Junying Yu, Ph.D., formerly an associate scientist and senior research fellow in Dr. James Thomson’s laboratory at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, has accepted an invitation to join the scientific research staff of Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), the company cofounded by Dr. Thomson.

According to Chris Kendrick-Parker, chief commercial officer at CDI, "Dr. Yu strengthens CDI’s scientific team and our ability to exploit our growing patent portfolio. Junying is one of the top stem cell researchers in the world, and with her on our team we feel confident that we will be able to provide additional, much needed stem cell research tools and therapies to the preclinical, and eventually clinical, market faster."

As Robert Palay, chairman and CEO of CDI, adds, "We are very pleased that, of the many offers Dr. Yu has entertained, she has chosen CDI to further her research and career. Her personal goals align with the company’s goals in being the leader in iPS cell technology, industrializing the process to create the quantity of cells required for use as tools and therapeutics and accelerating the process of bringing personalized medicine to realization."

As Dr. Yu stated, "I’m excited to join the team of scientists at CDI working towards personalized therapeutics. In vitro drug testing can be severely limited by the lack of physiologically relevant models arising from non-human animal models or models that do not appropriately reflect the target population. iPS cell technology overcomes these obstacles and offers the promise of generating differentiated cell types from virtually any genetic background."

Though already distinguished for her collaboration on a number of pioneering breakthroughs, in March of this year Dr. Yu received further recognition for her participation in the development of iPS cells without the use of dangerous viral vectors, a significant achievement which was described in an article published in the journal Science. This new procedure for developing iPS cells – which CDI has termed "iPS 2.0" – brings iPS cell technology one step closer to clinical applications. Prior to this particular breakthrough, Dr. Yu had already garnered attention for her participation in previous stem cell milestones which included the historic announcement in a November 2007 publication in Science in which she and the other members of Dr. James Thomson’s team first described the successful creation of iPS cells from human skin.

According to Dr. Thomson, one of the cofounders and currently the chief scientific officr of CDI, "It has been an absolute privilege to work with Junying for the past six years at UW, and I am excited to continue the relationship. Junying could have gone anywhere, but she chose CDI, an endorsement of which I am proud. I have always been optimistic in CDI’s success, however now I have great confidence. If Junying takes on a project, it succeeds."

Dr. Yu’s appointment to CDI follows a series of other recent announcements by the company that have included two exclusive licensing agreements – one with New York’s Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and the other with IUPUI, the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis – as well as a new scientific breakthrough in which the company announced the first successful creation of iPS cells from normal human blood.

Based in Madison, Wisconsin and co-founded by the renowned embryonic stem cell pioneer Dr. James Thomson along with 3 of his colleagues in 2004, CDI specializes in the development of iPS cells for drug screening. Often referred to as "the father of embryonic stem cell science", James Thomson, VMD, Ph.D., was the first person ever to isolate an embryonic stem cell in the laboratory, first from a nonhuman primate in 1995 and then from a human in 1998. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors and as chief scientific officer of CDI, Dr. Thomson is currently also director of Regenerative Biology at the Morgridge Institute for Research and the John D. MacArthur Professor of Anatomy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

As anyone can see, clearly printed at the top of CDI’s website is the phrase, "iPS cells deliver". Contrary to popular opinion, therefore, and despite his distinguished background in embryonic stem cell (ESC) research, Dr. Thomson is no longer focused exclusively on ESCs but instead has turned the focus of his attention to iPS cells, of which he is also a co-discoverer and which he often describes as having a more immediate applicability in medicine than ESCs. Additionally, such an applicability of iPS cells is not so much in the development of actual cell-based therapies as it is in the screening of new pharmaceuticals, as clearly indicated by the commercial direction of CDI’s pipeline. As further described on their website, "Cellular Dynamics is working with scientists worldwide to develop and deploy a number of cell lineages derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) as well as a wide range of screening assays and services to aid pharmaceutical development. Currently CDI provides cardiac toxicity drug testing services, including GLP and non-GLP hERG channel electrophysiological assays as well as action potential and cytotoxicity screens using cardiomyocytes. The company is developing additional cell types from iPS cells, including hematopoietic cells (mast and CD34+ cells, megakaryocytes, and red blood cells), hepatocytes, neural cells, adipocytes, and more."

(Please see the related news articles on this website, entitled, "Wisconsin Stem Cell Company Announces Licensing Agreement", dated July 15, 2009; "Cellular Dynamics Creates iPS Cells From Human Blood", dated July 8, 2009; and "Cellular Dynamics and Mount Sinai Sign Licensing Agreement", dated May 29, 2009).

Researchers at the Burnett School of Biomedical Sciences at the University of Central Florida today announced positive results in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease with adult stem cells in mice.

Led by Dr. Kiminobu Sugaya, the scientists used a unique combination of neural stem cells differentiated from bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, together with the compound phenserine – a highly selective AChE (acetylcholinesterase) inhibitor – to treat a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Not only did the scientists observe the regeneration of new neurons in the brains of the mice following the treatment, but they also found a significant reduction in the amyloid plaque that characterizes Alzheimer’s disease.

According to Dr. Sugaya, "If our success with mice can translate into the human brain, it could give hope to patients and their families."

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by very specific neurological abnormalities which ultimately result in very specific types of behavioral abnormalities. Neurologically, there are 3 main identifying features of Alzheimer’s disease, namely, 1) beta-amyloid plaques, which form outside and around neurons, 2) neurofibrillary tangles, which form inside dead neurons, and 3) overall dramatic shrinkage of neural tissue. The plaques and tangles in particular have come to be regarded as the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, although it is not yet known whether these features are a cause of the disease or merely a byproduct. The gross atrophy of the brain that is seen in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s is a result of the widespread death of neuronal cells, and the concomitant loss of their synaptic connections. In severe cases the brain may be reduced by as much as a third of its normal size. Behaviorally, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are often mistaken in the early stages for a normal part of the aging process. However, Alzheimer’s does not represent normal aging.

The website of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), offers the following official definition: "Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized in the brain by abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) composed of misplaced proteins." Also on the same website, the NINDS researchers further add that, "There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and no way to slow the progression of the disease."

Indeed, prior to the advent of stem cell technology, conventional medicine offered no known effective therapy for Alzheimer’s. Now, however, adult stem cell therapy may possibly offer the first type of treatment which not only slows the progression of the disease by eliminating the plaques and tangles, but which also reverses symptoms of the disease by regenerating new neurons.

Dr. Sugaya has previously published a number of studies characterizing the physiological function of the beta-amyloid precursor protein, as well as the ability of bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into both neurons and glia. As stated on his webpage, Dr. Sugaya is focused on the ultimate development of a neuroreplacement therapy using human mesenchymal stem cells for the treatment of a number of neurodegenerative diseases which include Alzheimer’s.

Approximately 37 million people worldwide suffer from various forms of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease constituting the majority of cases. It has been estimated that 18 million people throughout the world are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, approximately 5.3 million of whom are in the U.S., and these figures are expected to double by the year 2025. Although Alzheimer’s is often associated with industrialized societies, currently over half of all people who suffer with this disease are reportedly living in developing nations.

In addition to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, many other prominent individuals have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, including the former Prime Minister of Britain, Harold Wilson, the choreographer George Balanchine, the composer Aaron Copeland, and the actress Rita Hayworth.

(Please see the related sub-section on this website, entitled "Alzheimer’s Disease", listed in the "Research" section).

Scientists at the Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders at UC-Irvine have used neural stem cells derived from normal, healthy mice to treat other mice that had been genetically engineered to form the neurofibrillary plaques and tangles that characterize Alzheimer’s disease. Just a month after receiving transplantation with the neural stem cells, the diseased mice were found to perform significantly better on memory tests. Further analysis revealed that the neural stem cells alone did not diminish the plaques and tangles in the brains of the mice, nor did the stem cells increase the number of neurons, but instead the stem cells were able to improve cognitive function by strengthening and increasing the number of connections between already existing neurons. The results of this study therefore offer very concrete evidence for the importance of "neural networks" – the brain’s biological circuitry – in cognitive health. A hot topic in the 1990s, neural networks have proven to have a number of applications not only in neuroscience but also in computer engineering fields that include artificial intelligence. Among other things, the large-scale mathematical modelling of synaptic connections and their signaling resulted in the development of highly specialized "learning paradigms" and numerous types of neural network software which continue to have a broad range of applications to machine vision, mapping, virtual reality and any type of adaptive process. Now, a number of studies such as this, which are using stem cells to investigate the various mechanisms of the brain, are shedding further insights into a fundamental neurobiological process which translates readily to a wide variety of modern technological applications.

In the UC-Irvine study, the researchers found that most of the stem cells that were transplanted into the brains of the mice differentiated into astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, as only approximately 6% of the transplanted stem cells actually differentiated into neurons. Most importantly, the transplanted stem cells were found to secrete the protein BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) which stimulated the growth of neurites – a newly sprouted neuron that can grow into either an axon or a dendrite – thereby strengthening and increasing the number of connections between neurons. Conversely, when the scientists selectively reduced BDNF in the stem cells, the strength and number of the neuronal connections was observed to decrease, as did memory in the mice, thereby offering further evidence for the role of BDNF in maintaining healthy neuronal function and memory. When the scientists injected only the BDNF, without the stem cells, directly into the brains of diseased mice, some cognitive improvement was seen though not as much as when the BDNF was secreted directly by newly transplanted neural stem cells.

According to Dr. Mathew Blurton-Jones of UC-Irvine, the lead author of the study, "If you look at Alzheimer’s, it’s not the plaques and tangles that correlate best with dementia, it’s the loss of synapses – the connections between neurons. The neural stem cells were helping the brain form new synapses and nursing the injured neurons back to health."

As Dr. Frank LaFerla, a coauthor of the study, adds, "Essentially, the cells were producing fertilizer for the brain. This gives us a lot of hope that stem cells or a product from them, such as BDNF, will be a useful treatment for Alzheimer’s."

Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by very specific neurological abnormalities which ultimately result in very specific types of behavioral abnormalities. Neurologically, there are 3 main identifying features of Alzheimer’s disease, namely, 1) beta-amyloid plaques, which form outside and around neurons, 2) neurofibrillary tangles, which form inside dead neurons, and 3) overall dramatic shrinkage of neural tissue. The plaques and tangles in particular have come to be regarded as the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s, although it is not yet known whether these features are a cause of the disease or merely a byproduct of the disease. The gross atrophy of the brain that is seen in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s is a result of the widespread death of neuronal cells, and the concomitant loss of their synaptic connections. In severe cases the brain may be reduced by as much as a third of its normal size. Behaviorally, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease are often mistaken in the early stages for a normal part of the aging process. However, Alzheimer’s does not represent normal aging.

The website of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), offers the following
definition: "Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease characterized in the brain by abnormal clumps (amyloid plaques) and tangled bundles of fibers (neurofibrillary tangles) composed of misplaced proteins." Also on the same website, the NINDS researchers further add that, "There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease and no way to slow the progression of the disease."

Indeed, prior to the advent of stem cell technology, conventional medicine offered no known effective therapy for Alzheimer’s. Now, however, adult stem cell therapy may possibly offer the first type of treatment which not only slows the progression of the disease by eliminating the plaques and tangles, but which also reverses symptoms of the disease by regenerating new neurons.

Approximately 37 million people worldwide suffer from various forms of dementia, with Alzheimer’s disease constituting the majority of cases. It has been estimated that 18 million people throughout the world are afflicted with Alzheimer’s, approximately 5.3 million of whom are in the U.S., and these figures are expected to double by the year 2025. Although Alzheimer’s is often associated with industrialized societies, currently over half of all people who suffer with this disease are reportedly living in developing nations.

In addition to U.S. President Ronald Reagan, many other prominent individuals have suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, including the former Prime Minister of Britain, Harold Wilson, the choreographer George Balanchine, the composer Aaron Copeland, and the actress Rita Hayworth.

(Please see the related sub-section on this website, entitled "Alzheimer’s Disease", listed in the "Research" section).

Biomedical engineering students at Johns Hopkins University have announced the successful testing of a practical method for delivering adult stem cells to a patient for the treatment of orthopedic and other types of injuries. Specifically, the undergraduate students have constructed and demonstrated a technique by which adult stem cells are embedded into the surgical thread of sutures that are routinely used in procedures to treat injuries such as ruptured tendons.

The team of students consisted of ten udergraduates who were sponsored by the Maryland-based medical technology company Bioactive Surgical Inc., and who consequently won first place for their design in the recent Design Day 2009 competition, conducted annually by the University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. The sutures contain autologous adult stem cells, and the students have already conducted preclinical trials of the sutures in animal models, although the ultimate goal is translation of the new technology to human medical therapies.

As described on the University’s website, "In collaboration with orthopedic physicians, the students have begun testing the stem cell-bearing sutures in an animal model, paving the way for possible human trials within about five years."

According to Matt Rubashkin, the student team leader, "Using sutures that carry (autologous adult) stem cells to the injury site would not change the way surgeons repair injury, but we believe the stem cells will significantly speed up and improve the healing process. And because the stem cells will come from the patient, there should be no rejection problems."

The students’ corporate sponsor, Bioactive Surgical, developed the concept and then enlisted the student team to assemble and test the prototype during the year-long Design Team course, which is a requisite course in the Department of Biomedical Engineering. Bioactive Surgical will own the rights to the patent, which are currently pending, and a provisional patent application has also been filed which includes the improvements to the design that were made by the ten members of the Johns Hopkins undergraduate team.

In addition to demonstrating the conceptual validity of the prototype in preclinical animal testing with the assistance of orthopedic veterinarians who conducted the surgical procedures, the undergraduate team also performed a number of other related tasks which included preparing grant applications for additional funding of the technology.

Accordeing to Richard Spedden, CEO of Bioactive Surgical, "The students did a phenomenal job." Representatives of Bioactive Surgical envision a medical procedure for humans in which bone marrow would be withdrawn from the hip of a human patient under general anesthesia, from which mesenchymal stem cells would then be isolated and embedded into the novel suture through the patent-pending proprietary process, which would then be used to stitch together the ruptured tendon or other injured tissue.

In conducting their research, the students found that approximately 46,000 people every year in the U.S. alone undergo surgical repair of an Achilles tendon, which costs approximately $40,000 per surgery and can require a year or more of convalescence. As Matt Rubashkin explains, "After surgery, the recovery process can take up to a year. In about 20% of the cases, the surgery fails and another operation is needed. Anything we can do to speed up the healing and lower the failure rate and the additional medical costs could make a big difference."

According to Dr. Lew Schon, a leading foot and ankle surgeon in the greater Baltimore metroplex, one of the inventors of the technology, and an assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, "These students have demonstrated an amazing amount of initiative and leadership in all aspects of this project, including actually producing the suture and designing the ensuing mechanical, cell-based and animal trials." Additionally, he adds, "The students exceeded all expectations. They have probably cut at least a year off of the development time of this technology, and they are definitely advancing the science in this emerging area."

Grant proposals which the students prepared include further applications of the novel suture technology to other joint injuries such as rotator cuffs, and to non-orthopedic applications such as in cardiology and obstetrics.

In addition to Matt Rubashkin, the other undergraduate members of the team were David Attarzadeh, Raghav Badrinath, Kristie Charoen, Stephanie D’Souza, Hayley Osen, Frank Qin, Avik Som, Steven Su and Lawrence Wei.