Tag Archives: University of Michigan

Feds approve University of Michigan stem cell line

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Line is first from U-M accepted to the U.S. National Institutes of Health registry, now available for federally-funded research

The University of Michigan’s first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry.

The line, known as UM4-6, is a genetically normal line, derived in October 2010 from a cluster of about 30 cells removed from a donated five-day-old embryo roughly the size of the period at the end of this sentence. That embryo was created for reproduction but was no longer needed for that purpose and was therefore about to be discarded.

“This is significant, because acceptance of these cells on the registry demonstrates our attention to details of proper oversight, consenting, and following of NIH guidelines established in 2009,” says Gary Smith, Ph.D., who derived the line and also is co-director of the U-M Consortium for Stem Cell Therapies, part of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute.

“It now makes the line available to researchers who can apply for federal funding to use it in their work; this is an important step.”

The line is the culmination of years of planning and preparation and was made possible by Michigan voters’ November 2008 approval of a state constitutional amendment permitting scientists here to derive embryonic stem cell lines using surplus embryos from fertility clinics or embryos with genetic abnormalities and not suitable for implantation.

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Driver of breast cancer stem cell metastasis

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Living Well Beyond Breast Cancer: A Survivor's Guide for When Treatment Ends and the Rest of Your Life Begins

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that a cancer gene linked to aggressive spread of the disease promotes breast cancer stem cells. The finding implies a new way to target the behavior of these lethal cells.

The finding involves the cancer gene RhoC, which has previously been shown to promote metastasis of many types of cancer. RhoC levels increase as breast cancer progresses and high levels of RhoC are associated with worse patient survival.

Cancer stem cells are the small number of cells within a tumor that are believed to fuel the tumor’s growth and spread. Researchers believe traditional chemotherapy and radiation treatments often become ineffective because they do not kill the cancer stem cells, and that the key to future treatments is to develop drugs that target and kill these cells.

This new study, which appears online in PLoS ONE, suggests a new way to get at the cancer stem cells.

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Policies aimed at curtailing embyronic stem cell research would also hurt iPS cell research, expert finds

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Stanford University

Any legislation that slows human embryonic stem cell research is likely to also seriously harm the study of induced pluripotent stem cells, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, the Mayo Clinic and the University of Michigan.

The finding strongly refutes the idea that embryonic stem cell research can be abandoned in favor of the less-controversial iPS cells, which are derived from adult human tissue.

“If federal funding stops for human embryonic stem cell research, it would have a serious negative impact on iPS cell research,” said Stanford bioethicist Christopher Scott, citing a “false dichotomy” between the cell types. “We may never be able to choose between iPS and ES cell research because we don’t know which type of cell will be best for eventual therapies.”

Scott, who directs Stanford’s Stem Cells in Society Program, is the first author of the study, which compared the patterns of scientific publication on human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells. The study was published in the June 10 issue of Cell.

The researchers also concluded that human embryonic stem cell research does not siphon federal funding away from studies of iPS cells, as has been claimed by the two plaintiffs in an ongoing Washington, D.C., district court case under consideration by Judge Royce Lamberth. Instead, studies of the two types of stem cells are likely to occur in tandem as established embryonic stem cell researchers rush to buffer themselves against a possible loss of federal funding.

“We’re finding that scientific decisions are being made not because of science, but in response to other constraints, such as which cell types qualify for federal funding, how many lines are available and which can be obtained quickly and easily,” said Scott.

As a result, the fields have become so tightly intertwined as to be inseparable; any loss of funding for these researchers will negatively impact all the work in their labs, including iPS cell research, Scott and his colleagues conclude.

Unlike embryonic stem cells, which are derived from human embryos, iPS cells can be created from adult tissue such as skin cells. They look and act like embryonic stem cells, but recent research has suggested that there are significant differences between the two cell types that may affect how they can be used for research and eventual human therapies.

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Stem-cell-growing surface enables bone repair

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University of Michigan researchers have proven that a special surface, free of biological contaminants, allows adult-derived stem cells to thrive and transform into multiple cell types. Their success brings stem cell therapies another step closer.

To prove the cells’ regenerative powers, bone cells grown on this surface were then transplanted into holes in the skulls of mice, producing four times as much new bone growth as in the mice without the extra bone cells.

An embryo’s cells really can be anything they want to be when they grow up: organs, nerves, skin, bone, any type of human cell. Adult-derived “induced” stem cells can do this and better. Because the source cells can come from the patient, they are perfectly compatible for medical treatments.

In order to make them, Paul Krebsbach, professor and chair of biological and materials sciences at the U-M School of Dentistry, said, “We turn back the clock, in a way. We’re taking a specialized adult cell and genetically reprogramming it, so it behaves like a more primitive cell.”

Specifically, they turn human skin cells into stem cells. Less than five years after the discovery of this method, researchers still don’t know precisely how it works, but the process involves adding proteins that can turn genes on and off to the adult cells.

Before stem cells can be used to make repairs in the body, they must be grown and directed into becoming the desired cell type. Researchers typically use surfaces of animal cells and proteins for stem cell habitats, but these gels are expensive to make, and batches vary depending on the individual animal.

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Neuralstem gets FDA OK for Stem cell trial for ALS treatment

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Neuralstem Inc. has received the green light to begin the first human stem cell trial to treat Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The company’s stock soared on the news.

Neuralstem has only received approval for the first stage of the trial that would consist of 12 patients who will receive stem cell injections in the lumbar area of the spinal cord.

Neuralstem said the trial will be under the direction of principal investigator Dr. Eva L. Feldman, Director of the University of Michigan Health System ALS Clinic and the Program for Neurology Research & Discovery. Feldman called the trial a major step forward in the treatment of ALS. “In work with animals, these spinal cord stem cells both protected at-risk motor neurons and made connections to the neurons controlling muscles. We don’t want to raise expectations unduly, but we believe these stem cells could produce similar results in patients with ALS,” Dr. Feldman said.

from

http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/09/21/daily7.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/americasRegulatoryNews/idUSBNG36053620090921

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