• The next generation of potency assays for hematopoietic graft – a poll
    There is a necessity for development of improved potency assays in hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplantation clinic. Today I’d like to offer a poll, where you express your opinion on this matter. Background: Potency is defined as the specific capacity of a cellular product to affect a given result. The potency of cell product in HSC transplantation clinic is assessing a function of stem and progenitor cells. The current analogs of potency assays in HSC transplantation clinic are total nucleated [...]

    • Mesenchymal stem cells – definition and assays. Part III – Testing of self-renewal

    by Alexey Bersenev April 4, 2012 mesenchymal

    Self-renewal is a hallmark of stem cells. For many many years, scientists are trying very hard to test self-renewal of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC). But, so far, they were not able to come up with rigorous reproducible self-renewal assay for MSC. As a result, the lack of evidence for self-renewal put into the question of MSC identity and use such terminology as “stem cell”. There are a number of open questions in this ongoing debate. Some of them: Should we [...]

    Tagged as: assay, colony assay, MSC, MSC assays, MSC isolation, self-renewal, serial transplantation

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    Medical terminations of pregnancy as a valuable source of fetal neural cells

    by Alexey Bersenev April 2, 2012 cell product

    Fetal tissues, derived from material of legal abortions, is an important source for clinical cell therapy. It has been explored in observational studies for many years, but with limited acceptance and validation. Only now we’re entering the era of rigorous clinical trials assessing fetal cells as a therapeutic modality in degenerative diseases. Such companies as Stem Cells Inc, NeuralStem and Reneuron have developed clinical-grade GMP-compliant protocols for isolation and propagation of neural stem cells from aborted fetuses. The Phase 1 [...]

    Tagged as: fetal, neurotransplantation

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    Chromosomal instability in ex vivo expanded hematopoietic cells

    by Alexey Bersenev April 1, 2012 cell culture

    We are precisely monitoring all reports about spontaneous transformation of stem cells during ex vivo expansion in culture. This issue is extremely important for safe cell therapy development. We have written about genomic instability of pluripotent stem cells and their progeny, spontaneous transformation of mesenshymal stromal cells and neural stem cells. Today, I’d like to bring to your attention two reports about chromosomal stability assessment in cultured hematopoietic stem/ progenitor cells. The first report points to genomic instability of mouse [...]

    Tagged as: CD34, cell culture, chromosomal analysis, cord blood, expansion, genomic stability, HSC expansion, risk, safety

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    Methods and protocols digest: Circulating tumor cells

    by Alexey Bersenev March 28, 2012 methods

    This is Methods and Protocols Digest. Please follow this series for fresh and free protocols! Enumeration, characterization, and collection of intact circulating tumor cells (Cytometry Part A) Detection and isolation of circulating melanoma cells using photoacoustic flowmetry (JoVE) Negative enrichment by immunomagnetic nanobeads for unbiased characterization of circulating tumor cells from peripheral blood (J Transl Med) Enrichment of circulating tumor cells from a large blood volume using leukapheresis and elutriation (Cytometry Part B) Unbiased and automated identification of a circulating [...]

    Tagged as: circulating CSC, circulating tumor cells, CTC, flow cytometry, method, protocol, protocols digest

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    Feasibility of magnetic isolation CD133+ cells from human cord blood

    by Alexey Bersenev March 26, 2012 cell separation

    CD133 is a “hot” stem cell marker, which currently is testing in clinical trials. But it seem like not easy to isolate CD133+ cells with consistency. The only method of cell isolation (based on surface markers) that allowed in clinic is a magnetic activated cell sorting (MACS). Last week I came across of report about some hurdles of isolation CD133+ cells from cord blood by MACS. The authors compared CD34+ versus CD133+ MACS and concluded: CD34 isolation by the immunomagnetic [...]

    Tagged as: CD133, CD34, cell isolation, cell separation, cord blood, MACS, marker

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    Lecture: Norio Nakatsuji – Stem cell and material integration research

    by Alexey Bersenev March 25, 2012 lectures

    Norio Nakatsuji – Professor and Director of Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (iCeMS), Kyoto University. This talk was recorded on March 13, 2012 at NIH. Direct link

    Tagged as: biomaterials, lecture

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    Potency assays in cell products development

    by Alexey Bersenev March 21, 2012 cell product

    The potency is an ability of the product to effect a given therapeutic result. This is extremely important characteristic of the cellular product, which should be taken in consideration in development phase. For example, the potency assay for mesenchymal stromal cell-based product in non-union fracture could be an ability to osteogenesis. This assay could indicate the mechanism of therapeutic action of cellular product and could be used for quality control (stability) throughout manufacturing process. The potency of the product should [...]

    Tagged as: assay, cell product, fda, potency assay

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    True blood: Red blood cells manufacturing from stem cells – Interview with Eun Jun Baek

    by Alexey Bersenev March 19, 2012 interviews

    I’m pleased to introduce a researcher from South Korea – Eun Jun Baek. She is a Professor at Hanyang University (Seoul, S. Korea). For the last few years she dedicated her research to red blood cells (RBC) production from stem cells. You can look at her recent work here, here and here. She kindly agreed to answer my questions. ********************* 1. Dear Dr. Baek, let me begin from the discussion about the cell source for blood production. According to our [...]

    Tagged as: blood, blood from stem cells, CD34, cell product, cord blood, erythrocyte, interview, manufacturing, SCA interviews

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    Reprogramming cellular identity for disease modeling

    by Alexey Bersenev March 18, 2012 direct reprogramming

    Yesterday I came across a review by Anne Cherry and George Daley, published in Cell and available in open access. What i like about this review is that significance of reprogramming in creating of new disease models, highlighted by the authors. This review includes a very good table summarizing all published “patient-specific iPS lines that have been differentiated into a disease-relevant cell type”. The authors discuss the value of iPS technology for disease modeling: We predict that the value of [...]

    Tagged as: direct transdifferentiation, disease model, iPS, reprogramming, review

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    SLAPP phenomenon in “stem cell therapy”

    by Alexey Bersenev March 16, 2012 notes

    The clash between “stem cell bank/clinic” CellTex Therapeutics and “academics” has gotten so big, that it could become “the story of the year”. Many of you have followed this story, which starts to unfold about a month ago. I’d briefly summarize it here by citing some sources. Please take a poll at the end of this post. Since the announcement of CellTex business in Texas, some professionals got suspicious. CellTex brand is tightly associated with scandalous Korean RNL Bio and [...]

    Tagged as: bioethics, business, fda, stem cell therapy

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