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Dr. Richard Burt MD — Pioneering Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) For Autoimmune Disorders

Pioneering Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplants (HSCT) For Autoimmune Disorders — Dr. Richard K. Burt


Dr. Richard K. Burt MD (https://astemcelljourney.com/about/drrichardburt/) is a Fulbright Scholar, Professor of Medicine at Scripps Health Care, tenured retired Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University where he served as Chief of Immunotherapy and Autoimmune Diseases, and CEO of Genani Biotechnology.

Dr. Burt endeavored for thirty-five years, first with animal models and then with some of the world’s first clinical trials, to bring the field of stem cell and cellular therapy to the patient’s bedside.

Dr. Burt has published more than 145 mostly first author articles and is the Editor of four medical textbooks. He was the first Autoimmune Committee Chairperson for the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR) and was the principal investigator of a National Institute of Health (NIH) $10,000,000 multi-center contract to develop stem cell clinical trials for autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Burt performed America’s first hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) for multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Crohn’s disease (CD), stiff person syndrome (SPS), and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) and published the world’s first randomized clinical stem cell transplantation trials for systemic sclerosis and multiple sclerosis.

The mRNA vaccine technology may hold the key to developing personalized cancer treatments

At CES 2023, the CEO of Moderna discussed mRNA technology.

The Covid-19 pandemic continues to be a terrible plight on the world. But if there’s any silver lining in what has happened, the deadly worldwide plague has brought about advancements in medicine created to fight it that may have transformational impacts well past the pandemic.

In a conversation during CES 2023, one of the world’s eminent tech gatherings, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel discussed the potential to utilize mRNA technology at the basis of groundbreaking Covid vaccines, developed with unprecedented speed, to create personalized cancer treatments.


Yuuji/iStock.

In a conversation during CES 2023, one of the world’s eminent tech gatherings, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel discussed the potential to utilize mRNA technology at the basis of groundbreaking Covid vaccines, developed with unprecedented speed, to create personalized cancer treatments. The conversation “Personalized Medicine: The Future of Cancer Treatment is Not One-Size Fits All” was led by Stephen Klasko, executive in residence at General Catalyst and advisor at Stel Life.

Princeton Chemists Create Quantum Dots at Room Temperature Using Custom Protein

Researchers at Princeton’s Department of Chemistry discovered the first known de novo protein that catalyzes, or drives, the synthesis of quantum dots.

Nature uses 20 canonical amino acids.

<div class=””> <div class=””><br />Amino acids are a set of organic compounds used to build proteins. There are about 500 naturally occurring known amino acids, though only 20 appear in the genetic code. Proteins consist of one or more chains of amino acids called polypeptides. The sequence of the amino acid chain causes the polypeptide to fold into a shape that is biologically active. The amino acid sequences of proteins are encoded in the genes. Nine proteinogenic amino acids are called “essential” for humans because they cannot be produced from other compounds by the human body and so must be taken in as food.<br /></div> </div>

Researchers discover exploiting microbiome bacteria in patients with lung infections improves low oxygen levels

Newspaper headlines from the U.S. to the U.K. and most places in between highlight the surge in sick patients suffering from respiratory viruses. The so-called “tripledemic” of lung infections including respiratory synclinal virus (RSV), influenza (flu) and COVID-19 (coronavirus) is likely to last throughout the winter season. This explosion of infections requires more treatment options to support overloaded hospitals and overworked medics as they restore people’s health.

It has been known for a long time that intubation of an infant with any , or even an adult with severe COVID-19 using either ventilation or extra-corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), comes with risks and that could cause permanent damage not limited to the lungs. However, hypoxia, which means , is a that is a common complication of severe . If not treated, it can lead to severe disability and even death.

An Organism That Can Dine Exclusively on Viruses Has Been Found in a World First

A type of freshwater plankton has become the first organism seen thriving on a diet of viruses, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the US.

Viruses are often consumed incidentally by a range wide of organisms, and may even season the diets of certain marine protists. But to qualify as a true step in the food chain – described as virovory – viruses ought to contribute a significant amount of energy or nutrients to their consumer.

The microbe Halteria is a common genus of protist known to flit about as its hair-like cilia propel it through the water. Not only did laboratory samples of the ciliate consume chloroviruses added to its environment, the giant virus fueled Halteria’s growth and increased its population size.

IKnife Helps Find Endometrial Cancer

Point-of-care diagnoses occur when a doctor can quickly diagnose a patient during an examination without sending biological samples to a laboratory or consulting with other specialists. The stress and anxiety that can come with waiting for the results of medical testing, and the cost associated with in-depth laboratory testing, make point-of-care testing a gold standard. However, point-of-care diagnostics remain rare in oncology.

Research shows that women suspected of endometrial cancer experience stress and anxiety while waiting for a confirmed diagnosis. While the procedures and waiting time associated with endometrial cancer diagnoses vary, endometrial biopsies can take weeks to return results. Of added concern, since most endometrial cancers require surgical intervention, usually a hysterectomy, delays in diagnosis lead to delays in treatment. Indeed, these surgical delays can negatively impact survival. Thus, rapid endometrial cancer diagnostic strategies would significantly improve patient care.

To address the need for new, more efficient endometrial cancer diagnostics, a group of researchers initiated a study to assess the ability of an intelligent knife (iKnife) to identify malignancy in endometrial tissue biopsies. The researchers published the results of the study in the journal Cancers.

Investigating the intestinal transport of mercury ions with a gut-on-a-chip device

The transport of mercury ions across intestinal epithelial cells can be studied for toxicology assessments by using animal models and static cell cultures. However, the concepts do not reliably replicate conditions of the human gut microenvironment to monitor in situ cell physiology. As a result, the mechanism of mercury transport in the human intestine is still unknown.

In a new report now published in Nature Microsystems and Nanoengineering, Li Wang and a research team in and in China developed a gut-on-a-chip instrument integrated with transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) sensors and electrochemical sensors.

They proposed to explore the dynamic concept to simulate the physical intestinal barrier and mirror biological transport and adsorption mechanisms of mercury ions. The scientists recreated the cellular microenvironment by applying fluid shear stress and cyclic mechanical strain.

New nanowire sensors are the next step in the Internet of Things

A new miniscule nitrogen dioxide sensor could help protect the environment from vehicle pollutants that cause lung disease and acid rain.

Researchers from TMOS, the Australian Research Council Center of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems have developed a sensor made from an array of nanowires, in a square one fifth of a millimeter per side, which means it could be easily incorporated into a silicon chip.

In research published in the latest issue of Advanced Materials, Ph.D. scholar at the Center’s Australian National University team and lead author Shiyu Wei describes the sensor as requiring no , as it runs on its own solar powered generator.

Brain Dead Vs. Coma Vs. Vegetative State: What’s The Difference?

In light of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina being found unconscious, there have been many headlines that said she in “a coma” or a “vegetative state” or even “brain dead”. First things first, patients who suffer brain death are not in coma. And patients who are in coma may or may not progress to brain death.

The brain has a number of vast jobs to complete every second and is a very complex organ. The brain controls not only an individual’s thought process and voluntary movements, but it controls involuntary movements and other vital body functions. These functions include auditory, olfactory, visual and tactile senses, regulation of body temperature, blood pressure, respiration, and heart rate (although the heart can continue to beat without the brain in “autotonic response”). The brain also produces hormones to control individual organ function. A good example is the brain’s production of anti-diuretic hormone (ADH). This hormone is produced to concentrate the urine in the kidneys, thus protecting against life-threatening dehydration.

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