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The most breathtaking medical advancements of our time are taking place today...right here in Texas.
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Greetings Friends,
The Texas Cures community promotes, supports and advocates for research that can save lives and improve quality of life through responsible scientific discovery. We strive daily to create visibility and awareness of the accomplishments of Texas-based medical research. In an effort to inform Texans about timely medical advances taking place in our state and around the world we partner with other committed community organizations to host unique programs.
Our programs aim to illuminate important efforts of scientists, biomedical engineers, doctors and responsible organizations contributing to medical advancements that will change the health of Texans and all humankind.One of the easiest and most effective ways you can help ensure that we will have access to future research, better treatments and cures is to learn with us and spread the word to your friends, family and colleagues.
Keri Kimler
Founder
Texas Cure Education Foundation 501(c)(3)
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Scientists learn how stem cell implants help heal traumatic brain injury
New discoveries at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
 (January 12, 2012) -- For years, researchers seeking new therapies for traumatic brain injury have been tantalized by the results of animal experiments with stem cells. In numerous studies, stem cell implantation has substantially improved brain function in experimental animals with brain trauma. But just how these improvements occur has remained a mystery. Now, an important part of this puzzle has been pieced together by researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. In experiments with both laboratory rats and an apparatus that enabled them to simulate the impact of trauma on human neurons, they identified key molecular mechanisms by which implanted human neural stem cells - stem cells that are in the process of developing into neurons but have not yet taken their final form - aid recovery from traumatic axonal injury. |
First FDA-Approved Study of Stem Cells to Treat Hearing Loss
Children's Memorial Hermann Hospital collaborates with University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Medical School
 (January 12, 2012) -- A new study, which will use patients' stem cells from their own stored umbilical cord blood, is the first-of-its-kind, and has the potential to restore hearing. This follows evidence from published laboratory studies that cord blood helps repair damaged organs in the inner ear. The year-long study will follow 10 children, ages 6 weeks to 18 months, who have sustained post-birth hearing loss. The Principal Investigator is Samer Fakhri, M.D., surgeon at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center and associate professor and program director in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery at UTHealth. "Currently, the only treatment options for sensorineural hearing loss are hearing aids or cochlear implants," Dr. Fakhri said. "We hope that this study will open avenues to additional treatment options for hearing loss in children." |
Texas Heart and St. Luke's Episcopal Focuses on Valvular Disease
Blase A. Carabello, MD, has been appointed Chief of Cardiology for both the Texas Heart Institute (THI) and St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (St. Luke's).
 (January 13, 2012) -- Earlier this year, Dr. Carabello was chosen to head THI's new Center for Heart Valve Disease.THI's Center for Heart Valve Disease will focus on all aspects of valvular heart disease, including improved valve replacement procedures with less invasive technology and the use of adult stem cell therapy.
Valvular heart disease is often seen as an affliction of the elderly. Experts anticipate that as the general population ages, including millions of Baby Boomers, and people are living longer, the prevalence and costs of treating these afflictions will significantly rise. The disease, however, can afflict people at any age, and is sometimes congenital. In addition, researchers worry that the disease often goes undiagnosed and that incidence rates might even be higher than reported.
A study presented to the American Heart Association found that the incidences of hospitalization and treatment for heart valve disease have progressively and consistently increased since the early 1980s. |
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New Class of Small Molecules May Lead to New Treatments for Diabetes
Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center Identify New Class of Molecule That Restores Insulin Expression in Human Pancreas Cells
(January 16, 2012) -- Diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases in which a person has high blood sugar, either because the body does not produce enough insulin (type 1 diabetes), or because cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced (type 2 diabetes). More than one-third of the U.S adult population is at risk for type 2 diabetes, the most prevalent form of the disease. During the development of type 2 diabetes, beta cells become progressively unable to produce insulin, causing the blood sugar to rise dangerously, leading to increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, diabetic retinopathy where eye sight is affected, and kidney failure.
LoneStar Heart Inc. announced that it has acquired a worldwide exclusive license from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UT Southwestern) to commercialize a new class of patented small molecules known as Isoxazoles that markedly increase insulin production in human pancreas cells no longer able to produce insulin. Activating the entire biochemical pathway involved in insulin production, the molecules may represent a new approach to developing treatments for both type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
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World-Renowned Cell-Therapy Researcher, Doris Taylor, PhD, Joins Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital
Noted for Work to Regenerate Hearts, Other Organs
 (January 25, 2012) -- Officials at the Texas Heart Institute (THI) at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital (St. Luke's) announced today that Doris Taylor, PhD, FAHA, FACC, one of the world's leading cell therapy and cardiac regeneration scientists, will join THI beginning March 1, 2012. Dr. Taylor's research includes: Cell and gene therapy for treatment of cardiovascular disease; tissue engineering of bioartificial organs and vasculature; cell-based prevention of disease; stem cells and cancer; and holistic approaches to using cell therapy for treating chronic disease.Most recently, Dr. Taylor and her team garnered international recognition for work involving "whole organ decellularization" by showing they were able to remove existing cells from hearts of laboratory animals and even humans leaving a framework to build new organs. They repopulated the framework with other adult stem cells then provided a blood supply, and the heart regenerated with the characteristics and functions of a revitalized beating heart. The hope is that this research is an early step toward being able to grow a fully functional human heart in the laboratory. Dr. Taylor has demonstrated that the process works for other organs as well - opening a door in the field of organ transplantation. Read More |
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Texas Cures Education Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded for the purpose of advancing knowledge of the life-saving work that doctors and researchers perform every day on behalf of patients and their families.
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Providing the public with information about research conducted in Texas and protecting the hope for advancing cures.
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