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NASA scientists, Vitamania, colliding galaxies, gut health, and dancing with science

August is a prime time to talk innovation and science—National Science Week kicks off Saturday 11 August

It’s time to plan your coverage of 2,000+ events across Australia for National Science Week, 11-19 August.

We have national touring speakers, and local events everywhere from the Tiwi Islands to Hobart:

  • NASA scientists touring Australia, including Aussie astrophysicist Jessie Christiansen, Silicon Valley astronomer Geert Barentsen, and influential planet hunter Natalie Batalha
  • using dance to teach STEM— US dancer and algebra teacher Yamilee Toussaint visits Perth
  • are vitamins worth it? Ask Derek Muller, the Canadian-Australian host of the new film Vitamania
  • what will happen when our galaxy collides with Andromeda? Astrophysicist, author and Stargazing Live TV presenter Lisa Harvey-Smith on the future of the night sky, in Sydney and Melbourne
  • actor and comedian Lawrence Leung does stand-up for science in Hobart

[Read more…] about NASA scientists, Vitamania, colliding galaxies, gut health, and dancing with science

When will stem cells save more lives?

When will stem cells save more lives?

Melissa Little and her colleagues worked for six years to bring the world’s largest stem cell meeting to Melbourne this week.

What did she learn? What are the next big steps should we should be watching for in curing diseases and saving lives with stem cells?

Melissa can also talk about her own research at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute. She’s made mini-kidneys that are a step towards stopping a silent killer, chronic kidney disease.

The International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting closes today. 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 53 countries heard from 150+ speakers.

Treating haemophilia and eye disease with gene therapy

Katherine High (USA) will report today on an FDA approved gene therapy for a form of blindness, and on a clinical trial in people with haemophilia. [Read more…] about When will stem cells save more lives?

Manufacturing a cell therapy peace-keeping force, and more

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers including:

Lab-grown mini-brains make new connections

Fred ‘Rusty’ Gage (USA) is making mini-brains from human stem cells in the lab. But in order for these new tissues to function, they need to become well-connected.

Fred is pioneering research to explore how transplanted human neural organoids (mini-organs) can mature into tissues with blood vessel and nerve connections. This work could lead to methods of replacing brain tissue lost to stroke or disease, and repairing spinal cords damaged by trauma.

Tracing blood back to its beginnings to tackle leukaemia

Right now, the stem cells in your bone marrow are making one billion new red blood cells per minute. Andrew Elefanty (Australia) is studying both embryonic stem cells and more specialised blood-forming stem cells to reveal how our body makes blood and what leads to leukaemia and other blood diseases. He will reveal his team’s latest insights. [Read more…] about Manufacturing a cell therapy peace-keeping force, and more

Key day 100 survival outcomes for graft versus host disease trial: 2018 ISSCR Annual Meeting

New York, USA; June 20, 2018; and Melbourne, Australia; June 21, 2018:

Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB; Nasdaq:MESO) today announced key Day 100 survival outcomes of its Phase 3 trial for remestemcel-L, an allogeneic mesenchymal stem cell product candidate, in children with steroid refractory acute Graft Versus Host Disease (aGVHD). The results are being presented today at the 2018 annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), being held in Melbourne from June 20-23.

The open-label Phase 3 trial enrolled 55 children with steroid-refractory aGVHD (aged between two months and 17 years) in 32 sites across the United States, with 89% of patients suffering from the most severe form, grade C/D aGVHD. The trial was performed under an United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Investigational New Drug Application (NCT#02336230). [Read more…] about Key day 100 survival outcomes for graft versus host disease trial: 2018 ISSCR Annual Meeting

Treating diabetes; turning skin cells into brain cells; hearts in a dish

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: 2,500+ stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers including:

Treating type 1 diabetes with stem cells

A Harvard team has shown they can control glucose levels in mice using a transplant of insulin-producing cells made from human stem cells. Doug Melton presents his research today.

His effort to fight diabetes involves a 30-person lab at Harvard and a start-up company, Semma Therapeutics, which he named after his children. His son Sam and daughter Emma both have type 1 diabetes.

Skin cells become brain cells to solve a mystery

Queensland researchers have taken skin cells from a young patient with a rare genetic brain condition and turned them into stem cells that are coaxed to become brain cells. Massimo Damiani has now passed away, but his legacy of growing  brain cells in the lab could help others with this rare condition.

Hearts in a dish helping personalised medicine

Queensland researchers have taken skin cells from a young patient with a rare genetic brain condition and turned them into stem cells that are coaxed to become brain cells. Massimo Damiani has now passed away, but his legacy of growing  brain cells in the lab could help others with this rare condition.

Christine Mummery and her Dutch research team have discovered that heart cells made from patient stem cells with known mutations predicted the electrical heart problems and drug sensitivities observed in the patients themselves.

Christine is co-author of the book Stem Cells: Scientific Facts and Fiction.

[Read more…] about Treating diabetes; turning skin cells into brain cells; hearts in a dish

Could you regrow an arm or a leg? Salamanders can.

  • Could you regrow an arm or a leg? Salamanders can.
  • Should you be allowed to try unapproved treatments without the FDA tick when you’re terminally ill? President Trump says yes.

20-23 June 2018 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre

International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting: more than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries will hear from 150+ speakers, including:

Taking stem cell science from the lab to the clinic, and what’s wrong with the US ‘right to try’ legislation—Roger Barker, UK

[Read more…] about Could you regrow an arm or a leg? Salamanders can.

Photos: ASSCR Stem Cell Image Competition 2018 highlights

Here is a selection of images from the Australasian Society for Stem Cell Research (ASSCR) Stem Cell Image Competition 2018, being held in conjunction with the International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting.

Images may be used by the media, provided credit is given to the photographer.

For hi-res versions please click on the photo and then right click to download the file.

Human forebrain neurons derived from induced pluripotent stem cells and infected with Australian bat lyssavirus, a type of rabies found in Australian bats. (Credit: Vinod Sundaramoorthy / ASSCR)

[Read more…] about Photos: ASSCR Stem Cell Image Competition 2018 highlights

Stem cells: making blood, replacing skin, restoring eyesight. Regulations need to protect patients from snake oil merchants

Media preview

20-23 JUNE 2018 AT THE MELBOURNE CONVENTION AND EXHIBITION CENTRE

  • Stem cells are saving lives today—through bone marrow and cord blood transplants
  • We’ll hear about trials making new skin, restoring sight, treating diabetes, repairing the brain
  • But we’ll also hear of the dangers of risky treatments, snake oil merchants, and new US regulations

Australia is tightening regulations in an effort to reign in rogue stem cell clinics.

The US is also cracking down on clinics marketing unproven treatments to patients. But ‘right to try’ laws there allow seriously ill patients to try experimental therapies without regulation or oversight. Doctors and scientists are alarmed.

More than 2,500 stem cell scientists from 50 countries are in Melbourne next week for the massive International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting. They will hear sound science from 150+ speakers, including: [Read more…] about Stem cells: making blood, replacing skin, restoring eyesight. Regulations need to protect patients from snake oil merchants

From sheep fertility and IVF to growing complex organs: Melbourne’s stem cell story

Stem cell scientists gather in the city of landmark discoveries

The International Society for Stem Cell Research 2018 Annual Meeting brings the field’s scientists to a country and city with a rich stem cell research heritage.

Bone marrow transplants to treat blood cancers and other blood disorders were the first stem cell treatments. In the 1960s, Don Metcalf at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne discovered colony stimulating factors, the molecules that stimulate stem cells to multiply and mature, which revolutionised bone marrow transplants and the treatment of blood diseases.

Opera singer Jose Carreras, one of the millions of people who have had this stem cell treatment for leukaemia, credits his survival to Don Metcalf.

Around this time, wool was one of Australia’s top exports, but Australian merino sheep were having fewer lambs than their overseas counterparts. Sheep fertility and animal reproduction research received a massive funding boost in the 1960s and 1970s. [Read more…] about From sheep fertility and IVF to growing complex organs: Melbourne’s stem cell story

ISSCR Opposes Proposal to Restrict Fetal Tissue Research

Media release issued by ISSCR

The ISSCR, the largest professional organization of stem cell researchers from around the world, opposes the U.S. House of Representatives proposal to ban federal funding for fetal tissue research. ISSCR President Hans Clevers released the following statement:

“There is no scientific or ethical basis for the proposed restriction on fetal tissue research, which would roll back decades of consensus in the U.S., irreparably delaying the development of new medical treatments. Research using fetal tissue has saved millions of lives through the development of vaccines for diseases that once ravaged communities across the world. Polio is now almost eradicated, and rubella, measles, chickenpox, and rabies are all preventable diseases because of fetal tissue research. [Read more…] about ISSCR Opposes Proposal to Restrict Fetal Tissue Research