Archive for April, 2017

Mumbai, Apr 4 (PTI) Three Bangladeshi patients, suffering from an incurable muscular dystrophy, today underwent first stem cell therapy at a Navi Mumbai based treatment centre.

"We applied a simple therapy to the patients. We took out the stem cells from their bone marrow in the hip bone and after the required processing we injected it back into their body.

"We will wait for the results as to how they respond to such treatment. Meanwhile, physiotherapy and occupational therapy is being offered to them as well," Avantika Patil, coordinator between the patients and the treating centre told PTI.

Patil, is part of the team of NeuroGen, a brain and spine institute that keeps the track of its patients.

"We learnt about the patients through an article in an international newspaper and decided to contact them as we specialise in treating such diseases.

"I am also in contact with one Noor Khan from Bangladesh, an activist who helped the three patients to furnish documents and visa procedures," she said.

A Mumbai-based organisation specialising in such diseases, Meditourz, in collaboration with NeuroGen based in Navi Mumbai, offered to provide treatment to them.

The trio have been suffering from a rare disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy since their birth. This is a genetic disorder which causes progressive muscle degeneration and patients rarely live beyond 30 years of age, Patil said.

Among the three, Shorab (8 year old) is having a mild disorder and early medical intervention will definitely help in terms of less painful life. Compared to him, the disease is progressive in other two patients, she said.

Tofazzal Hossain, a fruit vendor from rural Meherpur in Bangladesh, had sought mercy killing for his sons - Abdus (24) and Rahinul (14) - and grandson Shorab from his government as he could not afford the cost of their treatment.

The Navi Mumbai based centre approached the three patients through Indian government and expressed willingness to provide treatment to the disease.

Air India also offered free round trip tickets to the six persons -- three patients and three caretakers accompanying them to Mumbai from Kolkata following an appeal from Alok Sharma, neurosurgeon at the NeuroGen.

"The three patients and the three persons accompanying them took this evenings Air India flight from Kolkata to Mumbai and will also return by an Air India flight after treatment - entirely free of any charges," Air India said in a statement. PTI ND RMT

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Three Bangladeshi patients undergo stem cell therapy in Mumbai - India Today

Last week, a patient with blurry vision in his right eye walked into a doctors office and became the first person to receive reprogrammed stem cells from a donor to treat his age-related macular degeneration.

The patient a Japanese man in his 60s is not alone, as four other patients have been approved for the procedure by Japan's health ministry. The first medical case was reported on March 28 by Nature.

In a one-hour operation by surgeon Yasuo Kurimoto, the patient received skin cells from a human donor at Kobe City Medical Center General Hospital. The donors skin cells were reverse engineered into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. These cells are often seen as a game-changer in the world of regenerative medicine as they have the ability to become almost any type of cell in the body.

In this case, the iPS cells were turned into retinal cells, which were then implanted into the retina of the patient, who has age-related macular degeneration. It is hoped the procedure will stop the progression of the disease, which can lead to blindness. The transplantis not being touted as a cure for the condition, merely a prevention methodfrom further damage.

During the procedure, the surgical team injected 50 microliters of liquid containing 250,000 retinal cells into the patients eye, according to the Japan Times. The real test, however, will be the next phase of monitoring.

What sets this transplant apart is also what makes the recovery process precarious. Doctors will need to keep a careful watch on the patient, as iPS cells from a donor are not a genetic match and could cause an immune rejection.

At this point, you might remember a similar case in 2014 with a Japanese woman at the same hospital. She also received retinal cells derived from iPS cells, however hers were taken from her own skin, not a donor's.

"A key challenge in this case is to control rejection," said Riken researcher Masayo Takahashi to the Japan Times. "We need to carefully continue treatment."

In an update, the team said the Japanese woman was doing well and her vision had not declined. They decided to change track and use donor cells for this study because it holds a more viable future for such transplants.

It's hoped, if all goes well here, that researchers can create a bank of donor stem cells. Such a future would cut down on costs and reduce wait times, as cultivating ones own cells can take several months. However, there's stillmuch to be done.

After the procedure, Takahashi told a press conference that the surgery went well. They will continue to monitor the situation and provide further updates in the future.

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Man Receives Reprogrammed" Stem Cells From Donor In Medical First - IFLScience

Science Daily

Mini brains from the petri dish Science Daily The researchers produced induced pluripotent stem cells from skin cells from Miller-Dieker patients, from which they then grew brain organoids. In organoids, the brain cells organize themselves -- very similar to the process in the brain of an embryo ... and more »

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Mini brains from the petri dish - Science Daily

Middle-aged and older men (50 years), especially those who are obese and suffer from comorbidities, not uncommonly present with clinical features consistent with androgen deficiency and modestly reduced testosterone levels. Commonly, such men do not demonstrate anatomical hypothalamic-pituitary-testicular axis pathology but have functional hypogonadism that is potentially reversible.

Literature review from 1970 to October 2016.

Although definitive randomized controlled trials are lacking, evidence suggests that in such men, lifestyle measures to achieve weight loss and optimization of comorbidities, including discontinuation of offending medications, lead to clinical improvement and a modest increase in testosterone. Also, androgen deficiency-like symptoms and end-organ deficits respond to targeted treatments (such as phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitors for erectile dysfunction) without evidence that hypogonadal men are refractory. Unfortunately, lifestyle interventions remain difficult and may be insufficient even if successful. Testosterone therapy should be considered primarily for men who have significant clinical features of androgen deficiency and unequivocally low testosterone levels. Testosterone should be initiated either concomitantly with a trial of lifestyle measures, or after such a trial fails, after a tailored diagnostic work-up, exclusion of contraindications, and appropriate counseling.

There is modest evidence that functional hypogonadism responds to lifestyle measures and optimization of comorbidities. If achievable, these interventions may have demonstrable health benefits beyond the potential for increasing testosterone levels. Therefore, treatment of underlying causes of functional hypogonadism and of symptoms should be used either as an initial or adjunctive approach to testosterone therapy.

The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism. 2017 Mar 01 [Epub]

Mathis Grossmann, Alvin M Matsumoto

Department of Medicine, Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Victoria 3081, Australia., Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, Washington 98195; and.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28359097

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A Perspective on Middle-Aged and Older Men With Functional Hypogonadism: Focus on Holistic Management. - UroToday

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain

Fort Collins, Colorado (PRWEB) April 03, 2017

Retired orthopedic spine surgeon, Kenneth Pettine, M.D. is excited to release the three year results of his bone marrow stem cell treatment study. Dr. Pettine has been a pioneer in the use of bone marrow concentrate stem cell injections. He was the first surgeon to inject biologics into the human spine as part of an FDA Study in the U.S. almost seven years ago. He has the only U.S. Patent on the method of treating orthopedic and spine pathology with a patient's own stem cells.

This study provides the first long term evidence of the safety and feasibility of utilizing a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to treat severe low back pain, said Dr. Pettine. Thats terrific news for patients who up until now only had the option of undergoing expensive and invasive back fusion or artificial disc surgery.

Degenerative disc disease is a common back pain diagnosis in the United States and affects millions of patients. The symptoms of the condition can become so painful that patients may be forced to miss work and are prevented from participating in regular daily activities. Treatment is often limited to palliative care such as chiropractic, physical therapy, narcotics, injections or invasive surgical procedures to try to decrease the daily chronic low back pain. Numerous studies have shown surgery improves back pain in the average patient only 40%. Stem Cell therapy improved the average patient 70% with long term follow up.

Dr. Pettines treatment uses a patient's own bone marrow concentrate stem cells to help reduce inflammation in the spine and stimulate the creation of new tissue in the spinal disc to help reverse the effects of the disease. The office procedure is performed with I.V. sedation and usually takes 45 minutes. The study noted that patients who received higher concentrations of stem cells in their injections saw a greater improvement in their back pain.. This three year follow-up research study shows utilizing a patient's own stem cells can provide long-term back pain relief and prevented the need for invasive surgery in 77% of the patients.

If you live in the Northern Colorado area and are experiencing neck or back pain due to degenerative disc disease, you can learn more about Dr. Pettines treatment and research by visiting his website at http://www.KennethPettine.com.

About Dr. Kenneth Pettine Dr. Pettine has been the principal investigator of 18 FDA studies about stem cells and their uses and is considered a pioneer in the field. He founded The Rocky Mountain Associates in Orthopedic Medicine in 1991 to offer patients a non-fusion surgical option for their neck and back pain. He co-invented the FDA-approved Prestige cervical artificial disc and the Maverick Artificial Disc. He is currently focused on the use of Mesenchymal stem cell therapy for patients desiring to avoid orthopedic or spine surgery. You can learn more about the therapy and Dr. Pettine at his website, http://www.KennethPettine.com.

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Northern Colorado Surgeon Releases Three Year Results of Bone Marrow Stem Cell Treatment - PR Web (press release)

A new method of producing red blood cells outside the body on a large scale has been developed by researchers at the University of Bristol.

'We have demonstrated a feasible way to sustainably manufacture red cells for clinical use We've grown litres of it,' saidDr Jan Frayne, one of the authors of the research which waspublished in Nature Communications.

Previously the most effective technique involved taking stem cells from bone marrow, which makes blood cells in the body,and inducing them to do the same in lab conditions. This was of limited practical success because each stem cell will only make about 50,000 blood cells before dying by comparison, a few drops of blood can contain around one billion red cells.

Working with NHS Blood and Transplant, the Bristol team overcame this limitation by engineering the stem cells to make them 'immortal', using DNA. from the human papilloma virus (HPV) which causes cervical cancer. Red blood cells cannot continue to divide in the bloodstream, and as they mature they shed their nuclei and with it the virus DNA. Thus the adult cells that might in the future be given to patients, if the technique is applied in clinical trials, would not contain the any of the HPV genetic material.

'It's a brilliant approach, and they seemed to have solved several of the really important bottlenecks,' said Dr Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, who was not involved in the project.

The lab-grown blood is likely to be much more expensive than donated blood, but there may be a number of potential applications. Lab-grown blood could be used for patients with rare blood types for whom a match is difficult to find. It could also be useful in military or disaster situations where there is no time for blood typing people who are critically injured. Interest has also been expressed by researchers of malaria and other blood-borne diseases.

The first studies to assess the safety of manufactured blood are due to begin at the end of this year, although the first trial will not test this new type of blood cell. Even if safety is established, for the time being there is not currently enough capacity to produce it and industrialising the process could be costly.

'To make big huge vats of it would be outside of our ability in a research lab,' said Dr Frayne. 'We'd have to have company interest.'

Excerpt from:
Stem cells could be used to create 'endless supply of blood' - BioNews

In what's reported to be a world-first, last Tuesday, a Japanese man received a pioneering retinal cell transplant grown from donor stem cells instead of his own.

Doctors took skin cells from a donor bank and reprogrammed them into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which can be coaxed to grow into most cell types in the body.

For this procedure, the physicians grew the iPS cells into atype of retinal cell, and then injected them into the retina of the patient's right eye.

The test subject was a man in his 60s who has been living with age-related macular degeneration-a currently incurable eye disease that slowly leads to loss of vision.

If this news sounds somewhat familiar, it's because the same team of Japanese doctors successfully performed a similar transplant in 2014. But in that case, the iPS cells came from the patient's own skin, not from a donor.

The 2014 treatment involved culturing a patient's cells into a thin sheet of retinal pigment epithelium cells, which they transplanted directly under her retina.

One year later, their results showed that the patient's disease had not progressedas it would have without any treatment, and she continues to do well.

But a second case study after the 2014 success never went ahead - the researchers found genetic abnormalities in the iPS cells they had derived from an additional patient's skin. To avoid complications, the doctors fromRIKENand Kobe City Medical Centre General Hospital decided to halt the trial and refine their approach.

Now they are back with a potentially safer technique that uses cells from a donor bank. The patient who received the transplant last week is the first of five approved for a study by Japan's health ministry in February this year. It's important to note that so far this is a safety study - a precursor to a clinical trial.

As team leader Masayo Takahashi from RIKEN told a press conference, we will have to wait and see for several years until we know for sure whether last week's transplant was a complete success - which is the whole point of doing a safety study like this.

"A key challenge in this case is to control rejection. We need to carefully continue treatment," she said.

The patient will be closely observed for a year, and then receive check-ups for three more years. The main things for the team to look out for are rejection of the new retinal cells, and the development of potential abnormalities.

An editorial in Nature praises the team's cautious approach, emphasising that this work with iPS cells could pave a smoother path for other trials in the emerging field of stem cell medicine.

If donor cells turn out to be a viable option in iPS cell procedures, it would be huge for creating more affordable stem cell treatments that anyone can benefit from.

Instead of having to induce stem cells out of each individual patient's samples, doctors could go down the cheaper and quicker route of simply picking a suitable match from a donor bank.

Stem cell treatments such as this new procedure are an extremely promising avenue in medicine, but scientists are right to remain cautious and proceed slowly. Just last month a devastating case report broke the news that three women lost their eyesight by participating in a dodgy stem cell trial.

On the other hand, in 2015, an experimental stem cell treatment showed promise in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, and just last year, stem cell injections were used to help stroke patients in recovery.

With all these exciting developments, we'll definitely be keeping an eye on further reports from the Japanese team.

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A Japanese man just got another person's stem cells transplanted in his eye - ScienceAlert

Dear AGCTS Membership & Associates,

At our 2014 Annual General Meeting, we unanimously voted for a name change to the Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society (AGCTS) to reflect the broader interests of our society members in cell biology, particularly the use of stem cells in delivering gene medicines. The name change of our Society was finalised in 2015, announced to our membership and associates via email. You are now looking at our new website http://www.agcts.org.au.

At that meeting, the Executive Committee heard the membership loud and clear. Stronger links must be forged with cell therapy and stem cell research community. To achieve this goal we have partnered with the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR) to deliver what is shaping up to be an inspiring and exciting Scientific Program with an incredible line-up of international research leaders and clinicians 24th 26th May 2017, UTS Aeriel Function Centre, Sydney.

I would like to acknowledge the already enormous contribution of the Joint 10th AGCTS and ASSCR Conference Organising Committee who have volunteered their time to make this meeting a success. Id like to individually thank our AGCTS VP Jim Vadolas, Treasurer Ann Simpson, Secretary Samantha Ginn, Exec Members Paul Gregorevic, Sharon Cunningham, Marguerite Evans-Galea, Ex-officio member Steve Wilton and ASSCR President Melissa Little, past-President Michael OConnor, VP Ed Stanley, Treasurer Robyn Meech, Secretary Michael Morris, Exec Members Michael Doran, Margret Schuller, Helen Abud, Trish Barker.

I am very proud to be leading a dedicated society which has continued to provide advocacy for Australian research in the development of molecular medicines, cell and gene therapies. Our membership works tirelessly to reduce the impact of some of Australias largest health problems and improve the well being of those diagnosed with acquired or genetic disease. Focus areas of our membership are broad and include cancer, viral infection (HIV, Hepatitis B & C), autoimmunity, immunodeficiency, diabetes, metabolic disease, blood, eye, ear and muscle disorders.

Although there have been considerable funding challenges of late, momentum is clearly building thanks to the enormous commitment and perseverance and of our researchers, clinicians, industry leaders and regulators. The AGCTS Executive Committee and I feel privileged to represent you and our sector in this very exciting journey and witness first-hand the translation of our field into the clinic which will be featured at our next meeting.

I look forward to welcoming you to our Joint 10th AGCTS and ASSCR Scientific Meeting in Sydney, 24th 26th May 2017.

Kind regards,

Rosetta Martiniello-Wilks PhD

President, Australasian Gene and Cell Therapy Society http://www.agcts.org.au

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Australasian Gene Cell Therapy Society AU

As it continues its sales push for the controversial Duchenne med Exondys 51 (eteplirsen), Sarepta has taken on a new chief medical officer to help it develop its next-gen DMD pipeline.

The biotech announcedthis morning that Catherine Stehman-Breen, M.D., M.S., has become its new CMO after her two-year stint as VP of clinical development and regulatory affairs at Regeneron, and coming after a 12-year tenure at Amgen, where she led the neuroscience, nephrology and bone therapeutic areas.

She will take the role away from Ed Kaye, M.D., the companys CEO, who had also been holding the dual position of chief medical officer since 2011.

I deeply admire Sareptas profound commitment to improving the lives of boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and the exciting and innovative PMO and PPMO platform that is being harnessed to achieve this goal, said Stehman-Breen.I am excited to join the company at a time when it is rapidly building and look forward to working closely with the internal team and external collaborators as we seek to develop and commercialize novel therapies that address this significant unmet medical need.

We are thrilled to have Dr. Stehman-Breen join Sarepta and our mission to develop treatments for boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy, added Kaye. Her extensive experience in global development, clinical operations and research across multiple therapeutic areas, at leading biopharmaceutical companies, positions her well to lead our medical teams and rapidly advance our RNA-targeted platforms and gene therapy programs.

Its current FDA-approved DMD med, which got the nod last fall despite having limited data and a negative AdComm, can only treat certain patients, namely those with the mutation of the dystrophin gene amenable to exon 51 skipping, which affects about 13% of the population with DMD.

Its pipeline is now trying to treat more boys with the genetic condition that will usually prove fatal in early adulthood, and includes research deals with Nationwide Childrens Hospital to work on their microdystrophin gene therapy program, as well as another form of gene therapy.

An initial phase 1/2a trial for the microdystrophin gene therapy is slated to begin at the end of the year and will be done at Nationwide Childrens.

It has also penned an exclusive license agreement with Nationwide for their Galgt2 gene therapy program. This early-stage program aims to research a potential surrogate gene therapy approach to DMD, whereby the gene therapy looks to induce genes that make proteins that can perform a similar function as dystrophin.

The goal here will be to produce a muscle cell that can function normally even when dystrophin is absent.

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Sarepta nabs Regeneron exec Stehman-Breen as new CMO - FierceBiotech

Being happier, more optimistic is indeed good for your health Idaho Statesman A Mayo Clinic study found that people who have high anxiety have a moderately increased risk of developing Parkinson's disease decades later so do pessimists. Why does attitude affect your health? Chronic pessimism dings the immune system and ...

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Being happier, more optimistic is indeed good for your health - Idaho Statesman

If your daughter, aged between 12 and 13, has been complaining of irregular periods, facial hair growth and weight gain, dont ignore the signs, instead be alert. These are the symptoms of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a lifestyle-related disease that spikes speedily among women. Over the years, young girls also are falling prey to this disease and its a worrisome trend.

A study conducted by Metropolis Healthcare Ltd, a multinational chain of pathology laboratories, reveals shocking facts about PCOS. It states one in five women suffers from PCOS problem. East India leads the chart with one in four compared to North India, where it is one in five. In this study, 27,411 samples of testosterone were collected from women between 15 and 30 years of age for 18 months.

It showed that 4,824 (17.60 per cent) women face hormone-associated risk with polycystic ovarian syndrome. East India showed alarming levels of 25.88 per cent women affected, followed by 18.62 per cent in North India. The increasing trend is predominant in women between 15 and 30 years. Earlier, the trend was seen

in women between 28 and 35 years but now girls between 15 and 24 years are falling prey to PCOS. College students with problems of obesity, late periods, puberty acnes and stomach wrinkles come to my clinic with the issue, Dr Asha Sharma, a senior consultant at Apollo Cradle, Delhi, says, adding that even girls between 12 and 13 years are coming with the problems.

Imbalance of hormones in the body hampers the functioning of ovaries. Instead of producing one egg a month, ovaries start producing multiple immature eggs, which can be called cyst. And because of this, ovulation does not occur regularly, says Dr Manika Khanna, Director of Gaudium IVF, Delhi.

A drastic change in our lifestyle contributes most to PCOS cases. Children take a lot of beverages these days, which increases sugar levels and cause hormonal imbalance in the body, says Dr Sharma. Insulin moves glucose from the blood to cells to use as energy. When cells dont respond normally to insulin, the level of sugar and insulin in the blood rises. Too much insulin increases the production of androgens that cause imbalance.

Consumption of refined carbs in the form of fast and processed food also worsens the problem. Fast food and sedentary lifestyle disturb metabolism causing hormonal imbalance among girls. Studies have revealed that sometimes PCOS causes chemical changes in the mothers womb. Also, if a mother has PCOS, there is a 50 per cent chance that the daughter will also have it. A combination of genetic and environmental factors causes PCOS.

If the initial signs are ignored or not diagnosed in time, it can cause Type II diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and high blood pressure. PCOS in older women could even lead to cancer of the uterus. Dr Abha Majumdar of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi, says, Undiagnosed PCOS can lead to infertility and multiple abortion problems. Around 30 to 35 per cent women come to our clinic for IVF treatment. Dr Khanna adds that most infertility cases related to PCOS are from the northern states.

PCOS cannot be diagnosed with just one test. Vaginal ultrasound, blood sugar and insulin test along with some hormonal blood test are carried out to ascertain PCOS. If three tests give positive results, only then we start treating a patient for PCOS, says Dr Majumdar.

With the help of early symptoms, doctors can treat PCOS patients with medication and changes in lifestyle. Good food habits and regular exercise can keep PCOS at bay.

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Hormones harm as life loses its style - The New Indian Express

Kandace Cahill, founder and director of Well Woman Acupuncture, in her Boulder office on Tuesday. (Paul Aiken / Staff Photographer)

Boulder-based Well Woman Acupuncture is a woman-owned health clinic specifically designed to treat women using a combination of western and Chinese medicine.

Founded in 2006, Well Woman just expanded to Longmont with a clinic at 738 Coffman St.

"We've been doing so well here (in Boulder) and it was a need that needed to be filled," said owner Kandace Cahill.

We sat down with Cahill to learn more about her practice:

Why did you start an acupuncture practice?

I've always been interested in health and healing, I was very drawn to OB/GYN (health and management of pregnancy), and I became interested in alternative healing and acupuncture. For me, it was the best of both worlds coming together.

So I'm guessing you're not afraid of needles?

No, and for those who are, I'd say just give it a try, it should be painless. We try and create an oasis, because where you come for the acupuncture, the environment is part of the healing. What I always tell new patients is if you're able to relax to the point of falling asleep, that's great.

Is there something specific about women's health that responds well to acupuncture?

Absolutely. When it comes to women's health, it's a very complex field with lots of aspects to consider. It's really the kind of work where integrating western and Chinese medicine is imperative.

Chinese medicine as a standalone is absolutely wonderful, but when it comes to women's health, western medicine is really valuable. Integrating the two worlds so we give comprehensive care is really important.

We treat everything from menarche to menopause painful periods and acne, hormone imbalances, insomnia, stress, anxiety, depression, headaches, allergies, digestion. Fertility is large part of what we do. We work closely with doctors to provide the best support for women.

What are you most proud of in your career?

The thing I'm most proud of is that, even though we've grown to be quite big over time, we still have a big commitment to our clients we want them to have a great experience. Having our patients feel really valued and honored along the way means a lot to me... the importance placed on the people.

What's your ultimate vision for Well Woman?

My vision is that we would be the go-to place in Boulder County for anything related to women's health. I want everyone to know that there are more options. People say to me all the time, 'Oh, I didn't know Chinese medicine could treat that!'

Acupuncture treats anything. I sometimes have this fantasy of riding around Boulder with a bullhorn yelling, 'People of Boulder! Have you thought about acupuncture?'

Bethany Alvarez, For the Camera

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Seeing a need to be filled, Well Woman Acupuncture expands into Longmont - Boulder Daily Camera

In Brief Studies are being done on the value of replacing older blood with younger blood via transfusions. Other researchers are studying the effects of a certain protein, osteopontin, on blood cell production. 1000 Ways To Live Forever

Society is gradually changing its classification of aging as a natural phenomenon to a disease. We have made strides in our research on preventing and potentially reversing the effects of aging.In addition to the ongoing research in molecular biology ontelomeres, there is the interesting idea of utilizing young blood to combat aging. Ironically, the legends of Dracula might be vindicated in light of new research involving young blood to rehabilitate cognitive abilities in mice, which has inspiredclinical trials that may give patients a chance at beating the Grim Reaper.

Ambrosia, a company inspired by the work done by Stanford University neuroscientistTony Wyss-Coray with parabiosis in mice, charges $8,000 per patient for its human clinical trial ofparabiosis. Although there may be 600 people whotake part in the study transfusing 1.5 liters of plasma with donors between the ages of 16 and 25, thestudy is being done without the blessing of Wyss. He believes that the study does not genuinely represent the science and that, theres just no clinical evidence, and youre basically abusing peoples trust and the public excitement around this.

While Ambrosia is operatingwithout clinical evidence to support the trials, the science behind utilizing young blood in repairing and restoring aged cellular processes is worth taking a look at.

Red and white blood cells are produced from stem cellswithin bone marrow, and as we grow older, our bodys ability to replenish the number of red and white blood cells greatly depletes. Similar to the mouse trials ran by Wyss-Coray, researcherHartmut Geigerand his team at the University of Ulm in Germany looked at the bone marrow in mice at varying ages and determined that older rodents produce very low levels of the protein osteopontin.

Rather than looking at blood transfusions for apossible solution like Wyss-Corays team, Geigers team looked the potential of stem cells to test the importance of the deficient protein.The team introduced fresh stem cells into mice that had little to no osteopontin and noticed that the stem cells aged very quickly. When older stem cells were introduced to a dish with osteopontin and anactivator protein, the stem cells began to propagate blood cells.

While companies like Ambrosia are testing blood transfusions on humans to mimic an experiment that utilized a shared circulatory system between an older mouse and a younger mouse, Geigers team notes that long-term studies must be done on their work to verify the effect of osteopontin on rejuvenating cells completely.

The team is developing a drug with the protein and its activating factor, but they do not promise a fountain of youth. They do believe that there would be benefits for the immune systems of the elderly, which may be better positioned to fight diseases that are linked with cardiovascular agingafter takingthe drug.

While all this talk about immortality is exciting, it might be a while before we can actually reap the benefits of researchers studiesin the way we hope. In the meantime, we can keep dreaming away death.

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If Young Blood Can Combat Aging, It May Be Thanks to Just One Protein - Futurism

A benefit dinner will be held April 1 in honour of seven-month-old Madalayna Ducharme. The Warrior Princess fundraiser starts Saturday at 5 p.m. at the Parkwood Gospel Temple. All proceeds will support the family's ongoing expenses related to her medical treatment.

Madalayna suffers from malignant infantile osteoporosis, a rare genetic disorder of bone development in which the bones become thickened and unhealthy. It leads to bone fractures, short stature, poor bone growth and a thicker skull which may delay development of teeth. Left untreated, it could be fatal.

Early this year, her family started a Facebook campaign that went viral asking for people to sign up to become stem cell or bone marrow donors. Thanks to the number of people who volunteered to be tested, a match was found and Madalayna underwent a bone marrow transplant earlier this month.

The recovery is expected to be lengthy as the transplant process is grueling on an infants body. Its expected that she will need to stay in a Toronto hospital for three months while she undergoes treatment.

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Benefit dinner will help family of baby girl recovering from bone marrow transplant - CTV News

Transhumanists think that bodies are obsolete technology

Yves Gellie/picturetank

By Brendan Byrne

THERE was a lot of futuristic hype surrounding cryonics company Alcor. When Dublin-based journalist Mark OConnell travelled to its facility in Arizona, he found himself surrounded by corpses in an office park, between a tile showroom and a place called Big Ds Covering Supplies.

In his book To Be a Machine, new father OConnell invokes the twin spectres of death and child-bearing in an attempt to make sense of his subject but he also manages to be staggeringly funny. He explores the intersecting practices of body modification, cryonics, machine learning, whole brain emulation and AI disaster-forecasting.

The transhumanist world view, OConnell writes, casts our minds and bodies as obsolete technologies, outmoded formats in need of complete overhaul. He worries more about the collateral damage such a future will inflict, less on the world views of the supposed visionaries who supply the ideas. Not that the two can be separated.

Throughout the text, it is difficult to ignore Peter Thiel, a Silicon Valley billionaire and an adviser to Donald Trump. While Thiel, who takes human growth hormone daily and has signed up for cryonic freezing, is not featured directly, the longevity start-ups he funded are, including Halcyon Molecular, 3Scan, MIRI, the Longevity Fund and Aubrey de Greys Methuselah Foundation.

Another pervasive presence is Nick Bostrom, an Oxford University philosopher. But while Thiel wants to extend life, Bostrom is worried about its eradication. He is best known for his 2014 book Superintelligence, which brought thought experiments about AI security to public notice. OConnell finds it disquieting to see the likes of Elon Musk and Bill Gates effusing about this book. These dire warnings about AI were coming from what seemed like the most unlikely of sources: not from Luddites or religious catastrophists, that is, but from the very people who seemed to most personify our cultures reverence for machines.

The race to achieve AI first will be tight, pushing corporations to disregard security

Musk and Thiels recent OpenAI project attempts to address such existential threats by freely disseminating its research. This is meant to encourage the rise ofmultiple AIs, whose balance of power will keep any non-benign ones off-balance. While Bostrom agrees that this plan will decrease the threat from a world-eating singleton, he worries that winning the AI race is incompatible with using any safety method that incurs a delay or limits performance. If basic information is made public, the race to achieve AI first will be tight, pushing corporations to disregard security.

Given Musks public admission that he is trying to move Trump to the left, rumours that Mark Zuckerberg is considering a presidential run and the fact that many users are deleting the Uber app after the company broke the taxi strike at JFK Airport, Silicon Valley can no longer claim to be apolitical. And there seems to be something about transhumanism that draws out reactionaries. As OConnell observes, in one sense the whole ethos of transhumanism is such a radical extrapolation of the classically American belief in self-betterment that it obliterates the idea of the self entirely. Its liberal humanism forced to the coldest outer limits of its own paradoxical implications.

Thiel is strangely for a former libertarian a planner. In his 2014 book Zero to One, Thiel writes of the dot-com bubble as both a peak of insanity and a peak of clarity: People looked into the future, saw how much valuable new technology we would need to get there safely and judged themselves capable of creating it. Depicting how private enterprise failed to bridge the gap between aspiration and realisation, Thiel seems here to be arguing for total mobilisation of the state.

Thiel favours taking huge risks to achieve miraculous results. He champions the government-funded space race and rails against incrementalisation in scientific and civilizational achievements. At the time of writing, Jim ONeill, the managing director of Thiels Mithril Capital, is one of Trumps main candidates to head the Food and Drug Administration. ONeill thinks that drugs should be approved not by safety but by efficacy. Thiel himself has criticised the FDA for being overly cautious, stating five years ago, I dont even know if you could get the polio vaccine approved today a sentiment shared by the president.

If the low-safety moonshot approach favoured by Thiel and the futurist frat houses OConnell describes is applied on a national level, and longevity research funded by a Silicon Valley billionaire does pay huge dividends, a new question emerges: immortality for whom?

Thiel is notoriously anti-competition, writing in Zero to One that only becoming a monopoly can allow a business to transcend the daily brute struggle for survival, since competitive markets destroy profits. A monopoly price for life extension suggests a future in which we will all be in monetary debt to mortality, working forever to pay off our incoming years.

During a recent public lecture, genomics pioneer Craig Venter discussed his new company that aims to use genetic sequencing to provide proactive, preventative, predictive, personalised healthcare. According to Venter, 40 per cent of people who think they are healthy are not they have undiagnosed ailments such as tumours that have not metastasised or cardiovascular conditions. And he says his method can predict Alzheimers 20 years before its onset, and a cocktail of soon-to-be-marketed drugs can prevent it. Thanks to this $25,000 genome-physical, Venter himself was diagnosed with prostate cancer and operated on.

Can any imaginable public healthcare provision pay for such speculative treatments? Or will there be a widening gap between those who can afford to stay healthy and those who will have to shoulder early-onset penury in the face of their time-limited humanity?

In response to questions about such inequality, Thiel offers little comfort. Probably the most extreme form of inequality, he told The New Yorker six years ago, is between people who are alive and people who are dead.

Jonathan Swifts satirical letter A modest proposal responded to an equally cold-blooded ideology, in his day. But a field whose pioneers sport names like T. O. Morrow (Tom Bells 1990s soubriquet), FM-2030 and Max More demands something different from OConnell an unexpected, often funny effort of restraint.

This article appeared in print under the headline In debt to mortality

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Exploring the hidden politics of the quest to live forever - New Scientist