Cells

Dogged and determined scientists appear to have given mankind a remarkable gift: a method for creating personalized medical repair kits using skin cells from a patient's own body. The discovery, reached simultaneously by researchers in the United States and Japan, has enormous potential to provide lifesaving cures to people with a wide range of injuries and ailments - cures that avoid the prospect of rejection as well as the ethical concerns about destroying human embryos. Tempting as it would be, though, to declare that there is no longer any need for embryonic stem cell research, that's simply not the case.

When it comes to dating and mating, how much more can we learn from what we smell? More than you might think. Lab mice, for example, can't invite each other out for a drink. But new research suggests they can communicate how dry they are through a previously unknown sensory mechanism in their noses. The discovery might help scientists gain new understanding of how other mammals, including humans, share information about their health, genetics and sexual availability by reading chemical signals picked up by the nose.

Scientists have succeeded in reprogramming ordinary cells from the tips of mouse tails and rewinding their developmental clocks so they are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells, according to studies published today. If the discovery applies to human cells - and researchers are optimistic that it will - it would offer a straightforward method for creating a limitless supply of cell lines tailor-made for patients without ethical strings attached. Three research groups said they accomplished their feat by activating four genes that are turned on in days-old embryos.

A day after 18 inmates were seriously injured in an apparent gang fight in a Baltimore prison yard, the Metropolitan Transition Center remained locked down yesterday as authorities began interviewing the more than 100 men who were in the exercise yard at the time of the melee. Three of the injured prisoners remained in serious condition at area hospitals yesterday, a spokesman with the Maryland Division of Correction said. It was unclear whether any of the other 15 hospitalized inmates were returned to the prison, formerly the maximum-security Maryland State Penitentiary.

`Word choices' ease killing of embryos I found it ironic that Tricia Bishop's article on the use of word choices to manipulate legislation and public opinion itself contained manipulative language ("Word choices," March 11). For instance, Towson University health science professor Patricia Alt's statement that embryos are just "cells" is a blatant example of the sort of language used by those in favor of abortion and embryonic stem cell research in an effort to dehumanize embryos and fetuses.

A team of scientists at a small Baltimore biotechnology company has made a breakthrough in the effort to develop revolutionary new treatments to regenerate bone, cartilage, fat and other structural and connective tissues damaged by injury or disease.The team at Osiris Therapeutics Inc. has shown for the first time that progenitor, or "master" cells, which give rise to all other cells in the body, can be prodded in the laboratory into becoming replacement bone, cartilage, fat and other cells.

Here is an excerpt of an editorial from the San Francisco Chronicle, which was published Oct. 18.CAN AN old brain learn new tricks? Two researchers believe the human cranium can generate fresh cells, dispelling old theories that an aging brain cannot reproduce the working parts needed for memory, learning and personality.The finding has major implications for treating brain disease and aging. In this case, monkey brains -- and human ones by extension -- were thought to have a set amount of cells, known as neurons, on the outside surface of the brain where intellectual functions are done.

Powered by Solarex.That's what the Frederick-based maker of solar-based, power-generating cells can say about its role in the record-breaking, round-the-world flight by the Breitling Orbiter 3 balloon. The two-man balloon settled onto Egypt's Western Desert on Sunday, finishing a journey of more than 29,000 miles.To help generate electrical juice for each piece of their on-board electrical equipment -- from the global-positioning systems to the all-important microwave oven -- the balloonists relied upon "photovoltaic cells" made by Solarex workers at the company's Frederick factory.

Osiris Therapeutics Inc. said yesterday that it has begun human testing of a treatment to help regenerate bone marrow and blood cells for cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.The company said its experimental treatment, Allogen, will be tested at seven U.S. and European cancer centers.In this Phase I trial, Osiris will test the product for safety, specifically to ensure that patients' bodies do not reject the cell treatment.Allogen is the company's second cell product to reach clinical trials.

As a Harvard Medical School student studying immunology in the 1970s, Dr. Curt Civin began wondering how the body's immune system might be used to fight cancer.Today, thanks to the physician's 15-year quest to answer that question, doctors will soon have a commercially available device that helps cancer patients' immune systems recover quickly after the heavy hit that bone-marrow transplants and high doses of chemotherapy deliver to the body.Civin, a child oncologist and the King Fahd Professor of Pediatric Oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital, will take center stage in Washington tomorrow when he is honored for the invention by the Intellectual Property Owners Association, a nonprofit organization that promotes patent and copyright protections.

Discoveries by Nobel laureate Carol W. Greider and her colleagues have led to advances toward potential cures or treatments for certain types of cancer, and for a growing list of diseases rooted in malfunctions of the DNA-protecting enzyme, called telomerase, that she discovered. In cancer, the overproduction of telomerase enables tumor cells to maintain unchecked reproduction, and researchers are trying to inhibit the telomerase as a way to shut down the tumor and allow it to die. One experiment involves a potential vaccine to battle runaway cell division in metastatic breast cancer.

The four friends began meeting on Monday nights three years ago, sharing drinks around a dinner table and refining their dream of launching a biotechnology company that would revolutionize the way tumor cells are tested for cancer. They crafted a business plan and, with the help of a state tax credit program for biotech startups, they raised $1 million from investors for their company, BioMarker Strategies LLC. Fast forward to 2009: BioMarker recently announced it has secured $1.7 million more in funding, including a major infusion from one of the city's largest charitable foundations.

Tyler de Lara, 2, thrashes on a gurney, tangled in a hospital gown and IV tubing. A bandage on his head, loosened by his squirming, slips and covers his eyes. His mouth is set in a pout. Dr. Akira Ishiyama notes Tyler's grimace and says he's pleased. It means there is no facial nerve damage. Tyler was diagnosed as deaf six months earlier. Now, on an autumn morning at UCLA, he is drifting from a cloud of anesthesia with two cochlear implants in his skull. His parents hope he can finally enter the world of those who hear.

Study: Heat effective in treating throat condition Zapping away abnormal, precancerous cells in the throat may lower the risk of later developing esophageal cancer, the first major study to test this technique finds. In a study of 127 people suffering from a heartburn-related problem known as Barrett's esophagus, only about 1 percent who had a procedure that uses heat to burn off precancerous spots went on to develop cancer over the next year. That's compared with more than 9 percent of those who got a fake treatment in which no cells were destroyed.

Dozens of suspected gang members and drug dealers were arrested Thursday morning after local and federal authorities raided nearly 50 locations across Baltimore - including jail cells - and two sites in California, looking for cash, criminals, guns, heroin and cocaine. The arrests culminated a sweeping, 17-month investigation into Maryland gang activity, intensified by the June abduction and murder of alleged PDL Bloods leader Kenneth Cooper "Cash" Jones, which set off a wave of retaliatory killings last summer.

Military should end missions, not restore draft In his thought-provoking article, "Asking 'someone else's son' to fight" (May17), Dan Rodricks points out the cultural/class dichotomy between those who serve, i.e., those who may be maimed and killed, or psychologically damaged in the defense of our country, while the rest of the American people go about their business, oblivious to the sacrifices being made on their behalf. I would add that what is left out of Rodricks' article is the nature of wars being fought by the U.S. in the last 50 years.

* Dr. Jonathan Schneck, a professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is leading a team of researchers who have been awarded a $10.3 million grant - the largest basic immunology grant ever received by Hopkins - from the National Institutes of Health to dissect the human immune system. The researchers aim to learn more about what happens when the immune system goes wrong, and how to suppress undesired immune responses in the cases of rejected tissue or organ transplants or in autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis or lupus.

In the nearly 40 years since the nation declared war on cancer, great advances have been made in breast cancer screening, early detection and treatment. The death rate for breast cancers has fallen. More is discovered all the time about the genetics and biology of the disease. But a cure remains elusive. Cancer, which is actually a variety of diseases, changes constantly and can spread throughout the body in ways that can be difficult to detect. Even when stopped in its tracks, it can often adjust and evade treatments that once worked against it. In most cases, the body's immune system learns to go after a foreign invader like a virus or a bacteria.

Sheriff's office to halt serving eviction notices CHICAGO: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said yesterday that his office plans to stop serving eviction notices on people who have fallen behind on mortgage payments as well as renters unaware their buildings have fallen in arrears. He said his action was necessary in light of the national foreclosure crisis that is driving down the American economy. Dart acknowledged that he could be found in contempt of court for ignoring court orders but said he was willing to risk that to carry out "justice."

BETHESDA - Micromet Inc.'s experimental cancer treatment shrank tumors in people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in a study that might lead to a new approach in tackling malignant diseases. The medicine, called blinatumomab, caused complete or partial tumor regression in all seven patients who received the highest dosage in tests by German researchers, according to data published in Science magazine. The findings were first presented at a medical meeting in Switzerland in June. Blinatumomab is a protein that binds immune cells with cancer-fighting properties to tumor cells, releasing toxins that destroy the disease more effectively at the site.