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CompuMed Presents Bone Research Findings in Normal Chinese Population.

Rocky Mountain's China Business to Expand Internationally.

Taiwan's UBI Asia Acquires Glaxo's Pharmaceutical Factory.

Pharmagenesis' Bone Marrow Stimulant PG2 Receives New Drug Certification in China.

Proteome and Protagen to Collaborate in Protein Study.

Merck Makes Huge Investments in Singapore.

Quark Biotech Receives Equity Investment from Mitsubishi-Tokyo Pharmaceuticals.

Australia's Bionomics to Collaborate with Hybrigen on Breast Cancer.

GlaxoSmithKline and Tanabe Seiyaku to Team Up on Drug Research.

India's Leading Biotech Group Awaits Approval for First Local Immuno-Suppresant Drug.

Guidant Announces Market Release of Its Most Advanced Pacemaker Systems in Japan.

ES Cell International Offers Its Embryonic Stem Cells to Scientists Worldwide.

Taisho Pharmaceutical Merges With Tanabe Seiyaku Co.

India's Cadila Healthcare to Acquire Kopran's Heart Drug Aten.

Chinese Scientists Find Genes for Hypertension.

Taiwanese Scientists Support Radio-pharmaceutical Research.

Anti-microbial Peptide Gene Cloned for Genetic Medicine.

Japanese Scientists Find Local Delicacy Prevents Dioxin Accumulation.

Taiwan Focuses on Research to Find Liver Cancer Genes.

New Low-cost Technology for Wheat Cultivation.

Supercomputing R&D Center Set Up in Singapore.

Australia Establishes New Health Institute.

Keeping Up Intellectual Property Lifelines for Life Sciences Ventures.

Impact of the SARS Outbreak on the Australian Economy.

Body, Heal Thyself?

The article summarizes research activities on regenerative medicine in South Korea. It includes a table on the venture companies in the area of regenerative medicine and a table of regenerative medicinal products approved by the Korean Food and Drug Administration.

Aida Pharmaceuticals Announces Completion of Phase I Trials For Gene-Therapy Drug.

Neusoft Inks JV with Trivitron, to invest US $5 Million for Medical Equipment Unit in India.

Makoto Signs $20 Million Research Collaboration with Taiho Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.

Fukuda Denshi to Sell Kontron Medical SAS and Kontron Medical AG.

ESI First in the World to Create Embryonic Stem Cells for Clinical Use.

Latest Innovation Enables Early Diagnosis of Dengue.

Exploit Technologies Presents Flagship Programs & Incubation Projects at Inaugural Venture Capital Forum.

Merck Sharp & Dohme Expands Singapore Facility with S$100 Million Investment.

MedMira—Innovation Inspired by People.

AUSTRALIA — UWA Researchers Link New Gene to Osteoporosis.

AUSTRALIA — Australian Surgeons Save Unborn Baby's Leg.

CHINA — China Honors IRRI for Contributions to Food Security and Science.

CHINA — Chinese Red Yeast Rice Extract Reduces Repeat Heart Attacks/Mortality Rates.

CHINA — Cholesterol Absorbing Mechanism Unveiled.

CHINA — Academia Sinica and BASF to Develop Rice Strains.

HONG KONG — Hong Kong Scientists Make New Bird Flu Breakthrough.

INDIA — Mirrus Opens India R&D center.

INDIA — United States Launches Rs 580 million Health Initiative in India.

INDIA — IBSD to Analyze Herb with Cancer Curing Property.

INDIA — Rare Heart Surgery at Delhi Hospital.

JAPAN — First Optical Pacemaker: Laser Controls Beating Of Heart Muscle Cells in Cell Culture.

SINGAPORE — Singapore-led Team Starts S$3.5 Million Liver Cancer Clinical Trial.

SINGAPORE — Wealth of Genomic Hotspots Discovered in Embryonic Stem Cells.

SINGAPORE — Scientists Identify Genetic Regulator of Colon Cancer and Develop a Novel Therapeutic Strategy for Colon Cancer Treatment.

SINGAPORE — First Confirmed Common Genetic Risk Factors for Breast Cancer Uncovered by Genome Institute of Singapore and Partners in international Breast Cancer Association Collaboration.

Research Institute and CSL to Develop New Treatments for Inflammatory Diseases.

QRxPharma in Strategic Alliance with Liaoning Nuokang Medicines for the Development of Venomics Assets.

Mesoblast's Treatment for Damaged Intervertebral Disc Cartilage may be a Product Breakthrough.

Device Technologies Australia in Strategic Partnership with Health Robotics for Robot-Assisted Cancer Surgery.

Agilent Technologies Co-Establishes Center for Systems Biology with Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical Granted License to Develop Hematopoietic Stem Cell Stimulator.

HUYA Establishes Partnership with GIBH.

China Biologic Products Enters into a Strategic R&D on Blood Plasma.

India's First Stem Cell Therapy Laboratory Launched.

Biocon and Amylin to Jointly Make Drug for Diabetes.

Singapore Sets up First Cell Therapy Facility.

Smart Information Technology Integration for Bangkok Hospital Group.

Immune Therapy Could Control Fertility in Mammals - and Possibly Humans.

Taiwan Genetic Screening Prevents Severe Adverse Drug Reactions.

Bacteria Acts Like Toothbrush.

Trigger for Tumour Protein Discovered.

GIS Scientists Propose a New Paradigm For Embryonic Stem Cells.

HCG Hormone Therapy may Benefit Patients with Intractable Pain.

Singapore Scientists Lead Human Embryonic Stem Cell Study to Advance Regenerative Medicine Research.

Singapore Scientists Discover Genetic Link in Kawasaki Disease.

Stem Cells Engineered to Kill Cancer.

Genes, Stem Cells, and Regenerative Medicine.

Stem Cell Therapies – What Happened and Where Next?

Immune Rejection of Stem Cell Transplants, Where Are We Standing?

Therapy for Hippocampus Injury – Can Neural Stem Cells Help?

Investigating the Embryotoxic Effects of Caffeine & MSG using Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells.

Stem Cell Research – The New Growth Engine.

AUSTRALIA – Less frequent dosing in hemophilia B patients shows improved pharmacokinetic profile.

AUSTRALIA – Novogen identifies highly active drug candidates against prostate cancer.

SINGAPORE – Gold nanoprobes used to unlock genetic profiles.

SINGAPORE – Clinical checks to detect relapses for patients with peripheral T-cell lymphoma just as effective as imaging.

SINGAPORE – QT Vascular initiates chocolate cases in Singapore.

THE PHILIPPINES – Trial set for world's first leprosy vaccine.

THE PHILIPPINES – Nickel-eating Philippine plant may have wide uses.

EUROPE – New study to investigate dabigatran etexilate for prevention of recurrent stroke in high-risk patients.

EUROPE – Researchers use DNA to build tool that may literally shine light on cancer.

UNITED STATES – Scientists slow brain tumor growth in mice.

UNITED STATES – Researchers pinpoint new role for enzyme in DNA repair, kidney cancer.

UNITED STATES – Progress on multiple sclerosis treatment with embryonic stem cells.

UNITED STATES – Researchers develop vaccine candidate using genetically engineered malaria parasite.

Novel Topical Mesenchymal Stem Cell Transplant Paradigm to Treat Organ Diseases.

The Potential of Stem Cell Therapy for Brain Repair and Regeneration Following Neurotrauma.

Liver Regeneration Enables Miracle of Liver Transplantation.

Pluripotent stem (PS) cells have the ability to replicate themselves (self-renew) and to generate virtually any given cell type in the adult body (pluripotency). Human PS (hPS) cells are therefore considered promising sources for future cell replacement therapy. Embryonic stem (ES) cells are the major type of PS cells that are derived from blastocyst embryos. Germ cells from testis can also become PS cells when cultured for a long period with a combination of growth factors. Alternatively, differentiated somatic cells can also be converted to PS cells by the method called nuclear reprogramming. This includes somatic cell nuclear transfer where a somatic cell nucleus is injected into an enucleated oocyte giving rise to a reprogrammed PS cell, as well as the recently developed technique of reprogramming differentiated somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells by introducing defined transcription factors. Regardless of the sources and generation methods, PS cells share common epithelial structures and maintain tight cellular interactions. Although the molecular mechanisms that regulate self-renewal and pluripotency of PS cells have been extensively studied, the basic cellular interactions that govern how PS cells control cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesions are still not fully understood. In addition, there are several obstacles in the current culture methods for hPS cells that need to be overcome in order to achieve the highest safety and consistency required for clinical applications. A Rho-mediated signaling axis has recently been determined to be the core machinery that integrates cellular interactions between PS cells. By chemically engineering this axis, hPS cells are able to self-renew under completely defined conditions while maintaining their multi-differentiation capacities. When combined with the rapid progress in research focusing on iPS cells, these studies on cell-cell and cell-matrix adhesion in PS cells may not only contribute to further understanding PS cell biology, but also lead to the development of novel technologies enabling the derivation and growth of clinically relevant hPS cells for regenerative therapies.

Stem cells (both embryonic and somatic) have the capacity to self-renew and differentiate into specific lineage under permissive conditions. Although progress has been made on differentiation of pluripotent ES to a defined cell type, it is far from clear which are the signalling pathways controlling differentiation of a defined cell type and even less known about how to differentiate ES cells to be a functional cell type. Along with ES cells, foetal mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) are the only stem cells to be pluritpotent, expressing Oct-4 and Nanog, while adult MSC remain multipotent.

The field of stem cell biology is fast approaching a degree of maturity that will allow novel therapies to be exploited both clinically and commercially. The first such treatments are likely to rely on the use of a patient's own (autologous) stem cells in order to avoid immune rejection. However if these approaches are to have any long-term viability then the use of donor (allogeneic) cells instead of individualised therapies will be essential in order to allow scale-up of production. There is some evidence that stem cells are hypoimmunogenic as they express only very low levels of major histocompatibility antigens and they are therefore likely to avoid immune rejection. In this chapter we review the evidence for hypoimmunogenicity of stem cells and highlight some differences between adult and embryonic stem cells in their immune stimulatory properties. We also review data demonstrating that the hypoimmunogenic properties of stem cells may sometimes be lost once they have differentiated or after they have been exposed to inflammatory cytokines.

The cellular composition of a tumor greatly influences the growth, spread, immune activity, drug response, and other aspects of the disease. Tumor cells are usually comprised of a heterogeneous mixture of subclones, each of which could contain their own distinct character. The presence of minor subclones poses a serious health risk for patients as any one of them could harbor a fitness advantage with respect to the current treatment regimen, fueling resistance. It is therefore vital to accurately assess the make-up of cell states within a tumor biopsy. Transcriptome-wide assays from RNA sequencing provide key data from which cell state signatures can be detected. However, the challenge is to find them within samples containing mixtures of cell types of unknown proportions. We propose a novel one-class method based on logistic regression and show that its performance is competitive to two established SVM-based methods for this detection task. We demonstrate that one-class models are able to identify specific cell types in heterogeneous cell populations better than their binary predictor counterparts. We derive one-class predictors for the major breast and bladder subtypes and reaffirm the connection between these two tissues. In addition, we use a one-class predictor to quantitatively associate an embryonic stem cell signature with an aggressive breast cancer subtype that reveals shared stemness pathways potentially important for treatment.