ALS and the Ice-Bucket Challenge – Update

The ALS Ice-Bucket Challenge has been the buzz for the last few weeks on social media, in the news and in print. We’ve had many people reach out to us and ask questions regarding the ethics of contributing to an organization that does human embryonic stem cell research. It has been a busy few weeks for us! We all desire to support finding a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), which is a fatal, progressive …

In a Pilot Study, Stem Cell Therapy Found to be Effective For Stroke

Medical News Today – 12 August 2014

A stroke therapy using stem cells extracted from patients’ bone marrow has shown promising results in the first trial of its kind in humans.

Five patients received the treatment in a pilot study conducted by doctors at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust and scientists at Imperial College London. The therapy was found to be safe, and all the patients showed improvements in clinical measures of disability.

The findings …

Growing Cell Lines from Individual Patients May Lead to Personalized Treatments

Medical News Today – 11 August 2014

A method of growing human cells from tissue removed from a patient’s gastrointestinal (GI) tract eventually may help scientists develop tailor-made therapies for inflammatory bowel disease and other GI conditions.
Reporting online recently in the journal Gut, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis said they have made cell lines from individual patients in as little as two weeks. They have created more than 65 …