“Latest Stem Cells News”

It was stunning to see them closed inside of those plastic bubbles, kept far from all external contact because their immune system does not react against any foreign antigens. Today scientists can say that ADA-SCID (adenosine deaminase deficiency), a serious combined immunodeficiency caused due to a lack of the adenosine deaminase enzyme, has been definitively defeated by gene therapy developed at San Raffaele of Milan.

The final study, which combined the conclusions of clinical studies, which began in 2000 on strategic therapies developed by the HSR-TIGET (San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy) group, led by Maria Grazia Roncarolo and Alessandro Aiuti, and was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The British mega-brand Virgin has launched a stem-cell bank in Qatar. The country has lofty goals of becoming the world leader in stem cell technologies, and unlike in the West, Qatar does not face some of the ethical issues surrounding stem-cell research.

It was a lavish launch for the opening of Qatar’s new research center that brought out billionaire Richard Branson and Qatar’s royal family to the country’s new Science and Technology Park.

Branson came to Qatar to open the Virgin Health Bank, the first in the region that collects stem cells from the umbilical cord blood of newborns.

“Qatar is a trusting exciting country, it has leaders with great vision,” Branson said.

The sprawling new science center is part of the leaders’ ambitious plans to make this small Gulf state the center for medical research and innovation. Virgin’s plan is to store umbilical-cord stem cells after a mother has given birth.

A portion of those stem cells will be banked for that infant’s future use in the event of medical needs. The remainder will be stored at a national public center for research and use by any patient with a matching tissue type. Cord-blood stem cells are used to treat leukemia as well as other blood-related illnesses.

It has been about 8 years since Salsabil, the first Palestinia baby suffering congenital immunodeficiency (Ada-Scid), has been healed using gene therapy. And it has been about 7 years since her story to Abdul Rahim’s one, a Pakistani baby born in the end of 2006 in Qatar.
His parents did lose 3 children because of Ada-Scid, and Abdul’s case is one of the most symbolic.
Just after his birth doctors did diagnose his illness and succeeded to healt his pneumonia during his first days of life.
So Abdul’s parents and doctors who were follow him contacted the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy (Hsr-Tiget), starting files to bring him in Italy.