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Read About Our Distinguished Guest Speakers Coming This Fall & Pre-Register Here & See Panel of Speakers! As part of TSCR's ongoing public outreach and education initiative, this event is free and open to the public.
July is National Cord Blood Awareness Month Recent initiatives by several national organizations such as the National Marrow Donor Program* and the American Academy of Pediatrics have begun educating parents about cord blood banking. We are proud to announce our 2011 Learn for Life Education Series Presenting Sponsor: StemCyte A Global Cord Blood Therapeutics Company StemCyte is a for-profit company, global company, headquartered in California, which collects Cord Blood donations. Stemcyte is a Participating Member of the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) Cord Blood bank network. They are the most active bank in the NMDP public network, with a transplant history of providing over 1400 Cord Blood units to over 250 worldwide transplant centers to treat more than 70 diseases (as of Nov 2007). Stemcyte also operates the national cord blood bank of Taiwan, whose units are also listed in the NMDP. StemCyte is accredited under the international FACT/Netcord standards and FDA registered, ASHI accredited, CLIA accredited, CA Biologics licensed. *Cord Blood Banks by Location Banks with medical need programs Your Guide to Healthy Cord Blood |
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Dear Texans,
Keri and I had a chance to escape the "dog days" of June last week and attend the 9th Annual Cord Blood Symposium in the cool climate of San Francisco. The conference was informative and we listened to leading scientists from all over the world describe their latest research findings. One of the best messages for me personally came from Wise Young, PhD, MD Rutgers University, and one of the leading spinal cord doctors in the world. He is currently conducting a clinical trial in China using umbilical cord blood.
So far seven patients have received the therapy with no ill effects. Time will tell the final outcome, but so far so good. Paraphrasing Dr. Young,
"While we hope these therapies will yield positive results, it's just as important to find out if these therapies don't work so we can pursue other avenues."
We couldn't agree more. Dr. Young is one of our featured speakers at our fall symposium September 30, 2011 and will also honor us by speaking at our fundraiser that night. You won't want to miss him speak, I promise!
82nd Session Legislative Update: Senate Bill 7 (related to Medicaid), By Senator Jane Nelson and sponsored by Representative John Zerwas passed and is expected to be signed by the Governor. The important part of this bill relating to stem cell research in Texas is an Amendment (23) by Representative Rick Hardcastle which establishes an Autologous Adult Stem Cell Bank overseen by the Executive Director of Health and Human Services.
The Texas Medical Board will create an ad hoc committee to write the rules which will govern this entity. We feel this can have a tremendous impact on adult stem cell research and therapies in Texas and the stem cell companies in this business. The first meeting is scheduled for July 27, 2011 in Austin. We will monitor this committee very closely and hope the rules are written in a way that will allow Texas to continue its rich history as a leader in innovative medical science.
Upcoming Event!
August 16th 5PM - 9 PM
LIVESTRONG Headquarters
We welcome two exciting speakers next month.
Roger Gammon, MD
of Austin Heart, will speak on Stem Cells in patients with Critical Limb Ischemia (CLI) due to Peripheral Vascular Disease (PVD). A hot topic across the US in the research field.
Also Eddy Davis, one of Austin's favorite golf pros, will share his incredible story of a 9 year battle with Lymphoma and his stem cell transplant this past year which has given him new life. He will be introduced by his dear friend Wyatt McSpadden, a noted Texas photographer who has generously given us access to his treasure trove of beautiful Texas images for our 2011 Learn for Life Series promotions. In fact, his picture of Buck Ramsey, a legendary Texas cowboy poet, adorns our posters for World Stem Cell Awareness Day and the 6th Annual Fundraiser. "Don't Miss" this educational event and networking social after work!
Click Here to Register for August 16th Event at LIVESTRONG
After attending the event in San Francisco, I am convinced more and more every day that we are incredibly blessed to be a part of something so life changing as stem cell research. There is real hope for future medical therapies from this amazing science. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is active indeed. Each month more and more talented folks join us in this important crusade. But this is a marathon and not a sprint. We need you to reach out to your friends and family and help us help the experts change the world as we know it; a world free of terminal diseases and injuries.
With your help, we can do it!
David L. Bales
Chariman
The world as we know it is about to change. |
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Childhood Alzheimer's
Stem Cell Banking:
The Perspective of an iPS Donor Family
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"Your twin daughters have an extremely rare, fatal disease called Niemann Pick Type C and there's nothing you can do for them".
 Those were the devastating words that Chris Hempel and her husband first heard in 2007. Rather than just give in to this fate, the Hempels are proactively engaging researchers to try to save Addi and Cassi's lives. This journey includes donating skin samples to cell banks so that researchers can create induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, a promising technology which may help undercover treatments for their daughters. In this video, Chris Hempel speaks to the CIRM Standards Working Group to present a patient advocate's perspective on the challenges of rare disease research. This is a very informative presentation and answers many questions that we field every day from you. (Watch Video Here)
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Social Scientists Study Impact of Human Adult Stem Cell Research
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"The incentives to use both types of cell in comparative studies are high"
 NSF.gov (June 9, 2011) - New research says studying both adult and embryonic stem cells can benefit medical science, but banning the study of either type could harm studies of the other. Researchers recently investigated whether the increased number of studies with a certain type of adult stem cell has changed the overall course of research in the field. They analyzed more than 2,000 scientific papers and found adult stem cells are not replacing human embryonic stems cells in the laboratory. Instead, the two cell types have proven to be complementary and any disruption of federal funding, they say, would negatively impact stem cell research overall. "It is particularly interesting because it uses new analytical techniques to advance our understanding of how the implementation of policy in one area can affect scientific research in another area."
(Read National Science Foundation (NSF) Release)
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Critical Funding Boosted
First Cord Blood Unit
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 St. Louis Review (June 8th, 2011) - Thanks to the support of generous donors, the Cardinal Glennon Children's Foundation was able to provide critical seed funding that enabled the first cord blood unit to be placed in storage at the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank in January of 1996. The bank was the country's second repository for umbilical cord blood collected after a child's birth. The blood cells, which normally are discarded, appeared to show promise in the treatment of some cancers and immune-system disorders. (Read Full Story) The American Academy of Pediatrics Pushes for Cord Blood Banking--March 2011 |
 (June 8, 2011) - Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are stem cells that give rise to all blood cell types, including red blood and immune cells. Existing medical treatments using HSCs are hampered by cell shortages and finding compatible matches between donors and recipients. Currently, it is not possible to create HSCs from converted embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells. Researchers have identified a gene and a novel signaling pathway, both critical for making the first hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in developing vertebrates. The discovery has implications for developing stem cell-based therapies for diseases like leukemia and congenital blood disorders. (Read More) |
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The Great Patent Landscape Debate
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 Ever since stem cell research began in the late 1900's, the field has been fraught with a variety of issues including bioethics, funding, and general skepticism. The debate on stem cells has been unrelenting, and policies on the field are usually contentious topics during political campaigns. Today, however, it is a different issue that is shaping this field of research. While politicians and the public debate about ethics and funding, the leading researchers in the field are turning their focus on the issue of intellectual property [3]. The subject of patents, who issues them to whom, and what they cover is gradually shaping approaches to research and affecting progress by stifling cooperation.
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 (MIT Technology Magazine July/August 2011) - Thirteen years of public debate, scientific surprises, lawsuits, and presidential decrees have gone by since embryonic stem cells were first isolated, in 1998. Stem cells drawn from early-stage human embryos have the potential to develop into any type of cell in the body. In a lab dish, they can give rise to nerves, skin, even pulsating heart cells. And Geron, a 180-person biotech outfit in Palo Alto, has promised for a decade that treatments based on the cells could be just around the corner. The company says it spent $45 million on amassing the evidence needed to persuade the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow the first-of-a-kind human trial to proceed-an effort that included animal tests it calls exhaustive. "The agency told us our application was the largest they'd ever received," says Geron's interim CEO, David Greenwood, sweeping his hand over a double-length conference table that once creaked under the weight of all 22,500 pages. (Read MIT Technology Review: Stem Cell Gamble) Roman Reed Foundation |
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Umbilical Cord Lines & Unlimited Units?
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 The Denver Post (June 6th, 2011) - Could Blood drives become a thing of the past? With an aging population and advances in medical treatments and procedures requiring blood transfusions, the demand for blood continues to increase. Hospitals and emergency rooms nationwide need about 40,000 units of blood daily to treat patients with cancer and other diseases, for organ-transplant recipients and to help save the lives of accident/trauma victims. About 38 percent of the U.S. population is eligible to donate blood, but less than 10 percent does so annually, according to AABB. Researchers have recently discovered a scientific process and developed a new method in which they use proprietary blood stem-cell lines from cord blood to generate mature, adult red blood cells in the lab in 14 days. The ability to make blood would be of enormous benefit to the military. It also would benefit some cancer patients, such as those with multiple myeloma who need more than one unit of blood a day for at least a year. (Read Full Story) |
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Front Page News:
Doctors Offering Stem Cell Therapies
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 Traveling on summer vacation last week? Hopefully "yes" so you could not have missed the front page of USA Today at your hotel or newsstands across America. People are certainly celebrating Colon Bartolo's recent treatment, but experts say, there's no evidence that the infusion had anything to do with his recovery and performance. We encourage you to read the full story here (USA Today)
"We really could repair faulty or damaged tissues," says Geroge Daley, director of stem cell transplantation at Children's Hospital Boston, whose team infuses stem cells into leukemia patients as a component of bone marrow transplants---standard of care for leukemia for decades. However, Dr. George Daley reminds us that bone marrow transplantation remains the only proven form of stem cell therapy. An Internet search for "stem cells" will turn up a roster of doctors who offer purported stem cell treatments with most using adult cells from the patients themselves.
In most cases, stem cell doctors extract the cells directly from the patient's blood, fatty tissue or bone marrow. They use standard laboratory methods to separate them from the blood or other substances. Doctors then inject or infuse the slurry of concentrated cells back into the patient, where, both doctor and patient hope they'll promote healing. These approaches - have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Perhaps they should.
"We'd all love easy miracles," says Larry Goldstein, head of stem cell research at the University of California-San Diego. "That's not the way it works."
" The challenge... is to find a balance between protecting patients and allowing doctors enough latitude to innovate and carry out legitimate research. "You don't want to slam the door on something that in 10 years may have potential for people with end-stage disease," said Dr. Charles Burger, Mayo Clinic. We he hope that balance can be struck sooner than later and will continue to support all forms of research here in Texas.
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Most days we honor celebrate the past. This one celebrates the future. October 5th, 2011
Stem Cell Awareness Day brings together the organizations and individuals around the world who are working every day to ensure that we realize the benefits of what is one of the most promising fields of science in our time.
 This year, Texans for Stem Cell Research will join stem cell groups around the world to celebrate Stem Cell Awareness Day and we are actively getting the local communities across Texas involved.
The unique properties of stem cells give the scientific and patient communities alike great confidence that stem cell research will be the foundation of countless medical therapies and cures.
For the millions of people around the world who suffer from incurable diseases and injury, Stem Cell Awareness Day is a day to celebrate the scientific advances made to-date and be hopeful of what is yet to come.
Certain types of stem cells are already used to treat life-threatening diseases such as leukemia, and lymphoma. Scientists believe that stem cells can one day deliver therapies and cures for many incurable diseases, genetic conditions, and injuries including cancer, spinal cord injury, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.
Beyond treating disease, stem cell research also holds promise for developing powerful environmental toxicity tests, drug screening, and diagnostics. Stem cell therapies also offer an opportunity to restore quality of life for patients and their families, while saving billions of dollars we spend on lost productivity and medical care.
How can YOUR get involved with World Stem Cell Awareness Day in Texas?
Stand up for Stem Cells and Give 5% Texans for Stem Cell Research will proudly unite the local communities across Texas for a day of celebration and hope. Your business can support this day of awareness and "Stand up for Stem Cells" by Giving 5% in Texas on Wednesday, October 5th. Visit our official website to Stand up For Stem Cells on World Stem Cell Awareness Day to learn more about the public lectures and events in your area go to txstemcell.org
Contact us by September 25, 2011 for materials and to be included on the posters that will be displayed aross Texas. Contact Keri and David at Give5@txstemcell.org.
The world as we know it is about to change.
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Texans for Stem Cell Research
6th Annual Singin' for Cures
Fundraiser
September 30th, 2011
6:30 PM - 10:30 PM
Historic Saengerrunde (next to Scholz Garten)
1607 San Jacinto Boulevard
For information about the special guests click Official Event Site
Registration is OPEN
Contact David for sponsorship opportunites and to reserve your table!
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Thank You to Our Recent Sponsors
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201L Learn Life Series Presenting Sponsor
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2011 Learn for Life Donors
  
  
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Texans for Stem Cell Research (TSCR) is a non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of stem cell clinical applications for the treatment of millions of people living with disease and debilitating injury. TSCR strives to educate our citizens and state leadership through the cooperation of researchers, doctors, patients, and leaders in the regenerative medicine field.
(Office) 900 Congress Suite L-119, Austin, TX 78701
(Mailing Address) 3112 Windsor Suite 106, Austin, Texas 78703
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You can help our organization continue to provide important education about promising stem cell research through your donations. Your contributions provide support for our educational programs and advocacy efforts. We must keep our community informed about the importance of this research and it's potential to provide treatments and cures for diseases and debilitating injuries. You can make a gift through our secure website donation page, cause page or by check. We thank you in advance for your support and hope you will join our growing organization in 2011. |
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