Israeli researchers from Rambam Medical Center in Haifa and Technion’s medical school have managed for the first time to repair damaged tissue using components produced by embryonic stem cells.

The team was headed by the director of Rambam’s obstetrics and gynecology department, Dr. Joseph Itzkowitz-Eldor.

The experiment involved tissue regeneration in mice, but the researchers said the method might be usable in the future to repair human tissue and organs that were damaged due to insufficient blood supply. Insufficient blood flow can result from injury or disease and can cause damage to the limbs, heart, kidneys and brain.

The stem cell components used by the researchers play a key role in the growth of blood vessels. The team used fertilized human eggs that had been donated for research purposes, as well as skin and hair samples from older adult patients.

For the first time, the team succeeded in isolating the cells that are capable of repairing damaged tissue. The cells were from the outer layer of the capillaries. These cells, along with other cells in the interior of the capillaries, regulate the functioning of the blood vessels and play a key role in the generation of new blood vessels. They provide a kind of building block for the growth of cartilage, tendons and muscle.

The research team injected the cells with the regenerative properties into mice whose legs had been tied to restrict blood flow, causing damage. After the injection of the cells, the mice’s legs healed nearly completely. Within three weeks, both blood flow to the leg and muscle function were almost completely normal again.

“In the current research, we have already managed in the laboratory to substantially increase the number of healing cells, so they can serve as a future clinical model for research into diseases,” Itzkowitz-Eldor said. He noted that technology already exists that enables the duplication of various kinds of stem cells, and his team’s research is similar to current efforts to duplicate blood cells from the umbilical cord.

The development of methods to duplicate the cells with the healing properties could lead to the creation of a bank of components with a wide range of medical applications, he added. “The development of an unlimited quantity of the cells would hold wide potential for healing damaged tissue,” Itzkowitz-Eldor said. “It’s true that the research is currently focused on animals, but we already have methods to grow these cells so they would also be suitable later on for implantation into humans.”

The team’s findings were published in the November issue of “Circulation,” the journal of the American Heart Association. The journal also devoted an editorial to the findings, due to their medical significance. Itzkowitz-Eldor said his team’s research is additional evidence of the leading role Israel is playing in embryonic stem cell research.

Prof. Rafael Beyar, Director and CEO of Rambam and until 2005 dean of the medical faculty, said the research is a “breakthrough with many implications to a large number of fields. The path to implementation in patients is still protracted, but I see it as having huge potential that could be implemented in not too many years away.”

The Business of Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Location: Baxter Lecture Hall, Caltech, Pasadena

Registration and Continental Breakfast: 8:00 am

Program: 9:00 am to 11:00 am

Breakfast & Networking with Speakers: 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

Cost: $40 on-line registration; $50 at the door; $10 full-time students; free to Caltech students

Technologies for creating, modifying and using stem cells in the treatment of human diseases and disorders show great promise, but involve inexpensive high-risk development as well as high levels of political, legal and ethical sensitivity. In California, a state agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), has been chartered to encourage and fund regenerative medicine, and has committed about half of its $3 billion allocation to more than 400 projects, mainly in R&D. This sizeable investment is underpinning the formation of medical start-ups in this promising area. However, federal rules remain hostile to research in a variety of promising areas. Given this landscape, how does one start and fund a new venture involving stem cells or other aspects of regenerative medicine?

The November 12 program will focus on the business opportunities and challenges and potential strategies for surmounting them. What categories of companies are currently commercially viable? How are they being funded now? What kind of strategic relationships are available with pharmaceutical, medical device, health care organizations?

Keynote Speaker:
Susan V. Bryant, Ph.D., Board Member, California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Associative Executive Vice Chancellor for Research, University of California, Irvine

Speakers:
Kenneth Aldrich, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder, International Stem Cell

Robert Chow, M.D., Founder & Global Medical Director, Stemcyte, Inc.

Steven C. Cramer, M.D., Professor, Vice Chair for Research, UC Irvine, Clinical Director, Sue and Bill Gross Research Center

Moderator:
Ira D Moskatel, Arnold & Porter, LLP
Producers:
Ira D Moskatel, Arnold & Porter, LLP

Rogelio Nochebuena, President, Nochebuena R&D

Goran Matijasevic Executive Director, Chief Executive Roundtable, UC Irvine
Details and Registration at: http://www.entforum.caltech.edu or call 626-395-5759

Wiring systems powered by highly-efficient superconductors have long been a dream of science, but researchers have faced such practical challenges such as finding pliable and cost-effective materials. Now researchers at Tel Aviv University have found a way to make an old idea new with the next generation of superconductors.

Dr. Boaz Almog and Mishael Azoulay working in the group of Prof. Guy Deutscher at TAU’s Raymond and Beverly Sackler School of Physics and Astronomy have developed superconducting wires using fibers made of single crystals of sapphire to be used in high powered cables. Factoring in temperature requirements, each tiny wire can carry approximately 40 times more electricity than a copper wire of the same size. They have the potential to revolutionize energy transfer, says Dr. Almog.

High power superconductor cables take up much less space and conduct energy more efficiently, making them ideal for deployment across grids of electricity throughout a city. They will also offer a more effective method for collecting energy from renewable sources, such as solar and wind energy. Superconducting wires can also be used for energy storage and enable devices which enhance grid stability.

The new superconductors were first presented at the Israel Vacuum Society Conference in June 2011, and will be shown at both the European Conference on Applied Superconductivity and the Association of Science Technology Centers Conference this fall.

Beating the heat

One of the things that make our copper wires inefficient is overheating, Dr. Almog explains. Due to electrical resistance found in the metal, some of the energy that flows through the cables is cast off and wasted, causing the wires to heat up. But with superconductors, there is no resistance. A self-contained cooling system, which requires a constant flow of liquid nitrogen, keeps the wire in its superconducting state. Readily available, non-toxic, and inexpensive — a gallon of the substance costs less than a gallon of milk — liquid nitrogen provides the perfect coolant.

Even with the benefit of liquid nitrogen, researchers were still hard pressed to find a material that would make the ideal superconductor. Superconductors coated on crystal wafers are effective but too brittle, says Dr. Almog, and although superconductors on metallic tapes had some success, the product is too expensive to manufacture in mass quantities.

To create their superconductors, the researchers turned to sapphire fibers, developed by Dr. Amit Goyal at the Oakridge National Lab in Tennessee and lent to the TAU team. Coated with a ceramic mixture using a special technique, these single-crystal fibers, slightly thicker than a human hair, have made innovative superconductors.

Going macro

Dr. Almog is currently working to produce better superconductors that could transport even larger amounts of electric current.

One area where such superconductors could lend a hand is in collecting renewable energy sources. “Sources such as wind turbines or solar panels are usually located in remote places such as deserts or offshore lines, and you need an efficient way to deliver the current,” explains Dr. Almog. These superconductors can traverse the long distances without losing any of the energy to heat due to electrical resistance.

Superconducting cables could also be an efficient way to bring large amounts of power to big cities “If you want to supply current for a section of a city like New York, you will need electric cables with a total cross-section of more than one meter by one meter. Superconductors have larger current capacities using a fraction of the space,” says Dr. Almog. Different parts of a city could be cross-wired, he adds, so that in the event of a blackout, power can be easily rerouted.

Inspiring young scientists

Developing a superior superconductor is only part of TAU’s mission. Dr. Almog is also dedicated to making this technology accessible and exciting as a way to capture the imagination of aspiring scientists. TAU has manufactured superconductor wafers which, filled with liquid nitrogen like their cable cousins, can be locked in place by strong magnets and levitate. Placed on a magnetic track, the wafer zooms through the air like George Jetson’s space-age car. It might look like magic, but it’s actually a phenomenon called “quantum trapping.” Kits that demonstrate this “magnetic levitation” have been distributed in science museums throughout Israel, and Dr. Almog hopes to expand their distribution internationally.

And when the day’s work is done? “We also make ice cream with the liquid nitrogen,” Dr. Almog grins.

With new cutting-edge technology aimed at providing amputees with robotic limbs, a Tel Aviv University researcher has successfully implanted a robotic cerebellum into the skull of a rodent with brain damage, restoring its capacity for movement.

The cerebellum is responsible for co-ordinating movement, explains Prof. Matti Mintz of TAU’s Department of Psychology. When wired to the brain, his “robo-cerebellum” receives, interprets, and transmits sensory information from the brain stem, facilitating communication between the brain and the body. To test this robotic interface between body and brain, the researchers taught a brain-damaged rat to blink whenever they sounded a particular tone. The rat could only perform the behavior when its robotic cerebellum was functional.

According to the researcher, the chip is designed to mimic natural neuronal activity. “It’s a proof of the concept that we can record information from the brain, analyze it in a way similar to the biological network, and then return it to the brain,” says Prof. Mintz, who recently presented his research at the Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence meeting in Cambridge, UK.

In the future, this robo-cerebellum could lead to electronic implants that replace damaged tissues in the human brain. For the full story about TAU’s cyborg cerebellum, see the ABCNews story:
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/09/27/roborat-israelis-create-rodent-with-robot-brain/

Come and be part of the biggest volunteerism project and a huge lunching concert of the Israeli-American and Jewish-American community

I am excited to share with you the recent initiative at the Israeli Leadership Council (ILC), and cordially invite you to join us in this inspiring mission.

With the aim to unite the spirit of care and generosity, we have inaugurated the I.L.Care, an inspired network of Israeli-American and Jewish-American volunteers.

The I.L.Care program empowers volunteers of all ages to work together on the common goal of a large Jewish community of giving, actively engaged with an array of humanitarian organizations in need of support, in our community and in Israel .

To celebrate the inauguration of I.L.Care we are producing an exciting Concert on November 20th, for 6,000 primarily Israeli and Jewish-American attendees.

We invite the participants to sign up for at least 4 hours of volunteer service during 2012. Each participant can select an organization of his\her choice to volunteer with.

Tickets for volunteers will be discounted from $90 down to only $18.

Register online ILCARE.NET or call 818-466-6454

We are delighted to announce that the sixth issue of the new international peer reviewed open access Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal (RMMJ) has now been published online.

In the best interest of the medical and scientific community, RMMJ is freely accessible via the Internet for immediate worldwide, open access to the full text of articles. Authors who publish in the journal will retain the copyright to their article.

Thank you for sharing in the Maimonides tradition, by enjoying this high caliber journal. We also invite you to submit your own scholarly contributions for consideration. This journal links one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, with the international medical community through the shared values enunciated by the Rambam.