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Science: The president's Council on Bioethics is summarily dismissed when it disagrees on the need for more federally funded embryonic stem cell research. The scientific method doesn't include firing those who disagree with you.Inspectors general are apparently not the only ones to pay for annoying the White House by doing their job. The 18-member council existed to provide the president with advice on the moral and ethical implications of the rapid advances in science and medical research. It exists no more. The council existed to ponder whether we should do something just because we can. Apparently President Obama wanted not...

Look to the retina as a likely site for the first success in stem-cell therapy. "The eye is the best place to test proof-of-concept for stem cell-based therapies," says Martin Friedlander of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. Friedlander is co-founder of EyeCyte, also in La Jolla, whose investors include industry heavyweight Pfizer. Several laboratories are exploring stem-cell-derived transplants to delay or prevent blindness, and Pfizer recently put up funds for a project nearing human trials at University College London (UCL). Why the eye appeal? As organs go, it is easily accessible, somewhat protected from the immune system's...

Four patients have had holes in their bones patched up using their own stem cells in a pioneering treatment. Doctors carried out the treatment on patients suffering from bone cysts on their hips, who would normally have the spaces plugged with metal plates. Experts said some of those treated were now able to walk without pain. They say more work is needed to take the procedure to the mass market, but predicted that it could be in clinics within five years. It could eventually also be used for hip replacement revisions, the approximately one in 10 such operations which need...

Scientists have been able to reverse the symptoms of multiple sclerosis using stem cells from patients' own body fat. Some have been left free from seizures and better able to walk after the treatment. Researchers said that the results suggest that the "very simple" injection of their own cells can stimulate the regrowth of tissue damaged by the progression of the disease. The preliminary findings add to the growing evidence that stem cells could be used to treat the crippling neurological disease, which affects about 85,000 people in Britain. Last year experts suggested that stem cell therapy could be a...

British scientists are among the world leaders in stem cell research - and their latest discoveries could transform medicine forever We have been told for almost a decade that stem cells are the future of medicine: that these tiny clumps of tissue could become a biological "repair kit", able to regenerate or heal almost any part of the body. But amid all the prophecies of patches for damaged hearts, new nerve cells for spinal injuries or stroke victims, and insulin-producing cells for diabetics, few people predicted that it would be British-based scientists who would be leading the way in mapping...

In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease. Sight was significantly improved within weeks of the procedure, which is simple, inexpensive and requires a minimal hospital stay. The research team from UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences harvested stem cells from patients’ own eyes to rehabilitate the damaged cornea. The stem cells were cultured on a common therapeutic contact lens which was then placed onto the damaged cornea for 10 days, during which the cells were able to...

Here's something that people with poor or no vision will be excited about: three patients had their sight restored in less than a month by contact lenses cultured with stem cells. All three patients were blind in one eye. The researchers extracted stem cells from their working eyes, cultured them in contact lenses for 10 days, and gave them to the patients. Within 10 to 14 days of use, the stem cells began recolonizing and repairing the cornea. Of the three patients, two were legally blind but can now read the big letters on an eye chart, while the third,...

In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease. Sight was significantly improved within weeks of the procedure, which is simple, inexpensive and requires a minimal hospital stay. The research team from UNSW’s School of Medical Sciences harvested stem cells from patients’ own eyes to rehabilitate the damaged cornea. The stem cells were cultured on a common therapeutic contact lens which was then placed onto the damaged cornea for 10 days, during which the cells were able to...

Robert Lanza is now reporting that his research group has produced induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS) that are safe for use in humans. The website, Red Orbit, has provided a link to the original (.pdf)article. See the Time magazine news article, here. Lanza gives credit to the pioneering work of Shinya Yamanaka: Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology (ACT), reported today in the journal Cell that his team has created stem cells using human skin cells and four proteins. The innovation builds on the breakthrough discovery in 2006 by Shinya Yamanaka, who similarly coaxed human skin...

Research using adult stem cells has saved the life of a Texas boy suffering from sickle cell anemia.   Dallas-area residents Joe and Darlene Davis welcomed the news of a pregnancy and later the birth of their first son. Texas Alliance for Life recorded an interview with the couple. "I was very excited to find that I had a son -- but finding out that he had sickle cell anemia, as a nurse I knew there was going to be a lot of problems associated with that disease," Joe said. "The child can have strokes," Darlene also noted. "It can stunt his growth and...

Genetically engineered stem cells from bone marrow showed promise as a potential new way to deliver a cancer-killing protein to tumors, British researchers said on Tuesday. Experiments in cell cultures and in mice showed the adult stem cells — a type known as mesenchymal stem cells — could home in on cancer cells and deliver a lethal protein that attacked only the cancer while sparing normal healthy tissue. “We’ve developed cells which specifically target cancer through the body and deliver an anti-cancer protein to where it is needed in a seek-and-destroy approach,” said Dr. Michael Loebinger of University College London,...

TUESDAY, (HealthDay News) -- Injecting bone marrow cells into the heart's muscular wall restored blood flow to hearts with blocked arteries for which conventional treatments had proven ineffective, Dutch physicians have reported. "I think this is very good news for patients who are at the end of the line and have no options left," said Dr. Douwe E. Atsma, an interventional cardiologist at Leiden University Medical Center and an author of the study, which appears in the May 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The 50 people in the study, 43 of them men, were experiencing...

April 24, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A preliminary study on the use of stem cells obtained from a patient's own adipose tissue in the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) has shown promising results. The three case studies, described in BioMed Central's open access Journal of Translational Medicine support further clinical evaluation of what are known as stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells in MS and other autoimmune conditions. Thomas Ichim, from Medistem Inc., and Dr. Boris Minev, from the Division of Neurosurgery, University of California San Diego, worked with a team of researchers to demonstrate the possible effectiveness of SVF cells in...

Doctors ... removed the stem cells from the patient's bone marrow in the leg, then separated or purified the stem cells and intravenously returned them to the patient within a few hours. Because they are the patient's own stem cells, rejection was not an issue as is the case with embryonic stem cells. "Research shows that stem cells have an instinctive guidance system and migrate to the area of injury. While the stem cells do not produce new brain cells for this patient, they enhance the repair process in the brain and reduce damage," the doctors said in a press...

ONDON, April 15 (Reuters) - A stem-cell repair technique that has already been used to fix hundreds of injured race horses is to be tested for the first time in people with damaged Achilles tendons. Privately owned British biotech firm MedCell Bioscience Ltd said on Wednesday it would start clinical tests within 12 months and planned to run a larger confirmatory study at several European hospitals in 2011. Patients will receive injections containing millions of their own stem cells, which have been extracted and multiplied up in a laboratory, and can regenerate new tissue to repair damaged regions.

Researchers have used injections of patients' own stem cells to reverse the course of type 1 diabetes, reports a research team from the University of São Paulo in Brazil and Northwestern University in Chicago. The findings, published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, exemplify the remarkable gains made by diabetes researchers, who are battling a continuously spreading disease that now affects nearly 8% of adults and children. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.) The research team, led by Dr. Julio Voltarelli of the University of Sao Paulo, is the first to successfully...

A team of UCSF researchers has for the first time used tiny molecules called microRNAs to help turn adult mouse cells back to their embryonic state. These reprogrammed cells are pluripotent, meaning that, like embryonic stem cells, they have the capacity to become any cell type in the body. The findings suggest that scientists will soon be able to replace retroviruses and even genes currently used in laboratory experiments to induce pluripotency in adult cells. This would make potential stem cell-based therapies safer by eliminating the risks posed to humans by these DNA-based methods, including alteration of the genome and...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- A recent appearance by Dr. Mehmet Oz, a cardiovascular surgeon at Columbia University and a regular on Oprah Winfrey's popular eponymous television program, is generating buzz within pro-life circles. During the program, Oz told Americans the truth about embryonic stem cell research.Oz made it clear that the "stem cell debate is dead" mostly in part because embryonic stem cells have yet to catch up to their adult stem cell and iPS cell counterparts.The comments are drawing interest because Oz made them in front of the iconic television personality and embryonic stem cell research advocate Michael J....

Here’s Josh Brahm explaining this “Oprah” spot, in which Dr. Oz comes out against embryonic stem-cell research on scientific grounds (Warning: In it he handles, pokes and slices a real human brain).  Catholics remember sadly that Michael J. Fox was a huge proponent of clone-and-kill stem-cell research. How ironic that President Obama, who claims to want to “follow science” is funding precisely the kind of research that the medical community is abandoning. See Josh Brahm’s essay “9 Things the Media Messed Up About the Obama Stem Cell Story.”On the “Oprah” show, Dr. Mehmet Oz handles the brain of a 50-year-old...

Carbon 14 from Cold War–era nuclear bomb tests allowed researchers to track cell birth By monitoring carbon 14 emitted from Cold War–era nuclear bomb tests, researchers found that heart muscle cells continue to divide throughout adulthood, shows a study appearing in the April 3 Science. The low-level cell renewal may eventually be exploited to treat damaged hearts, says study coauthor Jonas Frisén of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. The finding contradicts the belief of many scientists that the heart muscle cells sticking around until the end were present at birth. “The dogma has always been that cell division in the...

A STEM cell therapy offering “natural” breast enlargement is to be made available to British women for the first time. The treatment could boost cup size while reducing stomach fat. It involves extracting stem cells from spare fat on the stomach or thighs and growing them in a woman’s breasts. An increase of one cup size is likely, with the potential for larger gains as the technique improves. A trial has already started in Britain to use stem cells to repair the breasts of women who have had cancerous lumps removed. A separate project is understood to be the first...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- During his national press conference last night, President Barack Obama claimed to be supportive of ethical alternatives to using embryonic stem cells, namely adult stem cell research. However, he recently issued an executive order to rescind research into more ethical alternatives.Reporter Jon Ward of the Washington Times pointed out to Obama that "science so far has shown a lot of progress with adult stem cells but not a lot with embryonic.""I am glad to see progress is being made in adult stem cells. And if the science determines that we can completely avoid a set...

Obama’s anti-life ideology ... Obama is not opposed to restricting adult stem cell research, because the same executive order which gives funding to embryonic stem cell research takes away funding from adult stem cell research. This is a senseless move on the part of the president; the only stem cell research he is interested in funding is precisely the most dangerous kind, the only kind that a large segment of the population is opposed to on moral grounds, and the only one that has consistently failed to produce the promised ‘miracle cure’ results. If he were really concerned about life-saving...

President Obama Also Kills Bush Executive Order for Adult Stem Cell Research by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor March 10, 2009 Email RSSPrint Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama did more on Monday than just force taxpayers to fund embryonic stem cell research that requires the destruction of human life. He also rescinded an executive order President Bush put into place funding adult stem cells and new research with iPS cells.Obama also rescinded Executive Order 13435 of June 20, 2007.President Bush put that order in place in June 2007 when he vetoed a Congressional measure that would have required embryonic...

CHENNAI: In a heart-warming story of compassion, an Australian donor, a Singapore doctor and a Chennai philanthropist came together to give a student a new lease of life. Vigneshwaran, a 22-year-old Chennai student has been cured of blood cancer through stem cell therapy in Singapore using stem cells of a donor from Australia, thanks to a friend's mother who collected money for the treatment. While Dr Patrick Tan of Mount Elizabeth Hospital successfully carried out the stem cell transplant, the driving force behind the treatment was Shanti Suresh, a friend's mother who managed Rs 1.25 crore (approx. USD 2.5 million)...

CONVENT STATION - Medical research has been moving at such a lightening pace, it almost doesn't seem far off that doctors in the future might tell many of their seriously ill patients, "Take two stem cells and call me in the morning."  That joke, taken from a political cartoon, points to the fact that the rapidly developing field of stem cell research is growing at a breakneck pace, giving hope of cures to countless patients suffering from diseases such as brain cancer and heart disease and conditions such as spinal cord injury.About these medical developments, the Catholic Church asks a...

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, in Philadelphia, have discovered stem cells in the esophagus of mice that are able to grow into tissue-like structures and form parts of an esophagus lining when placed into immune-deficient mice.1 “The immediate implication is that we’ll have a better understanding of the role of these stem cells in normal biology, as well as in regenerative and cancer biology,” stated senior author Anil Rustgi, MD, professor of medicine and genetics and chief of gastroenterology at Penn. “Down the road we will develop a panel of markers that will define these stem...

CHICAGO — Meet Zoey Walsh, a teenage stem-cell recipient who is pushing the frontier of medical science. He’s a dog. Unable to alleviate his pain with drugs and unwilling to risk another hip surgery on a dog so old, Zoey’s owners turned to a treatment that involved injecting stem cells, which had been extracted from Zoey’s fat, back into the animal. The stem cells stimulate repairs. The therapy is gaining momentum as a treatment option for pets. But it also holds promise for humans, researchers and companies involved say. “It did wonders,” Zoey’s owner, Raymond Walsh of Palos Heights, Ill.,...

Adult Stem Cells, +2; Embryonic Stem Cells, -1 Feb 23, 2009 — Two more successes were chalked up for adult stem cell therapies recently. Science Daily said that sufferers from Crohn’s disease may have a new treatment option by getting injections of their own bone marrow stem cells. This “now constitutes a treatment option to cure an intestinal disease that sometimes does not successfully respond to drugs and requires highly complex surgery that does not provide a cure.” Those afflicted with type 2 diabetes also have hope, thanks to adult stem cells. Science Daily also reported that progenitor cells exist...

Medical Advancement: It's the supporters of embryonic stem cell research who have politicized science. The desperation of a family and the pressure to produce results may have produced a medical tragedy instead.In the 2006 election, actor Michael J. Fox, who suffers from Parkinson's, made a commercial for Democrats in which he urged voters to support Senate candidates who supported federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. As we noted then and do again, ESCR was not the "most promising" avenue of stem cell research. And no, that's not because of a lack of federal funds, but rather with the difficulties...

Groundbreaking Paper Publishes Long Term Results Of A Successful Phase I Clinical Trial To Treat Parkinson's Disease Scientists announced the publication of a landmark peer-reviewed paper in the February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. According to lead author, Michel F. Levesque, MD, FRCS(C), FACS, "We have documented the first successful adult neural stem cell transplantation to reverse the effects of Parkinson's disease and demonstrated the long term safety and therapeutic effects of this approach."...

Adult Stem Cell Research Reverses Effects of Parkinson's Disease in Human Trial by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor February 16, 2009 Email RSSPrint Los Angeles, CA (LifeNews.com) -- Scientists have published a paper in a medical journal describing the results of the world's first clinical trial using autologous neural stem cells for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. A leading bioethics watchdog says the results show more money should be put behind adult stem cells.UCLA researchers published their results in February issue of the Bentham Open Stem Cell Journal which outlines the long term results of the trial."We have documented the first...

This video is striking evidence of something that proponents of life-destroying embryonic stem cell research don’t like to admit. Adult stem cell therapies, which destroy no human lives, are delivering spectacular results in treating a broad range of serious health problems.

A bill to remove South Dakota’s restrictions against embryonic stem cell research was introduced yesterday in the state senate. SB 195 would strike from SDCL 34-14 the language prohibiting human embryos from being used for research.  The bill was sponsored by Senators Nesselhuf, Adelstein, Nelson, and Turbak Berry and Representatives Engels, Blake, Cutler, Dreyer, Hoffman, Hunhoff (Bernie), McLaughlin, and Street. We knew this was coming for some time now. Last summer the Argus Leader ran an article about Sanford Health in Sioux Falls under the heading “Sanford eyes stem cell study.”In that article we read A new donation from philanthropist T. Denny...

Family celebrates a bittersweet anniversary Click-2-Listen Mary Smith describes it as a year she can never forget, yet one that she never wants to relive.  It began when her youngest daughter Emily, now 8, was diagnosed at 17 months old with neuroblastoma, a type of cancer that starts in nerve cells and expands. Christy Wooten/The Daily Sentinel (ENLARGE) Emily Smith, left, gets a hug from her mother, Mary, during a classroom party Wednesday celebrating the seven year anniversary of Emily's stem cell transplant which helped her battle a form of cancer call neuroblastoma. She currently shows no signs of the...

Neurological disorders are among the most difficult disease for patients and their loved ones to deal with, as the root of what makes an individual, their mind, is attacked by disease or affected by injury. Scientists have now discovered a new stem cell therapy for Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease initially, that could have implications for neurological disorders as wide ranging as Alzheimer's, dementia, epilepsy and stem cell therapy for stroke. Adult stem cell cures via the new source, dental pulp, could be personalized and easily available, as they can be harvested during simple visits to the dentist. We look...

MS in remission w/own stem cells - JAMA Report

CHENNAI: Adult stem cells extracted from the patient’s bone marrow have been found to cure several ailments, but a therapy for regeneration of blood vessles hold out bigger hopes. The department of vascular surgery at the Sri Ramachandra Medical College Hospital and Research Institute in December 2007 has used adult stem cells to trigger growth of new blood vessels in the limbs of at least 30 patients who suffer from critical limb ischemia — a condition of blood vessels in the limb getting blocked, often resulting in amputation. When SRMC doctors told a 64-year-old diabetic patient in December, 2007 that...

The simple recipe scientists earlier discovered for making adult stem cells behave like embryonic-like stem cells just got even simpler. A new report in the February 6th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, shows for the first time that neural stem cells taken from adult mice can take on the characteristics of embryonic stem cells with the addition of a single transcription factor. Transcription factors are genes that control the activity of other genes. The discovery follows a 2006 report also in the journal Cell that showed that the introduction of four ingredients could transform differentiated cells...

Bone marrow stem cells may have helped patients with multiple sclerosis.MedicalRF.com / Alamy A stem-cell therapy appears to help some patients with early-stage multiple sclerosis recover, according to results from a preliminary study.Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic disease where the body's immune system attacks the central nervous system. White blood cells in the body attack the protective myelin sheaths surrounding nerve fibres in the brain and spinal cord. Although symptoms of the disease wax and wane, they generally grow worse over time and include fatigue, blurred vision and difficulty walking. In the new trial, the patients' immune cells were...

After birth, the umbilical cord and placenta are usually discarded as waste. But, the umbilical cord holds something extremely precious—stem cells. These stem cells have become standard therapy for serious diseases such as leukemia, multiple myeloma, and other immune system diseases (1). These stem cells are valuable because of their ability to develop into almost any type of cell in the body. Parents have two cord blood banking options. The first option is preserving your child’s stem cells in a private bank so the cells are available for the family’s personal use. The initial fees range between $1000-$3000. There are...

A new study has found that transplantation of stem cells from the lining of the spinal cord, called ependymal stem cells, reverses paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in laboratory tests. The findings show that the population of these cells after spinal cord injury was greater than comparable cells from healthy animal subjects. The results open a new window on spinal cord regenerative strategies. The transplanted cells were found to proliferate after spinal cord injury and were recruited by the specific injured area. When these cells were transplanted into animals with spinal cord injury, they regenerated ten times faster while...

Family Research Council recognizes and respects the inherent dignity of every human life from conception (whether by natural or artificial means) until death. FRC desires to help build a culture of life, holding that all human life is a gift to be treasured. The life of every human being is an intrinsic good, not something whose value is conditional upon its usefulness to others or to the state.Threats to human life include abortion, euthanasia, and many new forms of biotechnology. However, human beings need not prove their moral worth by demonstrating sentience, or self-awareness, or a certain level of cognitive...

Adult Stem Cell Success Stories - 2006 The political battles raging in Congress and in state legislatures over whether to destroy human embryos in order to get embryonic stem cells have obscured an important fact. There is one kind of human stem cell research that everyone can and should support--that involving adult stem cells. Many scientists feel that adult stem cells, which can be found throughout the human body, even in infants, are the real hope for the future. James Sherley, associate professor of biological engineering at MIT, notes: "Adult stem cell research is predicted to beat the pants...

As the reader will see from our prior publication, "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories - 2006," [1] adult stem cell research had an impressive track record as of 2006-over 1100 FDA approved clinical trials in the United States for 72 different illnesses and disabilities. 2007 has seen further advances in adult stem cell research and therapy. Currently, peer-reviewed studies have documented 73 different conditions in humans where patient health has been improved through adult stem cell therapy,[2] and over 1400 FDA approved trials are ongoing.[3]Adult stem cells are found throughout the human body from birth onward, in placentas, and in...

Adult Stem Cell Success Stories 2008 Update: January-JuneWe are pleased to present FRC's June update on advances in human treatments and research with adult stem cells.  This is the third report.  The prior ones were "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories - 2006"[2] and "Adult Stem Cell Success Stories-2007 Update".[3]   Every six months, we will present new cases of people being helped by adult stem cells, which are abundant throughout the human body and whose use does not pose the ethical dilemmas encountered with embryonic stem cell research.  Adult stem cells are already being used to treat over 73 different...

ADULT STEM CELL SUCCESS STORIES - 2008 UPDATE: JULY-DECEMBERby David Prentice, PhD, William L. Saunders, JD, Jan Ledochowski, and Lukas LucenicResearch using adult stem cells continues to yield successful treatments for many human diseases and injuries.  In this update we highlight some of those treatment successes from the last six months.  This update follows on our previous releases of adult stem cell success stories from the first half of 2008, as well as from 2007 and 2006,[1] and our pamphlet with stories and pictures of patients successfully treated with adult stem cells.[2]Autoimmune diseasesFirst Bari Martz's fingers turned blue. Then she...

Researchers at University of Pennsylvania have discovered stem cells in the esophagus of mice that were able to grow into tissue-like structures and when placed into immune-deficient mice were able to form parts of an esophagus lining. The investigators report their findings online on Monday in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "The immediate implication is that we'll have a better understanding of the role of these stem cells in normal biology, as well as in regenerative and cancer biology," says senior author Anil Rustgi. "Down the road, we might use these stem cells in replacement therapy for diseases like gastroesophogeal...

Adult Stem Cells Successfully Reset Immune System for Multiple Sclerosis Patients by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com Editor January 29, 2009 Chiacgo, IL (LifeNews.com) -- Adult stem cells continue to outpace their embryonic counterparts by successfully treating patients with a variety of diseases and conditions. Now, the use of adult stem cells from bone marrow has helped patients suffering from the early stages of multiple sclerosis.A new study shows a research team appears to have reversed the neurological dysfunction of early-stage multiple sclerosis patients by transplanting their own immune stem cells into their bodies and thereby "resetting" their immune systems.Dr. Robert Burt,...

Transplanted adult stem cells have been found to reverse paralysis associated with spinal cord injuries in lab rats, a new study finds. The study, headed up by Miodrag Stojkovic, deputy director and head of the Cellular Reprogramming Laboratory at Centro de Investigacion Principe Felipe in Spain, involved transplanting so-called progenitor stem cells from the lining of rats' spinal cords into rodents with serious spinal cord injuries. The rats recovered significant motor activity one week after injury, Stojkovic and his co-authors wrote in the Jan. 27 early online edition of the journal Stem Cells. Spinal cord injury, for which no therapy...