Showing posts with label spinal cord injury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spinal cord injury. Show all posts

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Parkinson's Disease Community: Stem Cell Guideline Input Deadline Only 12 Days Away

Now is the time to make your voice heard by using your keyboard

This is easy. On May 2rd we posted the links to both the NIH comment submission form and the Parkinson's Action Network suggested wording template letter to the National Institutes of Health. If you haven't submitted a comment, you have only 12 days remaining to do so.

We thought you might be interested in that the ISSCR, International Society for Stem Cell Research had to say to their scientists in their Draft NIH Human Stem Cell Guidelines Comments Information letter distributed recently.

Consider that all constructive input helps. There is concern that members of the scientific community who are inundated by paper may not take advantage of this window of opportunity. So it is time to forward the PAN and the ISSCR letters to the people we know in scientific fields. Perhaps your doctors would like a voice. The request might come better from you than an organization.

Don't forget, this isn't just about Parkinson's disease, it is about cancers, diabetes, kidney disease, ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, multiple sclerosis, catastrophic spinal cord injury, heart disease, retinal disease, arthritis, burn victims and many others. It is about the potential to save not only the living but the quality of life. In the long run, it may also be about being able to cut health care costs and prevent the death and suffering of countless lab animals.

In order to be counted you need to click on the article link and in it you will find the next links. The time is here, let's move forward.

Interesting reading

Friday, January 23, 2009

FDA Okays Embryonic Stem Cell Clinical Trials

According to a Geron Corp press release, the FDA is allowing Geron Corp to begin human clinical tests of embryonic stem cells (ESC) for the treatment of acute spinal injuries. Geron will use ESC to try to regrow nerve tissue in patients.

Although the FDA had received the request to begin clinical trials since May 2008, they remained silent until now - possibly still reading the 21,000 page document.

The FDA action coming just a few days after Obama became President is heartening to patients who have chronic diseases such as Parkinson's, juvenile diabetes, MS. ALS and many other illnesses. It holds great promise for new treatments and transplants.

Geron Corp (GERN) is a San Francisco, California based biotech company developing biopharmaceuticals for treatments of cancer and degenerative diseases. Shares are trading up as of the announcement.

addenda 1/24/09
for additional information refer to:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136413.php
Commentary about action and use of adult vs embryonic stem cells:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/136553.php