1 YEAR AFTER STEM CELL LIMITATIONS LIFTED

A year after President Barack Obama lifted limitations on research into embryonic stem cells and promised billions in new stimulus money for it, researchers are nearly giddy with enthusiasm about the advancement in the field. They're confident that stem cells will be capable of treating or may someday providing a complete cure for people with heart disease, diabetes, spinal cord injury and other disorders.

This excitement, however, is not generated by stem cells that have been harvested from human embryos. Instead, researchers are coming to believe they can get results that would be approximately as good from adult stem cells that is taken from the patient's individual bone marrow or belly fat, and even full-fledged adult cells from muscle tissue or skin.

Dr. Joshua Hare, Director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University Of Miami Medical School stated that adult stem cells are more flexible than they had thought. The embryonic stem cell may not be the one that proves to be really successful in the actual therapy.

In order to treat a patient with heart problems or who suffers heart attack may be benefited more with an adult stem cell.

By now, at the UM Medical School, adult stem cells have already been injected around a patient's heart so as to help heal a heart attack, and adult cells are being applied around injured spinal cords with the hope of restoring its movement.

This is news will definitely fill in heart patients, a ray of hope, because it will cure their heart attacks and save a number of lives, further giving joy o those families and people who could lose their loved one to this disease.

Another new development exhilarating researchers is the stimulated pluripotent adult stem cell. Scientists at Harvard and in Japan took cells from the skin on a patient's arm and genetically reprogrammed them to be almost as supple as embryonic stem cells, without destroying an embryo. They expect to use them one day to build up total human organs, cell by cell.

TEAM TYPE 1 RACE WITH THE PROS THIS WEEKEND

Local race draws world's top cyclists
By: Matt Hunter
This summer, all eyes will be on Paris as the world's top cyclists gather for the Tour de France. This weekend, many of those same riders hit the road in the North Country. Our North Country Reporter Matt Hunter has more.


CAMBRIDGE, N.Y. -- It's 124 miles that blends sprints with gut wrenching climbs.

In all, 162 of the world's top cyclists, including disqualified Tour de France Champion Floyd Landis and 2008 U.S. Olympian Bobby Lea, grind it out with some of the best amateurs at the 2010 Tour of the Battenkill.

"Look at the start list, there's guy from all over the globe," said Cory Burns, an amateur cyclist from Watertown, NY. "There are guys from Australia are here, guys from Great Britain are here."

"That's why the crowds come," race director Dieter Drake said. "That's why they come and spend some money and that's an exciting thing to be able to do that in a town like Cambridge, New York."

In its seventh year, this is the first time the event has appeared on the pro international calendar.

Among the riders, four members of Team Type 1; all of whom battle diabetes in addition to the tough terrain.

"It means a lot [to compete]," team member Martijn Verschoor. "A lot of people are proud and we are also, because it's very difficult to manage it."

Sunday's event caps off back to back weekends of racing. Throughout the week, riders of every level share the course together, touring a diverse Washington County countryside.

"To a lot of the guys, like myself, this is our Paris-Roubaix and Tour of Flanders all in one day," Burns said. "Because most of us are never going to see those roads in Europe and race with those guys, this is our weekend to see what we have."

For at least one team, it's not so much about proving something to themselves, but to the rest of the world.

"We have to control it [diabetes] and we want to show the world the world you can cycle with diabetes at a high level," Verschoor said. "We want to inspire people and help people. That's a good job."

NEW LAB FOR STEM CELL RESEARCH AT UCONN

April 9, 2010


An architect's rendering of 400 Farmington Avenue. Photo by: the UConn Health Center.
The Univ. of Connecticut is just months away from opening a new research building in Farmington to enhance Connecticut’s role as a leader in innovative high tech research and technology transfer in the areas of stem cell biology, advanced microscopy and imaging, computational biology and genetics.
Especially designed with open labs that flow into each other and office areas located on hallways running between labs, the new Cell and Genomic Sciences Building intends to promote interdisciplinary research among the academic and industry chemists, geneticists, physicists, mathematicians, cell biologists, and computer scientists housed there. This collaborative effort aims to capitalize on the power of different areas of scientific expertise to revolutionize the practice of medicine.

“Our goal is to maximize the state’s investment in stem cell research by establishing an infrastructure to support scientists in their quest of turning discoveries at the bench into therapies for diseases such as autism and cancer and to advance the field of regenerative medicine,” says Marc Lalande, Director of UConn’s Stem Cell Institute, as well as professor and chairman of the medical school’s genetics and developmental biology department. “This is an unprecedented opportunity for us.”

Purchased by UConn with Board of Trustees’ approval in 2007, a former research and testing facility at 400 Farmington Avenue-–across the street from UConn’s Health Center campus-–has been undergoing a $52 million transformation and is to be equipped with the latest technologies for studying cells and their genomes. The new 117,000 square foot building is expected to open in July 2010.

The renovated building will house research laboratories, offices, a 100-seat auditorium, cafeteria, and incubator space for businesses eager to commercialize stem cell science. Designed by the Boston laboratory architecture firm Goody Clancy, the renovations will meet the requirements of a LEED Silver rating, according to project manager Kevin Norton.