Archive for March, 2017

Nicholas Kristof titled his recent New York Times column Shes 17 and needs birth control, but given the rise of domestic sex trafficking and the proliferation of sexual exploitation of teens in our nation, a more fitting title might be Shes 17 and being sexually exploited. I should know. I was a teen girl who got help at a reproductive health clinic, which only concealed my abuse by a much older man.

Ironically, the no questions asked reproductive services provided at some womens health clinics do nothing to prevent this kind of abuse, and may in fact prolong it. Kristofs article unwittingly provides an example of how easily young womens exploitation goes unchecked. The health-care visit he describes fails to provide much in the way of true health care.

Kristof portrays a 17-year-old girls visit to a family planning clinic that also provides abortion. A grandmotherly nurse practitioner tests the teen for infections of various sorts and advises her to use a condom, adding, If he doesnt want to use a condom hes not worth it. She also persuades the teen to have a long-acting reversible contraceptive (LARC) implanted in her arm so she can continue her risky behavior with less likelihood of pregnancy.

No mention is made of this underage girl being asked about her partner, how old he is, or what pressures she might be under to continue in one or multiple sexual relationships. Neither does our grandmotherly nurse mention the side effectsassociated with these hormone-emitting LARCs, some of which have been linked to increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and blood clots. No worries, though, as we can assume this teenager would have to sign a consent form to release the clinic from responsibility in the event of health problems down the road.

This, according to Kristof, is the epitome of health care. Obscuring the fact that there are dozens of community health centers in every state that provide the full range of womens health care without participating in abortion, Kristof claims that denying tax money to abortion providers would result in the loss of critical health services.

But perhaps the services many of these agencies offer are less about womens health than about controlling the birth rate of the poor. Kristof himself provides a cost-benefit analysis, saying, An IUD or implant costs about $1,000, while a single Medicaid birth costs the public about $13,000. But the beneficiary of money spent on birth control is the clinic and the pharmaceutical industry, not the woman. The savings for one less child on Medicaid go to the state, while federal tax money pours into the clinic via Title X funding and family planning grants. This flow of cash seems to help everyone but the patient.

This model of health care, which so often fails to protect young women while promoting abortion and birth control, has been around for a while. As a young teen in 1973, I went to an early version of just such a clinic. The nurse did not ask about the man involved in my unplanned pregnancy. If she had, she might have learned that I was the 15-year-old victim of statutory rape by a 38-year-old man. She might have discovered that I was seeking an abortion to escape this situation. She might have found help for me. But no questions were asked.

If my parents had been informed, they may have been able to help me deal with the pregnancy and the molester. But instead, the clinic knowingly allowed an acquaintance to sign the consent form permitting me to be sent out of state for an abortion without my parents knowledge or consent.

The life-altering event that took the life of my first child left me with a deep misconception about love, sex, and responsibility that led me down a dark path for years to come. No one among my peers or in that clinic ever suggested that I had been victimized and needed to be protected. Instead, I was made to feel that the whole traumatic incident could have been avoided by using contraception.

I learned the lesson well. In future relationships, I made sure to use artificial contraceptives, promising myself to never again be so careless as to get pregnant. Sadly, contraceptives did nothing to keep me safe from STDs, heartbreak, abuse, and eventually another unplanned pregnancy while using birth control, followed by the very thing I promised myself would never happen again: another abortion.

While the loudest voices in the media keep telling us that contraception prevents abortion, the facts compiled by Planned Parenthoods own research arm, the Guttmacher Institute, show that more than half of unplanned pregnancies resulting in abortion occurred while the mother was using contraception in the previous month. This, together with my own experience, convinces me of the failure of birth control to reliably prevent abortion. The false sense of security that comes with birth control use can lead to continued risky behavior.

It took me many years to learn what the womens clinic in 1973 failed to teach me. Eventually I discovered the truth: each of us is meant to be loved and cherished. Human beings long for relationships that are loving and giving, rich and deep, and even self-sacrificing.

As mothers, we are meant to give our lives for our children, not to take their lives in abortion. Fathers are meant to protect and care for those they love, especially their children. We are all meant to have respect for our bodies, and to nourish ourselves with healthy, natural, and curative medicines, not to inundate our bodies with artificial hormones.

If I, a grandmotherly, post-abortive, wounded and healed woman, could speak to Kristofs 17-year-old girl, I would tell her this: If you are being coerced, abused, molested, or raped, I can get help for you. If you are in a relationship with someone who doesnt love you, isnt ready or willing to commit to you in marriage, and isnt willing to protect you from the harm that comes from casual sex, he isnt worth it.

You deserve to be treasured, not used. You are worthy of love. Do not accept anything less.

Nancy Murray is a freelance writer and blogger. She is also a member of Women Speak for Themselves.

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Kristof's Birth Control Advice Hurts Women And Demeans The Poor - The Federalist

If you have been having difficulty getting pregnant and your periods seem extra intense, you might want to talk with your doctor about endometriosis. Its a common condition that affects approximately 11 percent of women in the U.S. between the ages of 15 and 44, and is most common in women in their 30s and 40s, according to womenshealth.gov.

Endometriosis classically causes painful periods with heavy bleeding and sometimes spotting between periods. It can also cause pain with intercourse, and fatigue. It can even mimic irritable bowel syndrome with symptoms like bloating, nausea, constipation and diarrhea.

With endometriosis, the lining of the uterus, called the endometrium, grows outside of the uterus, most typically into the fallopian tubes, ovaries and the lining of the pelvis. Since its tissue from the uterine lining, it thickens and breaks down just like your uterine lining during your normal cycle, causing excessive bleeding and cramping.

I see it commonly in my practice at MRH Medical Clinic, said Dr. Scott Ellis, OBGYN physician. If women are having trouble getting pregnant and they have the classic symptoms, we check for endometriosis.

The good news is that its treatable. If you have endometriosis and want to become pregnant, Ellis, or his partner Dr. Eileen Joyce, can perform laparoscopic surgery to remove scar tissue from the uterine lining, or remove endometriomas cysts that form in the ovaries. This conservative surgery can increase your chances to conceive. You can also try hormone therapy for a while to suppress endometriosis, then go off it and try to get pregnant.

Endometriosis can cause problems in the fallopian tubes, disrupting the motility of the egg during ovulation, Ellis said.

For women not trying to get pregnant, hormone therapy is often the first line of treatment. By controlling the female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, physicians can lessen painful symptoms. Birth control pills, vaginal rings, patches, shots and the progestin IUD are common choices. Surgery is saved for when hormone therapy fails, or the pain is severe.

Surgery is a last resort, but it can successfully lessen pain by removing scarring, adhesions and endometriomas, Ellis said.

The cause of endometriosis is not fully known. There are theories, as outlined by the Mayo Clinic, including blood flowing back into the fallopian tubes and out into the pelvic cavity during menstruation, abdominal cells transforming into endometrial cells, embryonic cells becoming endometrial cells, immune system disorders, and others.

Were not sure what causes it, but we think it has to do with changes in the germ cells that form the uterus in vitro. When you were an embryo, those germ cells may have migrated down along your spine and become stuck in places they were not supposed to be, Ellis explained.

Ironically, the severity of your endometriosis does not correlate with the pain you feel. In other words, you can have mild endometriosis with severe pain, or severe endometriosis with little or no pain. The only way to diagnose endometriosis definitively is through exploratory surgery, where an OBGYN doctor inserts a camera through your belly button. Ultrasound does not provide a full picture.

Join me at the Health Fair on April 1 for a talk on endometriosis, with a slide show demonstrating its effects and time for questions, said Dr. Eileen Joyce, OBGYN.

If you are concerned that you might have endometriosis, consider talking with your doctor or making an appointment with Dr. Ellis or Dr. Joyce, by calling MRH Medical Clinic at 970-826-2420. Please note that after May 1 this number will change to 970-826-8230, with the move of Womens Health to its new location within the hospital.

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Endometriosis: A cause for painful periods, heavy bleeding and some infertility - Craig Daily Press

Fertility restored?

Bentom Wyemji/EyeEm/Alamy

By Jessica Hamzelou

The doctor said I was peri-menopausal, says WS, who would prefer to remain anonymous. I was ovulating, but the follicles were empty most of the time. He told me that my chance of getting pregnant was less than one per cent.

Ever since her first child was born in 2009, WS has been trying for another. Doctors told WS that her levels of a hormone called AMH, which is released by eggs, were way below normal. One of her ovaries looked shrunken, and was no longer ovulating.

She was advised to try IVF as quickly as she could. I had six rounds of IVF over two years, says WS. At the beginning I was full of hope, but after the third attempt, you start crying and questioning yourself.

After the sixth attempt, WS was advised to give up on trying to have a baby using her own eggs, and to consider egg donation instead. We were really done with IVF then, says WS. We sold all of the baby stuff.

But last year, WS came across an article about an experimental fertility treatment, offered by a clinic in Greece. At the Genesis Athens Clinic, Kostantinos Sfakianoudis and his colleagues draw blood from a patient, centrifuge it to isolate plasma that is rich in platelets, and then inject it into the womans own ovaries or uterus. The team think the treatment has rejuvenating properties.

WS flew to Athens, where she paid a thousand Euros for the treatment, which was completed in a day. She returned to the clinic the next day so the team could check for any problems, before flying back home.

Back in Germany, WS went back to a local fertility clinic for a last attempt at IVF. When she told her doctors about the treatment shed undergone in Greece, they laughed. But the IVF produced three follicles including one from her previously defunct ovary.

One of the eggs was in particularly good shape. This egg was fertilised, and the embryo was re-implanted a few days later. I was somehow full of hope, WS recalls. I had never had a good quality egg before.

WS is now 23 weeks pregnant. I feel special, she says. To me, its a miracle I got pregnant. Were really happy. Its a girl.

Read more about the experimental treatment WS and more than a hundred other women have tried.

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They said I was peri-menopausal. It's a miracle I got pregnant - New Scientist

He Clinic for Men Pairs French, Thai aesthetic surgeons in discreet, luxurious Thonglor setting

Leading doctors from France and Thailand have joined forces to open a unique aesthetic-treatment center for men He Clinic Bangkok.

Dr. Richard Diacakis, a 20-year plastic surgeon from Paris, and his former student, leading Thai plastic surgeon Dr. Chayut Fungtongjararoen, head the luxurious, comfortable and discreet male health facility in the Thonglor section of the Thai capital that opened March 14.

The He Clinic for Him is dedicated to enhancing your life, inside and out, through aesthetic treatments and procedures developed exclusively for men. The clinics holistic approach employs techniques perfected over two decades and has been are enhanced by the expert staffs thorough knowledge and use of the highest-quality products.

Come and experience a full makeover of mind and body through a variety of facial procedures, anti-aging and nutrition programs, and intimacy enhancement. Options range from blepharoplasty and rhinoplasty to blood, allergy and hormone-level checks, to hyaluronic acid injections to augment intimacy.

From my first years as a doctor, I felt there was a need for top-quality aesthetic procedures to enhance the well-being of the modern man, Dr. Chayut said. Now we have realized this dream and are ready to offer the best in men's intimacy enhancments, aesthetic, nutrition and hair services. We are happy to serve all your specific needs,

A cornerstone of He Clinic for Mens approach is 100% confidentiality. Most men prefer to keep their personal health issues and sex lives private. At the He Clinic for Men, appointments are limited so each patient proceeds immediately to a private suite where they meet with an individual medical counselor who helps select the best-possible solutions to various mens health issues.

Counselors thoroughly answer all patient questions on mens health problems, issues and challenges. And all personal information is kept in digital form in a secure database.

The He Clinics philosophy is your satisfaction is our goal. We work directly with leading authorities at our new, modern clinic in Bangkok and provide a discreet location where you can feel comfortable for a full makeover of mind and body. Our mission is to help you, as a successful man, be the best you can be.

About the Doctors

Dr. Diacakis, He Clinic for Mens founder, earned successive degrees in microsurgery, hand surgery, anatomy, general surgery, plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgeries from 1997 through 2000. He worked as clinic-assistant chief of Paris hospitals before joining the famed Chirurgie Esthtique Paris aesthetic-surgery clinic in Paris where he perfected his techniques over the next decade. He is committed to what he calls "surgery of well-being", which has culminated in his newest total lifestyle clinic in Bangkok, the He Clinic for Him.

Dr. Chayut was already one of Thailands leading aesthetic surgeons when he began his studies under Dr. Diacakis in 2014. After doing his residency in a public hospital, Dr. Chayut spent the next six years mastering the arts of rhinoplasty, alarplasty, mentoplasty, blephaloplasty, lip reduction, buccal fat removal, and penoplasty.

Location and Contact Info

The He Clinic for men is located in the second floor of the Fifty-Fitth Thonglor building at 90 Thonglor Soi 2 in Khlong Tan Nuea, Watthana, Bangkok. They are open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Call them at +66(0)2-381-5155.

Visit He Clinic for Mens websites or follow its social-media pages for more life-changing stories on the web at HeClinics.com on Facebook at HeClinics and on Instagram at HeClinicFor_Men.

Media Contact Company Name: He Clinic Contact Person: Public Relations Email: info@heclinics.com Phone: 087 804 9542 Address:Fifty-Fifth Thonglor 2nd Flr, 90 Thonglor Soi 2, Khlong Tan Nuea City: Watthana State: Bangkok Country: Thailand Website: http://www.Heclinics.com

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Unique Men's Health Clinic Offers 'full makeover of mind and body' in Bangkok - Digital Journal

FAIRFAX, Vt. -

Starting a family is an exciting decision for a lot of expecting moms. While the reward is great, being pregnant is not always easy. Imagine nine months carrying a child while handling a chronic condition at the same time.

Like many parents, Ginger Vieira is obsessed with her 2 year-old daughter Lucy.And now the Fairfax couple is looking forward to bringing home baby number two in a couple of months.Its amazing that I can produce an entire life in the same body that cant even sustain itself, says Vieira.

Her body can't live without insulin, a hormone she barely produces. She has Type 1 diabetes which means a longer checklist during that nine month stretch before her baby gets here. Vieira says she has to check her blood sugar 10-15 times a day and wears a continuous glucose monitor.I would love to see what pregnancy is like without Type 1 diabetes, says Vieira, where the biggest worry of the day is like getting your pants on and that they fit.

I think the typical woman that goes through pregnancy --it already seems like a lot, says Vieira, but then when you throw the responsibilities of Type 1 diabetes...

Its a lot of work to be pregnant with Type 1 diabetes, says Doctor Marjorie Meyer, Director of Maternal Fetal Medicine at the University of Vermont Medical Center.Doctor Meyer works closely with the diabetic clinic at UVM.She says about 3,000 mothers give birth in Vermont a year and 50 of them have diabetes.The highest risk is the rigor to control the blood sugar for a long time and the rapid changes that occur, says Dr. Meyer.

Which means these soon-to-be moms need to be in constant contact with their doctors.But most women who have type 1 have a good idea how to manage their health before starting a family.Just like any other woman, says Dr. Meyer, to optimize your health status before conception is key.

Back home in Fairfax, Vieira says she's just thankful for the healthy, beautiful toddler she has now.Pregnancy is an awesome thing, says Vieira. Im incredibly grateful that even though my body cant make insulin, it can make Lucy

Vieira is an author and just completed a book called "Pregnancy with Type 1 Diabetes" to help other moms like her.

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Type 1 diabetes and pregnancy - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports- - WCAX

Newswise Scott Halpern, MD, PhD, MBE, an associate professor of Medicine, Epidemiology, and Medical Ethics and Health Policy, and director of the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center, and Peter J. Snyder, MD, a professor of Medicine in the division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, will be presented with the 2017 Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) Distinguished Investigator Award for Career Achievement and Contribution to Clinical and Translational Science at Translational Science 2017, the organizations annual meeting, in Washington, D.C. Halpern will also receive the American Federation for Medical Researchs (AFMR) Outstanding Investigator Award at the meeting next month.

The ACTS Distinguished Investigator Award recognizes senior investigators whose innovative research or education leadership has significantly impacted clinical and translational science. The AFMR Outstanding Investigator Award is presented annually to an investigator age 45 or younger in recognition of excellence in biomedical research.

The ACTS Distinguished Investigator Award for Translation from Clinical Use into Public Benefit and Policy & AFMR Outstanding Investigator Award

Dr. Halpern is also the founding director of the Fostering Improvement in End-of-Life Decision Science (FIELDS) program, and deputy director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economic (CHIBE). By blending ethical analyses and empirical research, Dr. Halpern's work promotes the ideals of fairness and value in how scarce healthcare resources, including transplantable organs, ICU beds and services, and clinicians time are allocated to seriously ill patients. The PAIR Center conducts large, pragmatic randomized trials of interventions that seek to improve the lives of all people affected by serious illness. The FIELDS program includes scholars from multiple health-related disciplines who use principles of behavioral economics in an effort to understand and improve upon the healthcare decisions made by seriously ill patients and their family members and clinicians. Finally, his work through the CHIBE develops behavioral economic interventions that motivate smoking cessation, research participation, and reductions in the use of low-value healthcare services, without unduly constraining autonomous choice.

Dr. Halperns research is supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by a number of foundations. He is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation, and a member of the editorial boards of the Annals of Internal Medicine and the American Journal of Bioethics. From 2013 2015 he was an anniversary fellow at the Institute of Medicine. He holds a bachelors degree from Duke University, and an MD, PhD, MSCE and MBE from the University of Pennsylvania.

The ACTS Distinguished Investigator Award for Translation from Early Clinical Use to Applicability for Widespread Clinical Practice

Snyders clinical expertise is focused on neuroendocrinology, or the diagnosis and treatment of pituitary adenomas and other pituitary and hypothalamic abnormalities, including excessive and deficient pituitary hormone secretion. These conditions include acromegaly, Cushings disease, hyperprolactinemia, gonadotroph and other clinically nonfunctioning adenomas, other pituitary and hypothalamic tumors, hypopituitarism, and diabetes insipidus. In clinical practice, he also specializes in male reproductive endocrinology, the diagnosis and treatment of hypogonadism and infertility in men.

Over his nearly five-decade career, Snyder has examined the effects of hormones on bone and pituitary adenomas. Most notably, Snyder was the principle investigator of The Testosterone Trials, a multicenter study of seven coordinated trials of the effects of testosterone in elderly men with low testosterone on physical function, vitality, sexual function, cognitive function, anemia, bone and cardiovascular risk.

Snyder is also involved in several professional societies including the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, and the Endocrine Society. He holds a bachelors degree from Williams College and a medical degree from Harvard University.

### Penn Medicine is one of the world's leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of the Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nation's first medical school) and the University of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $6.7 billion enterprise.

Newswise The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top five medical schools in the United States for the past 20 years, according to U.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $392 million awarded in the 2016 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System's patient care facilities include: The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Center -- which are recognized as one of the nation's top "Honor Roll" hospitals by U.S. News & World Report -- Chester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Wissahickon Hospice; and Pennsylvania Hospital -- the nation's first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional affiliated inpatient care facilities and services throughout the Philadelphia region include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, a partnership between Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2016, Penn Medicine provided $393 million to benefit our community. Contacts

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Penn Medicine Researchers Receive Distinguished Investigator Awards - Newswise (press release)

The relationships between sport and sexuality in males are of great social and clinical interest, because of sports and motor activities that highly promote social and sexual relationships. Even if few literature exist, two main questions should be taken into account: whether and how physical exercise and sport positively or negatively influence sexual health and behavior and/or whether and how sexual behavior may affect a sub-sequent sport performance. Physical exercise and sport per se can influence, positively or negatively, the hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis function and, consequently, the individual's reproductive and/or sexual health. This depends on individual factors such as genetic and epigenetic ones and on different variables involved in the practice of sport activities (type of sport, intensity and duration of training, doping and drug use and abuse, nutrition, supplements, psychological stress, allostatic load, etc.). If well conducted, motor and sport activities could have beneficial effects on sexual health in males. Among different lifestyle changes, influencing sexual health, regular physical activity is fundamental to antagonize the onset of erectile dysfunction (ED). However, competitive sport can lead both reproductive and/or sexual tract damages and dysfunctions, transient (genital pain, hypoesthesia of the genitalia, hypogonadism, DE, altered sexual drive, etc.) or permanent (hypogonadism, DE, etc.), by acting directly (traumas of the external genitalia, saddle-related disorders in cyclists, etc.) or indirectly (exercise-related hypogonadism, drug abuse, doping, stress, etc.). Sexual activities shortly performed before a sport competition could differently influence sport performance. Due to the few existing data, it is advisable to avoid an absolute pre-competition sexual abstinence.

Journal of endocrinological investigation. 2017 Mar 22 [Epub ahead of print]

P Sgr, L Di Luigi

Unit of Endocrinology, Section of Health Sciences, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Rome, Italy., Unit of Endocrinology, Section of Health Sciences, Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome "Foro Italico", Rome, Italy. .

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28332171

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Sport and male sexuality. - UroToday

Ads for low-testosterone treatments benefit sales but not necessarily health Science Daily The likelihood of hypogonadism increases with age and can cause symptoms such as low libido, reduced strength, fatigue and depression. It is diagnosed with a blood test together with clinical symptoms and signs, and it is treated with products that ...

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Ads for low-testosterone treatments benefit sales but not necessarily health - Science Daily

SmartNews Keeping you current

smithsonian.com March 27, 2017 1:36PM

Researchers have gotten pretty good at growing human tissues from stem cellsfrom heart cellsin a Petri dish to 3-D printingfull ears. But assembling the complex vascularity of heart tissue is no small feat. Even the most sophisticated 3-D printers can't fabricate the structure. However, asBen Guarinowrites for The Washington Post, researchers at Worcester Polytechnic Institute might have a solution: use spinach leaves as the backbone for the heart tissue.

The study, recently published in the journalBiomaterials, offers an innovative wayto solve a common problem in tissue engineering by looking towardthe plant world. Though plants and animals transport fluids in very different ways,their vascular structuresare similar, according to apress release.

Take a plant leaf and hold it up to the light. "What do you see?"Tanja Dominko, an author of the study, asksCyrusMoultonat theWorcester Telegram. "You see a plant vascular system that is very, very similar to a human system and serves an identical purpose, she says.

But to use that structure, researchers had to first remove the plant cells, leaving its vascular system intact. To accomplish such a feat, the team washes the leaves through using a type of detergent, turning the leaf from transparent green to translucent white. The remaining cellulose structure is compatible with human tissue.

As Guarino reports,the researchers then seeded the spinach with cardiac tissue, which began to grow inside the leaf. After five days, they witnessed some of the tissue contracting on the microscopic level. In other words, the spinach leaf began to beat. They passed liquids and microbeads the size of human blood cells through the leaves to show they could potentially transport blood.

Though the team wasn't aiming to grow a fullheart from spinach,they hope the methodcould be used to help patients after suffering from heart attack or other heart problem. Long term, were definitely envisioning implanting a graft in damaged heart tissue, Glenn Gaudette, a bioengineer and co-author of the study, tells Guarino. They hope to make a patch as thick and strong as natural heart tissue.

Spinach is not the only superfood the team is working with. According to the press release, they have also successfully removed the cells from leaves of parsley, sweet wormwood and hairy peanut root. In the future, different plants could be used as scaffolding to grow different patches and replacement parts. For instance, the hollow stem of jewelweed could be sued to create arteries and wood or bamboo could be used to engineer bone. When you think of the wide array of plants out there, theres almost nothing that plants can't do, Gaudette tells Moulton.

The Worcester team isnt the only group working on this idea either. Andrew Pelling at the University of Ottawa is using the cellulose in apple slicesto grow (slightly scary-looking) human ears.

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Jason Daley is a Madison, Wisconsin-based writer specializing in natural history, science, travel, and the environment. His work has appeared in Discover, Popular Science, Outside, Mens Journal, and other magazines.

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Researchers Turn Spinach Leaves Into Beating Heart Tissues - Smithsonian

Heart tissue grown on spinach leaves: Researchers turn to the ... Science Daily Researchers face a fundamental challenge as they seek to scale up human tissue regeneration from small lab samples to full-size tissues and organs: how to ... and more »

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Heart tissue grown on spinach leaves: Researchers turn to the ... - Science Daily

Investopedia

Cellect Succeeds In First Stem Cell Transplant (APOP) Investopedia It includes more than half the stem cell transplant procedures, including bone marrow transplant, resulting in a serious rejection disease called Graft-versus-Host-Disease (GvHD). GvHD is a medical disorder which results from receipt of transplanted ... Cellect Announces Successful First Cancer Patient Stem Cell TransplantP&T Community Why Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (APOP) Stock Is Soaring TodayInvestorplace.com Cellect Biotechnology Ltd. (NASDAQ:APOP) Surges 22.76% Monday's Pre-SessionBenchmark Monitor all 32 news articles »

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Cellect Succeeds In First Stem Cell Transplant (APOP) - Investopedia

The Hindu

Bone marrow transplants up: Jipmer The Hindu Dr. Biswajit of the Department of Medical Oncology said the hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT), commonly known as bone marrow transplant or blood marrow transplant (BMT) programme, was started in Jipmer in January 2013. The current BMT unit ...

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Bone marrow transplants up: Jipmer - The Hindu

As people age, so does their blood. The question is: what exactly is in the blood of older people that makes it age? And in the same light, what is in the blood of younger people that can help rejuvenate old blood?

The idea of using young blood to rejuvenate old blood was not an automatic conclusion, of course. While it does seem logical, it remained a theory until tests that involved conjoining (i.e. stitching together) of old and young mice for the purpose of swapping blood revealed that the concept did have merit. With shared blood, the health of younger mice deteriorated while the health of older mice improved.

Another kind of experiment done was non-invasive blood swapping using tubes. The results were similar, though different explanations emerged for the change in health conditions of both old and young mice. When conjoined, the mice shared more than just blood; their organs got affected too. In non-invasive blood swapping, the old blood got diluted.

While these experiments were done on mice, theres a chance they might work in people as well. However, this involves blood donation from young people, which might mean the supply will be limited when it comes to fulfill demand.

As an alternative, a research team at Germanys University of Ulm led by Hartmut Geiger turned to stem cells, specifically, what are being referred to as mother stem cells those stem cells in the bone marrow that produce red and white blood cells, and whose number become fewer and fewer as a person ages. With fewer of these cell-generating cells, older people become more susceptible to conditions like anemia and heart disease. They become less capable of fighting infection as well.

By examining mice bone marrow, Geigers team discovered that older mice have considerably lower levels of a protein known as osteopontin. To check the effect of this protein on blood stem cells, they injected stem cells into mice that had low levels of osteopontin. What happened was, the cells aged much quicker.

However, when they mixed older stem cells with osteopontin and a protein that activates osteopontin, the old stem cells started producing white blood cells as if they were young stem cells. This suggests that osteopontin might indeed have a hand in rejuvenating old stem cells and making them behave as if they were young again.

While majority of blood rejuvenation efforts focus on the liquid part of blood (or plasma), Geiger believes blood cells might also play a vital role since cells can move better in the bodys tissues.

Following the initial results of their experiments, the team is now working on developing a drug that contains osteopontin and its corresponding protein activator. The hope is that this drug can promote youthful behavior in blood stem cells and boost the number of mother stem cells. Ultimately, this can help in the treatment of age-related blood disorders, and possibly boost the immune system of the elderly too so they dont get sick as easily.

Details of the study have been reported in The EMBO Journal.

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Protein Found in Young Blood Could Be The Key To Fight Aging - Wall Street Pit

Using video microscopy in a living mouse lung, a team of researchers at the Universities of California, San Francisco (UCSF) & Los Angeles (UCLA), has revealed that the lungs play a previously unrecognized role in blood production.

Visualization of resident megakaryocytes in the lungs. Image credit: Emma Lefranais et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21706.

The team, headed by UCSF Professor Mark R. Looney, found that the lungs produced more than half of the platelets blood components required for the clotting that stanches bleeding in the mouse circulation.

In another finding, the team also identified a previously unknown pool of blood stem cells capable of restoring blood production when the stem cells of the bone marrow, previously thought to be the principal site of blood production, are depleted.

This finding definitely suggests a more sophisticated view of the lungs that theyre not just for respiration but also a key partner in formation of crucial aspects of the blood, Prof. Looney said.

What weve observed here in mice strongly suggests the lung may play a key role in blood formation in humans as well.

The study was made possible by a refinement of a technique known as two-photon intravital imaging.

The authors were using this technique to examine interactions between the immune system and circulating platelets in the lungs, using a mouse strain engineered so that platelets emit bright green fluorescence, when they noticed a surprisingly large population of platelet-producing cells called megakaryocytes in the lung vasculature.

When we discovered this massive population of megakaryocytes that appeared to be living in the lung, we realized we had to follow this up, said team member Dr. Emma Lefranais, from the UCSF Department of Medicine.

More detailed imaging sessions soon revealed megakaryocytes in the act of producing more than 10 million platelets per hour within the lung vasculature, suggesting that more than half of a mouses total platelet production occurs in the lung, not the bone marrow, as researchers had long presumed.

Video microscopy experiments also revealed a wide variety of previously overlooked megakaryocyte progenitor cells and blood stem cells sitting quietly outside the lung vasculature estimated at 1 million per mouse lung.

Proposed schema of lung involvement in platelet biogenesis. The role of the lungs in platelet biogenesis is twofold and occurs in two different compartments: (a) platelet production in the lung vasculature; after being released from the bone marrow or the spleen, proplatelets (a1) and megakaryocytes (a2) are retained in the lung vasculature, the first capillary bed encountered by any cell leaving the bone marrow, where proplatelet formation and extension and final platelet release are observed; (b) mature and immature megakaryocytes along with hematopoietic progenitors are found in the lung interstitium; in thrombocytopenic environments, hematopoietic progenitors from the lung migrate and restore bone marrow hematopoietic deficiencies. Image credit: Emma Lefranais et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21706.

The discovery of megakaryocytes and blood stem cells in the lung raised questions about how these cells move back and forth between the lung and bone marrow.

To address these questions, Prof. Looney, Dr. Lefranais and their colleagues conducted a clever set of lung transplant studies.

First, they transplanted lungs from normal donor mice into recipient mice with fluorescent megakaryocytes, and found that fluorescent megakaryocytes from the recipient mice soon began turning up in the lung vasculature.

This suggested that the platelet-producing megakaryocytes in the lung originate in the bone marrow.

In another experiment, the team transplanted lungs with fluorescent megakaryocyte progenitor cells into mutant mice with low platelet counts.

The transplants produced a large burst of fluorescent platelets that quickly restored normal levels, an effect that persisted over several months of observation much longer than the lifespan of individual megakaryocytes or platelets.

This indicated that resident megakaryocyte progenitor cells in the transplanted lungs had become activated by the recipient mouses low platelet counts and had produced healthy new megakaryocyte cells to restore proper platelet production.

Finally, the researchers transplanted healthy lungs in which all cells were fluorescently tagged into mutant mice whose bone marrow lacked normal blood stem cells.

Analysis of the bone marrow of recipient mice showed that fluorescent cells originating from the transplanted lungs soon traveled to the damaged bone marrow and contributed to the production not just of platelets, but of a wide variety of blood cells, including immune cells such as neutrophils, B cells and T cells.

These experiments suggest that the lungs play host to a wide variety of blood progenitor cells and stem cells capable of restocking damaged bone marrow and restoring production of many components of the blood.

To our knowledge this is the first description of blood progenitors resident in the lung, and it raises a lot of questions with clinical relevance for the millions of people who suffer from thrombocytopenia, Prof. Looney said.

The findings were published online March 22, 2017 in the journal Nature.

_____

Emma Lefranais et al. The lung is a site of platelet biogenesis and a reservoir for haematopoietic progenitors. Nature, published online March 22, 2017; doi: 10.1038/nature21706

This article is based on text provided by the University of California, San Francisco.

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Lungs Play Previously Unknown Role in Blood Production - Sci-News.com

Healthy cell function relies on well orchestrated gene activity. Via a fantastically complex network of interactions, around 30,000 genes cooperate to maintain this delicate balance in each of the37.2 trillion cellsin the human body.

Broadly speaking, cancer is a disruption of this balance by genetic changes, or mutations. Mutations can trigger over-activation of genes that normally instruct cells to divide, or inactivation of genes that suppress the development of cancer. When a mutated cell divides, it passes the mutation down to its daughter cells. This leads to the accumulation of non-functioning, abnormal cells that we recognise as cancer.

Our laboratoryis focused on understanding how one particular cancer chronic myeloid leukaemiaor CML works. Each year more than 700 patients in the UK andover 100,000worldwide are diagnosed with CML. After recent advances,almost 90%of patients under the age of 65 now survive for more than five years.

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But in the vast majority of patients CML is currently incurable and lifelong treatment means that patients must live with side effects and the chance of drug resistance arising. With increasing numbers of CML patients surviving (and treatment costing between 40,000 and 70,000 per patient a year), increasing strain is being placed on health services.

A single mutation

CML is perhaps unique in cancers in that a single mutation, namedBCR-ABL, underlies the disease biology. This mutation originates in a singleleukaemic stem cell, but is then propagated throughout the blood and bone marrow as leukaemia cells take over and block the healthy process of blood production. The presence of BCR-ABL affects the activity of thousands of genes, in turn preventing these cells from fulfilling their normal function as blood cells.

Drugsthat specifically neutralise the aberrant effects of this mutation were introduced to the clinic from the early 2000s. These drugs have revolutionised CML patient care. Many are now able to live relatively normal lives with their leukaemia under good control.

But while these drugs kill the more mature daughter cells of the originally mutated leukaemia stem cell, they have not fully lived up to their initial billing as magic bullets in the fight against cancer. This is because the original seed population of leukaemic stem cellsevade therapy,lying dormant in the bone marrowto stimulate new cancer growth when treatment is withdrawn.

To truly cure CML we must expose, understand the inner workings of, and uproot the leukaemia stem cells. And to do this, we need to learn more about them. How do they survive the treatment that so readily kills their more mature counterparts? Which overactive or inactivated genes protect them?

We believe that the answers to these questions lie in the analysis of biological big data. Genome-scale technologies now allow scientists to measure the activity (or expression) of every gene in the genome simultaneously, in any given population of cells, or even at the level of a single cell. Comparison of expression data generated from leukaemia stem cells with the same data generated from healthy blood stem cells will reveal single genes or networks of genes potentially targetable in the fight against leukaemia.

Big data to the rescue

In a project funded by Bloodwise and the Scottish Cancer Foundation, we have createdLEUKomics. This online data portal brings together a wealth of CML gene expression data from specialised laboratories across the globe, including our own at the University of Glasgow.

Our intention is to eliminate the bottleneck surrounding big data analysis in CML. Each dataset is subjected to manual quality checks, and all the necessarycomputational processingto extract information on gene expression. This enables immediate access to and interpretation of data that previously would not have been easily accessible to academics or clinicians without training in specialised computational approaches.

Consolidating these data into a single resource also allows large-scale, computationally-intensive research efforts by bioinformaticians (specialists in the analysis of big data in biology). From a computational perspective, the fact that CML is caused by a single mutation makes it an attractive disease model for cancer stem cells. However, existing datasets tend to have small sample numbers, which can limit their potential.

The more samples available, the higher the power to detect subtle changes that may be crucial to the biology of the cancer stem cells. By bringing all the globally available CML datasets together, we have significantly increased the sample size, from two to six per dataset to more than 100 altogether. This offers an unprecedented opportunity to analyse gene expression data to expose underlying mechanisms of this disease.

As of March 2017, theportalis up and running in the public domain. We are planning to tour Scotland and present at international conferences, aiming to train researchers in how best to exploit this new resource. Ultimately, we hope that this tool will lead to new ideas and approaches, and attract more funding, in the fight against CML. And while we continue to expand our representation of CML data in real time from research centres all over the world, we also plan to begin incorporating data from other types of leukaemia.

In recent years, targeted therapies have becomehugely importantin cancer research. By providing these data to the CML research community withinLEUKomics, we hope to mobilise new research into cancer-causing leukaemic stem cells, and ultimately design treatments to target them without affecting healthy cells. Our database provides a critical stepping stone in this process.

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How Big Data is Being Mobilized in the Fight Against Leukemia - Drug Discovery & Development

Stelios Andreadis, PhD, is leading a team of researchers who have discovered how to convert adult skin cells into stem cells without modifying their genetics.

UB researchers have found that adult skin cells can be converted into neural crest cells without any genetic modification.

The discovery, which was several years in the making, proves that these stem cells can yield other cells that are present in the spinal cord and brain.

The applications could be very significant, ranging from studying genetic diseases in a dish to generating possible regenerative cures from a patients own cells.

Its actually quite remarkable that it happens, says Stelios Andreadis, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering, who recently published a paper on the results, titled Reprogramming Postnatal Human Epidermal Keratinocytes Toward Functional Neural Crest Fates, in the journal Stem Cells.

The identity of the cells was further confirmed by lineage tracing experiments, where the reprogrammed cells were implanted in chicken embryos and acted just as neural crest cells do.

This image shows Keratinocyte-derived neural crest stem cells turning into neurons as shown by typical neuronal morphology.

Stem cells have been derived from adult cells before, but not without adding genes to alter the cells. The new process yields neural crest cells without addition of foreign genetic material. The reprogrammed neural crest cells can become smooth muscle cells, melanocytes, Schwann cells or neurons.

In medical applications this has tremendous potential because you can always get a skin biopsy, says Andreadis, who is also professor and chair of the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

We can grow the cells to large numbers and reprogram them without genetic modification. So, autologous cells derived from the patient can be used to treat devastating neurogenic diseases that are currently hampered by the lack of easily accessible cell sources, he says.

The process can also be used to model disease. Skin cells from a person with a genetic disease of the nervous system can be reprogrammed into neural crest cells. These cells will have the disease-causing mutation in their chromosomes, but the genes that cause the mutation are not expressed in the skin.

The genes are likely to be expressed when cells differentiate into neural crest lineages, such as neurons or Schwann cells, thereby enabling researchers to study the disease in a dish. This is similar to induced pluripotent stem cells, but without genetic modification or reprogramming to the pluripotent state.

The discovery was a gradual process, taking almost five years, Andreadis says, as successive experiments kept leading to something new.

It was one step at a time. It was a very challenging task that involved a wide range of expertise and collaborators to bring it to fruition, he says.

Collaborators include:

Andreadis credits the persistence of his then-doctoral student, Vivek K. Bajpai, for sticking with it.

He is an excellent and persistent student, Andreadis says. Most students would have given up.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Andreadis also credits a seed grant from UBs Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Developments IMPACT program that enabled part of the work.

The work recently received a $1.7 million NIH grant to delve into the mechanisms that occur as the cells reprogram, and to employ the cells for treating the Parkinsons-like symptoms in a mouse model of hypomyelinating disease.

This work has the potential to provide a novel source of abundant, easily accessible and autologous cells for treatment of devastating neurodegenerative diseases, Andreadis says. We are excited about this discovery and its potential impact and are grateful to NIH for the opportunity to pursue it further.

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Neural Crest Stem Cells From Skin Without Genetic Modifications - UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences News

This method opens the doors to producing all sorts of hard-to-access cells and tissues so we can better our understanding of diseases and the response of these tissues to newly developed therapeutics. - Mark Kotter

The results published in Stem Cell Reports open the door to producing a diversity of new cell types that could not be made before in order to study disease.

Human pluripotent stem cells are master cells that have the ability to develop into almost any type of tissue, including brain cells. They hold huge potential for studying human development and the impact of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimers, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease.

In a human, it takes nine to twelve months for a single brain cell to develop fully. It can take between three and 20 weeks using current methods to create human brain cells, including grey matter (neurons) and white matter (oligodendrocytes) from an induced pluripotent stem cell that is, a stem cell generated by reprogramming a skin cell to its master stage. However, these methods are complex and time-consuming, often producing a mixed population of cells.

The new platform technology, OPTi-OX, optimises the way of switching on genes in human stem cells. Scientists applied OPTi-OX to the production of millions of nearly identical cells in a matter of days. In addition to the neurons, oligodendrocytes, and muscle cells the scientists created in the study, OPTi-OX holds the possibility of generating any cell type at unprecedented purities, in this short timeframe.

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Image:Oligodendrocyte Credit: Wikimedia

Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge _________________________________________________

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New stem cell method produces millions of human brain and muscle cells in days - Cambridge Network

March 28, 2017 by Tiare Dunlap Evangelina Vaccaro (far right), who in 2012 received treatment developed by UCLAs Dr. Donald Kohn for bubble baby disease, with her family before her first day of school. Credit: Courtesy of the Vaccaro family

UCLA researchers have developed a stem cell gene therapy cure for babies born with adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare and life-threatening condition that can be fatal within the first year of life if left untreated.

In a phase 2 clinical trial led by Dr. Donald Kohn of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, all nine babies were cured. A 10th trial participant was a teenager at the time of treatment and showed no signs of immune system recovery. Kohn's treatment method, a stem cell gene therapy that safely restores immune systems in babies with the immunodeficiency using the child's own cells, has cured 30 out of 30 babies during the course of several clinical trials.

Adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency, also known as ADA-SCID or bubble baby disease, is caused by a genetic mutation that results in the lack of the adenosine deaminase enzyme, which is an important component of the immune system. Without the enzyme, immune cells are not able to fight infections. Children with the disease must remain isolated in clean and germ-free environments to avoid exposure to viruses and bacteria; even a minor cold could prove fatal.

Currently, there are two commonly used treatment options for children with ADA-SCID. They can be injected twice a week with the adenosine deaminase enzymea lifelong process that is very expensive and often does not return the immune system to optimal levels. Some children can receive a bone marrow transplant from a matched donor, such as a sibling, but bone marrow matches are rare and can result in the recipient's body rejecting the transplanted cells.

The researchers used a strategy that corrects the ADA-SCID mutation by genetically modifying each patient's own blood-forming stem cells, which can create all blood cell types. In the trial, blood stem cells removed from each child's bone marrow were corrected in the lab through insertion of the gene responsible for making the adenosine deaminase enzyme. Each child then received a transplant of their own corrected blood stem cells.

The clinical trial ran from 2009 to 2012 and treated 10 children with ADA-SCID and no available matched bone marrow donor. Three children were treated at the National Institutes of Health and seven were treated at UCLA. No children in the trial experienced complications from the treatment. Nine out of ten were babies and they all now have good immune system function and no longer need to be isolated. They are able to live normal lives, play outside, go to school, receive immunizations and, most importantly, heal from common sicknesses such as the cold or an ear infection. The teenager, who was not cured, continues to receive enzyme therapy.

The fact that the nine babies were cured and the teenager was not indicates that the gene therapy for ADA-SCID works best in the youngest patients, before their bodies lose the ability to restore the immune system.

The next step is to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration for the gene therapy in the hopes that all children with ADA-SCID will be able to benefit from the treatment. Kohn and colleagues have also adapted the stem cell gene therapy approach to treat sickle cell disease and X-linked chronic granulomatous disease, an immunodeficiency disorder commonly referred to as X-linked CGD. Clinical trials providing stem cell gene therapy treatments for both diseases are currently ongoing.

Explore further: Stem cell researcher pioneers gene therapy cure for children with "Bubble Baby" disease

More information: Clinical efficacy of gene-modified stem cells in adenosine deaminasedeficient immunodeficiency. http://www.jci.org/articles/view/90367

UCLA stem cell researchers have pioneered a stem cell gene therapy cure for children born with adenosine deaminase (ADA)-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), often called "Bubble Baby" disease, a life-threatening ...

For the last several decades, scientists worldwide have been seeking to harness the power of stem cells to develop therapies for human diseases and conditions. At UCLA's Broad Stem Cell Research Center, the potential to bring ...

New research published online today in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), reports that children with "bubble boy disease" who undergo gene therapy have fewer infections and hospitalizations than ...

Gene therapy can safely rebuild the immune systems of older children and young adults with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), a rare inherited disorder that primarily affects males, scientists from the National ...

Researchers have found that gene therapy using a modified delivery system, or vector, can restore the immune systems of children with X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID-X1), a rare, life-threatening inherited ...

Using a new cellular model, innovative gene therapy approaches for the hereditary immunodeficiency Chronic Granulomatous Disease can be tested faster and cost-effectively in the lab for their efficacy. A team of researchers ...

A new study published in Nature Communications and co-authored by Northwestern Medicine scientists shows how two proteins of the Ca2+ release-activated Ca2+ (CRAC) channel family interact with each other to control the flow ...

UCLA researchers have developed a stem cell gene therapy cure for babies born with adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency, a rare and life-threatening condition that can be fatal within the first year ...

Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists and their collaborators have developed a new analysis tool that was able to show, for the first time, which genes were expressed by individual cells in different genetic versions ...

The liver is crucial for the detoxification of the human body. The exposure to toxins makes it particularly prone to drug-induced injury. Cholestasis, the impairment of bile flow, is therefore a common problem of drug development ...

Men unable to have an erection after prostate surgery enjoyed normal intercourse thanks to stem cell therapy, scientists are to report Saturday at a medical conference in London.

McMaster University researchers have discovered that while survivors of childhood brain tumours have a similar Body Mass Index (BMI) to healthy children with no cancer, they have more fat tissue overall, and especially around ...

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Pioneering stem cell gene therapy cures infants with bubble baby disease - Medical Xpress

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REGENXBIO Inc. (Nasdaq: RGNX), a leading clinical-stage biotechnology company seeking to improve lives through the curative potential of gene therapy based on its proprietary NAV Technology Platform, today announced that Olivier Danos, Ph.D., is joining REGENXBIO in the newly created position of Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Danos will report to Kenneth T. Mills, REGENXBIOs President and Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Danos joins REGENXBIO from Biogen Inc., where he was Senior Vice President, Cell and Gene Therapy. At Biogen, Dr. Danos led company efforts dedicated to identifying and developing new technologies for gene transfer and genome engineering. Dr. Danos also co-founded and is an executive member of the board of directors of Lysogene, a NAV Technology Licensee focused on the development of gene therapy product candidates for the treatment of Mucopolysaccharidosis Type IIIA.

Olivier brings established industry leadership and scientific expertise in the development of gene therapies and the field of genome engineering to REGENXBIO, said Dr. James M. Wilson, M.D., Ph.D. REGENXBIOs scientific founder and director of the University of Pennsylvania (Penn) Gene Therapy Program. My relationship with Olivier can be traced back to the early stages of our careers, when he and I shared a bench at the Whitehead laboratories. He is an innovative scientist who has been at the forefront of the industry, and I look forward to collaborating with him on the advancement of scientific research at REGENXBIO.

We are excited to enhance the breadth and depth of our scientific research team. Olivier and Jim are two renowned gene therapy pioneers who have been key players in the success of the field, said Mr. Mills. We look forward to leveraging Oliviers rich industry experience and remarkable understanding of the space, including his work with the NAV Technology Platform, as we build a robust clinical pipeline of gene therapy product candidates with the goal of improving treatment options in many diseases.

The NAV Technology Platform has the potential to significantly alter the course of disease and deliver enhanced health outcomes to patients in need, said Dr. Danos. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to lead scientific research at REGENXBIO as we continue to advance this groundbreaking technology in a broad range of diseases that are not effectively addressed by existing drug classes.

Prior to Biogen, Dr. Danos served as Senior Vice President, Molecular Medicine, Synthetic Biology and Gene Regulation at Kadmon Pharmaceuticals. Earlier in his career, Dr. Danos was Director of the Gene Therapy Consortium of the University College of London, Scientific Director at Genethon and Senior Director of Research at Somatix Therapy Corporation. Dr. Danos has directed research focused on gene therapy at the Necker - Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris, the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Dr. Danos received a Ph.D. in Biology at the University of Paris Diderot and the Pasteur Institute, and a Master in Science in Genetics and Mathematics from the University of Paris Orsay. Dr. Danos is a founding member of the European Society of Gene and Cell Therapy.

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Regenxbio (RGNX) Names Olivier Danos, Ph.D as Chief Scientific Officer - StreetInsider.com

San Francisco Business Times

Could gene therapy, with help from California's stem cell agency, treat 'bubble boy disease'? San Francisco Business Times Dr. Morton Cowan is the principal investigator of a gene therapy trial at UCSF that is more. University of California Television. CIRM funding gives UCSF, St. Jude researchers a chance to show that combining gene therapy with a chemotherapy agent ...

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Could gene therapy, with help from California's stem cell agency, treat 'bubble boy disease'? - San Francisco Business Times

In the United States alone, more than 400,000 lumbar discectomies and 500,000 spinal fusions are performed each year for symptoms related to lumbar disc degeneration. The ability to get these to heal without surgery has been a long-term goal of many patients and physicians alike. The Spine Center continues to be on the forefront of treatment options and is proud to offer stem cell therapy treatments for patients as part of our comprehensive non-operative treatment options.

Adult stem cells are divided into different categories. For example, the types of adult stem cells Dr. Theofilos uses to treat musculoskeletal issues are known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). These are multi-potent cells that can differentiate into bone cells, cartilage cells, or fat cells.

The human body has multiple storage sites for stem cells to repair degenerated and injured structures. Dr. Theofilos has found that obtaining stem cells from the hip bone (iliac bone) is easily performed within minutes and, in most cases, is a fairly painless procedure for the patient. The stem cells are obtained from bone marrow; just minutes later, they are used for treatment.

This procedure is done in our office and after the procedure, the syringe of stem cells is taken to the lab and placed in a specialized machine called a centrifuge. The centrifuge spins the bone marrow solution and stem cells are separated from the non-useful cells. Now, the stem cells are ready for the treatment.

For those whom are ideal candidates, this provides great hope with reduction in pain and improved quality of life without the need for major surgery.

Voted as one of Americas Top Surgeons, Charles S. Theofilos, MD, Neurosurgeon and Founder of The Spine Center is a leading provider of the state-of-the-art, most comfortable and effective surgical, minimally invasive and non-surgical treatment options for a full range of cervical and spinal ailments, including stem cell therapy and artificial disc replacement. He was among a field of 20 top neuro and orthopedic surgeons in the U.S. chosen to participate in the groundbreaking Artificial Disc Study, which compared the clinical outcome of disc replacement versus traditional spinal fusion. A widely sought after educator and lecturer, Dr. Theofilos has offices in Palm Beach Gardens and Port St. Lucie. In an effort to maintain and honor the commitment to our patients, we will continue to accept Medicare and Medicare Advantage insurance plans for all new and follow up appointments.

11621 Kew Gardens Ave., Suite 101;Palm Beach Gardens

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What are mesenchymal stem cells? - Palm Beach Post

But its always been clear that they could be risky too, especially if theyre not used carefully. The LCSB team has published its results in the scientific journal PLOS Biology.

This study shows that for the first time, targeting the proliferating tumor mass and dormant cancer stem cells with combination therapy effectively inhibited tumor growth and prevented metastasis compared to monotherapy in mice, said Wang, who is a member of the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. However, as of April 2016, new rules on human cells and tissue require FDA oversight and approval for such procedures.

Although the women had moderate vision loss prior to the stem cell treatments, a year later their vision ranged from total blindness to 20/200, which is considered legally blind.

NPR contacted the FDA, and was told by a spokeswoman that the agency is now finalizing a series of new guidelines regulating how clinics could use stem cells for treatment purposes. So far, however, scientists only partially understand how the body controls the fate of these all-rounders, and what factors decide whether a stem cell will differentiate, for example, into a blood, liver or nerve cell. He wrote an editorial accompanying the two papers.

As reported Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, one of the women, a 72-year-old, went completely blind after doctors injected stem cells into her eye in an attempt to cure the disease.

But within a week of starting the off-the-charts dangerous therapy at an American clinic, the patients suffered complications.

Two of the patients sought treatment at the universitys hospital for the complications they suffered. The agency also noted that it had previously issued a warning to patients. She said that they were treating patients with their own stem cells.

In addition to charging a fee for treatment, there were several other red flags in the Florida cases that consumers should watch for when considering participation in a clinical trial, Goldberg said. They sought treatment at a Florida clinic that had announced a study to treat the condition on clinicaltrials.gov, a federal database of research studies.

Within days of the stem cell injections she was almost blind and ultimately progressed to complete blindness. Their attorney, Andrew Yaffa of Coral Gables, said that the case was resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties but that neither he nor his clients could comment beyond that.

She acknowledged, however, that the clinic had been performing the stem cell procedures.

Shoddy preparation of the stem cells may have led to some of the complications, said the study authors. We feel very confident about the procedures that we do, and weve had great success in many different indications. We believe that regenerative medicine / cellular therapeutics will play a large role in positively changing the natural history of diseases ultimately, we contend, lessening patient burdens, as well as reducing the associated economic impact disease imposes upon modern society.

The body produces a variety of stem cells. It is also costly, at almost $900,000 to develop and test the iPS cells for the first trial, Takahashi adds.

Whatever happened, experts said there was no evidence to suggest the procedure would have helped restore vision, since so little study has been done on whether adipose-derived stem cells can mature into the kinds of retinal cells that are involved in macular degeneration.

This represents a landmark, says Daley. But it proved too slow and expensive, says Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan, who first discovered how to create iPS cells and is a co-author of the NEJM paper. The registry may be useful as a starting point, but patients should then discuss potential trials with qualified physicians, an academic medical center.

A second patient was supposed to be treated, but transplantation was called off after the cells were found to have potential genetic problems. The cells were extracted their from fat, mixed with blood plasma and injected into their eyes.

Even though the safety and effectiveness of this procedure is unknown, all three patients received injections in both eyes. Dr. Thomas Albini of the University of Miami examined the women after they were treated at a clinic in Florida.

Before the procedure, all three women still had at least some vision. Medical experts said the episode raises questions about whether the government and doctors are doing enough to protect patients from the dangers of unapproved therapies.

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Three women blinded after clinical trial went wrong - Normangee Star

Science Daily

Novel gene therapy experiment offers hope for people with certain hearing loss and dizziness disorder Science Daily In a first-of-its-kind study published in the March 1, 2017 edition of Molecular Therapy, researchers from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine showed that gene ...

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Novel gene therapy experiment offers hope for people with certain hearing loss and dizziness disorder - Science Daily

By FPJ Bureau|Mar 20, 2017 06:26 pm

Melbourne: Scientists have created a functional beating human heart muscle from stem cells, a significant step forward in cardiac disease research. Researchers at The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia developed models of human heart tissue in the laboratory so they can study cardiac biology and diseases in a dish.

The patented technology enables us to now perform experiments on human heart tissue in the lab, said James Hudson from the UQ School of Biomedical Sciences. This provides scientists with viable, functioning human heart muscle to work on, to model disease, screen new drugs and investigate heart repair, said Hudson.

In the laboratory we used dry ice to kill part of the tissue while leaving the surrounding muscle healthy and viable, Hudson said. We found those tissues fully recovered because they were immature and the cells could regenerate in contrast to what happens normally in the adult heart where you get a dead patch. Our goal is to use this model to potentially find new therapeutic targets to enhance or induce cardiac regeneration in people with heart failure, he said.

Studying regeneration of these damaged, immature cells will enable us to figure out the biochemical events behind this process. Hopefully we can determine how to replicate this process in adult hearts for cardiovascular patients, said Hudson.

Each year, about 54,000 Australians suffer a heart attack, with an average of about 23 deaths every day, researchers said. Heart Foundation Queensland CEO Stephen Vines said the charity was excited to fund such an important research project.

Heart attack survivors who have had permanent damage to their heart tissue are essentially trying to live on half an engine, Vines said. The research will help unlock the key to regenerating damaged heart tissue, which will have a huge impact on the quality of life for heart attack survivors, he added.

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Human heart muscle made from stem cells - Free Press Journal

Stem cells are the foundation of all our body cells before they differentiate to become specialised cells that grow into our tissues and organs, such as kidney cells, muscle cells, nerve cells, and so on.

They commonly come from two sources: The embryo (embryonic stem cells formed in early development after the human egg is fertilised by a sperm); and adult tissue (adult stem cells, such as those existing in bone marrow to later differentiate to form red blood cells, white blood cells and other components of the blood).

The use of human embryonic stems cells for treatment or research is often frowned upon by some people, as they regard the human embryo as a person that should not be discarded after such endeavours. Consequently, much scientific work has recently been focused on the use of adult stem cells.

THE USE OF STEM CELLS

Stem cells may be beneficial in treating diseases that are amenable to cell replacement. However, this is still a young science, and belief that a particular treatment helps two or three people does not convince the scientific community or the whole society that the treatment will work for everyone so afflicted.

Scientific proof comes from conducting clinical trials, the international gold standard often involving hundreds of people so afflicted and comparing them with an equivalent number of people not afflicted to determine whether a treatment really works for those who receive it.

Whilst many stem cell research projects are currently being conducted in various centres around the world to determine whether they produce benefits, and what may be the possible risks involved, there are also medical clinics that are using stem cells not in a registered research project, but rather in the actual treatment of affected people.

TREATMENT CAN CAUSE HARM

A recent report in the highly respected New England Journal of Medicine informed that three elderly women in Florida had been blinded by an unproven treatment.

They had signed up for a purported clinical trial in 2015 for which they had to pay US$5,000 each. Before surgery, the vision in their eyes varied from 20/30 to 20/200, but within one week after surgery, they experienced a variety of complications, including vision loss, detached retinas and bleeding into their eyes, resulting in total blindness.

The authors of the article from the Standard University School of Medicine sought to make patients, doctors and the various regulatory agencies aware of the risks of such a minimally regulated, patient-funded research. It stated that some clinics appeal to patients that are desperate for care and who hope that stem cells will be their answer, but as in the case of these women, some of these current enterprises are very dangerous.

At this particular clinic, fat cells were taken from the patients abdomens and processed to obtain stem cells which were then injected into their eyes. The patients reported that the entire process took less than one hour. The patients had both eyes treated at once, even though most doctors would opt for a conservative approach to observe how the first eye responds.

THE NEED FOR THE REGULATION OF RESEARCH

The article stated that while there is a lot of well-founded evidence for the positive potential of stem cell treatment for many human diseases, such treatments should be conducted in a well-designed clinical trial based on pre-clinical research.

The treatment done for the women lacked nearly all the components of a properly designed clinical trial, including a hypothesis based on laboratory experiments, the involvement of a control group of people and a treatment group, the safe collection of data, the masking of clinical and patient groups, and plans for follow-up.

Clinics offering stem cell treatments exist in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Cuba. However, while both The Bahamas and Cuba have developed regulations that stipulate in law the conditions to be met for stem cell treatments and research within their jurisdictions, Jamaica has developed no such regulation.

THE MEDICAL ACT DOES NOT PROVIDE PROTECTION

The Medical Act of Jamaica was passed in 1976, but does not mention or provide any guidance or protection regarding research with human participants.

Its focus was to: Register medical practitioners; appoint examiners to conduct exams for people applying for registration, and ensure the maintenance of proper professional conduct by practitioners.An amendment in 2004 added the requirement of continuing medical education for practitioners.

Guyana and St Lucia are the only countries in the Caribbean that have joined the progressive countries who all have legislation governing research with human participants within their borders. Regulations should stipulate the requisite conditions, including that treatment and research be monitored by an appropriate ethics committee to meet all international standards.

Without this, vulnerable people seeking health benefits will unknowingly continue to subject themselves to risks of harm without the protection that proper regulations can provide.

Derrick Aarons MD, PhD is a consultant bioethicist/family physician, a specialist in ethical issues in medicine, the life sciences and research, and is the Ethicist at the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). (The views expressed here are not written on behalf of CARPHA)

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Stem cell treatments can go wrong - Jamaica Observer