“Latest Stem Cells News”

The Governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the State Stem Cell Agency, approved a $25 million award to support the first FDA-approved clinical trial based on cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.

The award to Menlo Park-based Geron, Corp, will support the company’s on-going early phase trial for people with spinal cord injury. This is the first time the agency, which was created by the passage of proposition 71 in 2004, has funded a human clinical trial testing a stem cell-derived therapy.

“Supporting the Geron trial is a landmark step for CIRM,” said Robert Klein, CIRM chairman. “However, we must remember that there will be successes and interim failures as human trials proceed through the refinements necessary to achieve a successful human therapy. We need to be prepared to stand by the heroic patients and the companies as they face these challenges and solve the problems that stand in the way of the recovery of patients from paralysis. When the people of California voted for proposition 71 they did so with the hope of seeing new therapies for disabling diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and other chronic diseases and injuries. By funding this trial, CIRM is taking a major step toward making that hope a reality. ”

The initial phase of the trial will include just a small number of people with recent spinal cord injuries who will receive injections of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells derived from embryonic stem cells into the site of the injury. In animal models, those cells mature into oligodendrocytes, which produce the insulating layer surrounding neurons. The initial phase of the three-year project is designed to test whether the cells are safe. Later phases will include different levels of spinal cord injury and will test increasing doses of the cells. One person has already received injections of the cells at a clinical trial site in Georgia. Stanford University Medical Center is another of the trial locations.

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A gene called SOX2 acts as a stem cell gatekeeper – only cells expressing it have the potential to become neurons.

Early in embryonic development, the neural crest – a transient group of stem cells – gives rise to parts of the nervous system and several other tissues. But little is known about what determines which cells become neurons and which become other cell types. A team led by Dr. Alexey Terskikh at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) recently found that expression of a gene called SOX2 maintains the potential for neural crest stem cells to become neurons in the peripheral nervous system, where they interface with muscles and other organs. Their results, published online May 5 by the journal Cell Stem Cell, could help better inform therapies aimed at neurocristopathies, diseases caused by defects in the neural crest or neurons, which include microphthalmia and CHARGE syndrome.

The SOX2 gene encodes a transcription factor, a type of protein that switches other genes on or off. SOX2 is one of two key genes researchers use to generate induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are capable of differentiating into all cell types for research and potential therapeutic applications.

“In this study, we looked at SOX2’s role in cells of the peripheral nervous system and discovered that it’s required to sustain multipotency – the ability to differentiate into several cell types in the peripheral nervous system, including neurons and glia,”

…explained Dr. Terskikh, assistant professor in Sanford-Burnham’s Del E. Webb Neuroscience, Aging and Stem Cell Research Center.

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Stem cells extracted from body fat may pave the way for the development of new regenerative therapies including soft tissue reconstruction following tumor removal or breast mastectomy surgery, the development of tissue-engineered cartilage or bone, and the treatment of cardiovascular disease.

An interdisciplinary team of Queen’s University researchers led by Dr. Lauren Flynn, a professor in the Departments of Chemical Engineering and Anatomy and Cell Biology, has been working with stem cells extracted from samples of human fat and is developing new methods in the lab to develop these cells into mature tissue substitutes.

While stem cells extracted from fat cannot be grown into as many different types of cells as embryonic stem cells, they do have a number of advantages.

“The advantages include less ethical controversy, abundant cell availability from discarded tissues from elective surgeries like breast reductions and tummy tucks, and a much reduced possibility for immune rejection when re-implanting cells extracted from a person’s own fat,” explains Dr. Juares Bianco, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Human Mobility Research Centre (HMRC) who is working in the Flynn lab group.

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Stanford University’s Faculty Senate today approved the creation of what officials believe is the first PhD program devoted solely to stem cell science in the nation and, perhaps, the world. The new doctoral program in stem cell biology and regenerative medicine is also the first interdisciplinary doctoral program created by the School of Medicine in recent years.

School officials say the fact that the university is taking the rare step of creating a new doctoral program acknowledges the growing importance of stem cell research in the realm of biomedical science. The senate’s initial approval of the program extends for five years.

“Stem cell biology is a distinct discipline that requires unique skills and includes a scope of knowledge and a skill set that is not covered by other disciplines,” said Renee Reijo Pera, PhD, professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of the new PhD program.

Program leaders note that Stanford is among a small number of U.S. universities that have the necessary ingredients to create a doctoral program teaching the full range of stem cell science. They add that although a few other schools have recently established PhD programs involving stem cell biology, Stanford is the first to create a free-standing doctoral program dedicated solely to stem cell biology and regenerative medicine.

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Larry Goldstein, the director of the stem cell programme at the University of California in San Diego, explains to Al Jazeera the implications of this decision that now allows government funding for human embryonic stem cell research.

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Another project is added to the controversial law that could be adopted this year to regulate all matters relating to the conservation and use of stem cells. MPP deputy Alvaro Vega drives its nationalization.

The Frente Amplio (FA) reopened the file a bill that allows the conservation and use of newborn stem cells to cure genetic diseases.

Rep. Alvaro Vega (MPP) told El Pais that the initiative is a priority in the Health Commission, so that from the FA will promote parliamentary approval this year.

The bill for the “collection and use of human tissues and cells” must be based on that passed the Senate in 2009, during the last legislature, at the initiative of former Senator Alberto Cid. Then the project was delayed in Parliament.

The new project will maintain the express prohibition not to use human embryos to obtain stem cells. That eventual management of the embryo was controversial and sparked international criticism from the Church by colliding with the right to life. There is currently a legal vacuum regarding a possible use of surplus embryos from assisted reproduction treatment.

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