“Latest Stem Cells News”

BioMedReports: There has been some talk about the upcoming opening of your new state-of-the-art facility. Can you tell us about that?

CEO Matthew L. Schissler: We always try to focus on three core goals and in 2010 we are opening our new state of the art laboratory. One of those three core goals is the diversification of revenue streams. Not only will we have our own organic growth engine, by processing and storing for our own company, but we recently entered into a letter of agreement to process and store for another very successful stem cell company. That’s going to be the flavor for 2010 and onward- diversification of revenue streams by using our new facility to its full capacity. The other goal is continued growth- like we saw mention of when we announced in late 2009 when we signed an agreement with a national labor association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. That’s how we’ll grow some more, through the insurance companies. And finally, we’re going to be very focused on acquisitions. In fact, I’ll tell you that in 2010 we have a voracious appetite for acquisitions. With the economy the way it is, a lot of stem cell companies are struggling and we’ve been very fortunate to have our company go in the right direction by reducing debt and raising capital. We feel it’s a very good time for us to make some acquisitions and so we’re going to be very focused on that this year.

BioMedReports: So I would imagine that these acquisitions are somehow related to the goal of increasing your revenue streams in some way?

CEO Matthew L. Schissler: The overall goal in our mission statement is to not only become the world’s number one most respected stem cell company but also to be the largest as well. As we say in our mission statement, the world’s globally dominant stem cell storage company and so, those acquisitions will be in related fields, but I can’t say too much but it’s all about cryogenic preservation of stem cells and other forms of biologics.

A SURGEON from Oxford who led a pioneering heart operation in Greece has demanded to be allowed to do it on the NHS.

Prof Stephen Westaby, who works at the John Radcliffe Hospital, spoke out after leading a surgical team in Greece who used a combination of an artificial heart and stem cells to save the life of a dying man.

‘I am very frustrated that all the work that I have done back home in the UK has to be translated into patient care in other countries’
Stephen Westaby

It is thought to be the the first time the combination has been used.

Greek patient Ioannis Manolopoulos was fitted with the mechanical pump in Thessaloloniki because his heart was too weak.

Surgeons then injected his heart with six million of his own stem cells to repair the damage.

Prof Westaby is professor of biomedical sciences at the John Radcliffe Hospital, and has pioneered the use of Jarvic pumps in patients suffering heart failure.

But the NHS does not routinely pay for the treatment, and Prof Westaby relies on charity funding, or travels abroad to implant pumps in countries where governments are prepared to fund the £60,000 devices.

He said: “I am very frustrated that all the work that I have done back home in the UK has to be translated into patient care in other countries.

“We have helped to develop programmes in France, Greece and Japan. It’s time we did it in the UK.”

He said heart pumps could save 12,000 lives each year.

The ‘White Room’ at Meyer pediatric hospital in Florence needs to complete a few more procedures to become completely functional. This stem cell and cellular product ‘factory’ will allow cells to be manipulated for therapies used in bone marrow treatments against leukemia and tumors and in reconstructive medicine to reproduce bone, cartilage, fat, and nervous tissue in metabolic and neurological diseases and treatments for serious autoimmune disorders.

“The certification procedures are very long,” explained the head of transfusions and cellular therapy, Franco Bambi, “because we will be considered a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility, but we are planning to finish the procedures by the end of the year.” The facility is made up of three laboratories, including a quarantine area, a sterilization and decontamination lab, a filter area and as a cryopreservation lab, which will store cells and tissues in containers with liquid nitrogen at -193 degrees. This morning the White Room was given a 300 thousand dollar donation collected from 15,000 Unicoop Florence and Coop members.
The check was delivered this morning by the president of the Unicoop Florence management council Golfredo Biancalani to the president of the Meyer Foundation and the commissioner of pediatrics Tommaso Langiano.

Already 1,500 Coop members have visited the White Room at Meyer after making their donation. Yesterday morning 35 Unicoop sectional presidents were taken on a guided visit by Doctor Franco Bambi together with Regional Health Councilman Enrico Rossi, Meyer President Tommaso Langiano, Unicoop Florence management council president Goffredo Biancalani, and president of the Medical Department at the University of Florence Gianfranco Gensini. “Citizens know that when faced with an important health-care problem, our system is capable of responding,” commented councilman Rossi during the delivery of the check to Meyer by Unicoop Florence. “Initiatives like this one make citizens more involved in their health-care.”

At the event, the ‘Meyermeo’ experimental project for TV and radio for the children at Meyer, done by the students of the Florence art institute and coordinated by director Giovanni Micoli, was also inaugurated.

In the upcoming weeks, all of the hospital rooms will be given multimedia stations, radio ethernet in every room, and areas where videos will be played in playrooms for the children and in the oncohematology unit.
The White Room at Meyer, which should be fully functioning by the end of the year, is already working on several activities. Today, the stem cell manufacturing facility directed by Franco Bimbi received bone marrow from a donor in Honolulu, which was used in a transplant in a child with leukemia.
The marrow arrived to the cellular therapy laboratory through the international donor registry and was requested by Meyer’s oncohematology unit directed by Maurizio Aricò, who currently is treating a patient for leukemia.

At San Timoteo di Termoli Hospital, everything is in place to begin collecting stem cells, announced the Molise Regional Health Agency (ASREM) of Termoli-Larino, adding that as agreed with the pediatrics unit of the hospital, the collection of stem cells to be used for topical use, mainly in pseudoarthrosis, will begin. Computer records and a network will be created and shared with the regional health care facilities for all transfusions. For the health agency, this is an ambitious project, which will involve the entire team from the transfusion centre, which will collaborate with Regional Executive Health President Spagnuolo in an effort to continue to improve on the services provided.

After Barack Obama’s victory in the U.S. presidential elections, the economic community, in the middle of a recession and the worst financial crisis in the past decades, continues to hold its breath. The Democrat’s victory induce change and potentially more difficult times for the energy, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, and defense sectors, while the biotechnology and alternative energy sectors could be strengthened by the outcome of the elections. Obama has promised to increase investments in wind and solar energy and to spend 150 billion dollars in 10 years to hasten the development of hybrid automobiles and to increase the use of alternative energy on an “industrial scale”.