Source: Kuwait Times

HONG KONG:  One of the world’s leading researchers into spinal cord injuries says China could hold the key to a cure that he has been searching for since he met late actor Christopher Reeve in the 1990s. US-based Doctor Wise Young first used the word “cure” in relation to his work after a conversation with Reeve, the “Superman” hero who became quadriplegic in an equestrian accident in 1995.

Reeve contacted him looking for help and the two became close friends. The actor died of heart failure in 2004 at the age of 52, having devoted his life to raising awareness about spinal cord injuries and stem-cell research.

But it was a star of a different sort, Chinese gymnast Sang Lan, who set Young on the path he believes has brought a cure closer than ever, thanks to ground-breaking clinical trials of stem-cell therapy he is conducting in China.

“Everybody assumed that I’m doing this in China because I wanted to escape George W. Bush, but that’s not the case at all,” Young told AFP in an interview, recalling the former US president’s 2001 decision to effectively stop Federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.

Studies show that collected kidney cells can be reprogrammed to grow into any type of kidney cell

By Denise Mann

HealthDay Reporter

THURSDAY, Aug. 4 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers may be one step closer to harnessing the power of stem cells to help treat, and potentially cure, kidney disease.

Two new studies, both published in a recent issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, demonstrate that kidney cells can be reprogrammed to morph into other types of kidney cells needed to repair damage.

In one report, scientists out of Monash University in Australia extracted kidney cells and reprogrammed them so they could behave like other kidney cells. In a second related study, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, China, collected kidney cells from urine and were also able to reprogram them.

Source: Xinhua.net

BEIJING, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists have discovered a key protein which could help to more efficiently produce induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells.

IPS cells are a kind of stem cells artificially derived from non-pluripotent cells which have huge potential for bioengineering and medical applications to cure human diseases.

A research team from Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health along with the Chinese Academy of Sciences identified a special enzyme which is able to significantly improve efficiency of Vitamin C to transform a body cell to an IPS cell.

The inspiring discovery was published in an online edition of an international journal "Cell, Stem Cell" on Nov. 18, and will be published in a print edition in December.

Cellular reprogramming and its efficiency of the IPS cells have puzzled scientists around the world for many years, although the IPS cells are believed to be of great significance in organ transplant, gene therapy and more other fields.

In 2009, the research team, headed by Prof. Pei Duanqing, identified vitamin C as a key ingredient that enhances cellular reprogramming.

"Our work has not only identified the enzyme that enhances reprogramming, more importantly revealed the barrier for reprogramming, which may pave the way for further understanding of the reprogramming process and also provide a rationale to further improve this technology," said Dr. Pei.

"This is a highly significant piece of work. It is an important next milestone towards a better molecular understanding of the mechanism of cellular reprogramming towards pluripotency and in general," said Dr. Marius Wernig, a stem cell biologist with Stanford University.

On Dec. 18th, Dr. Shaorong GAO’s lab published a research article entitled Generation of Histocompatible Androgenetic Embryonic Stem Cells Using Spermatogenic Cells in the journal Stem Cells, a leading UK journal in the field of stem cells.

SYNOPSIS: In this publication, histocompatible androgenetic embryonic stem cells were successfully derived from spermatogenic cells through the somatic cell nuclear transfer method.

Androgenetic embryonic stem (aES) cells, produced by pronuclear transplantation, offer an important autologous pluripotent stem cell source. Previously, the controversial approach of isolating aES cells through the use of fertilized embryos, particularly individual-specific aES cells, has limited the practical applications of this technology in humans. 

On Aug.18th, 2009, Dr. Shaorong GAO’s lab published the paper Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) Cells from Human b-thalassemia Fibroblast Cells in China’s leading life sciences journal Cell Research.

SYNOPSIS: β-Thalassemia (also called Cooley’s anemia) is an inherited blood disorder that is characterized by reduced synthesis of hemoglobin subunit beta (hemoglobin β-chain). This disorder is widely prevalent among southern Asians, Arabs and Mediterranean people with no effective cure so far. Individuals with thalassemia major suffer from severe anemia and hepatosplenomegaly. People with this disorder normally survive through adolescence, and if left untreated the likelihood of mortality increases as they approach adulthood.

Source: Xinhuanet

LONDON, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers have become the world's fifth most prolific contributors to peer-reviewed scientific literature on Regenerative Medicine (RM), according to an international study published on Friday.

The Canadian-based McLaughlin-Rotman Center for Global Health (MRC) published a research article in the UK journal Regenerative Medicine, saying that China's contributions to scientific journalson RM topics leapt from 37 in 2000 to 1,116 in 2008, exceeded only by that of the United States, Germany, Japan and Britain.

"China has been developing very quickly in the area of regenerative medicine", said Dominique McMahon, the leading author of the article, who also told Xinhua that "there is no doubt that China is one of the leaders in the race to develop RM therapies."

Source: Global talent

Stephen Minger, King’s College London

Stephen Minger is director of the biology laboratory of stem cells of the Wolfson Centre for Age-Related Diseases of King’s College London. He has been pioneer in embryonic stem cell research in the United Kingdom. In 2001 he obtained one of the two first licences that the British Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFSA) conceded for the derivation of embryonic stem cells. The following year, his group generated the first line of these cells in the United Kingdom, one of the first in the world.

Cristina Jiménez | 24 September 2009

The United Kingdom is one of the most prolific countries in stem cell research.
In the last years there has been a lot of public investment in this field, for both lines of adult and embryonic stem cells. Moreover, the British public generally welcomes this kind of research. The strong collaboration between the different British universities is also important. In London, for example, there is the London Network of Regenerative Medicine and at national level, the UK Stem Cell Network. The United Kingdom has to maintain these investment levels if it wants to remain competitive. China and the United States are investing astronomic quantities and the UK could be left behind.

Source: Pharmacy Choice

2009 OCT 29 - (NewsRx.com) In this recently published article, scientists in Chongqing, People's Republic of China conducted a study "To explore immunological properties of human umbilical cord blood-derived stromal cells (hUCBDSC) and their effect on xenogeneic immune cells in vitro (see also Cord Blood). Immunological phenotype of freshly isolated and cryopreserved hUCBDSCs was evaluated by flow cytometry."