ITALY – Study: Italy furthest behind in the world for stem cell research

Posted on 8 May 2013 by Stem Man

: Image by pablocanateam via Flickr

Research in Italy, in the coming years, will suffer much more compared to research in other countries, because, explained a study on the future of biomedical research in Italy described yesterday in Siena by Stefano Palumbo, “the national debate on bioethical issues will continue to be affected by pre-established ideological positions, and often, will be aimed at imposing limits on scientific research”.

Due to the overwhelming “majority of Catholic members in the National Bioethics Committee, Italy will be,” according to the study, “the most conservative country in the world regarding stem cells,” which will result in great delays in finding treatments for serious diseases like “diabetes, Parkinson’s, cancer, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s”.

Between 2009 and 2015, Italian research will be affected by the economic crisis, and, according to the study, which was financed by the MPS Foundation and Siena Biotech, “will also be affected by the crisis in the pharmaceutical sector, resulting from the expiration of patents and the inability to replace products whose patents have expired with new products”. According to the experts, Italian research groups will be increasingly dependent on international financing.

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Neuron function damaged by Huntington’s restored by stem cells

Posted on 9 April 2013 by Stem Man

Researchers from South Korea, Sweden, and the United States have collaborated on a project to restore neuron function to parts of the brain damaged by Huntington’s disease (HD) by successfully transplanting HD-induced pluripotent stem cells into animal models.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be genetically engineered from human somatic cells such as skin, and can be used to model numerous human diseases. They may also serve as sources of transplantable cells that can be used in novel cell therapies. In the latter case, the patient provides a sample of his or her own skin to the laboratory.

In the current study, experimental animals with damage to a deep brain structure called the striatum (an experimental model of HD) exhibited significant behavioral recovery after receiving transplanted iPS cells. The researchers hope that this approach eventually could be tested in patients for the treatment of HD.

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UC Davis stem cell researchers awarded $53 million

Posted on 30 July 2012 by Stem Man

UC Davis Health System researchers who are working to speed therapies to patients suffering from critical limb ischemia, osteoporosis and Huntington’s disease received approval today for three separate research grants from the state’s stem cell agency totaling more than $53 million. Each of the research studies that can now begin at UC Davis are specifically designed to lead to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of human clinical trials using stem cells and regenerative therapies.

At today’s meeting of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in San Francisco, the agency’s 29-member governing board approved five other grant proposals as part of its $150 million Disease Team Research Awards program. Funding goes to a highly select group of scientific collaborations to accelerate the state’s most promising stem cell research.

“Today’s Disease Team awards reflect the expertise and experience that UC Davis brings to the world of regenerative medicine,” said Jan Nolta, professor of internal medicine and director of the UC Davis Stem Cell Program and its Institute for Regenerative Cures in Sacramento. “Our teams are as eager as patients and families themselves to begin the type of clinical research that will allow us to discover new therapies and cures for people suffering from chronic and life-debilitating diseases. These generous grants allow our researchers to focus as never before on finding the best answers to the most challenging questions in regenerative medicine.”

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Stem Cell Technology to fight Huntington’s Disease

Posted on 8 July 2012 by Stem Man

Scientists at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes and an international team of researchers have generated a human model of Huntington’s disease — directly from the skin cells of patients with the disease.

For years, scientists have studied Huntington’s disease primarily in post-mortem brain tissue or laboratory animals modified to mimic the disease. Today, in Cell Stem Cell, the international team shows how they developed a human model of Huntington’s disease, which causes a diverse range of neurological impairments. The new model should help scientists better understand the development of Huntington’s — and provide better ways to identify and screen potential therapeutics for this devastating disease.

This new model comes at a time of concentrated federal efforts to accelerate solutions for diseases — including a number of debilitating conditions that touch only small percentages of the population. Last year, the National Institutes of Health consolidated its efforts to attack rare diseases under the new National Center for Translational Sciences.

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ITALY – Como, scientific summit on embryonic stem cells

Posted on 27 October 2011 by Stem Man

: Image via Wikipedia

Summit at Lake Como with 100 European stem cell experts.
At the summit, 16 research teams part of the Neurostemcell consortium that have been working for months on finding treatments for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease met. The network, coordinated by Elena Cattaneo, Director of Unistem, the interdepartmental stem cell research centre of the University of Milan, met on April 1 in Bellagio, on the shores of Lake Como for their first annual meeting.

“The meeting is an opportunity to discuss the results obtained until now and to refine our methods,” explained Cattaneo, who pointed out the objective of the project, which is financed by the EU with 12 million euros: “Compares all stem cells and evaluates them as a potential tool for treatments for Huntington’s and Parkinson’s diseases.” The researchers, from various European laboratories, continued the specialist, “must work to institute stem cells to develop into neurons that die in individuals with Parkinson’s and Huntington’s. The strategy is to take immature stem cells and to push them in a specific direction, rebuilding the codes, or transcription factors of genes and proteins in the laboratory.

The stock of stem cells that we have available today is ample, observed Cattaneo. There are reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells (Ips), adult stem cells, and embryonic stem cells “which particularly fascinate me”. In Cattaneo’s view, for the two neurodegenerative diseases that are the focus of the project, “embryonic stem cells have a strong ability to produce neurons. We are not talking about treatment. These cells are exceptional because they mainly have the ability to receive messages that you send them. With adult stem cells, it does not exactly work in the same way, it seems that they do not have the same abilities to be manipulated.” Embryonic stem cells, concluded a smiling Cattaneo, “are wide awake. It is more satisfying working with them”.

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