The US Senate is expected to pass legislation to provide $79 million in funding over the next five years to establish and maintain a National Cord Blood Stem Cell Bank Network, after legislation was passed by Congress in May by a vote of 430 to 1. The Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Act of 2005 is strongly supported by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), which represents 14 of the public cord blood banks. The legislation follows the recommendations of a Congress-commissioned report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) which found that about 11,700 people in the United States could benefit from hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC) transplantation each year, but only 1,700 patients currently receive a cord blood stem cell transplant.

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A discovery of how stem cells form the neck and shoulders could in future help babies born with birth defects, say scientists from University College London, UK.

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The picture of health, Tony Wagner plays soccer, hockey and golf and is, in the words of his father, “just as obnoxious as a 12-year-old boy can be.”

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Australian scientist discovery that adult stem cells can be found in the uterus and used to grow extra bone, muscle, fat and cartilage has been hailed a major medical and scientific break-through.

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An American mother of twin boys suffering from cerebral palsy claims the speaking ability of one of her sons has dramatically improved since he received experimental umbilical cord stem cell injections in the Bahamas last July, according to U.S media reports.

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America’s obsession with youth will continue to drive demand for formulated anti-aging products, which will rise 8.7 percent per year to $30.7 billion in 2009. Fueling gains will be a stream of new and improved products offering health maintenance and appearance enhancing benefits to a largely untapped customer base of middle-aged and elderly consumers.

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A common chemical used in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical industries can repair damage to cardiac muscle cell membranes and prevent heart failure in mice with the genetic mutation that causes Duchenne muscular dystrophy, according to scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School.

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Researchers from Northwestern University have shown that children with high-risk acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) receiving umbilical cord blood transplants have similar outcomes to patients receiving related allogeneic stem cell transplants. The details of this comparative study were presented at the Third Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Transplantation Symposium in Los Angeles, Calif., June 3-4, 2005.

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Researchers at the San Raffaele Hospital (Milan, Italy) published unexpected results of studies in which immature nerve cells (adult mouse neural stem cells) injected into the blood of mice with MS-like disease were able to suppress the immune attacks that damage the brain and spinal cord tissues. The study is being reported by Drs. Stefano Pluchino, Gianvito Martino and colleagues in the July 14, 2005 issue of Nature. These findings, if confirmed, suggest that neural stem cells that reside in the adult brain may not only serve as replacement cells for tissue repair, but in some circumstances may also protect the brain from inflammation. Further research is needed to address multiple issues involved in translating such experiments into finding ways to fight the immune attack and protect and repair brain tissues in people with MS.

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Lawmakers in favor of accelerating stem cell research gathered Wednesday in an last minute effort to increase support for legislation, pending in the Senate, that would relax restrictions on federal funding for research on human embryos.

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