Cell Therapy News articles from December 2002

Cell Therapy News archives from December 2002

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: Differentiated ES Cells Cure Diabetic Mice.
December 1, 2002... In a study appearing in the December 10 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305; Tel: 650/723-2300; Website: www.stanford.edu) researchers, led by Seung K. Kim, were able to cause...

BresaGen Acquires ES Cell Rights.
December 1, 2002... BresaGen, Ltd. (P.O. Box 259, Rundle Mall, Adelaide, South Australia 5000; Tel: +61 8 8234 2660, Fax: + 61 8 8234 6268; Website: www.bresagen.com.au) will gain exclusive rights to key intellectual property (IP) clearing the path to for the...

UMBILICAL CORD BLOOD: Patent Issued for Cord Blood Stem Cells.
December 1, 2002... The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a third patent related to cryopreserved stem cells and progenitor cells to PharmaStem Therapeutics, Inc. (formerly BioCyte Corp.) (69 Prospect Ave., Larchmont, NY 10538; Tel:...

New Jersey Bank Ships Its First Unit.
December 1, 2002... The New Jersey Cord Blood Bank (NJCBB), a unit of the Coriell Institute for Medical Research (403 Haddon Ave., Camden, NJ 08103; Tel: 856/757-4826, Fax: 856/964-0254; Website: www.arginine.umdnj.edu), has been approved as a National Marrow...

BONE MARROW: Transplants Appear to Cure Sickle Cell Disease.
December 1, 2002... Pediatric patients with severe sickle cell disease have new reason to hope. Researchers from France, led by Francoise Bernaudin, found an 85% disease-free survival rate in children using myeloablative stem cell transplant and sibling donors,...

Bone Marrow Transplants for Multiple Sclerosis.
December 1, 2002... Mark Freedman, a neurologist at the University of Ottawa (550 Cumberland, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5; Tel: 613/562-5700; Website: www.uottawa.ca), told the Whig Standard, a Kingston, Ontario, newspaper, that bone marrow transplants appears to be...

Adult Stem Cell Technology Licensed.
December 1, 2002... Athersys (11000 Cedar Ave., Cleveland, OH 44106; Tel: 216/231- 9911, Fax: 216/231-0905; Website: www.athersys.com) has acquired exclusive rights to adult stem cell technology discovered by Catherine Verfaillie, professor of medicine and...

KIDNEY: Bioartificial Kidney Treats Acute Patients.
December 1, 2002... In a demonstration of the power of cell therapy to regenerate biological function and facilitate repair of damage and injured tissue, H. David Humes, speaking at the Third Annual Conference on Regenerative Medicine, presented preliminary...

HEART: Trial of Myoblast Therapy Begins.
December 1, 2002... Genzyme Biosurgery (64 Sidney St., Cambridge, MA 02139-4136; Tel: 617/494-8484, Fax: 617/494-6561; Website: www.genzymebiosurgery.com), a division of Genzyme Corp., says that doctors in Paris have treated the first patient enrolled in a Phase 2...

IMMUNE SYSTEM: Fighting T Cells with T Cells.
December 1, 2002... Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (501St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105; Tel: 901/495-3300; Website: www.www2. stjude.org) have invented a possible method to improve treatment of autoimmune diseases and prevent rejection of...

VACCINES: Whole Cell Allogeneic Vaccine for Melanoma.
December 1, 2002... Data published in the Annals of Surgery (Vol. 236, No. 4) indicate that treatment with the experimental CANVAXIN therapeutic cancer vaccine, developed by CancerVax Corp. (2110 Rutherford Rd., Carlsbad, CA 92008; Tel: 760/494-4200, Fax:...

Provenge Delays Cancer Pain.
December 1, 2002... Dendreon Corp. (291 North Bernardo Ave., Mountain View, CA; Tel: 415/964-6744, Fax: 415/964-7023; Website: www.dendreon.com) has released additional results from its first placebo controlled Phase III trial (D9901) of Provenge indicating that,...

GROWTH AND DIFFERENTIATION FACTORS BMP4 Promotes Differentiation.
December 1, 2002... A group of researchers at the University of Wisconsin (500 Lincoln Dr., Madison, WI 53706) led by James A. Thompson has discovered the bone morphogenetic protein four (BMP4) causes human embryonic stem (ES) cells to differentiate to early...

Grant to Create Next IL-11.
December 1, 2002... Bolder BioTechnology, Inc. (4056 Youngfield St., Wheat Ridge, CO 80033; Tel: 303/420-4420, Fax: 303/420-4426) has been awarded a $798,000 Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Cancer Institute of the...

Bone-Building Peptide Drug Approved.
December 1, 2002... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved FORTEO (teriparatide [rDNA origin]injection), from Eli Lilly and Co. (Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, IN 46285; Tel: 317/276- 2000, Fax: 317/277-3354; Website: www.lilly.com) for the...

INSTRUMENTATION: Olympus to Distribute High-Tech Cytometers.
December 1, 2002... CompuCyte Corp. (12 Emily St., Cambridge, MA 02139; Tel: 617/492- 1300, Fax: 617/577-4501; Website: www.compucyte.com) and Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (Shinjuku Monolith, 3-1 Nishi-Shinjuku 2-chome, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 163-0914, Japan; Tel:...

Autologous Platelet Separator Introduced.
December 1, 2002... Medtronic, Inc. (7000 Central Ave. NE, Minneapolis, MN 55432; Tel: 612/514-4000, Fax: 612/514-6272; Website: www.medtronic.com) has announced the commercial release of the Medtronic Magellan Autologous Platelet Separator. The system processes...

BD FACSAria Cell Sorter Launched.
December 1, 2002... BD Biosciences, a business segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company, 1 Becton Dr., Franklin Lakes, NJ 07417-1880; Tel: 201/847-6800, Fax: 201/847-6845; Website: www.bd.com), has commercially launched the new BD FACSAria cell sorter. ...

BioTransplant Ends Eligix Agreement.
December 1, 2002... BioTransplant, Inc. (Building 75, Third Ave., Charlestown Navy Yard, Charlestown, MA 02120; Tel: 617/241-5200, Fax: 617/241-8780) has agreed with Gambro BCT (10811 West Collins Ave., Lakewood, CO 80215; Tel: 303/232-6800; Website:...

DIAGNOSTICS AND ANALYTICS Watching Virus Infection Progress.
December 1, 2002... In color images using time-lapse microscopy, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (Chicago, IL 60612; Tel: 312/996-7000) have captured the very earliest stages of HIV infection in living cells. The researchers filmed individual...

INDUSTRY NEWS: Organogenesis Gets Apligraf Back.
December 1, 2002... Novartis (P.O. Box CH-4002, Basel, Switzerland; Tel: +41 61 324 2476, Fax: 41 61 324-3300; Website: www.novartis.com) has reached an agreement to transfer the worldwide marketing and distribution rights of Apligraf back to now bankrupt...

Ortec International Gets Funds.
December 1, 2002... Hoping to avoid the fate of its bankrupt competitors, Organogenesis and Advanced Tissue Products, Ortec International, Inc. (ORTC, 3690 Broadway, New York, NY; Tel: 212/740-6999, Fax: 212/740-6963; Website: www.ortec.com) has completed an...

Infusion from Fusion for Aastrom.
December 1, 2002... Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (24 Frank Lloyd Wright Dr., P.O. Box 376, Ann Arbor, MI 48106; Tel: 313/930-5555, Fax: 313/665-0485; Website: www.aastrom.com) has entered into a common stock purchase agreement with Fusion Capital Fund II, LLC, a...

States Promote Stem Cell Research.
December 1, 2002... Following on in the path of California, legislators in Massachusetts and New Jersey are sponsoring bills that would support medical research on embryonic stem cells. The measures would establish rules for people who have undergone fertility...

Stanford Establishes Cancer/Stem Cell Center.
December 1, 2002... Stanford University (Stanford, CA 94305; Tel: 650/723-2300; Website: www.stanford.edu) will establish a new Institute for Cancer/Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, a multi-disciplinary initiative that is believed to be the first of its kind in the...

Tissue Scaffolds for Heart Valves.
December 1, 2002... Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (One Edwards Way, Irvine, CA 92614; Tel: 949/250-2806, Fax: 949/250-2248; Website: www.edwards.com) and Cook Biotech, Inc. (P.O. Box 489, Bloomington, IN 47402-0489; Tel: 812/339-2235; Website: www.cookgroup.com) have...

CALENDAR.
December 1, 2002... February 1-5, 2003. 2003 Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium, Miami Beach, FL: Contact: Tel: 305/243-3597; Website: www.med.miami.edu/mnbws March 10-11, 2003. Life Sciences CEO and Investor Forum, Seattle, WA. Contact: Washington...