What is bone marrow? What does bone marrow do?
Bone marrow is the spongy tissue inside some of the bones in the body, including the hip and thigh bones. Bone marrow contains immature cells, called stem cells.
Numerous people with blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and other life-threatening diseases, rely on bone marrow or cord blood transplants to save their life.
Healthy bone marrow and blood cells are needed in order to live. When disease affects bone marrow so that …
What you need to know about 3D-printed organs
Sure, 3D printers that can spit out chocolates, create shoes, handcraft cars and help astronauts sound fun and magical, but a lot of scientists are working to make models that aren’t just fun. They’re developing 3D printers that can also save and change lives by printing out functional human organs. Think about it: If we can make organs on demand, patients don’t have to wait as long for transplanted organs. In the United States alone, …
NuVascular Technologies and Worcester Polytechnic Institute commercializing stem cell treatment to repair heart damage
NuVascular Technologies, Inc. has recently obtained exclusive licensing rights to commercialize a breakthrough medical device that will provide a minimally invasive treatment for heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death in the United States accounting for one in every four deaths.
The BioGenerator stem cell device allows the heart to repair itself and could improve heart function in as little as two to four weeks. NuVascular Technologies is teaming up with researchers at both …
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Dec
Delivery of stem cells into heart muscle after heart attack may enhance cardiac repair and reverse injury
As seen in Science Daily October 19, 2014
Summary:
Delivering stem cell factor directly into damaged heart muscle after a heart attack may help repair and regenerate injured tissue. A novel SCF gene transfer delivery system induced the recruitment and expansion of adult c-Kit positive (cKit+) cardiac stem cells to injury sites that reversed heart attack damage in a pre-clinical model. In addition, the gene therapy improved cardiac function, decreased heart muscle cell death, increased …
Nov
Major Advance Using Ethical Stem Cells
As seen in NRL News October 2014
Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), a Madison, Wisconsin-based company, has been awarded a $1.2 million contract from the National Eye Institute to engineer stem cells acquired ethically for potential treatment of macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness. This contract represents CDI’s first venture into making cells for therapeutic use.
The Eye Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, will send blood and tissue …
Nadal Set for Spinal Procedure
As seen in AP – Nov 12, 2014
BARCELONA, Spain — Rafael Nadal’s doctor says the 14-time Grand Slam winner will receive stem cell treatment on his ailing back.
Angel Ruiz-Cotorro told The Associated Press by phone on Monday that, “we are going to put cells in a joint in his spine” next week in Barcelona.
The Spanish tennis star was already sidelined for the rest of the season after having his appendix removed last …
Lab-developed intestinal organoids form mature human tissue in mice
As seen in Science Daily October 19, 2014
Summary:
Researchers have successfully transplanted ‘organoids’ of functioning human intestinal tissue grown from pluripotent stem cells in a lab dish into mice — creating an unprecedented model for studying diseases of the intestine. Scientists said that, through additional translational research, the findings could eventually lead to bioengineering personalized human intestinal tissue to treat gastrointestinal diseases.
Reporting their results Oct. 19 online in Nature Medicine, scientists from Cincinnati …
Paralyzed man walks again after nose cells repair his spinal cord
As seen in Medical News Today – 21 October 2014 at 3am PST
A 40-year-old paralyzed man from Poland can now walk again with the aid of a frame after breakthrough surgery transplanted cells from his nose into his spinal cord, which had been severed in a knife attack.
The procedure effectively provided a “bridge” over the injury site so nerve cells – encouraged by the special nose cells – could regrow across the scar …
Growing a blood vessel in a week
As seen in Science Daily – October 24, 2014
Summary:
The technology for creating new tissues from stem cells has taken a giant leap forward. Three tablespoons of blood are all that is needed to grow a brand new blood vessel in just seven days. This is shown in a new study from Sahlgrenska Acadedmy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital published in EBioMedicine.
Just three years ago, a patient at Sahlgrenska University Hospital received a blood …