ABC Health Horizons

Scripps Research Institute, renowned for its work in drug development and medicinal chemistry, is making a bigger commitment to stem cell research.

The institute has created its own Center for Regenerative Medicine and has hired embryonic stem cell scientist Jeanne Loring away from the Burnham Institute to lead it.

Scripps President Richard Lerner and faculty leaders thought embryonic stem cell research would be a great addition to the institute. Scientists in an array of specialties at Scripps are using stem cells in their research.

But the institute did not have a leader in the field, someone to organize the different areas of stem cell work that were being done. It also lacked an organized stem cell organization, such as those operated by the three other big institutes in Torrey Pines – the University of California San Diego, Burnham and the Salk Institute.

Enter Loring, whose work explores the potential of embryonic stem cells to differentiate into the more than 200 cell types in the body, a trait that scientists hope may one day be used to treat diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and diabetes.

She has a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and a doctorate in developmental neurobiology. She has taught at the University of California Davis and held research and management posts at several biotechnology companies, including Incyte Genomics and Arcos BioScience, which is now part of San Diego-based stem cell company Novocell.

“This is an unbelievable opportunity because Scripps is known for its medicinal chemistry, and drugs can be tested on embryonic stem cells,” she said. “So there are things I can do here that I couldn’t do at Burnham.”

Researchers at the Scripps Center for Regenerative Medicine will explore many aspects of stem cells, including embryonic, adult and malignant cancer stem cells, from their basic biology to potential clinical applications in drug discovery, drug delivery and cell therapy.

The new center’s major mission is to provide infrastructure to support collaboration and strategic partnerships in human stem cell research and train the next generation of stem cell scientists, Loring said.

An intensive human embryonic stem cell laboratory course, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, will be offered this fall, and the center will be the site of the San Diego-area training course supported by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

“The potential of stem cell research is vast,” Lerner said. “It takes a scientist of Professor Loring’s foresight, knowledge and experience in basic and applied research to lead the institute’s team to new discoveries that will significantly benefit human health.”

Scripps Research Institute is already a member of the San Diego Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, a nonprofit collaborative body composed of scientists from the four major institutes in Torrey Pines.

Consortium members work in stem cells and other specialties expected to contribute to bringing stem cell-based therapies, diagnostics and drug discovery tools to market. For instance, Scripps’ medicinal chemistry expertise and UCSD’s engineering expertise are expected to be important components of the consortium.

Learn how stem cell news is fueling business opportunities in your area.

STEVEN PRESTON

Starting a business is not easy. Entrepreneurs must be willing to take risks others won’t. They must work around the clock if necessary, often acting not only as the CEO of their company, but the head of sales, head of finance, and whatever else it takes to get the job done.

It’s hard work. In fact, I often say small business owners match every dollar of equity with $10 of sweat equity. But that’s also why they’re successful where others are not. America as an economy that regenerates, is flexible, and adapts to opportunity in large part because our entrepreneurial culture has taught us to dream, to see possibilities, and to act on these possibilities.

Why is this important? Since August 2003, more than 7.2 million jobs have been created—more jobs than the European Union and Japan combined. Our economy has now added jobs for 41 straight months. And American workers are taking home more pay with those jobs. Real after-tax income per person has risen by 9.6 percent – $2,840 – since the President took office. Such growth occurs in large measure because of the perseverance and productivity of our Nation’s entrepreneurs.

Nurturing the Innovators

Small businesses drive our economy. They create 70% of the new jobs and represent more than half of our non-farm private GDP.

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On Aug. 2, 2005  ABC WORLD NEWS published an article “Doctors Use Patients’ Own Stem Cells to Build New Blood Vessels”.  On Mar. 29, 2007  and again on Nov. 19, 2007 the same article was re-published!

“Therapy could help millions of heart patients each year”.  Adult Stem Cells are found throughout the body-in the brain, bones, muscle, skin and blood-which help the body after injury.  But now, researchers are using high concentrations of these cells to actually build new arteries in adult patients.

“What we do is actually take them out and find the right amount of cells and specifically put them into targeted areas, said Dr. Amit Patel, director of the Cardiac Stem Cell Therapies at The McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Results in more than 100 patients show that, within just three months after the stem cell injections, patients see a significant improvement in blood flow to the heart.  The heart muscle itself actually doubles its ability to squeeze or contract.

Researchers say these adult stem cells might help tens of millions of heart patients each year.

“It could be patients who are receiving stents, who are recovering from coronary bypass surgery, patients with heart failure,” said Patel.   “All of these patients have the potential to benefit from this therapy.

Therapy Makes Amputation Unnecessary

Doctors at Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital have started injecting adult stem cells into the leg to grow new arteries there.  Jeremy Kotner, 27, had so little blood flow in his right leg he was at risk of having it amputated.  “You can see where the vessel is blocked,” said Dr. Richard Burt while examining Kotner’s X-ray.  “You can see the blood flowing and then it just stops.  Now, three months later after injection of stem cells in that area, you can see that there’s a new vessel bringing the blood. 

Burt, a specialist in autoimmune diseases, performed the world’s first adult stem cell transplant at Northwestern.  “The pain is gone,” said Kotner.  “I can walk farther and because of that, I feel a lot better.

Many researchers emphasize that early success with these adult stem cells does not replace the need for greater research on embryonic stem cells, which appear more versatile and could potentially treat more diseases.

But when it comes to building blood vessels, using one’s own cells could become a common treatment with just a couple more years of testing.

ABC News’ John McKenzie filed this report for “World News Tonight.”

Interest in Adult Stem Cells is increasing every day and you can get in on the ground floor with your very own website while getting healthy and building a spectacular business with a company that has the only adult stem cell natural food supplement on the market.

www.wealthbuilderssystem.com/abc

1   Media publicity — you mean free advertising?

No. Publicity and advertising are two very distinct methods of marketing. With advertising, you pay for a specific space or time to get your message across a predetermined number of times. With publicity, you pay only the minimal costs of getting your message out to the media by phone, mail or fax. The media then may choose to disseminate your message, at their expense and at whatever time, setting and length they choose. Once you’ve pitched your story to the media, whether you receive a blizzard of publicity or none whatsoever you’re doing a great deal for your new small business.

2   Why would the media want to publicize my business?

If you know how to answer a key question — Why would our readers/listeners/viewers be interested in learning about you now? — they will be happy to use your story to fill up their airtime or column space. As a reporter once told a friend of mine, “The media are a hungry animal that needs to be constantly fed.” So the trick is to feed them an angle on your business that their particular audience will perceive as news, entertainment or useful information.

 The term adult stem cell refers to any cell which is found in a developed organism that has two properties: the ability to divide and create another cell like itself and also divide and create a cell more differentiated than itself. Also known as somatic (from Greek Σωματικóς, “of the body”) stem cells and germline (giving rise to gametes) stem cells, they can be found in children, as well as adults. Pluripotent adult stem cells are rare and generally small in number but can be found in a number of tissues including umbilical cord blood. Most adult stem cells are lineage-restricted (multipotent) and are generally referred to by their tissue origin (mesenchymal stem cell, adipose-derived stem cell, endothelial stem cell, etc.).

A great deal of adult stem cell research has focused on clarifying their capacity to divide or self-renew indefinitely and their differentiation potential.In mice, pluripotent stem cells are directly generated from adult fibroblast cultures.

While embryonic stem cell potential remains untested, adult stem cell treatments have been used for many years to treat successfully leukemia and related bone/blood cancers through bone marrow transplants. The use of adult stem cells in research and therapy is not as controversial as embryonic stem cells, because the production of adult stem cells does not require the destruction of an embryo. Consequently, more US government funding is being provided for adult stem cell research.

Potency definitions

Pluripotent, embryonic stem cells originate as inner mass cells within a blastocyst. The stem cells can become any tissue in the body, excluding a placenta. Only the morula’s cells are totipotent, able to become all tissues and a placenta.

Potency specifies the differentiation potential (the potential to differentiate into different cell types) of the stem cell.

• Totipotent stem cells are produced from the fusion of an egg and sperm cell. Cells produced by the first few divisions of the fertilized egg are also totipotent. These cells can differentiate into embryonic and extraembryonic cell types.

• Pluripotent stem cells are the descendants of totipotent cells and can differentiate into cells derived from any of the three germ layers.

• Multipotent stem cells can produce only cells of a closely related family of cells (e.g. hematopoietic stem cells differentiate into red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, etc.).

• Unipotent cells can produce only one cell type, but have the property of self-renewal which distinguishes them from non-stem cells (e.g. muscle stem cells).

 Recent research supports the idea that stem cells do more than just make blood cells.  Indeed these master cells have the information to be transformed into any cell of the body.  They can replace damaged, sick, worn out cells throughtout the body.  Think of the implications of what this can mean to your own health and the health of your loved ones.  The point is that your visit on this site could lead you to the key that unlocks the reservoir of health contained in your own body.

Dr. David’s brief story:  I am a medical doctor who practiced 40 years on the “front lines”.  The last 25 years were devoted to practicing what I call wellness medicine—that emerging paradigm of medicine devoted to finding and then treating the cause(s) of health problems rather than just treating symptoms.

My life changed dramatically after a sudden, unexpected stroke in July of 2004 that affected my left middle cerebral artery.  My tongue was partially paralyzed causing my speech to be mostly gibberish and the right side of my body was slightly affected.  There was an appreciable lag time between hearing, understanding and responding.  From this personal disaster I have learned many important lessons of life that make me a more compassionate and wiser doctor.  I now know what it feels like to face a potentially life long cripplng disability that conventional medical thought offers little hope.  Because of my personal calamity I can now help others with a new depth of understanding.

Some hi-lites of the rest of Dr. David’s story included rehab that wouldn’t be sufficient including hyperbaric oxygen treatments, along with nutrient support.  He mentioned the love, support, understanding and care he received from his precious wife and other family members.  The spells of deep depression he eventually experienced after he found it  difficult to continue his medical practice, he retired in 2005.  He refused to take the antidepressants because of  the side effects.  He tried several nutrients that were supposed to help, but the truth was that nothing worked.  Fortunately his dear friend Dr. Bob Rogers, MD called him in late 2006.  His words were something like, “David, I have found something that helped me greatly, and it will help you too…get on it…it has to do with stem cell nutrition”.  What Bob said got my attention.

I had heard of stem cells and knew a bit of the controversy.  He told me that this had to do with your own adult stem cells.  “It is possible to release them from your bone marrow, get them into your circulation, and be benefited”.

Dr David began his research realizing it made total sense.  He took a test to document the severity of his depression and poor memory function.  The results were  pretty depressing.  However, within a day of beginning the extract Dr. David began to climb out of the pit of despair.  In fact, he was beginning to feel like his old self again.  He continued taking the computerized tests to register his progress and found that he was much less depressed, his short term memory showed appreciable improvement, and in the last few weeks since beginning the stem cell nutrition his speech was improved even more.

Dr. David says his mind is clear, his anxiety and depression have disappeared, plus people tell him that he is looking healthier. “I am so grateful”.  He hopes the information he has offered will be of help to others that may need it, and that positive health benefits can occur when stem cells are increased in the blood stream. 

Information for Stem Enhance Nutrition visit:  www.abchealthhorizons.com

(Continued from STEM ENHANCE and Bone Marrow Regeneration)

Stem cells have the unique property of being able to reproduce indefinitely. While stem cells can create more of themselves, they also give rise to specialized cells, tissues, and even organs when these need repair or replacement. Early stage embryos consist mainly of stem cells, while in adults, stem cells are not as abundant but are found in nearly every tissue and organ of the body. The bone marrow, however, appears to serve as the major reservoir for stem cells.

Every day, your blood vessels are injured and need repair. This blood vessel damage results from the wear and tear on these delicate inner linings from cholesterol, fats, sugar, hypertension, etc. and leads to their degeneration into atherosclerosis, heart attacks and strokes. These blood vessel injuries have been shown to be healed by stem cells that come out of the bone marrow and circulate in the blood. Indeed, one of the reasons that we grow old and die is due to aging of our stem cells which lessens our body’s ability to repair these daily inner blood vessel injuries. This creates ever-escalating blood vessel disease after the age of 60 with increased calcium deposition and the formation of atherosclerosis.

A person’s own bone marrow stem cells have been shown to be helpful in treating heart attacks and congestive heart failure. Bone marrow stem cells injected into damaged tissues such as those found in a heart attack or brain attack (stroke) have a number of healing properties. Scientists have discovered now that bone marrow stem cells have actually become identical to the surrounding tissue, depending upon which cell type they are injected into. Another way stem cells help injured tissues to heal is by the release of growth factors into the damaged tissues.

In this article of Regenerative News, we are focusing on osteoarthritis, which is otherwise known as degenerative joint disease or DJD. Osteoarthritis is one of the most common causes of pain and disability in middle-aged and older people. The mechanisms responsible for osteoarthritis remain poorly understood, but researchers have learned that the degeneration of joint cartilage is not simply the result of aging and mechanical wear, but also due to lack of repair of the weight-bearing joint cartilage and the underlying bone due to depletion and/or functional alteration of stem cells. This would suggest that in joint diseases such as osteoarthritis, providing the deficient stem cells would contribute to normal healing. Up until now surgeons could only clean up and remove either the whole joint or joint surfaces with the hope of decreasing symptoms and restoring or maintaining a functional joint. But now that your own bone marrow stem cells are available, this has all changed — recent work has shown the potential for the restoration of a joint surface! We believe that the use of your own bone marrow stem cells, especially in combination with other healing and anti-inflammatory therapies could be of tremendous benefit for you now as an arthritic—not in some unknown future time after all the debates about embryonic stem cells die down.

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This chapter Know Thyself  is from Mac Anderson’s book, The Power of Attitude, about how to maintain a positive attitude in business and life.  Enjoy!

You have to be, before you do, to have lasting inner peace.  In other words, making a living is not the same as making a life.  Find what makes your heart sing and create your own music.

Many people work all their lives and dislike what they do for a living.  In fact, I was astounded to see a recent USA Today survey that said fifty-three percent of people in the America workplace are unhappy with their jobs.  Loving what you do is one of the most important keys to maintaining a positive attitude.  You can’t fake passion. It is the fuel that drives any dream and makes you happy to be alive However, to love what you do, the first step is to self-analyze, to simply know what you love. We all have unique talents and interests, and one of life’s challenges is to match these talents with career opportunities that bring out the best in us.  It’s not easy - and sometimes we can only find it through trial and error - but it’s worth the effort.

Ray Kroc, for example, found his passion when he founded McDonald’s at the age of 52. He never “worked” another day in his life.

John James Audubon was unsuccessful for most of his life.  He was a terrible businessman.  No matter how many times he changed locations, changed partners, or changed businesses, he still failed miserably.  Not until he understood that he must change himself did he have any shot at success.

And what changes did Audubon make?  He followed his passion.  He always had loved the outdoors and was an excellent hunter.  In addition, he was a good artist and as a hobby would draw local birds.

Once he stopped trying to be a businessman and started doing what he loved to do, his life turned around.  He traveled the country observing and drawing birds, and his art ultimately was collected  in a book titled, Audubon’s Birds of America.  The book earned him a place in history as the greatest wildlife artist ever.  But more importantly, the work made him happy and provided the peace of mind he’d been seeking all his life.

How do you find your purpose in life?  There are no easy answers, but here are two practical tips that can help:

1. Discover Your Gifts - We’re all unique and each of us has our own special gifts.  Make a list of what you consider your strengths and your weaknesses.  Next, don’t just assume your assumptions are correct.  Get feedback from what Ken Blanchard calls “trusted truth-tellers”- friends and family members who won’t just tell you what you want to hear but who will share their true opinions.  With their help you can get a realistic perspective of your gifts.

2. Discover What Moves You - Find your passion and strive to live your life around it.  Make your list.  Do your homework.  There is this caution, however…have patience.  Your purpose in life probably won’t surface overnight, but like love, it will find you when you least expect it.

Finding your reason for being brings a positive attitude that can be unstoppable.

You can find other inspirational and motivational books by Mac Anderson:

http://store.simpletruths.com/shared/affiliates/?Affiliate=734&Target=Store