Page 8«..78910

Category Archives: Michigan Stem Cells

Novogen (NVGN) Promising Data in Brain Cancer; eFuture Information Technology (EFUT) and …

Posted: March 5, 2015 at 5:53 am

Novogen Limited (NVGN)

Shares of Novogen Limited (NVGN) touched an increase in value of more than 50% in extended-hours trading on Tuesday, after the company confirmed that its TRXE-009 is showing the potential to become an important new therapy in the fight against adult and pediatric brain cancer, based on findings from studies conducted at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, the research branch of North Shore-LIJ Health System.

The latest study looked at the ability of NVGN's TRXE-009 to kill a library of patient-derived cell cultures from subjects with glioblastoma multiform (GBM). These stemlike cancer cells are believed to be responsible for chemotherapy resistance and tumor recurrence, so killing these highly resistant GBM cancer stem cell is considered to be a fundamental requirement to successfully treating this highly destructive diseas

According to NVGN, all patient derived cancer cells represented in the library responded to TRXE-009 at clinically relevant doses, suggesting a strong therapeutic potential.

These findings, together with other results from recently announced pre-clinical studies, suggest that NVGN's TRXE-009 is a unique drug candidate in preferentially targeting tumors with a common embryonic origin in neural/neural crest cells.

NVGN is engaged in the pharmaceutical research and development business in Australia. NVGN group includes US-based CanTx Inc, a joint venture company with Yale University

More about Novogen Limited (NVGN) at http://www.novogen.com

**

eFuture Information Technology Inc. (EFUT)

Read more:
Novogen (NVGN) Promising Data in Brain Cancer; eFuture Information Technology (EFUT) and ...

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Novogen (NVGN) Promising Data in Brain Cancer; eFuture Information Technology (EFUT) and …

Stem Cell Research – Right to Life of Michigan

Posted: February 24, 2015 at 1:53 pm

Embryo Adoption: A Tale of Twins

For adopted twins Meredith and Mason Bonnema, fall of 2008 represents life and a future for both. Their adoptive parents were finalizing plans to welcome them to their new family.

Meredith and Mason were too small to remember that fall, because they were both smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. They spent the first few months of their adoption in deep freeze, waiting for their chance as embryos to be implanted in their adoptive mother, Kari. Transferred the following February, Meredith and Mason were born in October 2009, about one year after being adopted. While their parents were eagerly waiting for them to become part of their family, a completely different plan was being drawn up for other frozen embryos like Meredith and Mason. Voters in Michigan narrowly approved Proposal 2 in November 2008, allowing embryos to be legally destroyed for experimentation. FULL STORY

The birth of a child is always special, but now with the donation of cord blood -- a baby's birth can also give life to others. Cord blood banks help ensure that patients suffering from a variety of blood ailments have the opportunity to receive a transplant of life-affirming stem cells from umbilical cord blood. MORE

The Great Stem Cell Debate: Understanding the Basics As the debate over stem cell research rages on, Right to Life of Michigan has put together a fact sheet discussing basic information about the issue and the difference between adult stem cells and embryonic stem cells. PDF

Sacrificed Without Consent: Taking From the Unborn, Ending Lives Since stem cells are so versatile there is hope within the medical community that some day the cells can be reprogrammed to cure various diseases. This stem cell fact sheet contains information on the potential of stem cells, stem cell research, and the current legal situation regarding embryonic stem cell research. HTML | PDF

Cloning: No Longer Science Fiction

As we stand at a time when technology is quickly advancing, researchers have begun to bombard our nation and the rest of the world with questions of how far science can and should go. Since the pursuit of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries continues unfettered, our world is continually threatened with attacks on the sanctity of human life. PDF

Many people are nervous about giving blood. The thought of anything related to a needle is enough to make their hair stand on end. There is one way, however, to give a potentially life saving blood gift without suffering any anxiety.

"It's an easy thing," said Mary Sumners of Grand Rapids. "It's super easy to do. I don't usually give blood, so it was a great way to give something." This easy thing is donating umbilical cord blood after childbirth. Cord blood is a rich source of adult stem cells. FULL STORY

Read the rest here:
Stem Cell Research - Right to Life of Michigan

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Stem Cell Research – Right to Life of Michigan

Breast Cancer Stem Cell Research – University of Michigan …

Posted: January 17, 2015 at 7:57 am

In the fight against breast cancer, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that, since 1990, there has been a steady decline in the death rate from breast cancer. Earlier detection and better treatments are bringing hope to people with both early and advanced disease.

The bad news is that more than 40,000 people die from breast cancer every year in the United States alone. It is still the second-leading cause of deaths from cancer in women. The survival rate for those with advanced, metastatic breast cancer has not changed significantly for decades. In spite of more effective therapies, many patients still experience recurrences of breast cancer after treatment.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, watch it on our YouTube channel.

We believe that conventional therapies for advanced breast cancer are limited because they target the wrong cells. These therapies were designed to shrink cancers by killing all the cells in a tumor. We believe therapies could be more effective, and cause fewer side effects, if they were aimed specifically at a small group of cells within the tumor called cancer stem cells.

Breast cancer stem cells - the first to be identified in a solid tumor - were discovered in 2003 by scientists at the U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center. U-M scientists found that just a few cancer stem cells are responsible for the growth and spread of breast cancer. Unless the cancer stem cells are destroyed, the tumor is likely to come back and spread malignant cells to other parts of the body, a process called metastasis.

Because cancer stem cells are resistant to traditional chemotherapy and radiation, we need new treatments that can be targeted directly at these deadly cells. U-M Cancer Center scientists are studying breast cancer stem cells to learn more about them and to determine the type of therapy most likely to destroy the cells. The world's first clinical study of a treatment targeted at stem cells in breast cancer was conducted at the U-M Cancer Center and other clinical studies are currently in development.

All cells have a unique pattern of proteins, like a fingerprint, on their surface membranes. All breast cancer stem cells have a surface protein marker called CD44, along with very low levels or no levels of two markers called CD24 and lin. Using specialized equipment and techniques, scientists can separate cells with this combination of protein markers from millions of other cells in a tumor sample. U-M scientists also have identified a protein called ALDH, which is produced by cancer stem cells and can be detected in biopsies of patient tumors. Both genetic and non-genetic factors -- including age, radiation exposure, menstrual history and number of pregnancies -- are involved in the development of breast cancer.

If you are having trouble viewing the video, watch it on our YouTube channel.

Both genetic and non-genetic factors -- including age, radiation exposure, menstrual history and number of pregnancies -- are involved in the development of breast cancer.

For example, we know that women who inherit mutations in certain genes, especially BRCA1 and BRCA2, have a much higher risk of developing breast cancer. Mutations in HER2 and PTEN - genes involved in DNA repair and tumor suppression - are often present in aggressive breast cancers.

Read more:
Breast Cancer Stem Cell Research - University of Michigan ...

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Breast Cancer Stem Cell Research – University of Michigan …

What makes pancreatic cancer so aggressive? New study sheds light

Posted: January 16, 2015 at 5:54 am

IMAGE:This is Diane M. Simeone, M.D., University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. view more

Credit: University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - New research from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center helps explain why pancreatic cancer is so lethal, with fewer than a third of patients surviving even early stage disease.

The researchers found a gene known to be involved in nearly 90 percent of pancreatic cancers promotes cancer growth and spread. The gene, ATDC, plays a key role in how a tumor progresses from a preinvasive state to an invasive cancer to metastatic cancer.

"We know that patients with the earliest stage of pancreatic cancer have a survival rate of only 30 percent. This suggests that even in that very early stage of invasive cancer there are already cells that have spread to distant parts of the body," says study author Diane M. Simeone, M.D., director of the Pancreatic Cancer Center at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.

"This study sheds important light on what it is about pancreatic cancer that makes it so aggressive early in the game," she adds. The study appears Jan. 15 in Genes and Development.

Researchers used a mouse model to replicate pancreatic cancer as it appears in humans. They also studied pancreatic cancer tissue samples and samples of pre-invasive pancreatic lesions. They found ATDC was expressed in a subset of the pre-invasive cells and played a role in the development of pancreatic cancer stem cells, the small number of cells in a tumor that fuel its growth and spread. This suggests that ATDC promotes a tumor's invasiveness and spread early in the course of disease.

The researchers suspect that ATDC may be a potent drug target. No drugs currently exist to target this pathway in part because researchers do not understand the crystal structure of the protein. Simeone's team, working with the University of Michigan Center for Structural Biology has made crystals of the protein and begun to create a three-dimensional structure that they can use as a model for drug development.

Preliminary data suggests that ATDC may also play a role in other cancer types, including bladder, ovarian, colorectal and lung cancers and multiple myeloma. But, Simeone notes, it's particularly critical to find new treatment options for pancreatic cancer. About 46,400 Americans will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer this year, and more than 39,000 will die of the disease. Pancreatic cancer is expected to become the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States by 2030.

###

See the original post here:
What makes pancreatic cancer so aggressive? New study sheds light

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on What makes pancreatic cancer so aggressive? New study sheds light

Leukemia Stem Cell Research | University of Michigan …

Posted: January 4, 2015 at 8:52 pm

Sean Morrison, Ph.D., former-director, Center for Stem Cell Biology in the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute, discusses leukemia stem cells.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, watch it on our YouTube channel.

Because they have been studied the longest, scientists know more about leukemic cancer stem cells than they know about stem cells in other kinds of cancer. Cancer stem cells were first discovered in 1994, when University of Toronto researchers found them in acute myeloid leukemia. Within a few years, researchers identified cancer stem cells in other types of leukemia, as well.

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow. There are different types of leukemia, but they all start when something goes wrong with blood-forming cells in bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside bones. In leukemia, some of the cells created when these blood-forming cells divide are abnormal. They keep dividing uncontrollably, crowding out normal blood and immune cells we need to survive.

Some leukemias are more common in children; others usually develop in older adults. Without treatment, all leukemias can be fatal. The good news is that researchers have developed new anti-cancer drugs that can keep some leukemias in remission for years. In other types of leukemia, malignant stem cells can be killed with radiation and replaced with donated stem cells in a procedure called a bone marrow transplant.

But even when initial treatment is successful, leukemia often comes back. Scientists believe this is because even the most aggressive therapy does not kill all the cancer stem cells. To cure this type of cancer, scientists need a better understanding of what causes blood-forming stem cells to start behaving abnormally.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, watch it on our YouTube channel.

Stem cell identity is determined by a complex mixture of cellular components - all of which are present individually in non-stem cells, too. It's the specific combination that is unique to stem cells. Many scientists believe mutations can transform normal stem cells or progenitor cells into cancer stem cells. The mutations that cause cancer act by enabling cancer stem cells to hijack normal stem cell self-renewal mechanisms and use them to multiply out of control.

If you are having trouble viewing this video, watch it on our YouTube channel.

Hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells are found in the bone marrow. These stem cells generate a fresh supply of new blood and immune cells to replace old, worn-out cells that are destroyed by the body. Stem cells give rise to partially restricted progenitor cells, such as myeloid and lymphoid progenitors. Myeloid progenitors generate red blood cells, platelets and a few other types of white blood cells. Lymphoid progenitors give rise to lymphocytes, or white blood cells that help the body fight infection and disease.

Go here to read the rest:
Leukemia Stem Cell Research | University of Michigan ...

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Leukemia Stem Cell Research | University of Michigan …

Seeing Is Believing

Posted: December 12, 2014 at 1:05 pm

Contact Information

Available for logged-in reporters only

Newswise If seeing is believing, C.K. Choi has a passion for clarityin a very tiny world. The assistant professor of mechanical engineering's research lies at the micro-scale, in channels no thicker than a strand of hair.

Chois first visualization breakthrough came more than 10 years ago when his team, for the first time in the world, used a confocal microscope to observe velocity fields in a micro-channel, in a space with a diameter smaller than a pin.

His next pioneering move was an innovative use of a technology Choi describes as beautiful, the Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Microscope. He integrated this system with other optical devices to help researchers literally see in the dark, creating fluorescent images clear enough to examine nanoparticles and proteins near the surface.

Choi sought practical applications for his optical devices and found them in biomedical engineering. Researchers were using electrical measurements to analyze physiological changes of cells inside blood vessels, but needed an optical way to verify the data. He proposed using indium tin oxide (ITO), a common coating used in modern electronics. His hunch worked: the ITO biosensor offered the perfect marriage of optical transparency and electrical conductivity, allowing both electrical measurements and visual observation simultaneously.

The ITO biosensor led to other inter-disciplinary workand a lot more questions. In the human body, cells are subjected to different environments: lung cells to the flow of oxygen, heart cells to pulses of blood, brain cells to electrical charges, etc. Given these radically different environments, Choi asked himself, If I grow cells outside their normal living conditions, will they really be the same type of cells? If companies test their drugs on cells grown here [in the static environment of the lab], will their results be accurate?

He knew that he couldnt mimic all the bodys natural conditions, but he could at least create a device that allowed medical researchers to examine their cell lines under appropriate flow conditions.

Actually very low flow conditions, as is the case with lung cells. In his search for a device that could create ultra-low flows, Choi realized that neither direct current (DC) nor syringe pumps could be used: most mechanical pumps cannot produce consistent flow in micro-channels, and DC can physiologically affect the cells being studied. Exposure to DC can alter the metabolism and nutrients, especially problematic for stem cells which are highly sensitive to environmental changes.

Choi and his collaborators proposed using diodes, which are cheap, reliable components, to drive the current in their electro-osmosis diode pumping device (EOS). It worked. The EOS creates low, consistent flows in a way that does not affect cell growth and contains optical elements to visually track the fluorescent particles.

Read more here:
Seeing Is Believing

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Seeing Is Believing

Swiston receives Commitment to Education Award

Posted: November 29, 2014 at 8:52 pm

Posted: Saturday, November 29, 2014 6:00 am

Swiston receives Commitment to Education Award Submitted The Daily Press

DENVER Northern Michigan University biology major Cole Swiston of Washburn is the student recipient of the second annual Golden Key Commitment To Education Award, presented by the National Collegiate Honors Council(NCHC)and Golden Key International Honour Society.

Swiston receiveda $325 prize and also presented a researchposter at the NCHCs 49th Annual Conference Nov. 5-9 in Denver, Colo.

The research poster, titled Identification of Basigin in Glioblastoma Multiforme Stem-like Cells, presents work performed by Swiston, fellow NMU student Jeff Maniko and faculty advisor Robert Belton through NMUs collaboration with the Upper Michigan Brain Tumor Center. Their work identifies a protein known to assist the spread of cancer.

Identifying this proteinis a key step in characterizing the cancer stem cells and planning novel therapeutic techniques, said Swiston.

Posted in Local announcements, News on Saturday, November 29, 2014 6:00 am.

See original here:
Swiston receives Commitment to Education Award

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Swiston receives Commitment to Education Award

Bone marrow registration drive to be held at Saint Mary's College

Posted: November 18, 2014 at 6:57 am

NOTRE DAME - You could be a life saver!

On Friday, November 21, 2014, the Saint Mary's College student club SMC Stands Up To Cancer will hold a bone marrow registration drive on campus.

It'll take place from 11am to 3pm in Reignbeaux Lounge in Le Mans Hall. For a campus map click here.

To participate, you must be between the ages of 18 and 44. It's completely painless to sign up, requiring just a swab of the inside of your cheek to get a sample of cells.

Your genetic information will be added to the Be the Match marrow database, which searches for possible matches for blood cancer patients. Suitable donors can provide bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells to patients, saving lives.

This will be the second annual bone marrow drive held on Saint Mary's campus. Typically, one person in 540 is a match for a patient with a blood cancer. But a match surfaced out of the 50 registered on campus at the last drive. Allison Lukomski '16, a communicative sciences and disorders major, was a match for a female cancer patient. Lukomski donated peripheral blood stem cells over fall break through a non-surgical procedure.

The bone marrow registration event comes on the heels of the Pink Party Zumbathon, hosted by SMC Stands Up to Cancer, which raised money for cancer research through the national organization Stand Up To Cancer.

Original post:
Bone marrow registration drive to be held at Saint Mary's College

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Bone marrow registration drive to be held at Saint Mary's College

Researchers devise a means for growing near 2-D chemical gardens (w/ Video)

Posted: November 11, 2014 at 4:50 pm

6 hours ago by Bob Yirka Spiral precipitation pattern in a quasi-2D chemical garden. Credit: Florence Haudin.

(Phys.org) A team of researchers working at Universit libre de Bruxelles in Brussels has devised a means for studying the growth of near 2D chemical gardens in a lab. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers discuss the difficulty in studying 3D chemical gardens and the advantages of using their method to learn more about the processes involved in their growth.

A chemical garden is a term used to describe the result of growth of plant-looking mineral formations that occur naturally in a variety of settings, chimneys at hydrothermal vents, for example. Scientists have used such formations as a model to create useful products, such as microfluidic devices, fuel cells and catalysts. But because of the complexity of the factors involved in their development (reactiondiffusion processes, buoyancy, osmosis, etc.) little has been learned about what really goes on as the growth occurs. In this new effort, the researchers sought to simplify the process a little bit by constraining the growth to a near 2D space, thus eliminating some of the factors and allowing for closer examination of the growth as it occurs.

The researchers trapped a very thin layer of waterglass (a sodium or potassium silicate solution) between two acrylic plates and then injected cobalt chloride into it, causing a crystalline growth to commence in near 2D. Filming the growth allowed the team to watch as many different shapes (flowers, spirals, terraces, filaments, worms, hairs, lobes, etc.) emerged depending on the concentration of the reagents and how fast the cobalt chloride was injected. They noted that when one of the reagents had a higher concentration, the result was a flower-like growth. If both were highly concentrated, on the other hand, the results tended to look more like long thin filaments.

Confining the garden growth, the researchers note, to near 2D, reduces the spatial freedom and how much influence buoyancy can exert as growth occurs and allows for the use of research tools that are restricted to two-dimensional geometry.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

Besides creating impressive looking forms of natural art, the researchers suggest their technique could be used by other researchers looking to better understand chemical garden growth in real-world applications such as self-assembling nanostructures.

Explore further: Sugar mimics guide stem cells toward neural fate

More information: Spiral precipitation patterns in confined chemical gardens, PNAS, Florence Haudin, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1409552111

Abstract Chemical gardens are mineral aggregates that grow in three dimensions with plant-like forms and share properties with self-assembled structures like nanoscale tubes, brinicles, or chimneys at hydrothermal vents. The analysis of their shapes remains a challenge, as their growth is influenced by osmosis, buoyancy, and reactiondiffusion processes. Here we show that chemical gardens grown by injection of one reactant into the other in confined conditions feature a wealth of new patterns including spirals, flowers, and filaments. The confinement decreases the influence of buoyancy, reduces the spatial degrees of freedom, and allows analysis of the patterns by tools classically used to analyze 2D patterns. Injection moreover allows the study in controlled conditions of the effects of variable concentrations on the selected morphology. We illustrate these innovative aspects by characterizing quantitatively, with a simple geometrical model, a new class of self-similar logarithmic spirals observed in a large zone of the parameter space.

See the article here:
Researchers devise a means for growing near 2-D chemical gardens (w/ Video)

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Researchers devise a means for growing near 2-D chemical gardens (w/ Video)

Stem cells help doctors restore womans smile, regenerating bone to hold dental implants

Posted: November 5, 2014 at 11:56 pm

Durham, NC (PRWEB) November 05, 2014

Half of all traumatic injuries to the face result in a loss of teeth and the surrounding tissue and bone that once supported them, which in turn makes these types of injuries very debilitating and difficult to treat. But in a new study published in the latest issue of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine, doctors at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry (UMSoD), Ann Arbor, have found a new way to regenerate a patients jawbone through the use of stem cells.

The procedure, done under local anesthesia, significantly speeds up the healing time relative to that of traditional bone grafting while allowing a patient to experience only a minimal amount of pain.

Part of a larger clinical trial, the findings highlighted in this issue focus on a 45-year-old woman missing seven front teeth plus 75 percent of the bone that once supported them, the result of a blow to her face five years earlier. She was left with severe functional and cosmetic deficiencies, since the missing bone made it impossible for her to have dental implant-based teeth replacements.

Darnell Kaigler, DDS, MS, PhD, an assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Periodontics and Oral Medicine, was a lead member of the study team. "In small jawbone defects of the mouth created after teeth were extracted, we have placed gelatin sponges populated with stem cells into these areas to successfully grow bone."

Since the sponge material is soft, it does not work in larger areas. Thus, he and his team of researchers decided to try b-tricalcium phosphate (b-TCP) as a scaffold upon which to place the cells instead. "For treating larger jawbone defects, it is important to have a scaffold material that is rigid and more stable to support bone growth," he explained.

They then placed the b-TCP scaffold, which had been seeded with a mixed population of bone marrow-derived autologous stem and progenitor cells 30 minutes prior to treatment at room temperature, into the defective area of the patients mouth during a procedure that requires only local anesthesia. Four months later, 80 percent of her missing jawbone had been regenerated, allowing them to proceed with placing oral implants that supported a dental prosthesis to once again give her a complete set of teeth.

Study team member Sharon Aronovich, DMD, FRCD(C), a clinical assistant professor of dentistry in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the UMSoD, said, I am very grateful to all the patients and researchers that participated in this study. Thanks to everyone's efforts, we are one step closer to providing patients with a minimally invasive option for implant-based tooth replacement.

As the first report to describe a cell therapy for craniofacial trauma reconstruction, this research serves as the foundation for expanded studies using this approach, said Anthony Atala, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of STEM CELLS Translational Medicine and director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

###

See the original post:
Stem cells help doctors restore womans smile, regenerating bone to hold dental implants

Posted in Michigan Stem Cells | Comments Off on Stem cells help doctors restore womans smile, regenerating bone to hold dental implants

Page 8«..78910