Category Archives: Stem Cells

20 January 2020

A new study suggests that rare harmful mutations in young healthy donors' stem cells can be passed on to recipients of stem cell transplants, potentially leading to health problems.

Stem cell transplants can be used to treat some blood disorders and cancers, such as acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), but can also have life-threatening complications such as cardiovascular problems and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD), where new immune cells from the donor attacks the patient's healthy cells.

'There have been suspicions that genetic errors in donor stem cells may be causing problems in cancer patients, but until now we didn't have a way to identify them because they are so rare,' said Dr Todd EDruley, Associate Professor of Paediatrics, Haematology and Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine, StLouis. 'This study raises concerns that even young, healthy donors' blood stem cells may have harmful mutations and provides strong evidence that we need to explore the potential effects of these mutations further.'Researchers analysed samples from patients with AML and their stem cell donors looking at 80 specific genes. The small pilot study identified at least one harmful genetic mutation in 11 of the 25 donors using an advanced sequencing technique. The donors ranged from 20 to 58 years old, with a median age of 26. Researchers later detected the harmful mutations present in donors within the recipients.

These extremely rare, harmful genetic mutations that are present in donors' stem cells do not cause any health problems to the donors, however, they may be passed on to the patients receiving stem cell transplants. Intense chemo- and radiation therapy is required prior to stem cell transplants and the immunosuppression given after the transplant unfortunately allows the rare mutation containing cells the opportunity to replicate quickly, which potentially can create health problems for the patients who receive them.

Co-author, Dr Sima TBhatt, Assistant Professor of Paediatrics, Haematology and Oncology also at Washington University, said 'Transplant physicians tend to seek younger donors because we assume this will lead to fewer complications. But we now see evidence that even young and healthy donors can have mutations that will have consequences for our patients. We need to understand what those consequences are if we are to find ways to modify them.'

The clinical implications of the findings need to be further studied. Dr Bhatt added: 'Now that we've also linked these mutations to GvHD and cardiovascular problems, we have a larger study planned that we hope will answer some of the questions posed by this one.'

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Novel mutations in stem cells of young donors can be passed to recipients - BioNews

The mosquito-spread Zika virus known for its links to brain damage in babies born to infected mothers has the potential to target and destroy brain cancer, scientists have found.

New research has revealed that the Zika virus breaks into brain cells by using a special molecular key, and scientists think the virus could be tweaked so that it infects only brain cancer cells, leaving healthy cells unharmed.

The aggressive brain cancer glioblastoma often defies standard cancer treatment because the disease transforms normal brain cells into stem cells. While typical neurons stop dividing after so many replications, stem cells can reproduce indefinitely and grow a whole new tumor from just a handful of cells. Patients typically survive less than 20 months after being diagnosed with glioblastoma; even if the cancer can be forced into remission, the tumors typically regrow and take the life of the patient within 12 months.

But where standard treatments fail, the Zika virus may offer a new strategy to wipe out the deadly disease, according to a pair of studies published Jan. 16 in the journals Cell Reports and Cell Stem Cell.

Related: The 9 Deadliest Viruses on Earth

"While we would likely need to modify the normal Zika virus to make it safer to treat brain tumors, we may also be able to take advantage of the mechanisms the virus uses to destroy cells to improve the way we treat glioblastoma," senior author Dr. Jeremy Rich, director of neuro-oncology and of the Brain Tumor Institute at UC San Diego Health, said in a statement. (Rich and his colleagues authored the Cell Stem Cell paper.)

When the Zika virus infects developing fetuses, the virus stunts brain development by targeting neural stem cells and stunting their proliferation. Rich and his co-authors wondered whether the virus' strategy could be co-opted to shrink brain tumors. In a 2017 study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, the team put their theory to the test and found that the Zika virus actually prefers to infect glioblastoma stem cells over normal brain cells at least in petri dishes and mouse models of the disease. The reason behind this preference remained a mystery, until now.

To learn how Zika breaches the membranes of cancer cells, the team scanned the virus' surface for integrins receptors that viruses often use to latch onto their victims' cells and slip inside. Having identified various integrins on the viral surface, the researchers then blocked each with a protein. Then, they unleashed the modified virus into a lab dish holding a mix of normal brain stem cells and cancerous ones. If a particular integrin helped Zika hack into brain cells, blocking the receptor should stop the infectious virus in its tracks.

Through trial-and-error, the team learned that an integrin called v5 serves as the key that lets Zika into brain cells.

"When we blocked other integrins, there was no difference," Rich said. "But with v5, blocking it with an antibody almost completely blocked the ability of the virus to infect brain cancer stem cells and normal brain stem cells."

Related: 5 Facts About Brain Cancer

According to the study, v5 consists of two halves: v and 5. The former half appears in abundance on brain stem cells, which may help to explain how the virus targets both healthy and cancerous brain stem cells. The latter half, however, mostly appears on cancer cells and renders tumors more aggressive, regarding how quickly they can spread.

For this reason, glioblastomas may be more vulnerable to Zika infection than normal brain stem cells. The team confirmed the idea by injecting Zika into human brain organoids tiny models of the human brain grown in a lab dish. In the mini-brains, the virus reliably infected cancer cells more often than healthy cells. But without an intact v5 receptor, the virus could not infect the cells at all.

The second study, published in Cell Reports, also confirmed that v5 grants Zika its cancer-crushing powers.

Using the CRISPR gene-editing technique, the researchers selectively deleted specific genes from glioblastoma stem cells and exposed each mutant tumor to the Zika virus. When they deleted the gene that contained instructions to build v5, Zika could no longer grab hold of the cancer cells. The discovery "made perfect sense" because v5 appears in such large quantities on neural stem cells, the virus' primary target, senior author Tariq Rana, professor and chief of the Division of Genetics in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, said in the statement.

Related: 7 Odd Things That Raise Your Risk of Cancer (and 1 That Doesn't)

With the knowledge that v5 may be a soft spot in aggressive glioblastomas, the researchers now aim to genetically modify the Zika virus to target the cancer while sparing healthy cells.

Other deadly viruses could also serve as weapons against brain cancer. In a study published in 2018 in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers treated glioblastoma patients with a genetically modified poliovirus and found that more than 20% remained alive three years later, as compared with 4 percent of patients who received a standard treatment, Live Science reported at the time. As the field of virotherapy continues to grow, once-deadly diseases may prove to be powerful weapons in the fight against cancer.

Originally published on Live Science.

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Could Scientists 'Hack' the Zika Virus to Kill Brain Cancer? - Livescience.com

Research findings show that rare mutations from donor stem cells can be passed onto patients who receive them, potentially causing health concerns.

Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis discovered this while analyzing bone marrow samples from 25 adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Heart damage, graft-versus-host disease and, potentially, new leukemias, are the risks associated with these mutations.

There have been suspicions that genetic errors in donor stem cells may be causing problems in cancer patients, but until now we didnt have a way to identify them because they are so rare, senior author Dr. Todd E. Druley, an associate professor of pediatrics, said in a news release. This study raises concerns that even young, healthy donors blood stem cells may have harmful mutations and provides strong evidence that we need to explore the potential effects of these mutations further.

The harmful mutations were found in surprisingly young donors, explained the researchers. Healthy donors ranged in age from 20 to 58, with an average age of 26 years old. Interestingly, the mutations, because they are so rare, were not detected using usual genome sequencing techniques.

In the study, the researchers sequenced 80 genes that are associated with AML using a technique called error-corrected sequencing. They found at least one harmful genetic mutation in 11 of the 25 donors. Eighty-four percent of the mutations identified in the donor samples were potentially harmful and 100% of the harmful mutations were found in the recipients the most common mutation seen is a gene associated with heart disease.

We didnt expect this many young, healthy donors to have these types of mutations, Druley said. We also didnt expect 100% of the harmful mutations to be engrafted into the recipients. That was striking.

These harmful mutations persisted over time, and many increased in frequency, explained the researchers.

In addition, 75% of patients who received at least one harmful mutation developed chronic graft-versus-host disease. In patients who didnt receive a mutation, 50% developed the condition. Graft-versus-host disease either acute or chronic, can occur in patients who receive an allogeneic transplant, which consists of donor stems cells versus a patients own stem cells.

The researchers plan to examine the mutations in a larger study to answer the questions that this study revealed.

Transplant physicians tend to seek younger donors because we assume this will lead to fewer complications co-author Dr. Sima T. Bhatt, an assistant professor of pediatrics who treats pediatric patients with blood cancers at Siteman Kids at St. Louis Childrens Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, said in a news release. But we now see evidence that even young and healthy donors can have mutations that will have consequences for our patients. We need to understand what those consequences are if we are to find ways to modify them.

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Mutations in Donor Stem Cells Could Harm the Health of Patients with Cancer, Study Finds - Curetoday.com

In 2019, the market size of Stem Cell Therapy Market is million US$ and it will reach million US$ in 2025, growing at a CAGR of from 2019; while in China, the market size is valued at xx million US$ and will increase to xx million US$ in 2025, with a CAGR of xx% during forecast period.

In this report, 2019 has been considered as the base year and 2019 to 2025 as the forecast period to estimate the market size for Stem Cell Therapy .

This report studies the global market size of Stem Cell Therapy , especially focuses on the key regions like United States, European Union, China, and other regions (Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia).

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This study presents the Stem Cell Therapy Market production, revenue, market share and growth rate for each key company, and also covers the breakdown data (production, consumption, revenue and market share) by regions, type and applications. Stem Cell Therapy history breakdown data from 2014 to 2019, and forecast to 2025.

For top companies in United States, European Union and China, this report investigates and analyzes the production, value, price, market share and growth rate for the top manufacturers, key data from 2014 to 2019.

In global Stem Cell Therapy market, the following companies are covered:

Key Trends

The key factors influencing the growth of the global stem cell therapy market are increasing funds in the development of new stem lines, the advent of advanced genomic procedures used in stem cell analysis, and greater emphasis on human embryonic stem cells. As the traditional organ transplantations are associated with limitations such as infection, rejection, and immunosuppression along with high reliance on organ donors, the demand for stem cell therapy is likely to soar. The growing deployment of stem cells in the treatment of wounds and damaged skin, scarring, and grafts is another prominent catalyst of the market.

On the contrary, inadequate infrastructural facilities coupled with ethical issues related to embryonic stem cells might impede the growth of the market. However, the ongoing research for the manipulation of stem cells from cord blood cells, bone marrow, and skin for the treatment of ailments including cardiovascular and diabetes will open up new doors for the advancement of the market.

Global Stem Cell Therapy Market: Market Potential

A number of new studies, research projects, and development of novel therapies have come forth in the global market for stem cell therapy. Several of these treatments are in the pipeline, while many others have received approvals by regulatory bodies.

In March 2017, Belgian biotech company TiGenix announced that its cardiac stem cell therapy, AlloCSC-01 has successfully reached its phase I/II with positive results. Subsequently, it has been approved by the U.S. FDA. If this therapy is well- received by the market, nearly 1.9 million AMI patients could be treated through this stem cell therapy.

Another significant development is the granting of a patent to Israel-based Kadimastem Ltd. for its novel stem-cell based technology to be used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) and other similar conditions of the nervous system. The companys technology used for producing supporting cells in the central nervous system, taken from human stem cells such as myelin-producing cells is also covered in the patent.

Global Stem Cell Therapy Market: Regional Outlook

The global market for stem cell therapy can be segmented into Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. North America emerged as the leading regional market, triggered by the rising incidence of chronic health conditions and government support. Europe also displays significant growth potential, as the benefits of this therapy are increasingly acknowledged.

Asia Pacific is slated for maximum growth, thanks to the massive patient pool, bulk of investments in stem cell therapy projects, and the increasing recognition of growth opportunities in countries such as China, Japan, and India by the leading market players.

Global Stem Cell Therapy Market: Competitive Analysis

Several firms are adopting strategies such as mergers and acquisitions, collaborations, and partnerships, apart from product development with a view to attain a strong foothold in the global market for stem cell therapy.

Some of the major companies operating in the global market for stem cell therapy are RTI Surgical, Inc., MEDIPOST Co., Ltd., Osiris Therapeutics, Inc., NuVasive, Inc., Pharmicell Co., Ltd., Anterogen Co., Ltd., JCR Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Holostem Terapie Avanzate S.r.l.

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The content of the study subjects, includes a total of 15 chapters:

Chapter 1, to describe Stem Cell Therapy product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market driving force and market risks.

Chapter 2, to profile the top manufacturers of Stem Cell Therapy , with price, sales, revenue and global market share of Stem Cell Therapy in 2017 and 2019.

Chapter 3, the Stem Cell Therapy competitive situation, sales, revenue and global market share of top manufacturers are analyzed emphatically by landscape contrast.

Chapter 4, the Stem Cell Therapy breakdown data are shown at the regional level, to show the sales, revenue and growth by regions, from 2014 to 2019.

Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to break the sales data at the country level, with sales, revenue and market share for key countries in the world, from 2014 to 2019.

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Chapter 10 and 11, to segment the sales by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2014 to 2019.

Chapter 12, Stem Cell Therapy market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2019 to 2024.

Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Stem Cell Therapy sales channel, distributors, customers, research findings and conclusion, appendix and data source.

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Product Innovations and Technological Advancements to Boost the Growth of the Stem Cell Therapy Market in the Upcoming Years 2017 2025 Dagoretti...

The last decade ushered in some truly revolutionary advances in science, from the discovery of the Higgs boson to the use of CRISPR for Sci-Fi esque gene editing. But what are some of the biggest breakthroughs still to come? Live Science asked several experts in their field what discoveries, techniques and developments they're most excited to see emerge in the 2020s.

The universal flu shot, which has eluded scientists for decades, may be one truly groundbreaking medical advances that could show up in the next 10 years.

"It has sort of become a joke that a universal [flu] vaccine is perennially just five to 10 years away," said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore.

Related: 6 Flu Vaccine Myths

But now, it appears that this "may actually be true," Adalja told Live Science. "Various approaches to universal flu vaccines are in advanced development, and promising results are starting to accrue."

In theory, a universal flu vaccine would provide long-lasting protection against the flu, and would eliminate the need to get a flu shot each year.

Some parts of the flu virus are constantly changing, while others remain mostly unchanged from year to year. All of the approaches to a universal flu vaccine target parts of the virus that are less variable.

This year, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) began its first-in-human trial of a universal flu vaccine. The immunization aims to induce an immune response against a less variable part of the flu virus known as the hemagglutinin (HA) "stem." This Phase 1 study will look at the safety of the experimental vaccine, as well as participants' immune responses to it. Researchers hope to report their initial results in early 2020.

Another universal-vaccine candidate, made by the Israeli company BiondVax, is currently in Phase 3 trials, which is an advanced stage of research that looks at whether the vaccine really is effective meaning that it protects against infection from any strain of flu. That vaccine candidate contains nine different proteins from various parts of the flu virus that vary little between flu strains, according to The Scientist. The study has already enrolled more than 12,000 people, and results are expected at the end of 2020, according to the company.

In the last decade, scientists have successfully grown mini-brains, known as "organoids," from human stem cells that differentiate into neurons and assemble into 3D structures. As of now, brain organoids can only be grown to resemble tiny pieces of a brain in early fetal development, according to Dr. Hongjun Song, a professor of neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. But that could change in the next 10 years.

"We could really model, not just cell type diversity, but the cellular architecture" of the brain, Dr. Song said. Mature neurons arrange themselves in layers, columns and intricate circuits in the brain. Currently, organoids only contain immature cells that cannot forage these complex connections, but Dr. Song said that he expects the field may overcome this challenge in the coming decade. With miniature models of the brain in hand, scientists could help deduce how neurodevelopmental disorders unfold; how neurodegenerative diseases break down brain tissue; and how different peoples' brains might react to different pharmacological treatments.

Someday (though perhaps not in 10 years), scientists may even be able to grow "functional units" of neural tissue to replace damaged areas of the brain. "What if you have a functional unit, pre-made, that you could click into the damaged brain?" Song said. Right now, the work is highly theoretical, but "I think in the next decade, we'll know" whether it could work, he added.

In this decade, rising sea levels and more extreme climate events revealed just how fragile our beautiful planet is. But what does the next decade hold?

"I think we will see a breakthrough when it comes to action on climate," said Michael Mann, a distinguished professor of meteorology at Penn State University. "But we need policies that will accelerate that transition, and we need politicians who will support those policies," he told Live Science.

In the next decade, "the transformation of energy and transportation systems to renewables will be well under way, and new approaches and technologies will have been developed that allow us to get there faster," said Donald Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And, "the increasing climate-related impacts from severe weather and perhaps from sea-level rise finally get enough people's attention that we really begin to take climate change seriously."

Good thing too, because based on recent evidence, there's a scarier, more speculative, possibility: Scientists might be underestimating the effects that climate change have had on this century and beyond, Wuebbles said."We should learn much more about that over the next decade."

Related: The Reality of Climate Change: 10 Myths Busted

In the last decade, the biggest news in the world of the very small was the discovery of the Higgs boson, the mysterious "God particle" that lends other particles their mass. The Higgs was considered the crowning jewel in the Standard Model, the reigning theory that describes the zoo of subatomic particles.

But with the Higgs discovered, many other less-famous particles began taking center stage.This decade, we have a reasonable shot at finding another of these elusive, as-yet-still hypothetical particles the axion, said physicist Frank Wilczek, a Nobel laureate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (In 1978, Wilczek first proposed the axion). The axion is not necessarily a single particle, but rather a class of particles with properties that rarely interact with ordinary matter. Axions could explain a long-standing conundrum: Why the laws of physics seem to act the same on both matter particles and their antimatter partners, even when their spatial coordinates are flipped, as Live Science previously reported.

Related: Strange Quarks and Muons, Oh My! Nature's Tiniest Particles Dissected

And axions are one of the leading candidates for dark matter, the invisible matter that holds galaxies together.

"Finding the axion would be a very great achievement in fundamental physics, especially if it happens through the most likely path, i.e., by observing a cosmic axion background which provides the 'dark matter.'" Wilczek said. "There's a fair chance that could happen in the next five to 10 years, since ambitious experimental initiatives, which could get there, are blossoming around the world. To me, weighing both the importance of discovery and likelihood of it happening, that's the best bet."

Among those initiatives is the Axion Dark Matter Experiment (ADMX) and the CERN Axion Solar Telescope, two major instruments that are hunting for these elusive particles.

That said, there are other possibilities too we may yet detect gravitational waves, or ripples in spacetime, emanating from the earliest period in the universe, or other particles, known as weakly interacting massive particles, that could also explain dark matter, Wilczek said.

On Oct. 6, 1995, our universe got bigger, sort of, when a pair of astronomers announced the discovery of the first exoplanet to orbit a sun-like star. Called 51 Pegasi b, the orb showed a cozy orbit around its host star of just 4.2 Earth days and a mass about half that of Jupiter's. According to NASA, the discovery forever changed "the way we see the universe and our place in it." More than a decade later, astronomers have now confirmed 4,104 worlds orbiting stars outside of our solar system. That's a lot of worlds that were unknown just over a decade ago.

So, the sky's the limit for the next decade, right? According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Sara Seager, absolutely. "This decade will be big for astronomy and for exoplanet science with the anticipated launch of the James Webb Space Telescope [JWST]," said Seager, a planetary scientist and astrophysicist. The cosmic successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST is scheduled to launch in 2021; for the first time, scientists will be able to "see" exoplanets in infrared, meaning they can spot even faint planets that orbit far off from their host star.

What's more, the telescope will open a new window into the characteristics of these alien worlds. "If the right planet exists, we will be able to detect water vapor on a small rocky planet. Water vapor is indicative of liquid water oceans since liquid water is needed for all life as we know it, this would be a very big deal," Seager told Live Science. "That's my number one hope for a breakthrough." (The ultimate goal, of course, is to find a world that has an atmosphere similar to that of Earth's, according to NASA; in other words, a planet with conditions capable of supporting life.)

And of course, there will be some growing pains, Seager noted. "With the JWST, and the extremely large ground-based telescopes anticipated to come online, the exoplanet community is struggling to transform from individual or small team efforts to large collaborations of dozens or over one hundred people. Not huge by other standards (e.g., LIGO) but it's tough nonetheless," she said, referring to the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, a huge collaboration that involves more than 1,000 scientists across the globe.Originally published on Live Science.

Originally published on Live Science.

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The Major Discoveries That Could Transform the World in the Next Decade - Livescience.com

HUNTINGTON Serucell Corporation, a cosmeceutical company based in Huntington, has developed the worlds only dual-cell technology to create and produce anti-aging skincare products, and they did it in Huntington.

Serucell KFS Cellular Protein Complex Serum is made start to finish at Serucells laboratory on the south side of Huntington.

This has been one of the best kept secrets in West Virginia, said Cortland Bohacek, executive chairman and a co-founder of Serucell Corporation.

The company soft launch was in September 2018 at The Greenbrier Spas. The Official online launch was April 2019 and is getting exposure with some well known sellers like Neiman Marcus, local dermatologist and plastic surgeons offices and several other retail locations from New York to California. It is also sold online at serucell.com.

One person that has tried the product is Jennifer Wheeler, who is also a Huntington City Council member.

As a consumer I have an appreciation of the quality of the product and the results Ive seen using it, she said. It has been transformative for my skin and seems like its success will be transformative for our city as well.

She said Serucell and the people behind it are impressive on every level.

In my role on council, Im especially grateful for the companys conscious effort to stay and grow in our city, Wheeler said.

A one-ounce bottle of the serum costs $225. The recommended usage is twice per day and it will last on average of about six weeks.

Serucells active ingredient is called KFS (Keratinocyte Fibroblast Serum), which is made up of more than 1,500 naturally derived super proteins, collagens, peptides and signaling factors that support optimal communication within the cellular makeup of your skin.

This is the first and only dual-cell technology that optimizes hydration and harnesses the power of both keratinocytes and fibroblasts, two essential contributors to maintaining healthy skin by supporting natural rejuvenation of aging skin from the inside out, said Jennifer Hessel, president and CEO of the company.

When applied to the skin, KFS helps boost the skins natural ability to support new collagen and elastin, strengthen the connection and layer of support between the upper and lower layers of your skin. The result, over time is firmer, plumper and smoother skin, according to Hessel.

Why it works so naturally with your skin is because it is natural, Hessel said. These proteins play an important role in strengthening the bond between the layers of your skin, and thats where the re-boot happens.

KFS is the creation of Dr. Walter Neto, Serucells chief science officer and co-founder of the company. Neto is both a physician and a research scientist, specializing in the field of regenerative medicine with an emphasis on skin healing and repair.

Neto said Serucells technology unlocks the key to how our cells communicate and harnesses the signaling power actions to produce the thousands of bioactive proteins necessary to support the skins natural rejuvenation.

Originally from Brazil, Neto studied at Saint Matthews University and completed his clinical training in England. His clinical research on stem-cell cancer therapies, bone and tissue engineering and wound and burn healing led to his discovery in cell-to-cell communication, and ultimately the creation of Serucells KFS Cellular Protein Complex Serum.

Neto received multiple patents for the production method of Serucell KFS Serum. He lives in Huntington with his wife and four golden retrievers and works alongside his longtime friend, Dr. Brett Jarrell.

I have known Brett since I was 18 years old, Neto said.

Jarrell practices emergency medicine in Ashland, Kentucky, and oversees all aspects of quality control for Serucell. He received his bachelors degree in biology from Wittenberg University, his masters degree in biology from Marshall University and his medical degree from the Marshall University School of Medicine. Jarrell completed his residency at West Virginia University and is board certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine.

Jarrell has served as a clinical instructor of emergency medicine at the Marshall School of Medicine, president of the West Virginia chapter of the American College of Emergency Medicine and he has published a number of peer-reviewed journal articles on stroke research.

Jarrell also lives in Huntington.

Another co-founder of the company is Dr. Tom McClellan.

McClellan is Serucells chief medical officer and director of research and is a well-respected plastic and reconstructive surgeon with a private practice, McClellan Plastic Surgery, in Morgantown.

McClellan completed his plastic and reconstructive surgery training at the world-renowned Lahey Clinic Foundation, a Harvard Medical School and Tufts Medical School affiliate in Boston, Massachusetts. While in Boston, he worked at Lahey Medical Center, Brigham and Womens Hospital, as well as at the Boston Childrens Hospital. McClellan is board certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

In addition to his practice and role at Serucell, McClellan utilizes his surgical skills through pro bono work with InterplastWV, a non-profit group that provides comprehensive reconstructive surgery to the developing world. He has participated in surgical missions to Haiti, Peru and the Bahamas.

McClellan lives in Morgantown with his family.

All three doctors here have strong connections to West Virginia, and we didnt want to leave, Neto said. We all want to give back to West Virginia, so that is the main reason we have our business here in Huntington.

We are building a company we believe can make a difference in the community, Hessel added. Our goal is to grow Serucell and build our brand right here in Huntington. There is a pool of untapped talent here in Huntington. When we expand our business here, we can provide another reason for young people to be able to stay and grow their careers, whether it is in science, operations or manufacturing. The team is a pretty excited to make an impact in the community where it all started.

Hessel decline to give sales numbers, but said the business has been growing each year since the product was introduced. She also declined to give the number of employees at the facility, but did say it has sales representatives across the country.

For more information, visit serucell.com.

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Firm adds a new wrinkle to anti-aging products - The Logan Banner

DetailsCategory: AntibodiesPublished on Wednesday, 01 January 2020 12:23Hits: 136

ROCKVILLE, MD, USA I December 30, 2019 I OncoImmune, Inc. announced today that its Investigational New Drug (IND) application for ONC-392, its novel, next generation anti-CTLA-4 antibody, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The IND approval enables OncoImmune to begin a Phase 1A/1B clinical trial of ONC-392 that is designed to assess the safety, pharmacokinetics, and efficacy of ONC-392 as a single agent in advanced solid tumors and in combination with anti-PD(L)1 standard of care in Non-

ONC-392 was developed based on the research of OncoImmunes Founders, Drs. Yang Liu and Pan Zheng, who proposed a new theory to improve both the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy drugs. The theory calls for preservation of the CTLA-4 immune checkpoint for safer and more effective immunotherapy. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165614719302639). This groundbreaking research was published in three papers in Cell Research in 2018 and 2019. The two 2018 papers were recognized with the Sanofi-Cell Research Outstanding Paper Award of 2018 (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41422-019-0248-2).

ONC-392 is OncoImmunes second drug product candidate and the approval of this IND is an important milestone for OncoImmune, said Yang Liu, President and CEO of OncoImmune. Unlike other anti-CTLA-4 antibodies that cause lysosomal degradation of CTLA-4, ONC-392 preserves CTLA-4 recycling and thus maintains CTLA-4 function outside of the tumor microenvironment while allowing more effective CTLA-4-targeted depletion of regulatory T cells within the tumor. The truly novel and differentiated mechanism of action of this drug has the potential to improve therapeutic outcomes while significantly reducing toxicity.

We are very excited to test the potential of this novel antibody in cancer patients, said Pan Zheng, Chief Medical Officer of OncoImmune, Inc.

The CMC development and GMP manufacturing of the drug substance and drug product were performed by WuXi Biologics, a leading global open-access biologics technology platform for the ONC-392 program. Throughout the development program from DNA to IND, we were very impressed by WuXi Biologics expertise and professionalism, and we could not have picked a better partner for this project, said Martin Devenport, OncoImmunes Chief Operating Officer.

About OncoImmune, Inc.

OncoImmune (www.oncoimmune.com) is a privately-held, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that is actively engaged in the discovery and development of novel immunotherapies for cancer, inflammation and autoimmune diseases. OncoImmune is based in Rockville, Maryland.

OncoImmunes lead product, CD24Fc, is a novel therapeutic that regulates host inflammatory response to tissue injuries and which has broad implications in the pathogenesis of cancer, autoimmune disease, metabolic syndrome and graft-versus-host disease (GvHD). CD24Fc has completed a Phase IIa trial for the prophylactic treatment of acute Graft versus Host Disease (GvHD) in leukemia patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and resulted in a significant improvement in 180 Day Grade III-IV GVHD Free Survival, the Phase III primary endpoint. CD24Fc prophylaxis also resulted in a reduced relapse and, compared to match controls, CD24Fc demonstrated improvement in Overall Survival, Non-Relapse Mortality and Relapse-Free Survival. A dose-dependent reduction in severe (Grade > 3) mucositis was also observed. A 20 patient open label dose expansion cohort at the recommended clinical dose is fully enrolled and the drug continues to perform very well. A Phase III study is anticipated to start in early 2020.

SOURCE: OncImmune

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OncoImmune Announces Approval of IND Application for ONC-392 The anti-CTLA-4 Antibody that Preserves CTLA-4 Recycling for Better Safety and Efficacy...

The 2010s are coming to an end, and looking back there have been some pretty amazing advances and innovations in health and science.

Advances in prosthetic limbs

Prosthetic limbs have been around since ancient times. In Egypt, a prosthetic wooden toe was found on a mummy dating back 3,000 years. By the Dark Ages, inventors could incorporate hinges on prosthetic arms used by knights. In modern times, the field of prosthetics has turned to incorporating more technology into physical stand-ins for limbs. In the last several years, theres been a boom in advances that have led to the best and most useful prosthetics weve ever seen.

Reports from the early 2010s talked about the potential for new technology to allow people to control prosthetics with their minds and to receive sensory information from their devices. It may have been a reach in the early part of the decade, but now it is literally within grasp. There are new prosthetic hands being tested that give the user the ability to grab objects with their thoughts and even to sense the texture of what they are touching. New bionic hands allow the user to feel again by sending signals back to the brain about the things they are touching, like whether its hard or soft. Other research groups have been working on bionic arms that can move based on the users thoughts through a brain-computer interface. While these have demonstrated its possible to accomplish these goals in the lab, theres still more to be done before people can use these devices outside in the real world.

Many of these advanced prosthetics are still prototypes and may not reach the general population for a while. Luckily, cheaper 3D printers have made simple prosthetics more accessible. These are important because a prosthetic device can improve the quality of life for people. For example, this person has been printing prosthetic hands and arms for people in Africa after watching an online tutorial. New materials that go into 3D printers are cheaper than they used to be and are being used in prosthetics to provide a more affordable option for patients.

Although prosthetics have been around for ages in some form or another, they arent always used. One variable to consider is the social acceptance of having a prosthetic. Theres still a lot of stigma around disabilities and many people may reject prosthetics even if they are available. In 2012, an athlete with both feet amputated competed in the mens 400 meter race at the Olympics in London. There was some controversy over whether the runner with a prosthetic foot should be allowed to run in races with people who dont have prosthetics or if they should only be allowed in competitions specifically for people who have them. Prosthetics also need to be comfortable and usable in order to be successfully adopted. In one study, about 4.5 percent of people rejected prosthetics and 13.4 percent stopped using their prosthetics. As the new prosthetics that are more natural and intuitive to use come to market, hopefully more people will benefit, and the social barriers to acceptance will disappear.

CRISPR

The genome modification technique called Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats, aka CRISPR, was a culmination of a few decades of work by scientists, and major studies explaining the method were published in 2013. The version of it called CRISPR-associated protein 9 or CRIPSR-Cas9 is what most researchers are specifically using in most cases. It involves a regular gene editing mechanism that happens in bacteria. The bacteria can take sections of DNA from attacking viruses and essentially use that to remember the viruses if they return. When the virus is back, the bacteria can target the matching sections of DNA in the virus, cut it and disable the virus.

Though 2013 was only six years ago, as far as science goes, CRISPR has been moving at lightning speed towards practical applications. Using CRISPR to edit a gene sequence, researchers can now add, delete or modify DNA segments more quickly and accurately than ever before. Since the technique was developed, researchers have used CRISPR to target diseases caused by a single gene like cystic fibrosis or sickle cell disease.

Probably the most infamous use of CRISPR are the CRISPR babies. In late 2018, a Chinese researcher, He Jiankui, claimed to have used CRISPR to modify the genomes of two babies to include a mutated version of a gene that protects against HIV. This case was and is highly controversial for the ethical concerns with genetically modifying a human genome at the embryo level, or germline, meaning it can be passed down to future generations and has not been done before in humans. Recently, MIT Technology Review obtained excerpts from Hes research, and experts say that the report and data may be untrustworthy. This means it is still unclear if He and collaborators actually successfully modified the babies genomes. The scientific community overall condemns this way of using CRISPR to edit a human germline genome and has called for an international moratorium on it until a framework can be agreed on.The researcher has been sentenced to three years in prison in Shenzhen, China.

As fraught with controversy as the CRISPR babies may be, CRISPR technology still holds a lot of promise and can be used responsibly, supporters say. For example, researchers are using it to target cancer cells by taking a patients immune cells, modifying them using CRISPR and then infusing the patient with the modified cells. For blood diseases, a patient with sickle cell disease is reported to be responding well to a CRISPR treatment that has allowed her body to produce a crucial protein.

Another area that has boomed this decade partly because of CRISPR technology is stem cell therapy, which well get into in the next section.

Stem cell therapy

Technically, the only Federal Drug Administration (FDA)-approved stem cell therapies are blood-forming stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Blood-forming stem cells are used to treat patients with cancer after chemotherapy has depleted blood cells, as well as patients with blood disorders like leukemia whose bone marrow tissues are damaged. These types of treatments have been around for about 30 years, but in the 2010s weve seen potential for more uses of stem cells in health care.

The main idea behind stem cell therapy is that because the cells are pluripotent meaning they can become many other types of cells they can be introduced into parts of the body that are damaged and need new cells. On top of that, researchers can now extract some types of stem cells from a persons body, so no need for umbilical cords. This opens up the possibilities for highly personalized treatment where one person can be treated with stem cells from their own body.

Researchers are exploring how stem cells can be used to treat liver disease, cerebral palsy, stroke, brain injury and others. There are many ongoing research-backed clinical trials for stem cell therapy. A quick search for stem cell therapy on the governments clinical trial database turns up 5,638 results. And because of the work necessary to even get to the clinical trial stage, theres likely an order of magnitude more stem cell therapy studies in the pre-clinical trial stages.

Stem cell therapy is also being offered in for-profit clinics around the U.S. In these cases, the clinics are typically taking fat tissue from a patient, isolating the stem cells and then administering the stem cells back to the patient. In some cases, the treatments may lead to health complications, like blindness in a few extreme cases, and the FDA warns that such treatments are unapproved and potentially harmful. The FDA is ramping up regulation of stem cell clinics and earlier this year took a specific clinic in Florida to court.

Although there are many stem cell clinics offering unproven stem cell therapies, its not all hype. Granted that its difficult to pass the clinical trial stage to get FDA approval, stem cell research may lead to new treatments for several health conditions that could completely change the health care landscape.

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The 3 most important health innovations of the past decade - The Hill

A research team from the University of Houston has found a way to use the stem cells found in fat and guide it to become a pacemaker-like cell, according to a new study.

We are reprogramming the cardiac progenitor cell and guiding it to become a conducting cell of the heart to conduct electrical current, said study co-author Bradley McConnell, associate professor of pharmacology, in a press release

The team, publishing the study in the Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology, worked on converting adipogenic mesenchymal stem cells, which reside within fat cells, into cardia progenitor cells. The ensuing cardiac progenitor cells can be programmed to aid heartbeats as a sinoatrial node (SAN), which is part of the electrical cardiac conduction system.

The researchers used what they called a standard screening strategy to test for reprogramming factors for converting human cardiac progenitor cells into pacemaker-like cells. According to their study results, the authors observed expressions of many pacemaker-specific genes, including CX30.2, KCNN4, HCN4, HCN3, HCN1, and SCN3b. The authors wrote that SHOX2, HCN2, and TBX5 (SHT5) combinations of transcription factors were much better candidate(s) in driving cardiac progenitor cells into pacemaker-like cells than other combinations and single transcription factors.

Results of this study show that the SHT5 combination of transcription factors can reprogram CPCs into Pacemaker-like cells, they wrote in their conclusion. SHT5 may be used as a potential stem cell therapy for sick sinus syndrome (SSS) and for other cardiac conduction diseases.

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The Next Generation of Biologic Pacemakers? New Discovery in Stem Cells from Fat Creates Another Alternative Treatment - DocWire News

NewsScienceIt's likely to be an eventful year for gene editing and stem cell research

Tuesday, 31st December 2019, 7:03 am

Gene editing

It was suggested that prime editing has the potential to mend about 89 per cent of the 75,000 harmful genetic mutations that lie behind hereditary diseases, such as cystic fibrosis and the blood disorder sickle cell disease.

3D rockets

Major strides were made in rocket science last year, with a number of 3D-printed engine prototypes being successfully tested.

This year, Relativity Space, a California startup, hopes to go one better. It plans to become the first company in the world to print almost an entire rocket 95 per cent of it which it hopes will be ready for launching at the end of the year.

Only a handful of components, such as electronics and circuit boards, will have to be made by hand for the craft, named Teran 1.

If successful, the launch will pave the way for numerous 3D-printed rockets to be sent into space much more quickly and cheaply than they are at the moment.

Stem cells

Scientists are working around the world on trials of promising stem-cell treatments for blindness, spinal cord injury, heart failure, diabetes, Parkinsons disease and lung cancer, and some of the first results should become available later in the year.

Embryonic, or pluripotent, stem cells have extraordinary medical potential because they can develop into any of the 220 or so mature, specialised cells of the body, from insulin-making pancreatic cells to the nerve cells of the brain.

Mars

The 2020 mission of the ExoMars programme, if all goes to plan, will deliver a European rover and a Russian platform to the surface of Mars.

ExoMars will be the first mission to combine the capability to move across the surface of the planet and to the ability study Mars at depth. Meanwhile, Nasa will launch a separate mission to study the habitability of Mars and prepare for future human missions.

Smart needle

They have demonstrated that the technique works in the laboratory, and are in the early stages of a three-year clinical trial to test it in living people.

The researchers have focused on lymphoma so far, but said that they are hopeful the technique could also be used further down the line to diagnose other forms of the disease, such as breast and prostate cancer.

At the moment, diagnosing lymphoma can be an invasive process that involves a surgical biopsy followed by a nerve-racking wait for the result, which can often take two weeks or more.

The smart needle uses light to pinpoint cancerous tissues almost instantaneously.

Using a technique called Raman spectroscopy, the optical biopsy measures the light scattered by tissues when a laser contained in the needle is shone on it.

The light scatters differently from healthy tissues than it does from diseased tissues, meaning that doctors can make their diagnosis straight away.

Japan's robotic Olympics

Japan has pledged to make the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics the most innovative in history by deploying robots to assist spectators and staff during the games.

The Human Support Robot (HSR) and Delivery Support Robot (DSR), developed by Toyota, will be used in tandem.

HSR, a one-armed robot about 3ft (1m) tall, can hold objects, pick things up off the ground and reach up high. It can move by itself, or can be controlled remotely as it attends to people in wheelchairs, guiding them to their seats and helping to carry items.

When people order food or drinks using a tablet computer, DSR will transport the items in a basket and HSR will then deliver them directly to guests.

Waste to Energy

The worlds largest waste-to-energy plant is set to open on the outskirts of Shenzhen, China. The new plant is made to handle 5000 tons of waste per day, burning the waste to generate electricity.

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