DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fc9dd6/primary_and_stem_c) has announced the addition of John Wiley and Sons Ltd's new book "Primary and Stem Cells: Gene Transfer Technologies and Applications" to their offering.

This book describes basic cell engineering methods, emphasizing stem cell applications, and use of the genetically modified stem cells in cell therapy and drug discovery. Together, the chapters introduce and offer insights on new techniques for engineering of stem cells and the delivery of transgenes into stem cells via various viral and non-viral systems. The book offers a guide to the types of manipulations currently available to create genetically engineered stem cells that suit any investigator's purpose, whether it's basic science investigation, creation of disease models and screens, or cells for therapeutic applications.

Key Topics Covered:

PART I: CLONING AND GENE DELIVERY

1. DNA Assembly Technologies Based on Homologous Recombination

2. Multigene Assembly for Construction of Synthetic Operons: Creation and Delivery of an Optimized All-IN-One Expression Construct for Generating Mouse iPS Cells

3. Strategies for the Delivery of Naked DNA

PART II: NONINTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES

4. Episomal Vectors

5. Nonintegrating DNA Virus

6. Nonintegrating RNA Viruses

7. Protein Delivery

PART III: INTEGRATING TECHNOLOGIES

8. Sleeping Beauty Transposon-Mediated Stable Gene Delivery

9. Integrating Viral Vectors for Gene Modifications

10. Bacteriophage Integrases for Site-Specific Integration

11. Improving Gene Targeting Efficiency in Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

PART IV: APPLICATIONS

12. Modified Stem Cells as Disease Models and in Toxicology Screening

13. Screening and Drug Discovery

INDEX

Author:

UMA LAKSHMIPATHY is a principal investigator at Life Technologies. She has a PhD in life sciences, with academic and industry experience in molecular biology and stem cells. Dr. Lakshmipathy holds four patents and has authored more than forty publications.

BHASKAR THYAGARAJAN is a program manager at Life Technologies. He has a PhD in pharmacology, with expertise in the areas of molecular biology, DNA recombination, gene and cell therapy, and protein purification. He holds one patent and has authored more than twenty publications.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/fc9dd6/primary_and_stem_c

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Research and Markets: Primary and Stem Cells: Gene Transfer Technologies and Applications

Washington, Feb 14 (ANI): Researchers have conducted a stem cell study in mice, which suggests a novel strategy for treating damaged cardiac tissue in patients following a heart attack.

The approach potentially could improve cardiac function, minimize scar size, lead to the development of new blood vessels - and avoid the risk of tissue rejection.

In the investigation, the researchers isolated and characterized a novel type of cardiac stem cell from the heart tissue of middle-aged mice following a heart attack.

Then, in one experiment, they placed the cells in the culture dish and showed they had the ability to differentiate into cardiomyocytes, or "beating heart cells," as well as endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells, all of which make up the heart.

In another, they made copies, or "clones," of the cells and engrafted them in the tissue of other mice of the same genetic background who also had experienced heart attacks. The cells induced angiogenesis, or blood vessel growth, or differentiated, or specialized, into endothelial and smooth muscle cells, improving cardiac function.

"These findings are very exciting," said first author Jianqin Ye, PhD, MD, senior scientist at UCSF's Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Program.

First, "we showed that we can isolate these cells from the heart of middle-aged animals, even after a heart attack." Second, he said, "we determined that we can return these cells to the animals to induce repair."

Importantly, the stem cells were identified and isolated in all four chambers of the heart, potentially making it possible to isolate them from patients' hearts by doing right ventricular biopsies, said Ye.

This procedure is "the safest way of obtaining cells from the heart of live patients, and is relatively easy to perform," he said.

"The finding extends the current knowledge in the field of native cardiac progenitor cell therapy," said senior author Yerem Yeghiazarians, MD, director of UCSF's Translational Cardiac Stem Cell Program and an associate professor at the UCSF Division of Cardiology.

"Most of the previous research has focused on a different subset of cardiac progenitor cells. These novel cardiac precursor cells appear to have great therapeutic potential."

The hope, he said, is that patients who have severe heart failure after a heart attack or have cardiomyopathy would be able to be treated with their own cardiac stem cells to improve the overall health and function of the heart.

Because the cells would have come from the patients, themselves, there would be no concern of cell rejection after therapy.

The findings suggest a potential treatment strategy, said Yeghiazarians. he study has been published online in the journal PLoS ONE. (ANI)

Read more:
Patients' own cardiac stem cells could repair 'heart attack' damage

These cancer stem cells are difficult to kill because they don't divide rapidly--a common behavior that most cancer treatments target.

When it comes to cancer cells, a particularly confounding breed called cancer stem cells have proven difficult to kill. Because they divide so slowly, chemo drugs do them little harm, and they appear resistant to heat therapies that are generally good at killing most cells. Some cancer drugs even appear to promote the growth of cancer stem cells.

Suzy V. Torti

(Credit: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center)

Now, three years after they found that the heat from 30-second laser blasts can kill kidney cancer stem cells, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center say the same treatment works to kill breast cancer stem cells as well.

Torti's team tested this photothermal therapy on mice, injecting tumors containing breast cancer stem cells with nanotubes that in and of themselves have no anti-tumor properties. When exposed to 30 seconds of laser light from outside the body, however, those nanotubes vibrated and produced sufficient heat to stop the growth of the entire tumor bulk, including the cancer stem cells.

"[Cancer stem cells] are tough," says lead investigator and biochemistry professor Suzy V. Torti. "The advantage of the nanotube approach is that in addition to eliminating the tumor bulk, it would get rid of the stem cells, so presumably these tumors would be less likely to recur than tumors that were treated with something else, like drugs or radiation."

Torti says that while this study only validates this new type of therapy on breast cancer specifically, it may work on other types of cancer stem cells as well. Many questions about how the heat kills the cells remain, however, and she says it will probably take a good five to 10 years of further study before they can investigate the therapy in human clinical trials.

For now, Torti says that the early success of this approach, detailed in the April 2012 issue of the journal Biomaterials, "gives us a direction to go for a cure." Maybe some day it could serve as a non-invasive alternative to surgically removing certain types of malignant tumors.

Read the original:
Hot nanotubes blast chemo-resistant breast cancer cells into oblivion

These cancer stem cells are difficult to kill because they don't divide rapidly--a common behavior that most cancer treatments target.

When it comes to cancer cells, a particularly confounding breed called cancer stem cells have proven difficult to kill. Because they divide so slowly, chemo drugs do them little harm, and they appear resistant to heat therapies that are generally good at killing most cells. Some cancer drugs even appear to promote the growth of cancer stem cells.

Suzy V. Torti

(Credit: Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center)

Now, three years after they found that the heat from 30-second laser blasts can kill kidney cancer stem cells, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center say the same treatment works to kill breast cancer stem cells as well.

Torti's team tested this photothermal therapy on mice, injecting tumors containing breast cancer stem cells with nanotubes that in and of themselves have no anti-tumor properties. When exposed to 30 seconds of laser light from outside the body, however, those nanotubes vibrated and produced sufficient heat to stop the growth of the entire tumor bulk, including the cancer stem cells.

"[Cancer stem cells] are tough," says lead investigator and biochemistry professor Suzy V. Torti. "The advantage of the nanotube approach is that in addition to eliminating the tumor bulk, it would get rid of the stem cells, so presumably these tumors would be less likely to recur than tumors that were treated with something else, like drugs or radiation."

Torti says that while this study only validates this new type of therapy on breast cancer specifically, it may work on other types of cancer stem cells as well. Many questions about how the heat kills the cells remain, however, and she says it will probably take a good five to 10 years of further study before they can investigate the therapy in human clinical trials.

For now, Torti says that the early success of this approach, detailed in the April 2012 issue of the journal Biomaterials, "gives us a direction to go for a cure." Maybe some day it could serve as a non-invasive alternative to surgically removing certain types of malignant tumors.

Read more here:
Hot nanotubes blast chemo-resistant cancer cells into oblivion

Related To Story

-Dr.Dianne McCallister, Chief Medical Officer at Centuras Porter Adventist Hospital February is heart month, and we are all familiar with exercise and diet to help our hearts. But do you know how stem cells or your toothbrush can help your heart? This week, Lancet published an article on the use of Stem Cells to help repair the heart.Other medical literature shows a link between the health of your teeth and heart disease. What Are Stem Cells? Stem cells are a type of body cell that still has the ability to become any type of tissue. They work in our bodies to help our tissues repair themselves.When stem cells divide, the new cell has the choice to stay a stem cell - or to become a certain type of tissue cell - in this case, were talking about them become heart muscle cells.For years science has been working on the theory that stem cells could be harvested, grown and then used to repair, or grow organs. Healing Damaged Hearts With Stem Cells The researchers at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles took 25 patients who had suffered severe heart attacks - 24% of the muscle in the wall of their ventricle - which is the chamber that pumps blood to the body - was scarred and not functioning.These patients had the normal treatment for heart attacks - but also had stem cells harvested from their heart, grown in the lab, and then re- injected into their hearts.Another group of patients with similar heart attacks just received the usual heart treatment.The patients without stem cells did not show any improvement in their heart muscle - but the stem cell patients had about half the injury to their heart reversed - in other words, the scar was dissolved and replaced with functioning heart muscle.This is a very small study, and it is too early to predict when and if this will become a common treatmentThat being said, it is promising that stem cell therapy may have a new promise for heart attack victims.Standard therapy helps the damaged heart function as well as possible while also limiting the chance of another heart attack.This gives hope that we can reverse the damage.However, we need to remember that there is a lot of testing that needs to happen to determine if there are any unwanted side effects of giving stem cells, when it is appropriate to use them, and what long term effects are from using them. Dental Health And Our Hearts There is growing evidence showing that gum disease has an association with heart disease.We know that gum disease - called gingivitis - allows bacteria from our mouth to get into our blood stream.This is somehow related with inflammation and development of blockages in the vessels of the heart.In addition to brushing, we need to be flossing. Using an antiseptic mouth wash daily and regular dental visits to have teeth cleaned is also important.In fact, good dental health habits are associated with a longer life.There are associations between poor dental health and development of such diseases as diabetes, stroke, lung disease and even pre-term births.So the five minutes you spend twice daily on your teeth is an investment in your overall health as wellDr. McCallister is on 7NEWS at 11 a.m. every Wednesday. If you have a topic or question you would like her to discuss, email 11am@thedenverchannel.com. The following are comments from our users. Opinions expressed are neither created nor endorsed by TheDenverChannel.com. By posting a comment you agree to accept our Terms of Use. Comments are moderated by the community. To report an offensive or otherwise inappropriate comment, click the "Flag" link that appears beneath that comment. Comments that are flagged by a set number of users will be automatically removed.

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Heart Disease: Stem Cells To Toothbrushes