Bone Marrow News and Research

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Bone Marrow is the soft, sponge-like tissue in the center of most bones. It produces white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.

An immune system in a bottle would allow faster and easier production of a flu vaccine

University of Michigan associate professor Nicholas Kotov believes that one day, the cells in those honeycombs can be used to grow spare parts for our bodies, or even an entire artificial immune system in a bottle.

26 Oct 2004

Genetic research offers insight into Sjögren's syndrome and the general developmental machinery of the immune system

By knocking out a single gene in mice, immunologists at Duke University Medical Center have mimicked a little-understood autoimmune disorder in humans.

21 Oct 2004

Presentation of the most recent and advanced work in the rapidly progressing field of fertility preservation

Each year approximately 50,000 women under the age of 40 are diagnosed with breast cancer. Treatments vary but most involve the administration of chemotherapeutic agents or radiation which can disrupt ovarian function or damage a patient’s eggs.

18 Oct 2004

Technique for genetically modifying blood stem cells brings cure for blood diseases closer

The condition of mice with a genetic blood disease called beta-thalassemia improved significantly following treatment of their blood forming cells with a gene that enabled them to produce the type of hemoglobin normally found only in the fetus.

12 Oct 2004

Scientists have developed a new technology capable of improving survival outcomes after bone marrow transplantation

The study was published in the September issue of the prestigious medical journal, British Journal of Hematology. The technology involves the rational design and application of tyrosine kinase inhibitors for the treatment of leukemia, lymphoma, and graft versus host disease.

8 Oct 2004

Transatlantic study to help damaged hearts repair themselves

A $6 million, five-year grant from the Parisian Fondation Leduq has set up a transatlantic effort to study ways to help damaged hearts repair themselves, using stem cells from bone marrow, bloodstream, and adult heart tissue.

6 Oct 2004

Compound derived from fruit and vegetables could be used to improve the effects of an established cancer drug

The drug, mitomycin C (MMC), is a well-known anticancer treatment used mainly against solid tumours in the bladder and lower bowel. It is activated by enzymes naturally found in the human body, but its use is limited by severe side effects at higher doses.

5 Oct 2004

Linda Buck has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine

Linda Buck, Ph.D., a member of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Basic Sciences Division, has been named winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.

5 Oct 2004

Reducing eosinophilic airway inflammation in severe asthma

Eosinophils are a type of white blood cell that constitute from 1 to 3 percent of the total white cell count. When foreign substances or infectious cells enter the body, lymphocytes and neutrophils attract eosinophils which release toxic substances that can destroy abnormal cells. Eosinophils function in allergic responses and in helping resist some infections.

4 Oct 2004

Arsenic trioxide - invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia

Arsenic trioxide – a highly poisonous substance best known as an effective weed killer or pesticide and notorious for being a favourite ‘weapon’ of choice in murder mystery novels, is being re-invented as a treatment for a rare type of leukaemia.

28 Sep 2004

New link in the growth of Ewing’s sarcoma

To develop new therapeutic approaches to cancer, it is essential to understand the long and extremely complex process that underlies it, in other words the various stages of cancer development from the initial mutation to the tumor.

23 Sep 2004

Experimental drug PKC412 may be the key to treating myeloproliferative disease

Scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital have prolonged the lives of mice with a rare blood disorder by using an experimental drug that blocks signals promoting runaway growth of blood cells.

21 Sep 2004

Stress response proteins offer a promising target for a novel drug guidance system

Their study, published in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell, demonstrates how researchers can find protein tags that are unique to cancer cells and then tweak a drug delivery system to zero in on those tags and destroy the cells.

21 Sep 2004

Vanilla may become a drug to treat sickle cell disease

In addition to its popular role in flavoring ice cream, fudge and cake frosting, vanilla may have a future use as a medicine. Recent laboratory research has strengthened the possibility that a form of vanilla may become a drug to treat sickle cell disease.

20 Sep 2004

Link between eosinophils and asthma

Mayo Clinic researchers have used a comparative genomic strategy to demonstrate a causative link between eosinophils, a rare type of white blood cell, and asthma.

18 Sep 2004

Potential stem cells treatment for retinitis pigmentosa and other retinal degenerations

A team of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute was able to preserve visual function in mice that were genetically predisposed to developing a profound degenerative disease that destroys their retinas.

16 Sep 2004

Stem cell science and orthopedic surgery may reduce failure rate in hip replacements

By combining stem cell science with orthopedic surgery, a team of researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute aims to reduce the 10 per cent failure rate in hip replacements and make repeat replacements and other joint repairs obsolete within 10-15 years.