A Press Release, issued on 28 June, from the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, a private, non-profit biomedical research institution gives readers an insight into to the work currently being done and the issues & challenges that lie ahead for researchers. (More details of the research also appear in the June 29 issue of Nature magazine.)
-The developmental processes within the heart that can be reproduced using pluripotent embryonic stem cells (these are early stem cells that can grow into almost any cell type)
-The cues that control multipotent cardiac stem cells (these stem cells, which have less developmental potential than embryonic stem cells, produce different types of cells that make up the heart)
-The ability of circulating progenitor cells (early-stage cells that have not yet differentiated, or specialized) to produce factors that are sufficient to invoke cell survival or repair responses in damaged heart cells
Challenges ahead for researchers include:
-Developing the ability not only to guide and expand stem cells into the cardiac lineage but also to repress alternative cell fates
-Developing methods for safe delivery and proper integration of stem cells within patients' heart tissue to avoid such complications as arrhythmias (irregular heart beat)
The report ends with an upbeat quot from one of the reseachers involved:
"The adult heart seems to have reservoirs of cardiac progenitor cells--adult stem cells that are destined to become cardiovascular cells--that may be able to replace a slow loss of cells over a lifetime. The coming years will undoubtedly bring new developments and technologies to unravel these processes, leading to clinical applications of stem cell-based therapies for heart disease."
Despite reports to the contrary, it appears as though the most (in)famous name in stem cell research will be back in business sooner rather than later, according to the report below:
South Korea’s disgraced cloning expert Hwang Woo-Suk, on trial over charges of fraud and embezzlement, will resume research work as early as next month, his lawyer said yesterday. "Dr Hwang will resume his research next month. He will set up a private lab somewhere in Seoul," his defence lawyer Lee Geon-Haeng told AFP. "Some donors will provide funds for him to restart his study."
About 30 of his former assistants will join the new lab but Hwang’s top two lieutenants, including Lee Byeong-Chun who is credited with creating the world’s first cloned dog last year, will not join the team. Hwang will focus on animal cloning experiments because he was deprived of a government licence for human stem cell research in March, a month after experts concluded that his landmark research papers were bogus. Hwang was indicted in May on charges of fraud, embezzlement and ethical breaches.
Findings, first published in June's issue of the journal 'Immunity' and reprinted on the Forbes website provide new information about the role of bone marrow stem cells could lead to important advances in treating diseases like leukemia, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, scientists say.
Researchers at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation in Oklahoma City, in collaboration with the University of Tokyo, Osaka University and Saga University of Japan, studied the purified bone marrow stem cells of laboratory mice. They discovered that these cells, once thought to be essentially dormant, can identify the presence of bacteria and viruses in the blood.
Once the infectious agents have been identified, the stem cells begin defending the body against these foreign pathogens, a fact that surprised the scientists.
They discovered that these stem cells have a sort of antennae that detect bacteria and viruses. When stem cells receive these distress signals, they spring to action, creating cells the body most needs early in life-threatening situations.
That could mean very good news for patients with autoimmune diseases. Understanding the role of these stem cells means that scientists one day may be able to figure out how to manipulate these stem cells to benefit such patients.
The online edition of yesterday's Guardian newspaper, from the UK, carried an article which highlighted research at the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, in Maryland, USA.
In the article 'Stem cells offer brain damage hope', scientists have found a way to make the brain reverse the damage it suffers after a stroke, raising hopes for treatment able to exploit the body's ability to heal itself.
Their experiments used rats whose brains had been starved of oxygen to simulate the effects of a stroke. Strokes kill brain cells and affect the way the body works, with paralysis common.
Researchers stimulated a receptor known as "notch", on the stem cells, and found that it caused reactions that produced new brain cells. Compared with untreated rats, fewer of the rodents that had a stroke and the stem cell therapy were left paralysed.
The technique has wide implications for stem cell research as this work shows a way of using stem cells in the body to promote healing.
This article, from The Pittsburgh Channel news website, features the story of a man suffering from severe heart disease who received injections of stem cells that orignated from his thigh.
The results, 6 weeks after surgery are positive. However, this type of procedure uses stem cells taken from muscle and already has a history of poor outcomes - which stopped trials in certain countries.
Stem cells are withdrawn, cultured and injected into the heart muscle. But, in the past and little known to the scientists and doctors at the time, although the cells looked genuinely like cardiac muscle cells, they lacked one important and necessary factor - the timing of the heartbeat known as "twitch". Skeletal muscle (normal muscle) fibers exhibit "slow twitch" but cardiac muscle fibers have to have "fast twitch" in order to maintain the heart's pumping action.
Therefore, whether or not this form of treatment currently being researched at The Cleveland Clinic proves to be reliable & effective long term depends on the researchers having been able to find a way to reprogram the "twitch" speed.
U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback (Republican-Kansas) said he plans to call for a floor debate on bioethics when the chamber takes up H.R. 810, an embryonic stem-cell research bill that life advocates oppose.
The Kansas senator hosted the recent Capitol Hill meeting of 'Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics' which highlighted testimonies of patients who have been helped by adult and cord-blood stem cells to treat spinal cord injury, heart disease, brain damage, cerebral palsy and other conditions. Amongst the speakers was David Foage, PhD., of Naples, Florida, a patient of TheraVitae's who underwent VesCell adult stem cell therapy in March 2006.
Read more about Senator Brownback's contention that Congress is paying attention to the wrong kind of stem-cell research at:
Reuters, and all major news sources, are carrying articles on the start of the trial in South Korea of disgraced stem cell scientist Hwang Woo-suk on charges of fraud and embezzlement. If found guilty of any of the charges against him, he will almost certainly be facing a lengthy jail term.
Hwang was indicted last month after prosecutors said he was the mastermind of an elaborate scheme to manipulate research results to make it look like his team had actually produced stem cell lines through cloning human embryos.
His reported breakthroughs in stem cell research had raised hopes because it seemed to hasten the day when genetically specific tissue could be grown from embryonic stem cells to repair damaged organs or treat diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Prosecutors charged Hwang with misusing and embezzling 2.8 billion won ($2.91 million) in state funds and private donations.
Hwang is suspected of using part of the funds to purchase human ova -- in violation of a bioethics law that went into effect in 2005 -- and for donations to politicians, they said.
Hwang did not speak with reporters upon entering the Seoul Central District Court.
The scientist has previously said that he is a victim of a conspiracy to discredit him and has blamed junior researchers at a fertility clinic that took part in the research for the fake data.
The man once hailed by the government and others as "the pride of Korea" could face several years in jail if he is found guilty.
Prosecutors have said the misuse of state funds carries a jail term of up to 10 years while a violation of the bioethics law can mean up to three years behind bars.
Although it's a bit late should you want to attend, as the meeting was held on 20 June, Yahoo News features a Press Release from Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics.
The Press Release entitled 'A Toast to Adult and Cord Blood Stem Cells: Helping Patients Now and in the Future' was issued to announce a meeting where members of the public were invited to meet patients who had received a variety of adult stem cell therapies.
Amongst these patients was David Foege, PhD, of Naples, Florida. The Press Release is quoted below:
"Three years ago, doctors told David Foege there was little hope that he would recover from heart failure -- he was even told to find a hospice. He rejected that option to seek alternatives. He eventually underwent a treatment overseas administered by the Theravitae healthcare company that used his own adult stem cells.
About a month after his treatment, David was up and walking; at 90 days after, lab tests showed 50% improvement in his heart condition and also some improvement in symptoms from a prior stroke. This is the same adult stem cell treatment that was recently used to treat the legendary Hawaiian entertainer Don Ho for heart disease. The treatment was originally developed by Dr. Amit Patel M.D., Director of Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center."
TheraVitae would like to clarify that although Dr. Patel developed the method of treatment & administering the adult stem cells. The required stem cells, are produced by TheraVitae's proprietory technique named 'VesCell'.
The vast majority of articles on this blog relate to stem cell cures for heart disease or other dioeseases that in the main affect adults, rather than kids.
However, about one in 22,000 children is born with serious flaw in the heart: The self-generated electrical impulse in the right atrium of the upper heart fails to reach the lower ventricles which prevents them from being stimulated to pump out blood after filling up.
Now, researchers led by cell biologist Douglas Cowan of Children's Hospital Boston are taking the very first steps in restoring electrical conduction in the ailing heart. His team of investigators has now carried out a 6-year study showing that, at least in rodents, a bridged circuit can be made from the body's own cells to electrically reconnect the bad wiring.
To make the 'patch' researchers started with muscle precursor cells called myoblasts, which are usually found in skeletal muscle and conduct electrical signals. Then the team implanted the structure into rats to electrically connect the upper and lower heart. It worked.
The next step for the team is to try to reproduce these results in larger mammals. To that end, Cowan's team is now trying the therapy in lambs.
This article can be found in this week's online edition of Science Magazine.
Today's featured article is one taken from the Bloomberg newswires which struck me both as being bizarre and also slightly disturbing.
We live in a time where the boundaries of medical science and research are supposedly being pushed back but, especially in the USA, regulations over funding and the types of research that are permitted are holding back researchers attempts at collaboration. At many educational institutions researchers and students studying adult & embryonic stem cells are not only not allowed to share the same laboratories, but lunchtime conversations between the two groups are also forbidden in case details of research are mentioned.
The full article can be found on the Bloomberg News site, below are a couple of the 'highlights' :
One of the examples given is that of The University of California, San Francisco that is gutting a laboratory originally financed with U.S. government grants and rebuilding it for stem cell research with $6 million in privately donated money.
Eleven floors below, scientists are using government funds to conduct nearly identical experiments. To create a "firewall" between them, the two laboratories will buy their own test tubes, freezers, and microscopes. Each lab's graduate students are barred from collaborating with one another.
Christopher Thomas Scott, 51, a bioethicist at Stanford University in Californiais quoted as saying "Quite frankly, it is the most bizarre thing I've ever encountered in basic science."
It could be worse . . . Harvard graduate students and research fellows paid with federal grants aren't allowed to collaborate with their colleagues in the lab of stem cell researcher Douglas Melton. The restrictions create awkward situations as researchers receiving federal funds technically aren't supposed to participate in a discussion over lunch with colleagues conducting privately funded experiments.
But are double labs really necessary? . . . Researchers at Burnham Institute for Medical Research in La Jolla, California do stem cell work financed by government and private funds in the same space. The lead research here simply affixes stickers to each piece of equipment identifying the source of funds used to buy it and therefore, what it can be used for.
Finally this week, a group of researchers in Taiwan have demonstrated that adult lung stem cells may play a key role in the SARS epidemics.
The study showed the lung stem cells, while not easily spotted, were an important target of SARS viruses when attacking the lungs. During the 2003 SARS epidemics, Dr. John Yu, the leader of the stem cell program at the Genomics Research Center of Academia Sinica in Taipei, Taiwan, witnessed first hand the SARS outbreak and noticed a lag time between the peak virus load in SARS patients and the development of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He speculated that the lag time may reflect the duration of a stem cell's regenerative cycle to repair lung damage.
With the study of SARS infected lung tissues by Yu's team, supporting proof was finally made. The team grew lung cells in vitro and noticed only one unique cell population was infected by SARS viruses. Therefore, the researchers concluded that it was likely these cells that are targeted specifically by SARS viruses are the pulmonary stem progenitor cells.
The discovery has opened a door for future manipulation of lung stem cells in cellular therapy of ARDS.
More details of this story can be found here on the Biotech East website.
In a brief story entitled 'Stem cells advance' Scottish newspaper, The Herald, reports on a breakthrough that may well have a major impact on future developments in the field of stem cell research.
Scottish scientists have discovered a gene which could be the key to the ability to harvest embryonic stem cells from adult body cells.
The implications for this discovery, should the effect seen in adult mouse cells be able to be replicated in humans, are immense. Gone will be any scientific & ethical worries regarding the cultivation and use of human embryos for use in cell therapy.
The gene was named 'Nanog', after the mythical Celtic land of the ever young, by the researcher who discovered it, Professor Austin Smith who is based at Edinburgh University, Scotland. Research findings, reported in the journal, Nature, showed that Nanog helps reprogram adult mouse cells into pluripotent embryonic stem cells.
Today's article focuses on the research being done at the University of Washington, Seattle, USA. Here, scientists have made significant progress towards learning how to repair severely damaged human livers with stem cells.
A team of UW researchers for the first time isolated liver stem cells from human fetuses, grew them in the laboratory for months and infused them in laboratory mice, where they replaced thousands of dead liver cells.
If the experimental work continues successfully in the years to come, the technique could one day repair livers badly damaged by drug overdoses, hepatitis and alcoholism.
The technique uses stem cells from aborted fetuses, so money for the research isn't covered by the ban on federal funding for work using stem cells taken from embryos. It's also important to note that the fetuses that were used were donated to researchers.
The team also was able to manipulate the stem cells with special laboratory cultures to become cells of the bile duct, cartilage, fat, bone and blood vessels. Such cells someday also might have the potential to repair damaged tissue.
Read the full article which details the methods used and includes opinion and comment from researchers & critics in this Seattle Times article.
Many of the stories online regarding grants being awarded for stem cell research may appear to relate to embryonic cell research and often only loose promises of funding rather than hard cash.
However, the University at Buffalo, USA, has recently received a $1.98 million grant from National Institutes of Health to investigate the potential of bone marrow-derived adult stem cells to treat the serious heart malfunction known as hibernating myocardium.
Hibernating myocardium is a condition in which heart cells that have experienced reduced blood flow over an extended period of time due to narrowed coronary arteries adapt to this deprivation by down-regulating metabolism while remaining functionally viable.
Previous work in UB's Center for Cardiovascular Research has shown that restoring normal blood flow to these "hibernating" regions improves function. However, these results also found that cells in the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber, often do not return to normal, leaving the heart compromised.
Researchers will investigate whether transplanting the model's own bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), cells that have the capacity to develop into blood vessels, as well as other types of tissues can change the myocardial adaptive responses and improve the function of the hibernating myocardium.
Imagine that you suffered from a severe disability, one for which there was no known cure. You had exhausted all the possibilities that were available to you in your home country but your research led you to discover a possible - but unproven - stem cell treatment abroad.
You decide to take the chance but then your provincial government places a ban on you travelling to receive treatment.
This happended to one man recently, he wasn't living in an oppresive regime - one which places restrictions on its citizen's travelling abroad, but in Australia. His story is below:
A decision by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) has forced a quadriplegic man to cancel a trip to China for controversial treatment using stem cells from aborted foetuses.
The 41-year-old Victorian man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has been a quadriplegic since he was involved in a car accident four years ago, and sees stem cell treatment as the key to a better life.
"I was hoping for at least for my pain to go away and get some hand movement so I can feed myself," he said.
On Thursday, the man's court-appointed administrator made an urgent application for a guardian to be appointed to assess his suitability for the treatment. The man was forced to surrender his passport and cancel his flight.
Janice Florence, from the group Paraquad, says people should be able to make their own decisions. "Everybody's got the right to take a risk, everybody should have hope," she said. "The case goes back to VCAT in July for a decision."
Over the past few months, there have been a growing number of questions regarding the relationship between TheraVitae, Bangkok Heart Hospital (BHH) and Dr. Amit N. Patel from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC).
It is well documented that in the past, Dr. Patel made several trips to Thailand where he observed thoracoscopic injections of VesCell™ autologous adult stem cells at Bangkok Heart Hospital for several patients including Hawaiian singer Don Ho.
Currently, Dr. Patel is not associated with TheraVitae or Bangkok Heart Hospital in any capacity. He does not evaluate patients for treatment in Thailand and his office cannot provide any information regarding TheraVitae and VesCell therapy at Bangkok Heart Hospital.
This is a direct result of the recent embryonic stem cell research scandal in involving Korean Prof. Woo-Suk Hwang and University of Pittsburgh researcher, Prof. Gerald Schatten. To put things into perspective, this was one of the biggest scientific scandals in the history of modern science. For more information, please refer to the following Washington Post article:
Since then, the UPMC legal department has forbidden all of its stem cell researchers and doctors (adult or embryonic stem cells) from working with companies outside the United States such as TheraVitae. They are also forbidden to make any comments. This includes Dr. Patel.
We regret this unfortunate turn of events and wish Dr. Patel and his staff the best of luck during this difficult time.
Patients interested in VesCell stem cell therapy for heart disease should contact TheraVitae directly:
Daniel A. Szobel Appointed Vice-President of Global Operations for Stem Cell Company - TheraVitae Group
Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO of TheraVitae Group, recently announced the appointment of Daniel A. Szobel, as Vice-President of Global Operations. Mr. Szobel takes immediate charge of TheraVitae’s operations worldwide and will be based in Israel.
Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO of TheraVitae Group, recently announced the appointment of Daniel A. Szobel, as Vice-President of Global Operations. Mr. Szobel takes immediate charge of TheraVitae’s operations worldwide and will be based in Israel.
TheraVitae is a multinational company focused on developing and using stem cells from the patient's own blood to treat a variety of disorders.
Confirming the appointment, on behalf of TheraVitae’s board of directors, Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO of TheraVitae Group, welcomed Mr. Szobel, “We are delighted that Daniel has chosen to further his already distinguished career with us at Theravitae. He brings with him proven leadership experience with both biotech and multinational pharmaceutical companies and is ideally suited to guiding TheraVitae towards accomplishing our future goals.” said Dr. Fulga.
Szobel, 38, joins TheraVitae from his previous position as Finance and Operations Manager at Schering-Plough, Israel; a position in which he was responsible for all of the logistical and operational aspects of company's activities in Israel. Previously Mr. Szobel gained valuable experience as V.P. of Finance and Administration at leading biotech firm Proneuron Biotechnologies Inc. Szobel graduated with a BA in Accounting and Economics from Tel Aviv University and is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
Szobel said that he was looking forward to joining the TheraVitae team and was confident of playing a significant role in leading the company forward saying, “I am excited to join Theravitae's intrepid and experienced management team on the journey to becoming a world leader in the field of Cell Therapy.”
View the full Press Release. Download Press Release in PDF format.
The Seoul Times today carries an article written by James Kelly, Director of the Cures 1st Foundation, Inc. in the US. As a paralyzed American research advocate, Director Kelly promotes practical research for the sake of treatments and cures. Mr. Kelly has testified on cloning before committees in America's Congress, in debate with actor Christopher Reeve, and most recently on CNN International.
The article covers the arguments for and against adult stem cell research and 'advantages' of embryonic stem cells over adult stem cells. Are these advantages real or merely perceived to be real by the media?
"Do adult stem cells have advantages over human embryonic stem cells?" Michael Cook of MercatorNet asked James Sherley, an associate professor of biological engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"The main advantage is that adult stem cells are already programmed to function in adult tissues and organs." Sherley answered. "In addition, they do not form tumors when transplanted from one person to another."
By "programmed" Sherley refers to the turning "on" or "off" of genes within cells – how the genetic code is "expressed." Humans keep the same genetic code throughout life, but the way that code is expressed in the embryo differs sharply from the fetus, which in turn differs from adult (postnatal) genetic expression. This little-known point has immense relevance to stem cell basic research and clinical applications, but such details seldom reach the public.
In a talk entitled "Hype, Hope and Hair-raising: How the British press saw it," former Science Editor Tim Radford of the UK's The Guardian recently acknowledged that he and his fellow science journalists hype stem cell research to sell more newspapers.
One Washington-based science reporter, an avowed atheist, often writes that embryonic stem (ES) cells "can become every cell in the body." But he fails to mention that nine months of fetal development in the fetus are needed to do this. Nor does he report that ES cells matured in vitro (in a petri dish) tend to be genetically unstable and often function abnormally.
ES cell research is promoted primarily for two uses – to provide replacement cells for cell-based medicine, and to act as research tools for studying disease. It would be foolish to claim that embryonic stem cells cannot have medical or research uses. However, for the sake of those whose hopes for health depend on science, these issues are not about possibility, they're about clinical practicality.
In 2002 Kelly's support for ES cell research changed to opposition when he considered its practical worth. To read about why he had a dramatic change of heart, read the full article here.
Today, both Time magazine and Yahoo News are carrying a Reuters' story about Harvard researchers starting a human stem cell project.
This blog usually carries articles related to adult stem cell research, but when a university as prestigious as Harvard makes the decision to go ahead with research that is both a cause of widespread ethical arguments in the US and also brings back memories of falisifed Korean research, it's definitely worth mentioning here.
Researchers at Harvard University are using only private money to bypass federal restrictions on such work. The scientists are studying how embryonic stem cells are programmed, will try to correct defects and then try to return the repaired cells to the body to battle diseases like blood disorders, ALS, known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and diabetes.
The research is controversial because scientists use human embryos which some people say amounts to taking a human life. President George W. Bush, in 2001, restricted the use of federal money for human embryonic stem cell work to a few existing batches of cells.
But Harvard Provost Stephen Hyman told reporters that the project, which he said is critically important to trying to fight often deadly diseases, has been carefully reviewed and that the team of scientists will follow strict guidelines.
However, the field has been marred by scandals. Several months ago a South Korean researcher who claimed to have cloned human embryos and obtained stem cells from them was found to have falsified his reports. Other groups claimed to have cloned actual human babies but have never produced evidence to support their claims.
The Boston researchers eventually want to use cloning technology to make days-old embryos that could then be used as a source of stem cells.
In an online article entitled 'Parents see success in stem cell treatment' Cape Cod Online (USA) report on the journey to China undertaken by the family of a severely brain-damaged 15 year old.
The parents of a teen say the results from their son's recent stem cell transplant in China have been subtle so far, but they are encouraged. ''He's definitely more attentive, and his eyes are open more,'' said Robert Raylove of his 15-year-old son, Jonathan. ''Is that the stem cells? What else could it be?''
Mother and son returned in the beginning of May from a seven-week trip to China, during which the teen received treatment at one of the few hospitals in the world doing stem cell therapy on brain-injured patients.
Doctors at Nanshan Hospital in Shenzhen, China, gave Jonathan five injections of 10 million umbilical cord stem cells each into his spinal column to try to trigger a healing process in his damaged brain cells. He has a condition known as hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, or HE, from a near-drowning in the family pool 11 years ago. As a result, he is unable to walk, talk or see anything beyond shadows.
The Rayloves' hope is that by injecting stem cells directly into their son's spinal cord, his damaged brain cells will send out the chemical message needed to prompt the newly transplanted cells to replicate as brain cells. A procedure which isn't allowed in U.S.
Dr. Leonard Zon, a Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher and director of the stem cell program at Boston Children's Hospital, said it is hard to say whether the small improvements are due to the treatment he received in China. He said stem cell therapy for brain trauma has not been done in animal models to the satisfaction of researchers. Therefore, no human trials have even begun in that area, he said.
This is obviously a great dilemma that families in the postition of the Rayloves must face. Do they head abroad for treatment, often against the recommendations of their doctor & specialists or do they take a chance and hope that experimental therapies will result in an improvement in the quality of life. What would you do?
A patient who received adult stem cell therapy for severe heart disease was recently featured on the Pittsburgh Channel website. The full article is reprinted below:
Heart Failure Patients Take Part In Stem Cell Research
Imagine struggling just to walk to the mailbox or stay awake. That's the way it is for millions of people with heart failure.
An experimental heart surgery that uses stem cells could change the way those people live. For the first time in six years, Richard Howell is enjoying retirement. Heart failure had left him too weak to leave his living room and at risk for complications, including organ failure.
Howell: "I'd get up and walk across the kitchen. I would be short of breath." Nothing seemed to help, so he agreed to an experimental heart surgery. Stem cells, taken from his thigh muscle, are injected into his heart. Dr. Stephen Ellis, The Cleveland Clinic: "Mr. Howell received 18 separate injections encompassing about 200 million cells."
We all have stem cells. Researchers are learning some can be taken from a healthy part of the body and used in another part that is struggling. Ellis: "By giving these cells, the hope is the heart muscle will function better, contract better."
That hope cannot be confirmed without a long-term study of Howell and dozens like him. Earlier studies show there are risks. Ellis: "Some of the early patients have had arrhythmias or bad rapid heart rhythms that are potentially lethal." Howell understood those risks when he agreed to this procedure. Howell: "Whether it works or doesn't work, I've got to give it a try. I can't go on the rest of my life like this."
Six weeks after surgery, Howell is out of his living room and on the beach. How long will his heart stay strong? No one knows. But he's happy to have a second chance for a healthy retirement. It will take another two years to see if this experimental heart surgery works for people with heart failure. If it does, they will then seek Food and Drug Administration approval.
Today, an article has been published making a strong case for China to emerge as the first country to conduct large scale human stem cell trials thus presenting a significant opportunity for Western companies who are brave enough to use this risky destination as a place to pursue this potentially lucrative sector of the biotech industry.
While stem cell research continues to be one of the most hotly debated topics in the Western world, relaxed government laws continue to attract both Western scientists and companies to China as a place where they can comfortably conduct this controversial research, or have it carried out for them, according to a new report by market research firm Kline & Company.
However, China may offer low barriers to stem cell research, but not without risks, and there are several considerations Western companies must be aware of when entering into research deals in China.
For example, enforcement of IP protection laws is still weak compared to that of Western countries and to complicate matters even further, actual IP ownership is often unclear, as many of the Chinese biotech companies are partially supported by government-owned universities and research centres.
Another issue that should make Western companies nervous about investing in stem cell research in China is the recent scandal involving once-revered South Korean scientist, Hwang Woo Suk. Although no such large-scale cases of academic scandal have yet emerged from China, this case still has significant implications for the country's scientific credibility. This is because a weak review and evaluation system for research results, which was a major factor in Hwang's fraudulent act going unchecked for so long, is also citied by many researchers as being a problem in China.
Today, TheraVitae released the following press release announcing Dr Valentin Fulga's presentation at the recent Biomed Israel life sciences conference.
Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO and co-founder of TheraVitae, Ltd., one of the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneers for 2006 and producer of VesCell™ adult stem cell therapy for heart disease; presented an update on the Company’s development at the recent Biomed Israel Conference 2006, held in Jerusalem from 29-31 May.
Dr. Valentin Fulga, CEO of TheraVitae, Ltd, addressed delegates at Biomed Israel 2006, on the topic ‘A Paradigm Shift in the Biotech Field’. The presentation included details of the company’s broad technology platform as well as the innovative business model that TheraVitae utilizes. It also outlined the unique position that the company has gained in the adult stem cell field both scientifically and medically in addition to its achievements in expanding operations in Asia and elsewhere.
As one of the World Economic Forum Technology Pioneers, Dr. Fulga is a leading expert in his field, having almost 15 years experience in the life science industry. With the Biomed Israel 2006 conference focusing partly on cardiovascular diseases and the unmet need for innovative therapies, Dr. Fulga, in his role as developer of VesCell™, TheraVitae’s proprietary stem cell therapy for heart disease, said:” I am delighted and honored to have the opportunity to participate and present TheraVitae’s scientific and business achievements in front of such a large number of conference attendees.”
Noting the importance of the event, Jay D. Lenner Jr., Public Relations Manager at TheraVitae, added, “We were delighted to attend Biomed Israel 2006 which brought together the best and the brightest from Israel’s burgeoning life science industry, along with delegates from Asia, US, and Europe. This broad focus created a unique, exciting opportunity for industry leaders, such as Dr. Fulga, to network and for visitors from abroad to become acquainted with Israel’s dynamic life sciences industry.”
About the Biomed Israel Conference 2006
The annual Biomed Israel conference, held from 29-31 May 2006, attracted delegates from both Israel and abroad to this showcase event for the Israeli life sciences industry. Academics, business leaders and researchers from European and American companies and universities led the list of keynote speakers whilst other noted presenters spoke on advances in treatments and technologies, and their visions of the new frontiers in the life sciences field.
Site Feed