NIH Awards $12 Million for Gene Therapy Work Seattle Children’s Research Institute and partner organizations have been awarded more than $12 million over the next five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health to develop foamy virus gene replacement therapy for patients who suffer from Severe Combined Immunodeficiency. [Seattle Children’s Hospital, Research and Foundation] Press Release $8.7 Million Awarded to Stem Cell Researchers in Clinical & Basic Biology Grants from the State Stem Cell Agency Nelson’s Early Translational award and the two Basic Biology IV grants, totaling $8.7 million, continue efforts by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine to support research designed to take stem cell science from the laboratory to the clinic. [Eli and Edythe Broad Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA] Press Release California’s Stem Cell Agency Boosts Heart Disease Research at Sanford-Burnham The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine has awarded a $1.58 million grant to Huei-Sheng Vincent Chen, PhD, associate professor at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham). This new funding will allow Chen and his team to develop personalized models of inherited heart conditions using stem cells derived from patients’ own skin cells. They will also use these models to develop new therapies. [EurekAlert!] Press Release Funding for Stem Cell Treatment of Compartment Syndrome America Stem Cell won an Advanced Technology Small Business Technology Transfer Research grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute to evaluate the use of its ASC-101 stem technology in combination with the Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine’s amniotic fluid-derived stem cells in an experimental model of compartment syndrome. [Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News] Press Release Multicenter Investigator-Sponsored Cell Therapy Study for Peripheral Artery Disease Approved in Japan Cytori Therapeutics announced that a 40-patient, multi-center investigator-sponsored and funded clinical study in Japan using the Celution® System has been approved under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Guidelines on Clinical Research Using Human Stem Cells. The study will investigate the use of patients’ own adipose-derived stem and regenerative cells processed by the Celution® System for peripheral artery disease or arteriosclerosis obliterans. [Cytori Therapeutics, Inc.] Press Release Opexa Initiates Late Stage Clinical Study of Tcelna in Patients with Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis (SPMS) Opexa Therapeutics, Inc., a company developing Tcelna™, a novel T-cell therapy for multiple sclerosis, announced the initiation of a Phase IIb clinical trial of Tcelna in patients with SPMS. [Opexa Therapeutics, Inc.] Press Release ReNeuron Files Two New Clinical Trial Applications Ahead of Plan in Stroke and Critical Limb Ischemia as Its Stem Cell Programs Advance ReNeuron reported that it has submitted an application to the UK regulatory authority to commence a multi-site Phase II clinical trial to examine the efficacy of its ReN001 stem cell therapy in patients disabled by an ischemic stroke. [ReNeuron Group plc] Press Release NeoStem Subsidiary, Amorcyte, Announces Significant Expansion in Its Claims Granted to Protect the Use of CD34+ Cells Amorcyte, LLC, a subsidiary of NeoStem, Inc., announced a significant expansion in its claims granted to protect the use of CD34+ cells, acquired from blood or bone marrow, to impart a therapeutic benefit to tissue sustaining an ischemic injury. [NeoStem, Inc.] Press Release Coronado Biosciences Granted First U.S. Patent Covering CNDO-109 Coronado Biosciences, Inc. announced the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted a key patent for CNDO-109, licensed by Coronado Biosciences from the University College London Business PLC, for its natural killer cell therapy program. [Coronado Biosciences, Inc.] Press Release Pearl Meister Greengard Prize to be Awarded to Pioneering RNA Researcher Joan Steitz Joan A. Steitz, a pioneer in the field of RNA biology whose discoveries involved patients with a variety of autoimmune diseases, will be awarded the 2012 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize from The Rockefeller University. [The Rockefeller University] Press Release |