by announcing its earnings for the 2019-20 year were likely to come in at $270-290m, compared with the previously guided $290-300m.

The reason is that hospitals in China and Hong Kong have delayed cochlear implant procedures to avoid the risk of infection.

The aforementioned Uscom notes that with labs preoccupied with the virus, short-term revenues are less predictable. In other words, the coronavirus is a distraction as well as an opportunity.

IDT Australias (ASX:IDT) Dr David Sparling told Biotech Daily that his company had no direct supply chain exposure to China at all, and was doubtful that even the companys gowns and protective gear had much to do with the Middle Kingdom.

Editors note: Dr. Tim Boreham, who wrote this article for Stockhead, is one of Australias best-known small cap analysts and business journalists.

If you throw enough money and resources at tackling a disease you will get a result, right?

Er, not quite: cures for well-researched ailments such as Alzheimers disease, multiple sclerosis and an array of cancers remain elusive.

But when youve got an ailment that is crippling the global economy, the imperative to find a solution is somewhat more intensive.

Our best guess is that like SARS and MERS, COVID-19 will hang around for years to come, but the ill-effects will be made more tolerable with an effective vaccine and/or improved immunity over time.

In other words, it will become just another disease in the pantheon of maladies blighting humanity.

In the race for a cure, Gileads Remdesivir looks interesting, given it has been used before.

As for the opportunists in the sanitiser game, the surge in demand means tangible revenue gains and good on them.

But lets be clear: theyre hardly breaking new ground technology-wise and their gains will only be short term as other suppliers enter the market.

As for a cure, or lack of one, we suggest that investors hedge their bets with an exposure to the funeral stocks Invocare (ASX:IVC) and Propel Funeral Partners (ASX:PFP).

After all, theyre the last people to let you down.

Stockheadcovers emerging ASX companies and investment opportunities. Get daily stock updates atStockhead.

Continued here:
The Aussie Biotech Companies Trying To Make A Buck From Coronavirus - D'Marge

In order to take advantage of the potential of stem cells for the purposes of regenerative medicine, robust standardized methods are required to generate sufficient quantities of stem cells that meet defined criteria for specific stem/progenitor cell populations.

Currently, the availability of these cells for research, drug screening and therapeutic use is limited due to technical challenges associated with their generation and expansion. On May 3, 2011, The University of Maryland School of Medicines Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Paragon Bioservices, Inc., a contract research and GMP manufacturing company, received a Biotechnology Shared Resource Award from the state of Maryland to establish The Maryland Stem Cell Consortium to facilitate the research, commercial development and clinical application of stem cell based technologies and therapies. A key component of the consortium is the establishment of a stem cell core facility that has expertise to expand and differentiate induced pluripotent stem cells, mesenchymal stem cells, and other types of stem cells for laboratory and clinical research under GLP/GMP conditions, as needed. This core facility is open to all, without intellectual property reach-through. Cell banking and genetic modification of stem cells is also available. The core services are available on a fee-for-service model that is open to the wider stem cell community, public and private, especially in the state of Maryland. Life Technologies, Inc., a global biotechnology company that is a provider of scientific products and reagents, is also participating in the consortium and providing training opportunities for research scientists.

As a founding member of the consortium, the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine is committed to developing strong interactions between academia and the private sector and seeks to facilitate the partnering of faculty expertise with that of the external private and public sectors. The Center faculty are interested in the analysis of molecular pathways regulating basic stem cell biology, characterization of stem and progenitor cell properties to improve expansion of stem cells for transplantation, optimization of directed differentiation of pluripotent cells into distinct cell lineages, functional characterization of differentiated cells and testing the translational potential of stem cell and their progeny. Taking advantage of patient material from the University of Maryland Hospital System (a network of 12 hospitals centered at the adjacent ~1000-bed University of Maryland Medical Center plus the Baltimore Veterans Administration Hospital), Center faculty are establishing induced pluripotent stem models for human disease, such as Gauchers Disease. The Centers researchers are also using mesenchymal stem cells for repair of a range of tissue types; and several of our cardiologists and cardiac surgeons are involved in clinical trials to test stem cell-mediated cardiac repair. Via the Maryland Stem Cell Consortium, we hope to encourage productive scientific and intellectual interactions between researchers in academia, government and private sectors to accelerate stem cell related discoveries and their translation into much-needed treatments.

If you would like more information about the Maryland Stem Cell Consortium or are interested in participating, please contact the Center.

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Maryland Stem Cell Center Consortium & Core Facility ...