“Cord Blood Stem Cells Restore Toddler’s Hearing,” ABC News

In January 2012, Madeleine, 2, became the first child to undergo an experimental hearing loss treatment through an FDA-approved trial at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center that infused stem cells from her own banked cord blood into her damaged inner ear.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Optimizing Media for Clinical Manufacturing of Stem Cells for Therapeutic Use”

“Gene That Fights Alzheimer’s May Inspire New Treatments,” Reuters

A gene that causes the rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer’s disease can also carry a mutation that produces the opposite effect, staving off the devastating illness, scientists announced on Wednesday.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Is Personalized Medicine the Future? How Genetic Sequencing is Enabling New Treatments”

“Scientists See AIDS Vaccine Within Reach After Decades,” Reuters

At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Improving Media to Increase Virus Yield in Vaccine Production”

“Global Pharma Spending to “Hit” Nearly $1.2 Trillion by 2016,” PharmaTimes

After several years of slowing growth, the global medicines market is poised to rebound from an expected low of 3%-4% growth in 2012 to 5%-7% in 2016, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Strategies for Enhancing Media to Improve Antibody Production in CHO Cells”

“Human Trials for Potential HIV Stem Cell Cure,” Herald Sun

A world-renowned Australian stem cell expert working on a cure for HIV says their research is about to progress to human trials. He said if the trials were successful further research would be needed to modify the technology so it could be affordably used where it is needed most, in Africa.

If you like this story, please see our blog titled “Culture and Expansion of Stem Cells in Stirred Suspension Bioreactors Could Provide Key in Large Scale Manufacturing”

“Neurons Derived From Cord Blood Cells May Offer New Therapeutic Option,” R&D Magazine

For more than 20 years, doctors have been using cells from blood that remains in the placenta and umbilical cord after childbirth to treat a variety of illnesses, from cancer and immune disorders to blood and metabolic diseases.  Now, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found a new way—using a single protein, known as a transcription factor—to convert cord blood (CB) cells into neuron-like cells that may prove valuable for the treatment of a wide range of neurological conditions, including stroke, traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury.

If you like this story, please see our stem cell blog titled “The Arduous Path to the Clinic – Plan Early to Avoid Late Attrition”