Leah Telder of Surrey, British Columbia, had enjoyed ballet dancing until struck with multiple sclerosis in her teens. The demyelinating, auto-immune disorder eventually robbed her of her vision and confined her to a wheelchair. Now 24 years old, Leah is the youngest of seventeen MS patients who have been treated in Canada with their own (autologous) adult stem cells.

Conducted in October of 2007 in Ottawa, the procedure was led by the neurologist Dr. Mark Freedman and the bone marrow transplant specialist Dr. Harold Atkins. In this procedure, stem cells are harvested from the peripheral blood of each patient and are then expanded in a laboratory and readministered after the patient has received a heavy dose of chemotherapy, which is administered with the specific intent of destroying the immune system. Although 16 of the 17 patients are improving as a result of the stem cells, one patient in the study died as a result of the chemotherapy. In fact, at these high doses, each patient has a 5% (or a one in 20) chance of dying from the chemotherapy. Whether or not the chemotherapy even needs to be administered at all is increasingly a topic of debate, and there is strong scientific evidence to support the claim that chemotherapy is unnecessary in this type of stem cell treatment.

Meanwhile, as a result of being treated with this particular chemotherapy procedure, and as a result of being successfully rescued by her own adult stem cells immediately following the chemotherapy procedure, Leah is once again able to walk by herself, and most of her blurred vision has been restored to normal.

In a bipartisan briefing in Washington, D.C., members of Congress were updated both on the increasing number of successful cases of adult stem cell therapy, and on the increasing number of failures of embryonic stem cells, which have never advanced beyond the laboratory stage.

House Representatives Randy Forbes, a Republican from Virgina, and Daniel Lipinski, a Democrat from Illinois, co-hosted the event in conjunction with the Family Research Council (FRC). Among the researchers testifying before the Congressmen was Dr. Richard Burt of the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University, whose publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February of 2008 garnered widespread attention for its analysis of hundreds of adult stem cell studies that had been conducted between 1997 and 2007, and from which Dr. Burt gathered together an entire decade’s worth of quantitative proof that adult stem cells derived from blood and bone marrow have already been safely and effectively used to treat a number of cardiac and autoimmune disorders.

Congressmen Forbes and Lipinski are promoting the “Patients First Act”, which would legislate and prioritize the funding of stem cell research by stem cell type. According to a representative of the FRC, “Embryonic stem cells have yet to treat a single human patient and this is unlikely to change in the future. Adult stem cells are already providing therapeutic benefit to human patients for 73 diseases and condition.” Also appearing before the Congressmen were several patients who have been successfully treated with adult stem cell therapy, which included Barry Goudy who had been treated for multiple sclerosis, Amy Daniels who had been treated for systemic sclerosis, and Jill Rosen who had been treated for lupus. Each of these individuals spoke about their personal experiences with adult stem cell therapy.

After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, Barry Goudy experienced the slow deterioration of his central nervous system with symptoms that included failing vision, a loss of muscular control and an absence of sensory perception in his limbs. Then in 2003 he enrolled in a clinical trial in which his own adult stem cells were used to rebuild his immune system. As he now states, “I have no symptoms of MS. I do no treatment for MS, I do no shots.”

Dr. Richard Burt and colleagues at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine conducted the clinical trial on 2,500 patients who underwent the stem cell transplants. The results have indicated not only that many patients with autoimmune diseases are now in remission, but also many patients who had suffered heart attacks were found to have improved significantly after receiving the adult stem cell therapy.

As Dr. Burt says, “It’s a whole new approach to these diseases.” In an interview conducted this year, Mr. Goudy adds, “I’ve had 5 years of a good life. Five years. If I didn’t do the transplant I would probably be in a wheelchair today.” Among other activities, Mr. Goudy’s active lifestyle now includes playing and coaching hockey. Similar clinical trials are currently underway in the U.S. for the use of adult stem cells in the treatment of numerous other diseases which typically have been unresponsive to conventional medical therapies.

The New York based investor and public relations firm known as “Consulting for Strategic Growth 1” (CFSG1) has selected the adult stem cell company NeoStem, Inc., as a sound business model with positive growth and strong financial results.

According to CFSG1, NeoStem’s performance was so successful in 2007 that the company was selected as one of only 3 “stock picks” by the firm for the entire year. NeoStem deals exclusively with adult stem cells, thereby avoiding entirely not only the ethical and political quagmires that are entangled in the topic of embryonic stem cells, but also the countless scientific problems that are caused by embryonic stem cells as well. To date, embryonic stem cells have never actually been used in the treatment of any disease or injury in human patients, and for good reason, since embryonic stem cells have proven to be highly problematic in the laboratory. Ethical and political controversies aside, embryonic stem cells have never advanced beyond the laboratory stage purely for scientific reasons. Consequently, financial experts are now discovering what scientists have known all along: namely, that adult stem cells not only make sound scientific sense, but they also make sound business sense as well.

NeoStem manages a nationwide network of adult stem cell collection centers throughout the U.S., and is one of a handful of companies that are pioneering the collection, processing and long-term storage of adult stem cells for future autologous (in which the donor and recipient are the same person) medical use. As such, not only do companies such as NeoStem eliminate all concerns regarding embryonic stem cells, but problems associated with matching a compatible donor to the recipient are also avoided. Additionally, NeoStem has developed proprietary technology in the collection and isolation of specific types of adult stem cells from the peripheral blood of adults through apheresis, a procedure which is safe, painless, minimally invasive and highly preferable to “bone marrow aspiration”, the process by which stem cells have typically been collected from bone marrow in the past and which is usually performed under general anesthesia due to the amount of pain that is involved.

A number of recent breakthroughs have been reported with adult stem cells in the treatment of various diseases including systemic lupus, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, peripheral vascular disease, heart disease, and a variety of osteopathic conditions, all of which are included in NeoStem’s research. By contrast, embryonic stem cells have never even been attempted for use in the treatment of any disease or injury in human patients, which is why there is currently no successful business model that exists for the actual treatment of human patients with embryonic stem cells. Also for this reason, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are currently conducting more than 750 clinical trials with adult stem cells in the treatment of human patients, and zero clinical trials in which human patients are treated with embryonic stem cells.

As reported by CFSG1, NeoStem’s “business model is non-capital intensive, does not depend on risky biopharmaceutical R&D, and is a service model that is completely scalable and can be implemented immediately. All fees flow directly to NeoStem and do not require third-party payment.” Additionally, NeoStem “grew substantially in 2007, meeting all of its milestones for the year.” NeoStem (symbol NBS) is listed on Amex.

As the clinical wisdom and logic of adult stem cells begins to gain popularity over the clinical folly and futility of embryonic stem cells, more and more companies such as NeoStem, which deal exclusively with adult stem cells, are expected to become increasingly financially successful as they fill a widespread, international need for the safe and effective treatment of numerous diseases and injuries, including congenital and age-related conditions, many of which have already been found to be treatable with adult stem cells. One of the world’s premier, most highly respected medical research firms, Frost & Sullivan, has estimated that within two years, by 2010, the global market for adult stem cell therapy will be $20 billion per year. Clearly, excellent investment opportunities are to be found today in those companies which are built upon the sound science of adult stem cell therapies.