Cell Therapy News articles from May 2003

Cell Therapy News archives from May 2003

BASIC RESEARCH: Don't Sell Them to the Tooth Fairy.
May 1, 2003... Remember those teeth that came out with such trauma when you were a child, and your mama told you to put them under the pillow, and the next morning there was a dollar where your tooth had been? Well, the tooth fairy was ripping you off!...

Stem Cell Maintenance Protein Wnt Isolated.
May 1, 2003... Scientists have finally isolated the first member of a recalcitrant group of proteins called the Wnts- two decades after their discovery. These proteins were suspected to have a role in keeping stem cells in their youthful, undifferentiated...

Mouse Model of Lou Gehrig's Disease.
May 1, 2003... Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG (Fraunhoferstrasse 13, 82152 Martinsried; Tel: +49 89 8565-2300, Fax +49 89 8565-2305; Website: www.ingenium-ag.com) and a coalition of international research organizations have reported in Science results concerning...

EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS: Parthenogenesis Yields Primate Stem Cells.
May 1, 2003... Primate embryos derived parthenogenetically can give rise to embryonic stem cells, according to a study by Jose Cibelli from Advanced Cell Technology (One Innovation Dr., Worcester, MA 01650; Tel: 508/756-1212, Fax: 508/756-0931; Website:...

Making an Egg In Vitro.
May 1, 2003... As reported in New Scientist, embryonic stem cells have been turned into eggs. The feat was achieved with embryonic stem (ES) cells from mice, but the same technique should work in humans. The work was published May 1 in Science online by Hans...

NERVOUS SYSTEM: Stem Cells Treat Mouse MS.
May 1, 2003... Injections of cultured adult brain stem cells help mice with autoimmune encephalomyelitis, a model of multiple sclerosis (MS), recover from paralysis, according to a paper in Nature. Researchers hope that, in future, similar therapies will be...

Stem Cell Neurons Produce Dopamine.
May 1, 2003... 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) claims to have demonstrated functional recovery from the effects of Parkinson's disease in a...

In Vitro "Brain" Powers Robot.
May 1, 2003... An old science fiction film called Donovan's Brain featured a human brain cultured in vitro, which naturally grew despotic and developed paranormal powers over those around it. Now, in real life, researchers are developing a cyborg controlled...

LIVER: Stem Cells Become Hepatocytes.
May 1, 2003... Research at Washington University School of Medicine (660 Euclid Ave, No. 8057, St. Louis, MO; Tel: 314/362-3567) suggests that stem cells from bone marrow or umbilical cord blood may be useful for treating people with liver damage due to...

GROWTH AND DIFFERENTIATION FACTORS How to Grow More Hair.
May 1, 2003... University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI 48109; Tel: 734/764-1817; Website: www.umich.edu) graduate student David Van Mater was looking for skin tumors on his experimental mice one day and was surprised to see that the only new thing growing was...

Gene May Control Retina Development.
May 1, 2003... Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105; Tel: 901/495-3300; Website: www2.stjude.org) have discovered that a gene called Prox1 turns on and off at two different times during the embryonic...

HoxB4 Expression Grows Stem Cells.
May 1, 2003... A discovery by Guy Sauvageau, a researcher in the Institut de recherches cliniques de Montral, and professor at Universit de Montral (P.O. 6128, Downtown Station, Montral, Qubec, H3C 3J7; Tel: 514/343-6111; Website: www.umontreal.ca), could...

CELL-BASED GENE THERAPY: Altering Stem Cells Prevents Diabetes.
May 1, 2003... Researchers at the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) International Center for Immunoregulation at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1G Royal Parade, Parkville Victoria 3050 Australia; Tel: +61 3/9345 2555, Fax:...

Altered Stem Cells Treat Genetic Diseases.
May 1, 2003... Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105; Tel: 901/495-3300; Website: www2.stjude.org) have overcome two major technical obstacles that currently limit the success of gene therapy for human red...

PATENTS: Nasty Battle on the Horizon?
May 1, 2003... Scientists at biotech giant Genzyme (One Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA 02139-1563; Tel: 617/252-7500, Fax: 617/374-7368; Website: genzyme.com), as pointed out by New Scientist, say that Catherine Verfaille's "multipotent adult progenitor cells"...

Mature Oocyte for Efficient Cloning.
May 1, 2003... Geron Corp. (230 Constitution Dr., Menlo Park, CA 94025; Tel: 650/473-7700, Fax: 650/473-7701; Website: www.geron.com) has been issued U.S. Patent 6,548,741, describing an improved method for cloning pigs. The inventors include some of the...

INDUSTRY NEWS: StemPath Spun Out of Ottawa Research.
May 1, 2003... The Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI, 725 Parkdale Ave., Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4E9; Tel: 613/761-4395, Fax: 613/761-4920) has launched a new spin-off company dedicated to researching and developing new stem cell-based therapies for some of...

StemCells Gets More Capital.
May 1, 2003... StemCells, Inc. (3155 Porter Dr., Palo Alto, CA 94304-1213; Tel: 650/475-3100, Fax: 650/475-3101; Website: www.stemcellsinc.com) has demonstrated that venture capital is still out there for the right project. The company has entered into an...

Research Foundation Awards First Grant.
May 1, 2003... The Stem Cell Research Foundation (SCRF) has awarded its first research grant to John D. Gearhart of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine (720 Rutland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21205-2196; Tel: 410/955-5000; Website: www.infonet.welch.jhu.edu)....

Making Massachusetts Safe for Stem Cells.
May 1, 2003... As reported in the Boston Globe, Massachusetts lawmakers are trying to pass a bill that would make Massachusetts a "safe haven" for embryonic stem cell research. Among the proponents, academics spoke of the need to encourage research stalled by...

Research Center to Be Established.
May 1, 2003... A $5 million gift from the Krembil Foundation will help establish the Krembil Centre for Stem Cell Biology at Robarts Research Institute (P.O. Box 5015, 100 Perth Dr., London, Ontario, Canada N6A 5K8; Tel: 519/663-5777; Website: www.rri.ca)....

CALENDAR.
May 1, 2003... May 29-June 1, 2003. Ninth Meeting of the International Society for Cell Therapy (ISCT), Phoenix, AZ. Contact: Tel: 604/874-4366, Fax: 604/874-4378. June 15-19, 2003. Beyond Genome, San Diego, CA. Contact: Cambridge Healthtech Institute;...