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January 16, 2009
Welcome to issue number 4 of Stem Cell Action News, dedicated to informing the stem cell community
on the latest and most important developments impacting the Pro-Cures Movement.
Special Announcement
This week's special announcement is not about a landmark scientific breakthrough, a company acquisition,
or a major policy change, it's a about a student and friend of the Genetics Policy Institute that's fighting
for his life. Gideon Sofer, a hero of the Student Society for Stem Cell Research is on a mission to help
reform FDA clinical trial policies that could potentially save lives and alleviate unnecessary human
suffering. GPI encourages all stakeholders to read Gideon's op-ed piece in the December 30th edition
of the Wall Street Journal, which discusses his bought with Crohn's Disease and his clinical trial experience.
Read this Article
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Business
| | | CELLARTIS, WARF SIGN LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS
Media Newswire - 01/16/2009 11:32 | | MADISON - Cellartis AB, a premier provider of human embryonic stem cell (hES) derived products and technologies, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the private, nonprofit patenting and licensing organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, announced today (Jan. | | | Sunrise's Bioheart struggles with capital woes
The Miami Herald - 01/16/2009 07:54 | | Bioheart, a Sunrise-based company that has developed stem cell therapies to treat heart attack patients, has run out of cash and is seeking new backers. | | | VistaGen and Capsant Sign Strategic Stem Cell Technology Commercialization Agreement
Pharmacy Choice - 01/15/2009 10:22 | | Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. & SOUTHAMPTON, U.K.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--January 15, 2009--VistaGen and Capsant have signed a strategic commercialization agreement under which the companies will combine their leading-edge stem cell biology and 3D cell culture platforms,... | | | Stem Cell Sciences signs further licence agreement for stem cell technology with major pharmaceutical company
Stem Cell Sciences - 01/05/2009 15:49 | | Stem Cell Sciences plc (AIM:STEM, ASX:STC), a company focused on the commercialisation of stem cells and stem cell technologies, is pleased to announce the signing of a further licence to its IRES technology. The undisclosed licensee is a major research-based international pharmaceutical company in the top 20 by market capitalisation and annual sales and it will use the technology in its own research and development activities. Financial terms are not disclosed for this fully paid-up licence, which was signed during the Christmas holiday period. This follows the recent signing of an IRES licence in November 2008 with a European company that provides genetically modified rat and mouse models for medical and pharmaceutical research for $750,000 over the next six years. | | | Bayer filed for stem cell patent before Kyoto Univ. team
The Black Ship - 01/04/2009 07:24 | | TOKYO - German chemical giant Bayer AG applied for a patent in Japan on June 15, 2007, for a technique to generate induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, from human cells, according to Patent Office data released by Sunday. | | | International Stem Cell Corporation Closes Financing
Fierce Biotech - 12/31/2008 02:31 | | Posted December 31, 2008 International Stem Cell Corporation Closes Financing OCEANSIDE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--International Stem Cell Corporation (OTCBB:ISCO) announced today that it had received the first $1 million tranche of an anticipated private equity financing of up to $5 million to be funded over... | | | Technique for creating authentic rat embryonic stem cells published in ‘Cell’
Stem Cell Sciences - 12/29/2008 00:00 | | Technology licensed exclusively by Stem Cell Sciences (“Stem Cell Sciences”, “SCS”, “the Company”) Stem Cell Sciences plc (AIM:STEM, ASX:STC) is pleased to announce that pioneering research describing a technique for creating authentic embryonic stem (ES) cells from rats has been published in the prestigious peer-reviewed journal, Cell (Ref. 1). This publication is believed to be the first in which germ-line transmission from rat ES cells has been definitively demonstrated. It uses technology licensed exclusively to SCS from the University of Edinburgh and developed by Professor Austin Smith and his team, now at Cambridge University. The technique is expected to allow the generation of consistently pure and stable rat ES cells, from which drug discovery assays as well as genetically modified animals can be created for academic, medical and pharmaceutical research. | | | Madison stem cell firm nabs $50K state grant
WTN Media - 12/23/2008 14:12 | | Madison, Wis. - Shiloh Laboratories, a Madison-based biotechnology company, has received a $50,000 state grant to further develop a supplement used to grow stem cells in culture, according to a report in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. | | | Acquisition of stem cell company Axordia Limited
Intercytex Group - 12/22/2008 00:00 | | Intercytex Group plc (LSE: ICX) (“Intercytex”), the regenerative medicine company developing innovative products to restore skin and hair, announces today that it has acquired Axordia Limited (“Axordia”), a privately-held UK company focused on the development of stem cell therapies. Under the terms of the acquisition, Intercytex will issue 7,000,000 new ordinary shares of 1 pence each as consideration for the purchase of the entire issued share capital of Axordia, formerly a Fusion IP portfolio company. Based on Intercytex’ closing share price of 24p on 19th December 2008, this values Axordia at £1.68m. | | | Fluidigm to develop microfluidic chip for stem cell institute
Small Times - 12/17/2008 12:49 | | : California's Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency, has awarded Fluidigm Corp. and Stemgent Inc. a grant to develop a microfluidic cell culture chip (C2C) and support system that will help researchers accelerate stem cell research in California, the companies announced in a... | | | Fluidigm and Stemgent Awarded One of CIRM’S First Grants to the Biotech Industry
Fluidigm Corporation - 12/16/2008 00:00 | | California’s Stem Cell Agency Invests in Cell Culture Integrated Fluidic Circuit System Tuesday, December 16, 2008; South San Francisco –California’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency, has awarded Fluidigm Corporation and Stemgent, Inc. a grant to develop a cell culture chip (C2C) and support system that will help researchers accelerate stem cell research in California. | | | BD Biosciences Launches BD™ Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Sorting and Analysis Kit
BD - Worldwide - 12/15/2008 00:00 | | News & Events Print [spacer image] BD Biosciences Launches BD™ Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Sorting and Analysis Kit First in a series of ready-to-use kits offers a “total solution” approach for stem cell sorting and analysis Contact: Jeff Ezell BD Public Relations (201) 847-5533 Email: jeff_ezell@bd.com San Jose, CA -- Monday, December 15, 2008 -- BD Biosciences, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company), announced today the launch of the BD™ Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Sorting and Analysis Kit – a comprehensive research system for the reliable characterization and cell sorting of human pluripotent stem cells using flow cytometry. This marks the first in a series of flow cytometry-based kits that BD Biosciences plans to release in the coming year. | | | | |
Headlines & Advocacy
| | | Hebrew University scientists succeed through stem cell therapy in reversing brain birth defects
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - 01/14/2009 15:42 | | Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have succeeded in reversing brain birth defects in animal models, using stem cells to replace defective brain cells. The work of Prof. Joseph Yanai and his associates at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School was presented at the Tel Aviv Stem Cells Conference last spring and is expected to be presented and published nest year at the seventh annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Barcelona, Spain. | | | Stem Cells: A Life Sciences Crucible
Science Progress - 01/08/2009 19:16 | | Next week is bookended by science policy events at CAP: innovation and patent reform on Monday and stem cells on Friday: A Life Sciences Crucible Stem Cell Science and Innovation Done Responsibly and Ethically Featured Panelists: Amy Comstock Rick, President, Coalition for the Advancement of Medical Research... | | | CONVERTING ADULT SOMATIC CELLS TO PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS USING A SINGLE VIRUS
Boston University - 01/08/2009 07:08 | | (Boston)-A Boston University School of Medicine-led research team has discovered a more efficient way to create induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, derived from mouse fibroblasts, by using a single virus vector instead of multiple viruses in the reprogramming process. | | | New stem cell debate DeGette urges Obama to take action, remove federal barriers
Denver Daily - 12/23/2008 00:00 | | U.S. Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., and Michael Castle, R-Delaware, chief architects of legislation expanding stem cell research, led a bipartisan group of lawmakers yesterday in sending a letter to President-elect Barack Obama, urging him to immediately remove existing federal barriers to embryonic stem cell research by executive order upon taking office. DeGette and Castle recently introduced new stem cell legislation overturning President Bush’s executive order, updating previous legislation to ensure that it is current with the field of stem cell research and bringing the National Institutes of Health to the forefront. | | | Eli Broad to donate $25M for stem cell lab
Daily Breeze - 12/18/2008 22:31 | | Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad say they will donate $25 million to UC San Francisco for a state-of-the-art laboratory that will bring together some of the world's leading scientists in the field of stem cell research. | | | Stem cell pioneer goes to UM
The Daily Record - 12/17/2008 12:03 | | Dr. Curt I. Civin, a long-time faculty member of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a pioneer in cancer research who developed a way to isolate stem cells from other blood cells, has joined the University of Maryland School of Medicine. | | | Tracking down bowel cancer stem cells
Cancer Research UK - 12/17/2008 00:00 | | Stem cells are a hot topic in cancer. In recent years we’ve seen the rise of the “cancer stem cell” concept – the idea that many cancers are caused by a small group of immortal stem cells. These produce ‘bulk tumour cells’, which can be killed off by treatments such as chemotherapy, but the stem cells themselves are resistant to treatment. | | | Vatican Issues Instruction on Bioethics
The New York Times - 12/12/2008 00:00 | | The Vatican issued its most authoritative and sweeping document on bioethical issues in more than 20 years on Friday, taking into account recent developments in biomedical technology and reinforcing the church’s opposition to in vitro fertilization, human cloning, genetic testing on embryos before implantation and embryonic stem cell research. | | | | |
Policy
| | | Funding halted for Britain's stem cell research
Belfast Telegraph - 01/13/2009 08:49 | | Britain's effort to lead the world in stem cell research with the creation of human-animal "hybrid" clones has ground to a halt through lack of funding less than a year after the controversial technique was legalised. | | | UCSF Snags $25 Million Stem Cell Donation
California Stem Cell Report - 12/18/2008 02:56 | | Despite the nation's financial woes, some philanthropists continue to pump out money with the latest coming from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation for the benefit of UC San Francisco's stem cell laboratory. | | | | |
Science
| | | Scientists can now differentiate between healthy cells and cancer cells
McMaster University - 01/14/2009 15:40 | | One of the current handicaps of cancer treatments is the difficulty of aiming these treatments at destroying malignant cells without killing healthy cells in the process. But a new study by McMaster University researchers has provided insight into how scientists might develop therapies and drugs that more carefully target cancer, while sparing normal healthy cells | | | SINGAPORE SCIENTISTS UNCOVER NEW METHOD TO CREATE INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS
A*STAR - 01/12/2009 15:34 | | Protein transcription factor Esrrb found to have new role in cell reprogramming 1. Scientists at the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS), a research institute under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), and the National University of Singapore have discovered for the first time, that a protein – Esrrb – played an essential role in changing differentiated murine cells back to a pluripotent(1) stem cell state. Led by Dr Ng Huck Hui, in collaboration with two other GIS groups headed by Dr Thomas Lufkin and Dr Lim Bing, their discovery of this alternative method in creating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells was published in Nature Cell Biology on January 11, 2009. This is also the first paper highlighting novel R&D work done in Singapore in the field of cell reprogramming. | | | Penn Researchers Unlock Molecular Origin of Blood Stem Cells
Penn Medicine News - 01/09/2009 15:37 | | Implications for new blood disorder therapies PHILADELPHIA – A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo. The findings, appearing online this week in the journal Nature, highlight critical steps in the origin of hematopoietic (or blood) stem cells (HSCs), says senior author Speck, who is also an Investigator with the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at Penn. | | | Scientists identify new kind of stem cell found in testes
Stanford News Service - 01/07/2009 15:41 | | Scientists at the School of Medicine and at UCSF have succeeded in isolating stem cells from human testes. The cells bear a striking resemblance to embryonic stem cells—they can differentiate into each of the three main types of body tissue—but the researchers caution against viewing them as one and the same. According to the study, testes stem cells have different patterns of gene expression and regulation and don't proliferate and differentiate as aggressively as embryonic stem cells. | | | “Scrawny” Gene Keeps Stem Cells Healthy
Carnegie Institution for Science - 01/07/2009 15:39 | | Baltimore, MD—Stem cells are the body’s primal cells, retaining the youthful ability to develop into more specialized types of cells over many cycles of cell division. How do they do it? Scientists at the Carnegie Institution have identified a gene, named scrawny, that appears to be a key factor in keeping a variety of stem cells in their undifferentiated state. Understanding how stem cells maintain their potency has implications both for our knowledge of basic biology and also for medical applications. The results will be published in the January 9, 2009 print edition of Science. | | | Researchers create first functional stem cell niche
Standford News Service - 01/07/2009 06:35 | | Like it or not, your living room says a lot about you. Given a few moments to poke around, a stranger could get a good idea of your likes and dislikes, and maybe even your future plans. | | | Cell-cycle restriction limits DNA damage and maintains self-renewal of leukaemia stem cells
Nature.com refers DOI - 01/01/2009 07:43 | | Andrea Viale1,5, Francesca De Franco1,2,5, Annette Orleth1,2,5, Valeria Cambiaghi1, Virginia Giuliani1, Daniela Bossi1, Chiara Ronchini1, Simona Ronzoni1, Ivan Muradore1, Silvia Monestiroli1, Alberto Gobbi1, Myriam Alcalay1,4, Saverio Minucci1,3 & Pier Giuseppe Pelicci1,4 Department of Experimental Oncology... | | | Patient-derived induced stem cells retain disease traits
University of Wisconsin-Madison - 12/22/2008 00:00 | | When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen's lab dishes, he couldn't have been more pleased. The dying cells — the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy — confirmed that the UW-Madison stem cell biologist had recreated the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the lab, using stem cells derived from a patient. By allowing scientists the unparalleled opportunity to watch the course of a disease unfold in a lab dish, the work marks an enormous step forward in being able to study and develop new therapies for genetic diseases. | | | Stem cell funds may go to UNM
Daily Lobo - 12/21/2008 04:26 | | by Jeremy Hunt Daily Lobo Gov. Bill Richardson announced support for legislation Friday that will give $10 million for embryonic and adult stem cell research at UNM's Health Sciences Center. | | | Crypt stem cells as the cells-of-origin of intestinal cancer
Nature.com refers DOI - 12/17/2008 17:58 | | Nick Barker1,4, Rachel A. Ridgway2,4, Johan H. van Es1, Marc van de Wetering1, Harry Begthel1, Maaike van den Born1, Esther Danenberg1, Alan R. Clarke3, Owen J. | | | Mesenchymal stem cell-mediated ectopic hematopoiesis alleviates aging-related phenotype in immunocompromised mice
Blood - 12/12/2008 18:44 | | Center for Craniofacial Molecular Biology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United States Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, United States Mesenchymal Stem Cell... | | | |
Contact GPI
Robert E. Margolin
Associate Director
908-605-4203
rob@genpol.org
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