StemCells Therapy

(Cedars-Sinai Medical Center) The Ninth Annual Controversies and Advances in Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease continuing medical education conference will feature several discussions and presentations on how health care reform could affect cardiovascular disease patients? diagnosis, treatment and outcome. The conference, led by doctors from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, also will highlight developments in non-surgical valve [...]

Shortly after my coverage of the FDA’s approval for NeuralStem’s stem-cell trial for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis appeared on the Niche, Letizia Mazzini and Franca Fagioli of Eastern Piedmont University contacted me to tell me about their team’s work using mesenchymal stem cells for the same disease. While Neuralstem is moving forward with neural stem cells, [...]

In its continuous pursuit of quality cardiac care, Houston Northwest Medical Center was proudly recognized as the first accredited chest pain center in Houston and one of a handful in Texas to be named a Cycle III Chest Pain Center with PCI (percutaneous coronary intervention).

A new report by the Government Accountability Office “finds that state and federal officials failed to detect millions of dollars in Medicaid prescription drug abuse,” USA Today reports. “An audit of the government program in five large states found about 65,000 instances of beneficiaries improperly obtaining potentially addictive drugs at a cost of about $65 [...]

The latest H1N1 genomic data shows a 50% drop in the Replikin CountTM of the virus’s replikins lethality gene since its recorded highs in April 2009. In contrast, the Replikin Count of the virus’s infectivity gene showed a continued elevation.

Parabon NanoLabs (PNL), a leading designer and manufacturer of breakthrough, nano-enabled products, announced today its award of a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) grant.

As the battle against the H1N1 influenza outbreak continues, hospitals are on the front lines, charged with identifying, treating, monitoring, and reporting flu cases—as well as preventing their spread to other patients and hospital personnel. To facilitate this arduous task, a growing number of U.S. hospitals are using a patient safety surveillance system developed by [...]

Economists say better use of Medicare data could help make health care less expensive while the federal program faces some cuts under current legislation.

MacuSight, a developer of innovative therapeutics for the treatment of severe ocular diseases and conditions, today provided a clinical development update for Perceiva, the company’s proprietary ocular sirolimus product.

The history of the pharmaceutical industry is closely linked to the business practices of the combination and purchase of corporations. From the creation of the combined entity of Warner-Lambert in 1955, to the purchase of Warner-Lambert by Pfizer in 2000, to the recent acquisition of Wyeth, pharmaceutical and biotech companies have expanded their pipelines, portfolios, [...]

National Health Partners, Inc. (OTCBB: NHPR), a leading provider of unique discount healthcare membership programs, announced today that it has entered into agreements with two new Hispanic marketing groups for the sale of its CARExpress programs.

The new MagNA Pure 96 System from Roche Applied Science has been designed and engineered to meet the needs for high throughput laboratories worldwide. Its performance is based on Roche Applied Science’s 10 years experience in the development and application of glass-magnetic-particle based automated nucleic acid purification systems.

The European Union is launching a campaign to promote healthy food to stem the rise of obesity among kids. (Source: CTV Health)

Authors: Clote P, Kranakis E, Krizanc D, Salvy B
It is a classical result of Stein and Waterman that the asymptotic number of RNA secondary structures is 1.104366 . n(-3/2) . 2.618034(n). In this paper, we study combinatorial asymptotics for two special subclasses of RNA secondary structures – canonical and saturated structures. [...]

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said the first clinical trial to test a new stem cell treatment for the fatal neurodegenerative disease ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) this month (ALS) can go ahead. (Source: Health News from Medical News Today)

Decision Resources, one of the world’s leading research and advisory firms for pharmaceutical and healthcare issues, finds that Roche/Chugai’s Avastin is prescribed by the majority of surveyed oncologists for glioblastoma multiforme, non-small-cell lung cancer and breast cancer. Additionally, the drug is prescribed by all surveyed oncologists for colorectal cancer. (Source: Health News from Medical News [...]

Chemical Reviews, Volume 0, Issue 0, Articles ASAP (As Soon As Publishable). (Source: Chemical Reviews)

Nature Genetics 41, 1050 (2009). doi:10.1038/ng1009-1050
Author: David M Owens
Adult mammalian tissues are maintained by multipotent stem cells, many of which are highly responsive to soluble Wnt proteins. A new study reports the requirement of two Tcf family members, Tcf3 and Tcf4, in the development and maintenance of epithelial stem cells in skin through Wnt-dependent and [...]

Nature Genetics 41, 1156 (2009). doi:10.1038/ng1009-1156a
Author: Xifeng Wu, Yuanqing Ye, Lambertus A Kiemeney, Patrick Sulem, Thorunn Rafnar, Giuseppe Matullo, Daniela Seminara, Teruhiko Yoshida, Norihisa Saeki, Angeline S Andrew, Colin P Dinney, Bogdan Czerniak, Zuo-feng Zhang, Anne E Kiltie, D Timothy Bishop, Paolo Vineis, Stefano Porru, Frank Buntinx, Eliane Kellen, Maurice P Zeegers, Rajiv Kumar, Peter [...]

Vein graft adaptation (VGA) is characterized by vein wall thickening, a complex process requiring cell proliferation and migration. We have previously shown that VGA is also associated with loss of the venous determinant Eph-B4. To study molecular mechanisms that mediate VGA, we developed a novel in vitro model of VGA. (Source: Journal of Vascular Surgery)