Archive for December, 2019

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Obamacare wasn't just about coverage. The health law created the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, fueling the move to value-based care, or paying doctors and hospitals for making patients healthy, rather than for each visit or surgery. While many of center's experiments focus on the Medicare health program for the elderly, private insurers are taking similar approaches across the US.

Andy Slavitt, the acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator from 2015 to 2017, said the health law's creation of the innovation center, together with the private experimentation, was creating rapid changes in US healthcare.

"In effect, you're saying to the healthcare system, instead of thinking about how to make revenue, we're going to give you a fixed revenue amount, and you think about the things you can control for," Slavitt said. Slavitt is now a founder of the healthcare research group United States of Care and a general partner at the venture-capital firm Town Hall Ventures.

And while Obamacare helped fuel the move to value, the Trump administration has continued to push the healthcare system in the same direction.

"There's been bipartisan support and, and I would say, work throughout the entire system around value-based care," said Seema Verma, the current Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator. "There's a lot of hope around and consensus around value-based care."

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Biggest healthcare and biotech developments of the decade - Business Insider Nordic

In a recent study published by Prophecy Market Insights, titled, Global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease Market Research Report, analysts offers an in-depth analysis of global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market. The study analyses the various aspect of the market by studying its historic and forecast data. The research report provides Porters five force model, SWOT analysis, and PESTEL analysis of the Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market. The different areas covered in the report are Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market size, drivers and restrains, segment analysis, geographic outlook, major manufacturers in the market, and competitive landscape.

Key Players of Gene Therapy for Rare Disease Market:

Kite Pharma, Inc. (Gilead Sciences, Inc.), Novartis International AG, Juno Therapeutics Inc. (Celgene Corporation), Bluebird Bio, Inc., Spark Therapeutics, Inc., UniQure N.V, Orchard Therapeutics Plc., PTC Therapeutics, Inc., and Biomarin Pharmaceutical Inc.

Download Sample Copy of This Report @ https://prophecymarketinsights.com/market_insight/Insight/request-sample/397

The research report, Gene Therapy for Rare Disease Market presents an unbiased approach at understanding the market trends and dynamics. Analysts have studied the historical data pertaining to the market and compared it to the current market trends to paint an object picture of the markets trajectory. The report includes SWOT analysis and Porters five forces analysis to give the readers an in-depth assessment of the various factors likely to drive and restrain the overall market.

Market Segmentation:

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Table of Contents

Market Overview: The report begins with this section where product overview and highlights of product and application segments of the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market are provided. Highlights of the segmentation study include price, revenue, sales, sales growth rate, and market share by product.

Competition by Company: Here, the competition in the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market is analyzed, taking into consideration price, revenue, sales, and market share by company, market concentration rate, competitive situations and trends, expansion, merger and acquisition, and market shares of top 5 and 10 companies.

Company Profiles and Sales Data: As the name suggests, this section gives the sales data of key players of the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market as well as some useful information on their business. It talks about the gross margin, price, revenue, products and their specifications, applications, competitors, manufacturing base, and the main business of players operating in the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market.

Market Status and Outlook by Region: In this section, the report discusses about gross margin, sales, revenue, production, market share, CAGR, and market size by region. Here, the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market is deeply analyzed on the basis of regions and countries such as North America, Europe, China, India, Japan, and the MEA.

Application or End User: This part of the research study shows how different application segments contribute to the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market.

Market Forecast: Here, the report offers complete forecast of the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market by product, application, and region. It also offers global sales and revenue forecast for all years of the forecast period.

Upstream Raw Materials: The report provides analysis of key raw materials used in the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market, manufacturing cost structure, and the industrial chain.

Marketing Strategy Analysis and Distributors: This section offers analysis of marketing channel development trends, indirect marketing, and direct marketing followed by a broad discussion on distributors and downstream customers in the global Gene Therapy for Rare Disease market.

Research Findings and Conclusion: This is one of the last sections of the report where the findings of the analysts and the conclusion of the research study are provided.

Appendix: Here, we have provided a disclaimer, our data sources, data triangulation, market breakdown, research programs and design, and our research approach.

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Gene Therapy for Rare Disease Market to Witness Increased Incremental Dollar Opportunity During the Forecast Period 2020 2030 - Bulletin Line

() CEO Doug Doerfler tells Proactive it has appointed a new executive vice president as it continues with a Phase I trial of its MCY-M11 cancer drug. Doerfler says Shruti Abbato will serve as executive VP of business development for its CARMA cellular therapies, which is aiming to provide faster treatment than existing cancer therapies.

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MaxCyte appoints life-sciences vet as EVP, updates on lead therapy to treat solid tumors - Proactive Investors UK

A leading research firm, Zion Market Research added a latest industry report on "Global Gene Therapy Market" consisting of 110+ pages during the forecast period and Gene Therapy Market report offers a comprehensive research updates and information related to market growth, demand, opportunities in the global Gene Therapy Market.

According to the report the Future of Gene Therapy Market Reviewed in a New Research Study 2018-2026

The Gene Therapy Market report provides in-depth analysis and insights into developments impacting businesses and enterprises on global and regional level. The report covers the global Gene Therapy Market performance in terms of revenue contribution from various segments and includes a detailed analysis of key trends, drivers, restraints, and opportunities influencing revenue growth of the global consumer electronics market.This report studies the global Gene Therapy Market size, industry status and forecast, competition landscape and growth opportunity. This research report categorizes the global Gene Therapy Market by companies, region, type and end-use industry.

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The Gene Therapy Market report mainly includes the major company profiles with their annual sales & revenue, business strategies, company major products, profits, industry growth parameters, industry contribution on global and regional level.This report covers the global Gene Therapy Market performance in terms of value and volume contribution. This section also includes major company analysis of key trends, drivers, restraints, challenges, and opportunities, which are influencing the global Gene Therapy Market. Impact analysis of key growth drivers and restraints, based on the weighted average model, is included in this report to better equip clients with crystal clear decision-making insights.

The Gene Therapy Market research report mainly segmented into types, applications and regions.The market overview section highlights the Gene Therapy Market definition, taxonomy, and an overview of the parent market across the globe and region wise.To provide better understanding of the global Gene Therapy Market, the report includes in-depth analysis of drivers, restraints, and trends in all major regions namely, Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa, which influence the current market scenario and future status of the global Gene Therapy Market over the forecast period.

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The Gene Therapy Market report provides company market size, share analysis in order to give a broader overview of the key players in the market. Additionally, the report also includes key strategic developments of the market including acquisitions & mergers, new product launch, agreements, partnerships, collaborations & joint ventures, research & development, product and regional expansion of major participants involved in the market on the global and regional basis.

Major Company Profiles Covered in This Report:

UniQure N.V, Spark Therapeutics LLC, Bluebird Bio, Juno Therapeutics, GlaxoSmithKline, Celgene Corporation, Shire Plc, Sangamo Biosciences, Dimension Therapeutics

Some of the major objectives of this report:

1) To provide detailed analysis of the market structure along with forecast of the various segments and sub-segments of the global Gene Therapy Market.

2. To provide insights about factors affecting the market growth. To analyze the Gene Therapy Market based on various factors- price analysis, supply chain analysis, porter five force analysis etc.

3. To provide historical and forecast revenue of the Gene Therapy Market segments and sub-segments with respect to four main geographies and their countries- North America, Europe, Asia, and Rest of the World.

4. Country level analysis of the market with respect to the current market size and future prospective.

5. To provide country level analysis of the market for segment by application, product type and sub-segments.

6. To provide strategic profiling of key players in the market, comprehensively analyzing their core competencies, and drawing a competitive landscape for the market.

7. Track and analyze competitive developments such as joint ventures, strategic alliances, mergers and acquisitions, new product developments, and research and developments in the global Gene Therapy Market.

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Future of Gene Therapy Market Reviewed in a New Research Study 2018-2026 - Industry News Ledger

Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report titled, Viral Vector & Plasmid DNA Manufacturing Market Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 20192027. According to the report, theglobal viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing marketis expected to exceed a value of US$ 400 Mn by the end of 2019. The global market is anticipated to surpass US$ 2 Bn by 2027 and expand at a high double digit CAGR from 2019 to 2027. Rise in prevalence of cancer, genetic disorders, and increase in number of clinical studies are expected to augment the global market from 2019 to 2027. The viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market is projected to expand owing to an increase in the awareness regarding viral vector based treatments and technological advancements in developing countries.

Increasing prevalence of cancer, genetic diseases, and infectious diseases

According to Cancer Research UK, there were 17 million new cases of cancer in 2018 and four most common types of cancer worldwide were breast, lung, bowel, and prostate cancers, which account for approximately 43% of all new cases. According to WHO estimates, currently, 10,000 of human diseases are known to be monogenic, caused by modifications in a single gene in human DNA. The global prevalence of all single gene diseases at birth is approximately 10/1000. In Canada, it is estimated that monogenic diseases may account for approximately 40% of the work of hospital-based pediatric practice. Increased prevalence of such disorders demands improved treatments, which in turn is anticipated to propel the viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market during the forecast period.

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Increase in awareness regarding gene therapy

Awareness regarding gene therapy is increasing worldwide, as compared to the last few decades. According to an article published by Human Gene Therapy, the acceptance of gene therapy for severe disorders, such as Alzheimer Disease, is high as compared to less severe disease, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Furthermore, acceptability of gene therapy is increasing, and there is a strong need to provide the public and patients with up-to-date information. Moreover, opportunities to engage in the discourse about areas of research in gene therapy is a priority. This is estimated to propel the viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market during the forecast period.

Cancer segment dominates the global market due to large number of clinical trials ongoing worldwide

In terms of disease, the cancer segment dominated the global viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market, followed by genetic disorders. The segment accounted for a prominent market share, due to availability of approved viral vector-based cancer drugs and several ongoing clinical trials for the treatment of a variety of cancers. This creates lucrative opportunity for entry into the viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market.

Plasmid DNA segment dominates the global market due to wide use in the manufacturing of viral vectors as well as DNA based vaccines

In terms of type, plasmid DNA is a highly attractive segment of the global viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market, followed by the adeno-associated virus (AAV) segment. This is attributable to the extensive utilization of plasmid DNA as raw material in the manufacturing of various viral vectors.Furthermore, several studies have emphasized the benefits of DNA- based vaccines over conventional vaccines. The adeno-associated virus (AAV) segment is anticipated to expand at a considerable CAGR during the forecast period, due to several advantages offered by AAV over other vectors, making them the vector of choice for various clinical trials.

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North America dominates the global market owing to high acceptance of viral vector based treatments in the region

North America dominates the global viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market due to a large patient pool, technological advancements, and high acceptance of advanced treatments in the region. The region is estimated to maintain its dominance during the forecast period. Moreover, rising healthcare expenditure, availability of approved gene therapy treatments, and increasing investments are key factors that are anticipated to boost the viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market in the next few years. The viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market in Asia Pacific is projected to expand at a notable CAGR due to increasing awareness regarding viral vector based products in developing countries and rising research initiatives in countries such as Japan and China.

Investments by key players is driving the globalviral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market

Major players operating in the viral vector & plasmid DNA manufacturing market include CobraBiologics, Novasep Inc., Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult, Kaneka Eurogentec S.A., FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies Inc., Spark Therapeutics, Inc. Merck KGaA, uniQure N.V., and Lonza.

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Our reports are single-point solutions for businesses to grow, evolve, and mature. Our real-time data collection methods along with ability to track more than one million high growth niche products are aligned with your aims. The detailed and proprietary statistical models used by our analysts offer insights for making right decision in the shortest span of time. For organizations that require specific but comprehensive information we offer customized solutions through adhoc reports. These requests are delivered with the perfect combination of right sense of fact-oriented problem solving methodologies and leveraging existing data repositories.

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Viral Vector and Plasmid DNA Manufacturing Market is Estimated to Expand at a Robust CAGR by 2027 - Testifyandrecap

Takeda is spending big to add a new piece to their oncology R&D puzzle.

This morning the global pharma company picked up an alliance with Turnstone Biologics, which has been building a new viral immunotherapy platform to complement its work on oncolytics, partnered with AbbVie for the past 2 years.

Dubbed the vaccinia virus platform out of a lab in Ottawa, R&D chief Mike Burgess describes it as a highly selective virus as a consequence of engineering, exquisitely selective for cancer cells in contrast to normal cells. And it can be used to deliver a payload of transgenes for Flt3 ligand, anti-CTLA-4 antibody, and IL-12 cytokine that replicate in cells.

Takeda is offering up a smorgasbord of cash to close the deal, with $120 million flowing to Turnstone for the upfront, near-term milestones and an upcoming equity investment which goes a long way to funding its next stage of development. Theres also $900 million more in longer-range milestones on the table.

Turnstone has been low key for the last few years, since AbbVie stepped up with an option deal on their oncolytics work, part of a wave of development work aimed at going Amgens Imlygic one better. Turnstone CEO Sammy Farah tells me the pact is still in place something AbbVie confirmed for me as well but has no interest in getting into the details of whats been going on there.

But hes a lot more voluble about the vaccinia platform.

Drawn from the lab of John Bell and his colleagues at The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the University of Ottawa, Turnstone turned up at AACR a little more than a year ago to offer preclinical mouse data to back up the potential in using it to fight cancer.

The reason why its so exciting, it offers a multi-pronged attack on cancer, says the CEO. Single modalities dont cut it anymore, but a combination combined with the therapeutic properties of theirs itself can be cutting edge in new therapies.

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Takeda puts $120M in near-term cash on the table to complete a new oncology platform deal - Endpoints News

The global Acromegaly Treatment market is driven by the growing prevalence of the genetic disease, changing lifestyle. Also, factors such as rising incidence of hormonal diseases, such as hypopituitarism and endocrine diseases, and high demand for the advanced treatment is expected to increase the demand for Acromegaly treatment market.

Factors, such as unavailability of precise treatment and high cost of the surgery can restrain the market growth.

Some of the key players operating in this market include Pfizer Inc., Chiasma Inc., Novartis AG, Ipsen Biopharmaceuticals Inc., Wockhardt Ltd., Troikaa Pharmaceuticals Limited, GlaxoSmithKline plc, Aegis Therapeutics LLC, Crinetics Pharmaceuticals Inc, Daewoong Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Peptron Inc, among others.

You can get a sample copy of this report @https://www.orianresearch.com/request-sample/804039

Increasing government support, favorable government insurance policies and schemes for the patients and rapid developments in technology will offer lucrative opportunities.

Based on Application, the Acromegaly Treatment market is segmented into Hospitals, Clinics, and others.

Based on Disease Types, the Acromegaly Treatment market is segmented into Ectopic Acromegaly, Pseudo Acromegaly.

Regionally, North America was the largest revenue generator in the Acromegaly Treatment market in 2017, because of high investments in research and development activities to investigate the applications of Acromegaly Treatment market.

Key Benefits of the Report:

* Global, Regional, Country, Application, and Disease Types Market Size and Forecast from 2014-2025

* Detailed market dynamics, industry outlook with market specific PESTLE, Value Chain, Supply Chain, and SWOT Analysis to better understand the market and build strategies

* Identification of key companies that can influence this market on a global and regional scale

* Expert interviews and their insights on market shift, current and future outlook and factors impacting vendors short term and long term strategies

* Detailed insights on emerging regions, Application& Disease Types, and competitive landscape with qualitative and quantitative information and facts.

Global Acromegaly Treatment Industry 2019 Market Research Report is spread across 121 pages and provides exclusive vital statistics, data, information, trends and competitive landscape details in this niche sector.

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Target Audience:

* Acromegaly Treatment providers

* Traders, Importer and Exporter

* Raw material suppliers and distributors

* Research and consulting firms

* Government and research organizations

* Associations and industry bodies.

Research Methodology

The Market is derived through extensive use of secondary, primary, in-house research followed by expert validation and third party perspective like analyst report of investment banks. The secondary research forms the base of our study where we conducted extensive data mining, referring to verified data sources such as government and regulatory published materials, technical journals, trade magazines, and paid data sources.

For forecasting, regional demand & supply factor, investment, Market dynamics including technical scenario, consumer behavior, and end use industry trends and dynamics , capacity Production, spending were taken into consideration.

We have assigned weights to these parameters and quantified their Market impacts using the weighted average analysis to derive the expected Market growth rate.

The Market estimates and forecasts have been verified through exhaustive primary research with the Key Industry Participants (KIPs) which typically include:

* Original Manufacturer,

* Application Supplier,

* Distributors,

* Government Body & Associations, and

* Research Institute.

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Table Of Content

1 Executive Summary

2 Methodology And Market Scope

3 Acromegaly Treatment Market Industry Outlook

4 Acromegaly Treatment Market Type Outlook

5 Acromegaly Treatment Market Application Outlook

6 Acromegaly Treatment Market Regional Outlook

7 Competitive Landscape

End Of The Report

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Acromegaly Treatment Industry 2019 Global Market Size, Demand, Growth Prospects, Key Insights, Top Companies and Forecast till 2025 - Market Research...

Gurugram/New Delhi: In a ground-breaking procedure, Haematologists and Bone Marrow Transplant specialists successfully treated Anurag Mishra, a 47-year-old man from New Delhi, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) from the past seven years.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a life-long condition, known to reduce life-expectancy. MS affects the brain and spinal cord that leads to serious disabilities.

The most common symptoms of MS include loss of sensation and balance, restricted arm or leg movement and vision loss in one or both the eyes.

Mishra, who was bedridden earlier, is back to his normal routine life, was diagnosed with MS an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease, where the body's own defence system starts attacking its nervous system, without any specific reason

Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director, Department of Clinical Hematology & Bone Marrow Transplant, Fortis Hospital in Gurugram with his team performed autologous bone marrow transplant where they used Mishra's stem cells for transplant, thereby reducing the chances of rejection and infections.

"In an autologous BMT procedure, the healthy stem cells from the patient are taken out and preserved. Chemotherapy is then administered to reset the body's immunity and then the stem cells are injected back to rescue the person from the side effects of chemotherapy," said Bhargava.

After the surgery, the patient is kept under isolation for a few months to ensure he/she does not contract any infection. In this case, when Mr Anurag approached us, he was entirely dependent on others for his basic needs. But within six months after the treatment, he is back on his legs and is carrying on with his normal life," Bhargava added.

According to the patient, the attacks are sudden and may affect any part of your body, limiting your abilities.

"Extreme pain and disabilities this disease gave, made me very scary and depressing. I think I am very lucky to get to know about Dr Rahul Bhargava and team, who cured me miraculously," Mishra said.

"Too much delay in the procedure can considerably affect the clinical outcomes. In the case of Mr Anurag, recovery is 90 per cent, which means he received the treatment within recovery time-frame," Dr Bhargava said.

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Delhi: 47-year-old successfully treated with bone marrow transplant - ETHealthworld.com

Bipartisan legislation provides record funding for lifesaving cellular transplants and eliminates a Medicare payment barrier for seniors.

Washington, DC, December 20, 2019 --(PR.com)-- National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match applauds Congress for passing bipartisan legislation that provides record levels of funding to increase access for patients to cellular transplants, which can be the only curative treatments for blood cancers such as leukemia or lymphoma and other blood diseases. The bill also increases access to these same therapies for senior citizens by fixing a Medicare reimbursement issue that can be a barrier for them to these life-saving procedures.

Increasing funding levels for these programs and bringing Medicare payment policies for these procedures up to date represents major victories for the 1.3 million Americans fighting blood cancers, said Brian Lindberg, Chief Legal Officer and General Counsel of NMDP/Be The Match. By increasing funding for life-saving cellular transplants and removing Medicare barriers that inhibit access to care, Congress has given hope to patients in need of these curative treatments.

We are honored to have broad support from members in the House and Senate who stand with us and our mission to find matched donors for every patient in need of these cellular therapies, Lindberg added. Increasing patient access to life-saving bone marrow and cord blood transplant is NMDP/Be The Matchs top priority.

The program works closely with organizations throughout the nation to recruit volunteer donors for the registry and with public and private insurers to ensure that all patients have equal access to treatment.

The $30 million included in the final legislation for the C.W. Bill Young Cell Transplantation Program, an increase of $5.4 million over last year, and the $17.3 million for the National Cord Blood Inventory, an increase of $1.0 million, will help reduce barriers to transplant by:

Advancing new and innovative methods of providing the best possible transplant to every patient in need, regardless of socioeconomic status, age, ethnic ancestry, or any other individually defining characteristic; Continuing to simplify processes and systems to reduce time to transplant, providing the patient and their physician the therapy the patient needs exactly when he/she needs it; and Protecting access to transplant by allowing NMDP to pursue our vision of achieving equal outcomes for all.

In the case of older Americans, inadequate Medicare transplant reimbursement, primarily for donor-related costs, poses a significant barrier to patient access.

Unlike Medicare payment policies for the acquisition of solid organs for transplant, Medicare does not provide separate payments for the cost of acquiring the cells for transplant (which can include the cost of identifying genetically matched donors, collecting the cells, and transporting them to the transplant hospital). As a result, hospitals take substantial financial losses on these life-saving procedures, which often require a 20-to-30-day hospital stay on average, because the reimbursement rate does not come close to covering the true costs of treatment.

NMDP/Be The Match looks forward to working closely with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which operates the Medicare program, to ensure that this critical payment reform is implemented as quickly as possible, so that Medicare beneficiaries are not at risk of being denied the bone marrow, peripheral blood stem cell, or cord blood transplant they need to survive.

About National Marrow Donor Program/Be The MatchFor people with life-threatening blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, a cure exists. National Marrow Donor Program(NMDP)/Be The Match connects patients with their donor match for a life-saving marrow or umbilical cord blood transplant and works to identify and eliminate financial and other barriers faced by these patients. NMDP also provides patients and their families one-on-one support, education, and guidance before, during and after transplant.

Contact Information:National Marrow Donor ProgramEllen Almond(703) 548-0019Contact via Emailhttps://bethematch.org/

Read the full story here: https://www.pr.com/press-release/802090

Press Release Distributed by PR.com

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National Marrow Donor Program/Be The Match Applauds Congress for Its Support of Patients with Blood Cancers and Other Diseases - Benzinga

Last Christmas a student from London received what he says was the best Christmas present ever the chance to save a strangers life.

Will Briant, 23, from Kennington, was found to be the best match for a patient with blood cancer in desperate need of a stem cell transplant. Will recently received a letter informing him that his anonymous recipients transplant had been a success and that he is now doing well.

Will initially joined the Anthony Nolan stem cell register in 2014. His girlfriend, who volunteered with Edinburg Universitys Blood, Bone Marrow and Transplant Society, which is part of blood cancer charity Anthony Nolans student volunteer network called Marrow, suggested that he sign up.

Will said: My girlfriend, Libby, told me this amazing statistic that a quarter of all stem cell donors sign up through Marrow at university, so I couldnt not join.

If it wasnt for Marrow and for Libby, I wouldnt have become a donor and given someone hope of a second chance of life just before Christmas.

After Will joined the Anthony Nolan register the charity confirmed his tissue type. Every time the charity was informed that someone needed a transplant it compared the patients tissue type to Wills and over 750,000 others on the register, as well as registers across the world.

In December last year, Will received an email from Anthony Nolan, informing him that he had come up as a potential match for a blood cancer patient in desperate need of a stem cell transplant. Will then went to his GP for blood tests, to confirm that he was in fact the best possible match.

Will said: Just a week before Christmas, I got the best Christmas present ever. I was told that I was the best match for the patient, and I would be donating early in the new year!

I was so excited. When you sign up you know that its such a tiny chance that youll be found as the best match for someone, so to actually be chosen felt really exciting. Also, because it was just before Christmas, it felt quite exciting to know that the patient would find out that they had a match just in time for Christmas!

On average, people who join the stem cell register have around a 1 in 800 chance of being asked to donate in the next five years, but for men aged 16-30, its 1 in 200. This is why Anthony Nolan need more young men to join the register.

At the beginning of this year, having spent Christmas at home with his family, Will donated his stem cells at The London Clinic.

Will said: For four days before the donation I had a course of G-CSF injections to increase the number of stem cells I was producing. This caused mild flu-like symptoms, I just felt a bit tired and achy really. The whole way through, I kept thinking about the recipient, and how, in this context, I was absolutely delighted to have mild flu-like symptoms! It was quite strange to be doing it for real, after talking to so many potential donors when I volunteered with Marrow at university!

Libby, the same girlfriend who had suggested Will consider signing up to the register four years earlier, accompanied him to his donation.

Will said: I sat in a hospital bed for four hours and was so pampered by the staff there! There was a huge choice of different lunches, endless coffees and I got to watch programmes on my iPad.

Following his donation Will then went back to his studies and his job, barely giving a second thought to what hed just done. However, this all changed when a month after the donation he received a letter of thanks from the recipient of his stem cells.

Will said: It was honestly the best letter Ive ever received. It was especially powerful because it really hit home, that not only had I given him a second chance of life, but also, I had given his wife, his children, his grandchildren and his friends more precious time with him.

Patients and recipients must remain anonymous for two years following a transplant, but they are able to communicate via anonymous letters and cards. After the two-year period, if both parties agree, they are allowed to meet.

Just recently, Will also received a letter from the hospital at which his recipient received their stem cell transplant to say that the donation had been successful and even though recovery can be a long process, he is currently recovering well. Will is hoping that they will both exchange Christmas cards this year.

Anthony Nolan is the charity that finds matching stem cell donors for people with blood cancer and blood disorders and gives them a second chance of life. It costs 40 for Anthony Nolan to add each new donor to the register, so the charity needs financial support to help it continue to give patients, their family and their friends hope.

Terence Lovell, Director of Engagement at Anthony Nolan told Charity Today: Our amazing stem cell donors, like Will, continue to enable many patients with blood cancer to spend Christmas with their loved ones, who wouldnt be here without their act of kindness.

Anyone wanting to support our work can visit our website and make a donation, which will help give someone like Wills recipient, a second chance of life in the future. Without your support, there is no cure.

Anthony Nolan also carries out ground-breaking research to save more lives and provide information and support to patients after a stem cell transplant, through its clinical nurse specialists and psychologists, who help guide patients through their recovery. Find out more about Anthony Nolan this Christmas by visitinghttps://www.anthonynolan.org/

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'Last Christmas...' London student saved a stranger's life, this year he is alive and celebrating his gift of life - Charity Today News

https://www.projectlifemovement.org/impact/https://www.projectlifemovement.org/impact/

Our Impact

The Project to Save Lives Leukemia, Sickle Cell anemia and other diseases can often be cured with a bone marrow transplant. However, African American patients with leukemia and Sickle Cell have only a 23% chance of finding a bone marrow match on the National Registry. For mixed race patients the chance of finding a match is even lower. Conversely, African American and mixed race patients with leukemia or Sickle Cell have a 77% or more chance of dying if the only treatment that will save their lives is a bone marrow match and transplant. Compare this to the 41% chance of finding a match for Asian or Pacific Islanders, 46% for Hispanics or Latinos, 57% for American Indian and Alaska Natives, and 77%f for whites. The only reason for these discrepancies is the lack of bone marrow donors from the African American and mixed race communities. The solution to this problem is simple. We can save lives by having more African American and mixed race bone marrow donors, and providing supportservices to African American and mixed race children and adults in need of bone marrow transplants. This is the mission of The Project to Save Lives.

Doctors also use bone marrow transplants to treat aplastic anemia, autoimmune diseases (including scleroderma and multiple sclerosis), Hodgkin lymphoma, immune deficiency disorders, inborn errors of metabolism, non-hodkin lympohma, myelodysplastic syndrome, myeleproliferative neoplasms, multiple myeloma, myelofibrosis.

Thousands of patients with these diseases will need a bone marrow transplant to survive. Given the lack of African American and mixed race donors, the shortage of diverse donors costs lives. With ethnicity being the key to a perfect match between donor and recipient, we can change the odds only by increasing donors from the African American and mixed race communities. Increase the donors and the odds of finding matching donors will increase. You could save a life and become a hero by being a donor, and being a donor can be as simple as donating blood platelets.

ligible donors must be 18-44 years of age and in general good health. Donors must be willing and committed to donate to any patient they might match. Registration involves completing a consent form and a simple cheek swab test. Cheek swabbing is free. This can be done at an actual drive or by requesting a kit online to complete your swab. This places you on the Be The Match Registry for anyone you might match. While the current method of registration is digital The Project to Save Lives is working on a method of registration for those not equipped to register digitally.

If you match a patient in need, there are two ways to donate. The patients doctor chooses the method of donation that is best for the patient. 80% of the time Peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) donation is used. This is the method of collecting blood-forming cells for transplants. The same blood forming cells that are found in marrow are also found in the circulating (peripheral) blood. PBSC is a non-surgical procedure, called apheresis. The donation takes place at an experienced facility that participates in PBSC collections. For 5 days leading up to donation you will be given injections of a drug called filgrastim to increase the number of cells in your bloodstream that are used for transplant. Some of your blood is then removed through a needle in one arm and passed through a machine that separates out the blood-forming cells. The remaining blood is returned to you through the other arm. The other 20% of marrow donations take place in a hospital under general anesthesia. Doctors use a needle to withdraw liquid marrow from the back of your pelvic bone. Donors feel no pain or discomfort during the donation. The procedure is out-patient. There is small discomfort to save a life. Further, donors never pay for donating and are never paid to donate. The amount of cells donated will not weaken your immune system. Most donors are back to their usual routine in a few days and your marrow naturally replaces itself within 4-6 weeks.

Some believe that donors are usually found in their family. This is not true. 70% of patients do not have a matching donor in the family. Adding more registry members increases the ethnic diversity of the registry which increases the variety of tissue types available, which helps more people of ethnicity and ethnic diversity find the match they need. Additionally, members of the LGBTQ+ community can join the registry and donate. The African American and mixed race communities need members who are committed to helping save a life. This means being willing to donate to anyone in need. If you are called as a potential match for a patient, your commitment means that youre willing to take up to 20-30 hours spread over 4-6 weeks to: attend an information session, attend appointments, and donate. You are also committing to keeping your contact information up-to-date so that the registry can find you to quickly get a blood sample for further match testing.

There are many myths about bone marrow donation:MYTH: Donating is very painful.FACT: Donating is less painful than you think.MYTH: Donating involves opening up or removing bones.FACT: This is not true. Most blood stem cell donors (80%) give PBSC a process similar to platelet donation. This is a non-surgical, out-patient procedure and no bone is removed. The donorreceives a drug for 5 days to increase the number of cells in the bloodstream. The cells are then collected during donation. The donor may experience head or muscle aches that disappearshortly after the donation, and are typically back to their normal routine in 1 to 2 days.

The other procedure (20%) is a surgical, out-patient procedure that takes place in a hospital operating room. While the donor is under anesthesia, the doctors collect marrow from the back ofthe donors pelvic bone. After donation, donors may feel soreness in the lower back. Donors are typically back to their normal routine in 2 to 7 days.MYTH: Donating is dangerous.FACT: There are few risks to donating.MYTH: Donating takes a long time.FACT: It doesnt take long to save someones life.MYTH: Donating is expensive and you need medical insurance.FACT: Donating is absolutely free to the donor.MYTH: Sharing your personal information and DNA is risky.FACT: Be the Match and HIPPA will protect your privacy andconfidentiality.MYTH: Asking about a donors ethnic background is racist.FACT: Ethnic background is an important factor for matching donors to patients. When it comes to matching human leukocyte antigen (HLA) types,a patients ethnic background is important inpredicting the likelihood or finding a match. This is because HLA markers used in matching are inherited.MYTH: Gay men cannot join or donate.FACT: Gay men and others in the LGBTQ+ community CAN join the registry and donate.MYTH: Be the Match discriminates against people age 45+.FACT: Age guidelines protect the safety of the donor and provide the best possible outcome for the patient. They are not meant to discriminate.

More Important Facts:1. Every 3 minutes, someone is diagnosed with a blood cancer like Leukemia. For many of these and other patients with diseases like Sickle Cell anemia, a marrow transplant is the only lifesaving treatment-their only chance for a cure.2. Every year, more than 14,000 patients are diagnosed with life-threatening blood cancerslike leukemia and lymphomaor other diseases for which a marrow or cord blood transplant from an unrelated donor may be their best or only hope of a cure.3. 70% of all patients who need a transplant do not have a matched donor in their family. They depend on Be The Match Registry to find an unrelated donor or cord blood unit.4. Approximately 70 % of transplants facilitated by the National Marrow Donor Program are for patients diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma.5. Every 10 minutes, someone dies from a blood cancer. Thats more than six people each hour, or 148 people each day.6. More than 70 diseases can be treated & cured by an unrelated donor transplant.7. Leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20.8. Be The Match Registry works tirelessly on behalf of patients in need of a life-saving transplant. Through successful partnerships with organizations, more volunteer donors step forward, more funding becomes available to support critical outreach and more advances are made in the science of transplants. We all have the power to heal, the power to save a life. Take the first step.9. African Americans and people of mixed race are particularly at risk of dying due to inability to find a match.10. Due to significant medical achievements in recent decades, survival rates are higher than ever for bone marrow and PBSC transplants. There are Health Benefits of Diets That Increase Bone Marrow in Donors. There are health benefits to diets that will increase your Red Blood Count to make you a more valuable donor. The Be the Match registry can give you information on what to eat to increase your Red Blood Count which will, in turn, greatly improve you health.

Join the Be The Match RegistryBe the Match is the largest, most diverse registry of potential marrow donors and cord blood units in the world. Be the Match offers one-on-one support, education and guidance before, during and after transplants. But first a marrow match must be found. And there are many patients in need of a donor. The ICLA DA SILVA FOUNDATION, INC. is A Recruitment Center for the Be the Match Registry. The Icla da Silva Foundation is the largest recruitment center for the Be The Match Registry in the United States. It recruits over 38,000 new potential bone marrow donors every year, with a strong focus on minority communities. The Icla da Silva Foundation was established in 1992, in memory of the 13-year-old Brazilian girl named Icla da Silva. After two years of fighting leukemia, Icla passed away in New York City, where she came hoping to get her life saving treatment: a bone marrow transplant. The young girl never found a matching donor.

With offices across the United States and Puerto Rico, the Foundation is continuously expanding its efforts in providing assistance and hope to thousands of families in the United States and all over the world. The mission of the Icla da Silva Foundation is to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors and providing support services to children and adults with leukemia and other diseases treatable by marrow transplants. The Icla da Silva Foundation is a nonprofit organization under section 501(c) 3 of the IRS Code. Eligible donors must be 18-44 years of age and in general good health. Be willing and committed to donate to any patient that you might match. Registration involves completing a consent form and a simple cheek swab test. This places you on the Be The Match Registry for anyone you might match. You can contact the ICLA/Be the Match organization through the following:

https://bethematch.org/support-thecause/donate-bone-marrow/donation-faqs/. You can also contact The Project to

Save a Life through its two community volunteers: John-Michael Lawrence atlawrencejohnmichael9@gmail.com and Rhoda London at diversitydonordrive@aol.com.

What You Can Do Besides Being a Donor:If you are not able to donate or are younger than 18 or older than 44, you can:1. Host an actual cheek swabbing drive in you place of worship, school, business organization;2. Publicize a digital drive in any of the above on Facebook or any other social media;3. Share the information with other groups,family and friends;4. Make a financial donation in honor of your own good health or in honor of your recovery from and illness. Since swabbing and medical expenses are free, financial donations go to support analyzing the swabs and medical expenses for the donor and recipient;5. For a PHYSICAL Drive, register online at Join.Bethematch.org/JaxDonors for information and videos on how to hold a drive. Please join the effort, you can save a life.

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The Project to Save Lives Free Press of Jacksonville - Jacksonville Free Press

Gurugram/New Delhi, Dec 19 : In a ground-breaking procedure, Haematologists and Bone Marrow Transplant specialists successfully treated Anurag Mishra, a 47-year-old man from New Delhi, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis (MS) from the past seven years.

The most common symptoms of MS include loss of sensation and balance, restricted arm or leg movement and vision loss in one or both the eyes.

Mishra, who was bedridden earlier, is back to his normal routine life, was diagnosed with MS an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease, where the body's own defence system starts attacking its nervous system, without any specific reason

Unlike the current line of MS treatment, which mainly includes steroid therapy, physiotherapy and symptom management, doctors used Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT).

Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director, Department of Clinical Hematology iamp; Bone Marrow Transplant, Fortis Hospital in Gurugram with his team performed autologous bone marrow transplant where they used Mishra's stem cells for transplant, thereby reducing the chances of rejection and infections.

"In an autologous BMT procedure, the healthy stem cells from the patient are taken out and preserved. Chemotherapy is then administered to reset the body's immunity and then the stem cells are injected back to rescue the person from the side effects of chemotherapy," said Bhargava.

After the surgery, the patient is kept under isolation for a few months to ensure he/she does not contract any infection. In this case, when Mr Anurag approached us, he was entirely dependent on others for his basic needs. But within six months after the treatment, he is back on his legs and is carrying on with his normal life," Bhargava added.

According to the patient, the attacks are sudden and may affect any part of your body, limiting your abilities.

"Extreme pain and disabilities this disease gave, made me very scary and depressing. I think I am very lucky to get to know about Dr Rahul Bhargava and team, who cured me miraculously," Mishra said.

"Too much delay in the procedure can considerably affect the clinical outcomes. In the case of Mr Anurag, recovery is 90 per cent, which means he received the treatment within recovery time-frame," Dr Bhargava said.

Continued here:
47-year-old successfully treated with bone marrow transplant | newkerala.com News #267197 - New Kerala

At just 13 years old,Charlie Knuth, of Darboy, Wisc., has known more pain than most others do in a lifetime. The teen, who suffers from epidermolysis bullosa, a rare disease that causes his skin to blister incredibly easily, is near-constantly wrapped in bandages to protect his fragile skin. He takes special baths to soothe his sores, which can form from the slightest touch and are lanced before he is covered in fresh dressings.But the so-called butterfly child a name often given to EB sufferers as their skins fragility is similar to that of a butterfly wing has another battle ahead: cancer.

Its unimaginable, Trisha Knuth, Charlies mother, told Fox News. Even as his mom, when I see him taking it in stride, I cant even believe that he can.

BOY, 2, HAS RARE 'SCALE'-LIKE SKIN CONDITION THAT AFFECTS 1 IN 500,000: 'HES OVERCOME SO MUCH'

Charlies biological parents abandoned him at the hospital shortly after his birth. Knuth and her husband, Kevin, had long fostered children with complex medical needs. But just weeks before they received a call about Charlie, they were readying to let their license expire; the tragic cases were simply becoming too much. Even so, Knuth said shecouldnt say no to Charlie she knew to do so was likely a death sentence. They began the lengthy adoption process shortly after bringing him home.

Trisha Knuth and Charlie, 13. (Trisha Knuth/Facebook)

When I went to the children's hospital in Milwaukee, he was slathered from head-to-toe in Vaseline," she recalled."Nobody ever came for him. I worked with the nurses and learned his care but EB is so rare that many hospitals don't know how to care for those with [the condition]. They sent me home with morphine and a few things and it was a learning process from there.

Thirteen years later, Charlie didnt end up dying, he ended up thriving, she said. When he was 5 years old, he underwent an experimental skin grafting procedure at the University of Minnesota in an attempt to make his skin stronger and less prone to blistering. Knuth called it a transformation for her young son, who had two really good years before his body rejected the graft and he began to suffer from aplastic anemia, a potentially deadly condition that occurs when the body doesn't produce enough red blood cells.

In 2012, he underwent a stem cell transplant in an attempt to treat his severe EB. He was hospitalized for six months but eventually pulled through.

Charlie, who suffers from EB, was recently diagnosed with cancer. (Trisha Knuth/Facebook)

Hes done pretty well after that second time. But he is constantly wounded, very fragile, said Knuth.

But in recent months, Charlie began to complain of a sore throat not uncommon for those with EB, as blisters can form on the inside of the body as well on the outside. The mouth and throat are commonly affected.But there were no visible blisters, raising his doctor's suspicions. ACT scan later revealed enlarged lymph nodes in his neck and armpits. A biopsy later confirmed lymphoma, a type of cancer that affects the bodys lymphatic system. Knuth called the diagnosis another hurdle in his very hard life.

The pain was masked by EB. Its hard to tell whats what because EB causes so much pain, she said.

Cancer treatment often consisting of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery is hard enough on an average persons body. But those with EB face an entirely different battle; Knuth said nurses inserting an IV cant use medical tape to help attach the drip, as the adhesive ripsher sons skin when removed. Oxygen and anesthesia masks are often a struggle as well, as are blood pressure cuffs.

Charlie (R) when he was younger. (Trisha Knuth/Facebook)

How do you treat someone who cant be touched? Knuth questioned, noting she has gone into the operating room with Charlie in times past to ensure he is not injured. You cant even imagine. [Its like] being burned every day, and then bandaged, and nowundergoing cancer treatment it boggles the mind.

When speaking to Fox News, Knuth and Charlie were in Minnesota, where doctors are working to build atreatment plan. The day after Christmas which the pair are celebrating in an Airbnb Charlie is slated to undergo a procedure to remove fluid from his spine and bone marrow from his hips. One of his affected lymph nodes will be taken for further testing.

In the meantime, Kevin is home with the couples 2-year-old adopted daughter, who also suffers from EB.

"He puts on a great outward attitude, but I know there is trauma."

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He is very brave and resilient and funny, said Knuth of Charlie. But in addition to the physical pain, He does have emotional pain; he puts on a great outward attitude, but I know there is trauma.

When asked how she and Kevin manage it all, Knuth acknowledged theirs is a crazy life. But, she quickly noted, I am very happy with this life. Its hard. But when I die, I'll know my life was fulfilled and great.

Link:
Wisconsin teen diagnosed with cancer while battling rare 'butterfly skin' disease: 'He is resilient' - Fox News

Imagine if your skin was so fragile that even the slightest knock caused it to blister and tear. This is the reality for people with a condition called epidermolysis bullosa. It occurs when a person inherits faulty copies of the genes that make the crucial skin protein collagen. But help may now be at hand,because Columbia University researcher Joanna Jackow has found a way to make stem cells, called iPS cells, from patients skin cells; edit the faulty genes in the stem cells, and use the now-repaired cells to grow new, healthy skin. It's the first step towards skin replacements for patients with these sorts of genetic skin diseases...

Joanna - Patients have an extensive blistering of the skin because they were born with this mutation. The skin starts to blister right after birth. These blisters are chronic wounds that are not healed, and these chronic ones convert to extensive scarring and, finally, with increasing age, the patients get a skin cancer called squamous cell carcinoma.

Chris - What's the approach you've taken to try to put this right?

Joanna - Using this magic genetic scissors called CRISPR, we can fix this mutation in cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, which are cells that we can generate from the patient's own cells. Because the cells have a potential of differentiation to any cell type we want, in our case skin cells, we can develop skin equivalents, which we called grafts, and these skin equivalents can be grafted onto the wounded areas of the skin.

Chris - So you're saying 'make some stem cells, fix the gene problem in those stem cells, and then grow new rafts of skin from the fixed stem cells so that you've got new skin to put on to the individuals with the condition?

Joanna - That's correct.

Chris - How do you go, though, from those "fixed" skin cells into actually making skin?

Joanna - Yes, we take the right cells now and put them together in a matrix called collagen, and the cells will grow into a normal skin that we called a skin-equivalent; and the skin equivalent can be grafted on the patients.

Chris - Have you tested this though, in the sense that: you've got these patches of skin-equivalents, do they survive in the long term and for instance, if you put them onto an animal in place of its own skin, do they work?

Joanna - Yes. We used for this immune deficient mouse model, which is a model which doesn't have immune system and will not reject this graft. And we've been testing the survival of this graft two months post grafting and we could demonstrate that the grafts survived and produced this protein that was missing in previously in the patient's skin.

Chris - In other words, the implication is, were you to do this in a patient, because it would be their own cells, there wouldn't be an immune problem. So you could just put these skin patches on in place of the individual's injured skin, and it should take over the function of their injured skin and give them a healthy working skin?

Joanna - Exactly. That's exactly what is the concept of our strategy.

Chris - Big problem though, when you consider how big a person is, I mean the surface area of a human that's, you know, metres squared of skin, isn't it? So is it feasible to actually do this on the scale of the entire body? Because you'd have to replace all their skin, wouldn't you?

Joanna - Yes, this is an excellent question and we've been already thinking of this. So, we would like to first cover the large wounds of the patient's body and we hope that, because we are deriving the skin equivalents from keratinocytes, that - hopefully - have also a population of stem cells. Eventually, these grafts can take over and cover the whole body of the patient.

Chris - Thing is, skin isn't just skin-producing cells, is it? There's hair follicles in there; there are more complicated structures, like sweat glands, as well. Those aren't going to be present in the grafts you make, are they?

Joanna - That's what we are thinking as a next step, to make more complex skin including all these very important components. As you mentioned, hair follicle and sweat glands. This is what we keep in mind in the future...

Continued here:
Treating a tricky skin disease | Interviews - The Naked Scientists

As interest in intermittent fasting keeps growing, a completely different type of fasting trend is coming out of Silicon Valley. Followers of "dopamine fasting" believe that if they deprive themselves from anything stimulating devices, movies, TV, light or even other people they can alter the levels of dopamine in their bodies and reset their brains.

On the surface, it's a life hack that sounds like a good idea: try to modify the dopamine chemical known as one of the "happy hormones" in the body simply by unplugging from devices and stepping away from activity.

"Dopamine fasting is like, 'I'm getting off my devices so I can feel more,'" Dr. Zach Freyberg, an assistant professor of psychiatry and cell biology at the University of Pittsburgh, told TODAY. "It's doing things that are that are meant to keep you sensitized to the world around you."

To fast, followers say they avoid things they enjoy, which can include mobile devices, sex, social media, entertainment, shopping, gambling, exercise, food and alcohol, for a set period of time. Some might even avoid eye contact or chats during that time.

The goal avoiding stimulation in the present, in order to be happier later. For example, love online shopping? During a fast, you'd skip it.

In a way, it's like meditation where people spend time without outside excitement. But this type of fasting is tailored to what specifically causes your dopamine to spike, whether it's red wine, Snapchat or Christmas movies.

Sounds simple, right? Not really.

Your brain is always working. Your neurotransmitters, like dopamine, are always working, Madelyn Fernstrom, a neuroscientist and NBC News health and nutrition editor, told TODAY.

While dopamine fasting focuses on the molecule's role as a neurotransmitter in the brain, dopamine does a lot of heavy lifting throughout the body.

Dopamine is something that's inside of our bodies that our bodies make, Freyberg said. In the brain, dopamine is responsible for lots of important brain functions. You need it to help control mood, you need that to feel a sense of satisfaction and reward.

Trending stories,celebrity news and all the best of TODAY.

People often think of it as the hormone of excitement and novelty seeking, said Dr. Amit Sood, executive director of the Resilient Option, and former professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic.

This means people experience a surge of it when they try something new or anticipate something. Some of what Silicon Valley sells causes dopamine spikes.

A lot of social media is driven by dopamine, he said. Youre just chasing it.

But dopamines role is much more complex. It also helps the brain control movement and exists in other parts of the body, regulating insulin, aiding digestion, managing kidney function and maintaining blood pressure.

Its kind of like an air traffic coordinator. It controls and coordinates the functions of a lot of different organs, a lot of different parts of the body, to make sure they work harmoniously, Fryberg explained.

Not having enough dopamine causes real problems. Parkinsons disease, for example, is a disorder of dopamine, Fryberg said.

The body absolutely needs to make that dopamine because it needs to control the life support systems, he said.

In some ways, eating and exercising can influence dopamine production, but not in the way that dopamine fasting fans think.

When you eat, the amount of dopamine in your blood stream temporarily goes up because that helps control insulin, Fryberg said. There's more and more evidence that exercise can help in Parkinson's patients preserve the amount of dopamine in the brain.

Beyond that that's all we know, he said.

The experts agree that even if the name is an oversimplification of how brain chemistry works, the concept behind dopamine fasting is positive. What "fasters" are truly proposing is taking a break from stimulation and being mindful both healthy practices.

There is no downside, unless you believe you are having an immediate impact on your brain chemistry, Fernstrom, a nutrition scientist, said. It is mistake to think that a short-term behavior of any kind is going to be having an impact on your brain.

Whats more, unplugging and spending time without stimulation might have an opposite effect than anticipated.

Meditation has been shown to increase dopamine in the brain reward activity center, Sood said.

While meditation and avoiding devices is beneficial, Sood encourages people to think of it as adding something to life not subtracting.

It is very difficult to empty your life of something, he said. I tried emptying my mind and it doesnt work. It is not about emptying it. Its about filling it with the right things.

That's why he suggests that people think of something positive while stepping away from devices and overactivity.

If you meditate on gratitude or compassion or kindness it will be more effective, Sood said.

The rest is here:
What is 'dopamine fasting'? How some are trying to change their brains - TODAY

The elderly patients muscles didnt look right beneath the microscope.

He wasnt just old. He had diabetic myopathy, a complication where muscles degrade faster than normal. The mitochondria die, fibers weaken, and the tissues become so broken up they resemble crackedDust Bowl earth. Like cottage cheese, offers Russ Cox, a Genentech and Jazz Pharma alumn.

But now they looked healthy. Mitochondria were firing. The fibers perked and stretched.

These muscles were really looking as if they were muscles of a person 20 years younger, Sundeep Dugar, the J&J and Bristol-Myers Squibb vet on the other end of the microscope, told Endpoints News.

The patient and others had been injected with a form of flavanol, the metabolites found in grape skins and wine and dark chocolate that lead nutritionists to sometimes recommend those foods for heart health. Its considered an antioxidant. But the results that Dugar and his collaborator George Schreiner saw, along with earlier animal studies, led them to a bold idea: Flavanoid was actually following biological pathways normally used by a yet undiscovered human hormone, the first of its kind discovered in over 50 years.

Its a big deal, Dugar said. I think its a big deal.

That was in 2012. Dugar, Schreiner and Cox are now forming a company called Epirium around that finding and the subsequent work they did confirming the new hormone. Its a rejig of an older, poorly funded group the trio had worked on called Cardero, but now theyve managed to convince a fleet of topflight investors: Longitude, ARCH, Vertex and Adams Street have joined in an $85 million Series A.

Theres also an investor called Longevity Fund, a group focused on extending human life, and ARCH head Bob Nelsen has made no secret of his desire to live forever. The two hint at an idea the new biotech isnt particularly shy about: That while they will begin with trials in rare neuromuscular disorders, namely a form of muscular dystrophy called Beckers, they have ambitions that are much broader.

They made the investment not just because they think we can do something meaningful in Beckers muscular dystrophy, but primarily because some of these larger diseases could benefit as well, Cox, the CEO, told Endpoints. Theres no question we will evolve.

Epirium isnt yet revealing what their claimed new hormone is. They say the long delay has been in trying to secure the intellectual property and that a scientific paper is coming early next year.

It has to do, though, with mitochondria biogenesis, or the creation of new mitochondria. These organelles are often called the engine of the cells but they break down with age or with certain diseases and bring the muscles down with them. Exercise is one of the only ways to make more.

You and I lose 10% of our mitochondria every decade, so by the time you get to my age, youre underwater as opposed to when youre 18, said Cox, a former track and cross country athlete now approaching 60.

Dugar and Schreiner, who worked at Scios before it was bought by J&J for $2.4 billion in 2003, had been enlisted at UC San Diego to investigate why flavanol had biological effects. To emerge from that research claiming to find a new human hormone is bold, particularly without publishing the work. Researchers have long studied flavanol for its cardiovascular impact without arriving at similar conclusions. The hormone would be the first mitochondrial steroid in 50 years, they said.

But the pair conducted 11 proof-of-concept trials on 110 patients and say they saw profound results that appeared to work along each of the three well known mitochondrial pathways. They didnt follow up on the diabetic myopathy patients long term, but they walked and stood better and that, combined with his muscle slides, was overwhelming.

This told us that while everyone classifies flavanol as an antioxidant, that couldnt be true, said Dugar.

The two set up the parameters for a human equivalent that must operate along the same metabolic path as flavanoid, and soon found it. Cox said that in early meetings, investors were mystified by Epiriums presentation, but eventually came around.

Of course, they all went to google it, and couldnt find a publication on it and said how can that damn be?' he said.

Epirium will start out with a clinical trial on Beckers muscular dystrophy patients, one of the groups they studied in the early proof-of-concepts. Beckers is akin to a less devastating form of Duchenne. When patients muscles fire, they release toxins that kill mitochondria and deplete overall muscle tissue. Cox said their hormone should be able to slow or even reverse that muscle loss.

Beckers may seem an odd starting point given the gene therapies nearing market for muscular dystrophy, but Cox said that their hormone might be used in combination with the flashier approach. For the company as a whole, though, rare diseases are primarily places they already have data and think they might place a foothold for a much larger project, one that includes neurodegeneration and other age-related disorders.

Mitochondria deplete as we age. Epirium says theyve found a way to make them grow, a chemical exercise.

Im not saying I want to call it anti-aging, said Dugar. But the question is, if you can really have a separation between your biological age and your chronological age, then, hey 80 years olds who have healthy mitochondria, will look like they were 60 years old or act like they were 60 years old. Maybe thats what anti-aging is.

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ARCH-backed biotech emerges with $85M and a bold claim: A new human hormone can reverse a key effect of aging - Endpoints News

Cushings disease patients who are treated with cabergoline while undergoing conventional fractionated radiotherapy have a higher risk of disease recurrence after initial remission, a small study has found.

The study, Cabergoline may act as a radioprotective agent in Cushings disease, was published inClinical Endocrinology.

Radiation therapy can be an effective method of controlling Cushings disease a condition caused by a tumor in the pituitary gland particularly when the tumor cannot be removed surgically or when surgery fails to remove the whole tumor.

Conventional fractionated radiotherapy, or CRT, is a form of radiation therapy in which lower doses of radiation are given over a longer period.

The current medical literature suggests that CRT is effective at achieving remission in about three-quarters of Cushings disease patients, and to date, there has not been any documented case of recurrence following such a remission.

However, the researchers behind the new study found this to be inconsistent with their experience in the clinic, where they found disease recurrence after CRT in a few of their Cushings disease patients.

Thus, the researchers analyzed their data for Cushings patients treated with CRT to better understand the treatments long-term outcomes.

The analysis included data for 42 patients (12 males and 30 females) who were followed for at least one year after radiation therapy. They were 24 years old on average. Two patients received CRT as the first line of treatment; the remainder had surgery first.

In total, 29 (69%) achieved clinical remission, which occurred a median of one and a half years after CRT. Of these, six (20.7%) later experienced recurrence, a median of 74 months after initial remission. Using statistical models, the researchers looked for clinical factors that were predictors of remission.

They found that most clinical features, including age, sex, disease severity, and tumor characteristics, were not associated with recurrence, but one clinical feature was: the use of cabergoline around the same time as CRT, referred to as peri-CRT cabergoline use. In fact, peri-CRT cabergoline use was found in all six people who experienced a recurrence.

Cabergoline is a medication that works on the pituitary gland to decrease the secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone, the hormone that ultimately drives excess production of cortisol, which is the defining feature of Cushings syndrome.

Importantly, peri-CRT cabergoline use was not significantly associated with whether an individual would go into remission in the first place but was associated with whether they would experience recurrence after an initial period of remission. Additionally, this association was independent of follow-up time and the use of another medication, ketoconazole (which was the only other medication analyzed).

Based on this finding, the researchers speculated that peri-CRT cabergoline use might offer pituitary tumors protection against radiotherapy.

Specifically, they pointed to the fact that radiation is most effective in killing cells that are actively dividing which is why it is used against cancer cells that divide rapidly and uncontrollably. The researchers noted that previously published data suggests that dopamine agonists (the class of drugs to which cabergoline belongs) may stop pituitary cancer cells from dividing, which may in turn limit the efficacy of CRT.

At this point, such a radioprotective (protective against radiotherapy) effect is largely speculative, since the current study showed only an association, not a cause-and-effect relationship. The small sample size and the fact that treatment was provided on a case-by-case basis do not allow more robust conclusions to be drawn as would a clinical trial with a larger sample size and stricter protocols.

Use of cabergoline in the peri-CRT period did not affect initial remission after CRT but was associated with increased recurrence after initial remission, the researchers stated. Hence, we caution against the peri-CRT use of cabergoline in [Cushings disease] patients. However, further studies with larger number of patients and longer follow-up as well as basic in-vitro studies to elucidate radioprotective effects of cabergoline are needed.

Marisa holds an MS in Cellular and Molecular Pathology from the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied novel genetic drivers of ovarian cancer. She specializes in cancer biology, immunology, and genetics. Marisa began working with BioNews in 2018, and has written about science and health for SelfHacked and the Genetics Society of America. She also writes/composes musicals and coaches the University of Pittsburgh fencing club.

Total Posts: 11

Ins holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, where she specialized in blood vessel biology, blood stem cells, and cancer. Before that, she studied Cell and Molecular Biology at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and worked as a research fellow at Faculdade de Cincias e Tecnologias and Instituto Gulbenkian de Cincia.Ins currently works as a Managing Science Editor, striving to deliver the latest scientific advances to patient communities in a clear and accurate manner.

More:
In Cushing's, Cabergoline Reduces Efficacy of Radiotherapy, Study Finds - Cushing's Disease News

We might look back on 2019 as a year of perpetual crises, should we survive their enduring damages. The Amazon rainforest burned for weeks under a far-right populist in Brazil, as land long-held by indigenous peoples was effectively cleared for cattle. At the moment of writing, there is ongoing, large-scale and violent civil unrest in Hong Kong, Lebanon, Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Iraq, and Iran. Even limiting our attention to the American news cycle, as we often do, its difficult to cultivate hope for a future which, per the U.N. Emissions Gap Report, may not exist without significant infrastructural change. Millennials are increasingly opting not to have children, if not for financial insecurity, thenout of an acute anxiety over the diminished prospects for life on earth. The contested appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court (to pluck one item from the trash fire of this year in American politics) has ensured a bleak outlook for the future of Roe v. Wade as well. Women dressed as Atwoods handmaids protested a stylized dystopia of forced birth that is, in some ways, already real for poor women in states with no practical access to abortion services.

Architects often feel called to address these political terrains as the conceptual and material grounds for design solutions, as if architecture is not already implicated and architects are not human actors also living under these same existential conditions. The objects in need of solutions are so immense, so out of scale, and so tangled in intersecting forces, that its difficult to do more than call attention to themto try to express the unspeakable.

Wall texts and graphics ask viewers to consider the way female bodies have been regulated, whether it be through abortion or fertility. (Courtesy the Druker Design Gallery)

Love in a Mist (The Politics of Fertility) is an ambitious show currently on view at the Druker Design Gallery at Harvards Graduate School of Design that acknowledges the urgency and complexity of an endangered reproductive future. And yet, it reaches for hope in the face of possible extinction. Conceived by the architect Malkit Shoshan, the show assumes an activist posture to address a nuanced set of concerns around the body, fertility, and seemingly detached environmental crises. By assembling research, activist artifacts, artistic works, and a deep bibliography of feminist texts, Love in a Mist locates resistance and hope in interconnection and its enunciation. As Donna Haraway pleads in her science-fiction workChildren of the Compost, cited in the exhibition text, we can and must articulate new forms of relation to each other and the earthits a matter of inter-species survival.

The domination (and depletion) of the environment and the control over human reproduction are intimately entangled, Shoshan argues. At the fulcrum of fertility (engineered by synthetic hormones or controlled through conservative legislation), women and nature are recognized as mutually domitable objects. Its a problematic alignment, but the show works through that tension with care.

The exhibition was instigated as an urgent response to the sharp increase in anti-abortion legislation known as heartbeat bills, some of which were signed into law in Ohio, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia this year. The exhibited work builds on the scholarship of Lori Brown, whose study of the landscapes of U.S. abortion access is presented in takeaway texts and series of infographics.

Lori Brown has mapped out abortion clinics across a number of states, including Texas, shown here. (Justin Knight)

From this legal ground, the sequence of the show quickly expands that predicament to an ecological scale with research on the history of synthetic estrogen. Diethylstilbestrol, or DES, had been prescribed to women suffering miscarriages beginning in the 1940s. Understood to reduce pregnancy complications and loss, its harmful effects werent known until the 1970s, when DES was linked to clear-cell carcinoma in women and girls. DES had also been used as a growth hormone in livestock feed and caused breast and cervical cancer in those consuming estrogen-laden poultry and meat. Introduced into the agricultural ecology, DES contaminated the surrounding land, water, and plants. Hyperproduction is an acceleration of death.

The content of the exhibition is organized into four distinct chapters: Reproductive rights, accelerated growth, extinction, and compost. This framework is spatialized into a linear sequence of four wood-framed greenhouses, beginning with the heartbeat and finding its way out through the compost bin.

The greenhouse is the primary architectural device in the design of the show, also by Shoshan. She acknowledges it as a natural container for the content on view; its an obvious reference to the greenhouse effect, and also a literal technology for the cultivation and control of nature. The framing also stands in for the less discernible spaces of fertility that Love in a Mist tries to accessincluding brick-and-mortar and mobile clinics, crisis pregnancy centers, and state legislatures, as well as fields, forests, and swamps.

As the exhibition directly points out, artificial estrogen was commonly used on both women and farm animals. (Justin Knight)

Multimedia work enlivens the information-rich exhibition environment. A video by Desire Dolron shows swamps in Texas overtaken by a disruptive weed. Audio recordings of Northern California woods by Bernie Krause over nearly 30 years testify to a depleted biophany. Diana Wittens documentary Vessel shows the travels of Women on Waves, whose portable abortion clinic is also represented in the show. Yael Bartanas trailer to What if Women Ruled the World fantasizes an international government of women against an apocalyptic backdrop. Tabita Rezaires Sugar Walls Teardomis a vibrant video document in the compost section which acknowledges the contribution of black womxns wombs to advancements in biomedical technology.

The work, in the end, is thoroughly documentary but it maintains an effective pulse. Rather than directly taking up representational concerns, as feminist exhibitions so often do, it leans into the artifacts and techniques of fertility politics. For that reason, the distinct outlier of the show is a figural womb sculpted by Joep van Lieshout, a Dutch architect who also collaborated with Rebecca Gomperts on the Women on Waves clinic. It makes a static object of a living organ, one weve come to understand as influenced by so many external forces.

Love in a Mist finds recourse through the living. Named for a flower whose seeds were once ingested for their abortifacient properties, the exhibition puts as much faith in the home remedy as in the clinical procedure. Making kin, to borrow Donna Haraways prescription for earthly survival, must remain a matter of choice.

The exhibition is on view through December 20.

Continued here:
Love in a Mist (The Politics of Fertility) deftly blends design with pregnancy politics - The Architect's Newspaper

HAMBURG, GERMANY / ACCESSWIRE / December 19, 2019 / Evotec SE (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, MDAX/TecDAX, ISIN: DE0005664809) today announced successful achievement of a third milestone in their diabetes research alliance with Sanofi ("TargetBCD"), resulting in a payment of 3 m to Evotec.

This milestone was triggered after Evotec met pre-agreed critical criteria within the beta cell replacement therapy programme. The ultimate goal of the collaboration is to develop a beta cell replacement therapy for people with diabetes based on beta cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells.

Dr Cord Dohrmann, Chief Scientific Officer of Evotec, commented: "We are extremely pleased with the progress we are making on this beta cell therapy approach which has the potential to restore beta cell function and, thereby, address the root cause of diabetes rather than only its symptoms."

About the Evotec-Sanofi-Alliance in Diabetes ("TargetBCD")In August 2015, Evotec and Sanofi announced a research alliance to develop a beta cell replacement therapy based on functional human beta cells derived from human stem cells for diabetes. Both companies have made significant contributions to this collaboration in terms of expertise, platforms and resources. The collaboration, which is a key value-driving relationship under the Company's EVT Innovate business segment, extends Evotec's metabolic disease and stem cell-based drug discovery programmes. To date, Evotec has received 12 m in upfront and milestone payments from Sanofi, as well as substantial research funding.

About DiabetesDiabetes mellitus ("diabetes") is a chronic incapacitating disease associated with severe lifelong conditions which require intensive monitoring and control, such as cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, nerve damage and eye diseases. At present, there is no cure for diabetes and only symptomatic treatment options are available. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 425 million people worldwide suffered from diabetes in 2017 (2015:415 million). The disease is a major burden to the global healthcare systems with $ 727 bn being spent on the treatment of diabetes in 2017 (2015: $ 673 bn).

About Beta CellsBeta cells play a key role in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Beta cells reside in clusters of hormone producing cells ("islets") within the pancreas. They respond to elevated blood glucose levels (e.g. after a meal) by secreting the glucose lowering hormone insulin. In the type 1 form of diabetes ("T1D"), beta cells are destroyed by the patient's own immune system. As a result, T1D patients have to follow a life-long regimen of carefully-dosed insulin injections. In patients with type 2 diabetes ("T2D"), beta cells are functionally impaired and yet have to work in the presence of metabolic stress and increased work load due to an impaired tissue insulin response. T2D is progressive, and current therapeutic options cannot prevent the deterioration of beta cell function, eventually also creating a need for insulin injections. Despite the fact that insulin treatments are important and widely used for people with diabetes, they cannot fully mimic the normal control of blood glucose levels by normal beta cells necessary to avoid acute and long-term complications of diabetes. There is a critical medical need for novel therapeutic options which can restore beta cell mass and, thereby, reduce or eliminate the need for insulin injections. Furthermore, beta cell replacement therapy also has the potential to prevent or reverse the decline in beta cell function in type 2 diabetes.

ABOUT EVOTEC SEEvotec is a drug discovery alliance and development partnership company focused on rapidly progressing innovative product approaches with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academics, patient advocacy groups and venture capitalists. We operate worldwide and our more than 2,900 employees provide the highest quality stand-alone and integrated drug discovery and development solutions. We cover all activities from target-to-clinic to meet the industry's need for innovation and efficiency in drug discovery and development (EVT Execute). The Company has established a unique position by assembling top-class scientific experts and integrating state-of-the-art technologies as well as substantial experience and expertise in key therapeutic areas including neuronal diseases, diabetes and complications of diabetes, pain and inflammation, oncology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases and fibrosis. On this basis, Evotec has built a broad and deep pipeline of approx. 100 co-owned product opportunities at clinical, pre-clinical and discovery stages (EVT Innovate). Evotec has established multiple long-term alliances with partners including Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, CHDI, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Sanofi, Takeda, UCB and others. For additional information please go to http://www.evotec.com and follow us on Twitter @Evotec.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTSInformation set forth in this press release contains forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties. The forward-looking statements contained herein represent the judgement of Evotec as of the date of this press release. Such forward-looking statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, and which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated in these forward-looking statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statements to reflect any change in our expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.

Contact Evotec SE:Gabriele Hansen, SVP Corporate Communications, Marketing & Investor Relations, Phone: +49.(0)40.56081-255, gabriele.hansen@evotec.com

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Evotec Achieves Third Milestone In Cell Therapy Diabetes Alliance With Sanofi - Yahoo Finance

Older men receiving testosterone treatment with higher waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) experience greater increases in noncalcified coronary plaque volume, according to study results published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Several studies have explored the effect of testosterone treatment on cardiovascular risk, reporting conflicting results. The Testosterone Trials included men aged 65 years with evidence of hypogonadism who were randomly assigned to placebo gel or testosterone 1% gel. The Cardiovascular Trial of the Testosterone Trials reported that in older men with hypogonadism, testosterone treatment was associated with greater progression of noncalcified plaque.

The goal of this study was to assess the impact of baseline anthropometric measures and cardiovascular biomarkers on the progression of coronary artery plaque volume in patients from this cardiovascular evaluation study of the Testosterone Trials.

The study included 170 patients, of whom 138 (mean age, 71.2 years) completed the study. Of these, 73 received testosterone treatment (average body mass index, 30.63.8 kg/m2; mean WHR, 1.0) and 65 received placebo (average body mass index, 30.53.5 kg/m2; mean WHR, 1.0).

Of various anthropometric measures and cardiovascular biomarkers evaluated for possible correlations with the progression of coronary artery plaque volume, the only significant interaction was between treatment assignment and WHR in the testosterone group (P =.007).

The model used in the study indicated that for every 0.1 change in WHR (baseline WHR value range, 0.9-1.2), 12-month treatment with testosterone was associated with an increase of 26.96 mm3 (95% CI, 7.72-46.20 mm3) in noncalcified plaque volume.

The researchers noted several study limitations, including the use of a surrogate marker and not a clinical outcome to measure heart disease, as well as limiting the study population to elderly men with low testosterone levels. As such, the results may not apply to other populations.

[A]mong older men receiving testosterone treatment, those with higher vs. lower WHR may experience greater increases in noncalcified coronary plaque volume, concluded the researchers.

Disclosure: Several study authors declared affiliations with the pharmaceutical industry. Please see the original reference for a full list of authors disclosures.

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Reference

Shaikh K, Ellenberg SS, Nakanishi R, et al. Biomarkers and non-calcified coronary artery plaque progression in older men treated with testosterone [published online November 30, 2019]. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. doi:10.1210/clinem/dgz242

Read this article:
Waist Circumference Affects Coronary Plaque Accumulation in Testosterone Therapy - Endocrinology Advisor

Aspen Neuroscience, a new San Diego biotech company working on stem cell treatment for Parkinsons disease, has come out of stealth mode and raised $6.5 million to pursue clinical testing for its therapy.

Co-founded by well-known stem cell scientist Jeanne Loring, Aspen Neuroscience proposes creating stem cells from modified skin cells of Parkinsons patents via genetic engineering.

The stem cells, which can become any type of cell in the body, then would undergo a process that makes them specialize into dopamine-releasing neurons.

People with Parkinsons lose a large number up to 50 percent at diagnosis of specific brain cells that make the chemical dopamine.

Without dopamine, nerve cells cannot communicate with muscles and people are left with debilitating motor problems.

Once these modified skin cells have been engineered to specialize in producing dopamine, they can be transplanted into the Parkinsons patient to restore the types of neurons lost to the disease.

The reason we called it Aspen is because l was raised in the Rocky Mountain states, said Loring. When there is a forest fire in the Rockies, the evergreens are wiped out but the aspens are the fist that regenerate after the burn. So it is a metaphor for regeneration.

Aspen still has a long way to go before its proposed therapy would be available to Parkinsons patients. It has been meeting with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide animal trial data and other information in hopes of getting permission to start human clinical trials.

But the company expects the earliest it would get the go-ahead from FDA to start human trials would be 2021.

Loring has been working on the therapy for eight years. She is professor emeritus and founding director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute.

Loring co-founded the 20-employee company with Andres Bratt-Leal, a former post-doctoral researcher in Lorings lab at Scripps.

Joining them as Aspens Chief Executive is Dr. Howard Federoff, former vice chancellor for health affairs and chief executive of the University of California Irvine Health System.

Federoff said the company is the only one pursuing the use of Parkinsons patients own cells as part of neuron replacement therapy.

Aspens proprietary approach does not require the use of immuno-suppression drugs, which can be given when transplanted cells come from another person and perhaps limit the effectiveness of the treatment.

Aspens approach is a therapy that is likely to benefit from the fact that your own cells know how to make the best connections with their own target cells in the brain, even in the setting of Parkinsons disease, said Federoff. So when transplanted it is able to set back the clock on Parkinsons.

In addition to Aspens main therapy, it is researching a gene-editing treatment for forms of Parkinsons common in certain families.

Aspens research work up to now has been supported by Summit for Stem Cell, a non-profit on which provides a variety of services for people with Parkinsons disease.

The new seed funding round was led by Domain Associates and Axon Ventures, with additional participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed and Section 32.

Aspens financial backing, combined with its experienced and proven leadership team, positions it well for future success, said Kim Kamdar, a partner at Domain Associates. Domain prides itself on investing in companies that can translate scientific research into innovative medicines and therapies that make a difference in peoples lives. We clearly see Aspen as fitting into that category, as it is the only company using a patients own cells for replacement therapy in Parkinsons disease.

Continue reading here:
Aspen Neuroscience gets funding to pursue personalized cell therapy for Parkinsons disease - The San Diego Union-Tribune

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technavio has been monitoring the global allogeneic stem cells market and the market is poised to grow by USD 1.24 billion during 2020-2024 at a CAGR of over 12% during the forecast period. Request Free Sample Pages

Read the 131-page research report with TOC on "Allogeneic Stem Cells Market Analysis Report by geography (Asia, Europe, North America, and ROW), by application (regenerative therapy and drug discovery and development), and segment forecasts, 2020-2024".

https://www.technavio.com/report/allogeneic-stem-cells-market-industry-analysis

The new product approvals and special drug designations are anticipated to boost the growth of the market. Based on the application, the allogeneic stem cells market has been segmented into regenerative therapy and drug discovery and development. Manufacturers are increasingly emphasizing innovations and improvisation in the development of regenerative therapies. Many of the regenerative therapeutic candidates have obtained approval for clinical trials in the US, Europe, and APAC due to the efficacy of allogeneic stem cell therapeutics. This is encouraging market players to launch new product lines to stimulate the overall product demand for stem or regenerative therapy using allogeneic stem cell therapeutics and provide better options for their customers. Thus, new product approvals are expected to drive market growth during the forecast period.

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Major Five Allogeneic Stem Cells Market Companies:

Biosolution Co. Ltd.

Biosolution Co. Ltd. is headquartered in South Korea (Republic of Korea) and operates the business under its Unified business segment. The company offers an allogeneic keratinocyte spread medication, Keraheal-Allo, that promotes skin regeneration.

Cynata Therapeutics Ltd.

Cynata Therapeutics Ltd. is engaged in the discovery, development, licensing, manufacturing, marketing, distribution, and sales of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases. The company provides a mesenchymal stem cell product, Cymerus, which is used to treat graft-versus-host disease.

JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd.

JCR Pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd. is headquartered in Japan and operates under two business segments, namely Pharmaceuticals, and Medical Devices and Laboratory Equipment. The company offers a regenerative medical product, TEMCELL HS Injection, which uses human mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of acute graft-versus-host disease.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics Inc.

Lineage Cell Therapeutics Inc. is headquartered in the US and offers products through its Unified business segment. The company provides OpRegen, which is currently being tested in a Phase I/IIa clinical trial. This product is intended for the treatment of dry AMD.

MEDIPOST Co. Ltd.

MEDIPOST Co. Ltd. is headquartered in South Korea (Republic of Korea) and offers products through its Unified business segment. The company provides an allogeneic umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cell drug, CARTISTEM, which is used for the treatment of knee cartilage defects.

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Allogeneic Stem Cells Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2020-2024)

Allogeneic Stem Cells Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2020-2024)

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Related Reports on Health Care include:

Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics Market Global Cancer Stem Cell Therapeutics Market by type (allogeneic stem cell transplant and autologous stem cell transplant) and geography (Asia, Europe, North America, and ROW).

About Technavio

Technavio is a leading global technology research and advisory company. Their research and analysis focus on emerging market trends and provides actionable insights to help businesses identify market opportunities and develop effective strategies to optimize their market positions.

With over 500 specialized analysts, Technavios report library consists of more than 17,000 reports and counting, covering 800 technologies, spanning across 50 countries. Their client base consists of enterprises of all sizes, including more than 100 Fortune 500 companies. This growing client base relies on Technavios comprehensive coverage, extensive research, and actionable market insights to identify opportunities in existing and potential markets and assess their competitive positions within changing market scenarios.

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Global Allogeneic Stem Cells Market 2020-2024 | Evolving Opportunities with Biosolution Co. Ltd. and Cynata Therapeutics Ltd. | Technavio - Business...

Aspen Neuroscience, a new biotech company, has raised $6.5 million to develop cell therapies for Parkinsons disease using patients own cells.

The company was co-founded by renowned stem cell scientists Jeanne F. Loring, PhD, and Andres Bratt-Leal, PhD, and initially supported by Summit for Stem Cell, a non-profit organization that provides a variety of services for Parkinsons patients.

Parkinsons hallmark motor symptomsinclude tremor, slowness of movement (bradykinesia), stiffness (rigidity), uncontrollable movements (dyskinesia), and poor balance.

As the disease progresses, patients typically need to gradually increase their dopaminergic therapeutic dose for maximum benefit. Even after that they might sometimes experience reappearance or worsening of symptoms due to diminishing effects of dopaminergic therapy, known was off periods.

Importantly, dopaminergic therapy is delivered to areas of the brain other than the striatum, a key motor control region severely affected in Parkinsons disease. Because of the therapys off-target behavior, patients also may experience side effects such as hallucinations or cognitive impairment.

Aspen wants to combine its expertise in stem cell biology, genomics and neurology and develop the first autologous (self) stem cell-based therapy for Parkinsons disease.

In this type of cell therapy, a patients own cells (usually skin cells) are reprogrammed back into a stem cell-like state, which allows the development of an unlimited source of almost any type of human cell needed, including dopamine-producing neurons, which are those mainly affected by this disorder.

Because these cells are derived from patients, they do not carry the risk of being rejected once re-implanted, eliminating the need for immunosuppressive complementary therapies, which carry serious side effects such as infections and possibly limiting therapeutic potential.

In theory, replacing lost dopaminergic neurons with new stem cell-derived dopamine-producing ones could potentially ease or reverse motor symptoms associated with the disease.

Aspen is developing a restorative, disease modifying autologous neuron therapy for people suffering from Parkinsons disease, Howard J. Federoff, MD, PhD, Aspens CEO, said in a press release.

We are fortunate to have such a high-caliber scientific and medical leadership team to make our treatments a reality. Our cell replacement therapy, which originated in the laboratory of Dr. Jeanne Loring and was later supported by Summit for Stem Cell and its President, Ms. Jenifer Raub, has the potential to release dopamine and reconstruct neural networks where no disease-modifying therapies exist, Federoff said.

The companys lead product (ANPD001) is undergoing investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies for the treatment of sporadic Parkinsons disease. Aspen experts also are developing a gene-editing treatment (ANPD002) for familial forms of Parkinsons, starting with the most common genetic variant in the GBAgene, which provides instructions to make the enzyme beta-glucocerebrosidase.

The new seed funding round was led by Domain Associates and Axon Ventures, with additional participation from Alexandria Venture Investments, Arch Venture Partners, OrbiMed and Section 32, according to the press release.

With over three years of experience in the medical communications business, Catarina holds a BSc. in Biomedical Sciences and a MSc. in Neurosciences. Apart from writing, she has been involved in patient-oriented translational and clinical research.

Total Posts: 208

Ana holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Lisbon and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Instituto de Medicina Molecular (iMM) in Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated with a BSc in Genetics from the University of Newcastle and received a Masters in Biomolecular Archaeology from the University of Manchester, England. After leaving the lab to pursue a career in Science Communication, she served as the Director of Science Communication at iMM.

Read more:
Aspen Neuroscience Receives $6.5M for Parkinson's Stem Cell Therapy - Parkinson's News Today

Welcome back to Worth It, a bi-weekly breakdown of the new beauty products Ive tested and adored: Im talking that drain-it-to-the-bottom-and-tell-my-friends-Ive-found-The-One kind of love. If it's featured here, consider this my permission to splurge on it. Read on for the product you dont want to live without, and catch up on the latest Worth It breakdown here.

Courtesy

The Cream

$170.00

When you try The Cream, it comes at a price. You know, not your soul or an Infinity Gauntlet situation, but it's hefty nonetheless: $265 for 50 mls of the world-famous lotion. That said, its a skincare nerds dream. Bader, a professor and director of Applied Stem Cell Biology and Cell Technology at the University of Leipzig in Germany, is considered the top scientist in the world on the subject of regenerative tissue. His work, particularly his extensive studies on disfiguring burns and wound healing, led him to create the illustrious cream: The formulas secret is its TFC8 (Trigger Factor Complex 8), a proprietary blend that the brand says will activate the bodys own stem cells to promote major anti-aging benefits like minimized lines, even tone, and redness-reduction.

Ive been aware of the product's cult-status for years, but I honestly just tried it for shits-and-gigs. My skin is typically easily managed: I get ruddy and dry, and I tend to develop tiny, under-the-skin bumps on my cheeks after I sleep on hotel sheets (should I forget my Slip pillowcase). On rare occasions, Ill wake up with a pimple thats so mountainous and painful that I wonder if I contracted staph on the F train. But for the most part, I have good skin, and Im grateful for it. Thats why I typically seek out products that impart glowiness and hydration rather than something to totally overhaul my facebut that's exactly what The Cream claims to do.

Despite my dry skin type, I chose the original formula rather than the Rich Cream (I prefer lighter textures when it comes to moisture). I also didnt adhere to the proper instructions: Bader recommends using it for 27 days, minimum, with no additional skincare products except for cleanser, but I couldnt bring myself to abandon the rest of my arsenal. Instead, I used this as my last step in both my morning and evening routines.

My makeup went on smoothly in the mornings, but my off-dry skin never felt truly quenched before bed unless I applied a hydrating serum underneath. Meh. Yet, after about three weeks, I started to receive an onslaught of complexion compliments. I guess I havent looked as red recently, I thought. And I didnt have any active pimples, so I didnt think much of it. Ill take a good skin week anytime.

But one morning, mid-glam, I realized Id forgotten to apply both foundation and concealer and had gone straight for my Nudestix blush stick. I genuinely couldnt tell if Id put my complexion makeup on. Peter Parker getting stuck to the ceiling on his first morning as Spiderman? Same level of confusion. I took a closer look, skeptical. Do I look amazing?

Rather than that translucent, un-plump look my skin usually has in the morning, it appeared stronger, almost thicker. My fair tone was even and clear, and my typical little dark circles were nowhere to be found, seemingly buried underneath my reinforced complexion.

I do. I look fucking amazing.

I suddenly felt invinciblelike my own more stunning evil twin, or a supervillain whod traded their lovers heart for immense power and was rewarded with that golden, CGI glow-from-within that comes with Marvel-sanctioned immortality. I was transformed, and the expensive blue bottle on my dresser was the precious source of my new supremacy.

Ive been using The Cream ever since (about three months now) and my complexion has a whole new baseline. When people ask if it's really worth it, rather than offer a cheaper alternative like I typically do with products this expensive, I answer: This shit is wild.

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Augustinus Bader's The Cream Review - MarieClaire.com

In a process similar to 3D printing, it is possible to artificially create tissues by using cells and biomaterials. Bioprinting has allowed scientists to create organoids, meat, skin and bones. Researchers from Brazil have now bioprinted, mini-livers that can perform all the functions of a liver.

The printed organoid can produce vital proteins, store vitamins, secrete bile, and all the other functions that are carried out by a liver. Researchers from the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL) at the University of So Paulo (USP) can create the miniature liver in just 90 days.

Researchers in their study published in the journal, Biofabrication used various bioengineering techniques to come up with a new method to print organoids. Normally, bioprinting uses bioink made up of cells and other biomaterials to print tissues layer-by-layer just like 3D printing.

Instead of just cells, researchers used clumps of cell, which they called spheroids in the bioink. The use of spheroids substantially extended the life of organoids, compared to previous studies, as they were able to avoid the gradual loss of contact between cells.

SEE ALSO: Researchers Have Found A Way To Print Complex Living Tissue In A Matter Of Minutes

By reprogramming blood cells obtained from three people, researchers created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The stem cells are then transformed into hepatocytes, vascular cells, and mesenchymal cells that make up the hepatic tissues of the liver. The spheroids, consisting of these cells are then mixed with a hydrogel-like fluid to make the bioink that can be used to create liver organoids.

The director of HUG-CELL, Mayana Zatz explained, In the very near future, instead of waiting for an organ transplant, it may be possible to take cells from the patient and reprogram them to make a new liver in the laboratory. Another important advantage is zero probability of rejection, given that the cells come from the patient.

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Image Credit: Daniel Antonio/Agncia Fapesp

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Researchers Have 3D-Printed A Functional Miniature Liver - Mashable India