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Family pins hopes for son on stem-cell shotsTIJUANA, Mexico — Slowly, patiently, Dr. Fernando Ramirez del Rio slides on a pair of latex gloves.A nurse tips a 1-inch long vial out of a Ziploc bag and into his palm. It's frozen and white. Ramirez says it contains about 1.8 million stem cells. He says it will take about 10 minutes to thaw the tube using the warmth of his hands. He then has 20 minutes to use the cells before they spoil.He passes the vial to Judy Susser, who looks nervous. She takes it, rolls it between her hands. Then...

INVERNESS, Scotland, November 18, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A British teen who has multiple sclerosis now claims she is walking after umbilical cord stem cell therapy she traveled abroad to receive. Wheelchair-bound since 2003, 19 year-old Amanda Bryson told The Herald that she has been walking daily since immediately after her treatment from a private clinic in the Netherlands Friday. Believed to be the only British beneficiary of the umbilical cord stem cell therapy, Bryson said this week, "It sounds shocking, but I could feel the difference after just five minutes. Since the treatment I have been transformed. I am doing...

Adult stem-cell research may lead one day to cures for terminal and debilitating diseases "I hope we will always be guided by both intellect and heart, by both our capabilities and our conscience." -President George W. Bush1 Few areas of scientific study hold as much potential as adult stem-cell research. This research is already generating medical breakthroughs and treatments for debilitating diseases and disabilities, such as spinal cord injuries, sickle cell anemia and Parkinson's. Indeed, scientists laud stem-cell treatments as the "miracle cure" of the 21st century. Unlike so many areas of biotechnology, adult stem cells do not spark a...

Joined by 31 cosponsors, a Republican state senator from Duluth introduced a bill Thursday designed to foster stem cell research in Georgia and to avoid the controversy such efforts arouse. The bill by Sen. David Shafer would encourage research with stem cells from postnatal tissue – umbilical cords, the placenta and amniotic fluid. "Stem cell research efforts have been hampered by the controversy over embryonic stem cells," Shafer said. "But stem cells are not found only in embryos. Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells which can be used for research without destroying any embryos." "Stem cell research using...

Legislators who view embryonic stem cell research as human cloning won first-round approval Thursday in the House for a proposal to encourage alternatives in finding cures for diseases. The measure would set up new state funds to finance research with adult stem cells or blood from newborns' umbilical cords, then grant a tax break to Kansans who contribute to either fund. Backers couldn't say how much the tax breaks would cost but hope to attract millions of dollars in contributions. The House voted 71-46 to add the proposal to an unrelated bill. Another voice vote advanced the amended legislation to...

A couple of weeks ago Wake Forest University physicians described the first human recipients of a laboratory-grown organ. In the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet," Dr. Anthony Atala, director of the Institute for Regenerative Medicine, detailed a series of patients (children and teenagers) who received urinary bladders grown from their own cells. WHAAAAT? Did somebody say "laboratory organs?!" Yes. Perhaps like you, the first reaction of some who heard the news was, “why would anyone need a new bladder?” Well, many infants are born with congenital birth defects a very serous one is spina bifida (incomplete closure of the spine)....

Cord Lining Stem Cells discovered by CellResearch Corporation makes headway in areas with exciting potential therapeutic applications. CellResearch Corporation, a Singapore-based biotech company, announced in July 2005 its discovery of a new source of stem cells found in the outer lining membrane of the umbilical cord. Not only does this source of stem cells yield an extremely high number of cells, it also avoids ethical objections as it is acquired from the afterbirth which is routinely discarded as medical waste. CellResearch Corporation is now ready to reveal new collaborations with various medical institutions in Singapore and around the world that...

BERLIN, GERMANY -- May 5, 2006 -- ViaCell, Inc. today presented data at the 12th Annual Meeting of the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) supporting the importance of family banked umbilical cord blood, a non-controversial source of stem cells with proven clinical utility in treating over 40 diseases. The presented data relate to transplantation outcomes and CD34 cell enumeration. These data further support the medical value of cord blood stem cells. ViaCell offers expecting parents the ability to collect and store umbilical cord blood at the birth of their child with ViaCord(R), its product offering for the preservation of...

July 18, 2006, 5:27 p.m. Science’s Stem-Cell ScamIt should change its name to Pseudoscience. By Michael Fumento Embryonic stem cells (ESCs) receive tremendous media attention, with oft-repeated claims that they have the potential to cure virtually every disease known. Yet there are spoilsports, self included, who point out that they have yet to even make it into a human clinical trial. This is even as alternatives — adult stem cells (ASCs) from numerous places in the body as well as umbilical cord blood and placenta — are curing diseases here and now and have been doing so for decades....

Even before her first birthday, Jashaia Trinity Small startled more easily than other children exposed to loud noises. Once an ambitious walker, she began to fall more often and needed support to stand up. She blinked repeatedly, "and when you called her, she had to look around the room to see where you were," her mother, Nadine Green-Small recalls."By the time she was a year and a half, I knew something was really not right," Green-Small said. Last fall, Jashaia Small was diagnosed with Tay-Sachs disease, a genetic disorder most often diagnosed in eastern European Jews and only rarely in...

Patricia is injected with about one million cord blood stem cells Patricia Frost is a desperate woman. The multiple sclerosis she has fought for 14 years has slowly taken over her body and speech.The 66-year-old has not been able to walk for a decade and lost the use of her arms within the past year - leaving her unable to feed, wash or dress herself.  After being told there is nothing more her British doctors can do for her, except to help ease her pain, Patricia decided to take a huge gamble with her health.  Along with her husband,...

Cygenics (ASX: CYN) announce the first cystic fibrosis cord blood collection. Clinical history was made at The Mercy Hospital in Werribee on Easter Saturday, when baby Aiden Brundell donated his cord blood in the hope that his precious stem cells could one day rejuvenate sister Mikaela's lungs, which are failing from cystic fibrosis (CF), and save her life. This first collection of cord blood from the sibling of a child with CF is a major step towards treating the deadly effects of Australia's most common severe genetic condition among children, for which there is no cure. Aiden's cord blood collection...

A woman who was pregnant when she was diagnosed with leukemia is alive thanks to a unique transplant of umbilical cord blood from two different donors. It was the first time such a procedure had been performed in Colorado. "There were some times where the odds were stacked against us," Sheila Gannon, a leukemia survivor said. Gannon gave birth to her son Sawyer 2 weeks early so she could start chemotherapy. There were infections and complications during that treatment. No bone marrow match was found. Centers that offer umbilical cord blood rejected Gannon at first because her leukemia wasn't in...

Imagine being diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness when you're just 26-years-old and a newlywed. But your one chance at survival is threatened because of a hurricane. That's what happened to a Dallas woman last year. Thui Diem Tran visits the hospital every month, but she doesn't mind. Doctors at UT Southwestern just saved her life. Tran is recovering from aplastic anemia, a potentially fatal condition. Less than a month after her wedding, Tran went from healthy, happy bride to a woman whose bone marrow had shut down…a woman who had just days to live unless doctors could find a...

SHENZHEN, China, March 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Shenzhen Beike Biotechnology Co., Ltd. has announced the successful treatment with umbilical cord stem cells of the youngest stroke patient ever to undergo such a procedure. The announcement was made following a two-month evaluation period by physicians in her native country, Hungary, to verify the positive results. Starting from October 28th, Beike provided umbilical cord stem cells to the Nanshan People's Hospital for the treatment of a four-month-old Hungarian baby girl named Timea Gresco, who had suffered a stroke when she was delivered three months prematurely. Umbilical cord stem cells were delivered intravenously over...

Think of embryonic stem cells as the perfect cover band: Give them a certain type of cell to mimic and they nail it, quickly pumping out more of the same. But they may not be the only cells that can pull off this copying act. A new study, published in the February issue of Stem Cells and Development, indicates that blood extracted from umbilical cords may be a promising alternative source of fresh stem cell lines. Researchers at the Medical School of the University of Minnesota identified a new, more versatile type of umbilical cord stem cell that they hope...

ASSOCIATED PRESS BALTIMORE -- A suspected carcinogen used to make Teflon was found in nearly all the umbilical cord blood samples tested by researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The researchers are now trying to determine whether it has harmed the newborns. Of the 300 newborns tested, perfluorooctanoic acid, was found in the cord blood of 298. "It's very clear that PFOA is being released into the environment, and it's pretty much ubiquitous. But we don't know if it's toxic to people at these levels," said Dr. Lynn Goldman, one of the Hopkins researchers. A review panel advising the federal Environmental...

ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON -- Congress on Friday agreed to establish a national databank of umbilical cord blood and bone marrow that would allow doctors to quickly find a match for patients who need a transplant. The Senate passed the bill by voice vote. The House passed the bill in May by a vote of 431-1. The bill will provide $79 million in federal funding to increase the number of cord blood units available for matches. The objective is 150,000 units, which would mean 90 percent of patients needing them would have a match. It also reauthorizes the national bone marrow...

A team of bioengineers led by the University of Toronto has discovered a way to increase the yield of stem cells from umbilical cord blood, to an extent which could broaden therapeutic use of these cells. In a paper published in the October issue of Experimental Hematology, researchers working in the University of Toronto's Stem Cell Bioengineering Laboratory have identified an important component blocking the growth of stem cells. U of T scientists discovered stem cells in 1961, and for about two decades researchers around the world have been searching for a way to expand the number of stem cells...

Adult Stem Cell Research Treats Spinal Cord Injury Patient   LifeNews.com Note: Award winning author Wesley J. Smith is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute and a special consultant to the Center for Bioethics and Culture. An attorney, Smith's new book Consumer's Guide to a Brave New World was published last year. I have known about this for some time, but because I didn't want to be guilty of the same hyping that is so often engaged in by some therapeutic cloning proponents, I waited until it was published in a peer reviewed journal.Now it has been and the...