Neurologist Dr. A. Gordon Smith to present visiting professor lecture on May 8

Dr. A. Gordon Smith, Professor of Neurology and Chief, Division of Neuromuscular Medicine at University of Utah School of Medicine, will present, “The conundrum of diabetic neuropathy—new models for therapeutic development,” at the May 8 Neurology Department Grand Rounds and Taubman Visiting Professor lecture.

Dr. Smith’s area of interest is neuromuscular disease, particularly disorders of the peripheral nervous system. His research focuses on the relationship between obesity and pre-diabetes and peripheral neuropathy, including endpoint development and validation of novel clinical trial methodology. His laboratory has helped developed skin biopsy as a reproducible diagnostic and research tool for peripheral neuropathy, and the Cutaneous Innervation Laboratory collaborates with academic and Industry investigators interested in using this technique in their research.

The A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute’s Visiting Professor Lecture series brings nationally recognized scientists and experts to the University of Michigan campus for a presentation. The event is open to the public, and will take place on Wednesday, May 8 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. in the Marvin and Betty Danto Auditorium of the Frankel Cardiovascular Center.

Crain's: Man who received ALS stem cell transplant still doing well

Ted Harada, a 40-year-old man diagnosed with ALS, who received stem cell implantations to his spinal cord in two separate surgeries as part of the first-ever FDA-approved trial of a stem cell therapy for ALS, talked last week with Crain's Detroit business reporter Tom Henderson.  Harada said he's still feeling the positive effects he attributes to his second surgery, which took place last August. 

"I've been doing great and feeling great." Harada told Henderson. "Just now, the left leg showed a little bit of weakness returning, but I'm still so much better than I was before the surgeries. It's the first time, since August, they've noticed any slight weakness.

"It's clear from the data that the injections reversed my symptoms and slowed down the progression of the disease. I've received a blessing. I almost forget I have ALS. I don't have the constant reminder of having to use the canes. Now, I don't think about ALS every day. Every couple of days something happens and I think, `Oh, yeah, I have ALS.' "

Taubman Institute Director Dr. Eva Feldman received FDA approval in April to move the trial to Phase II, which will study efficacy as well as safety.  Patient recruitment has not yet started for that phase of the trial. 

Click here to read the entire Crain's blog post.

Generous donors fund institute's summer interns

Philanthropy fuels the Taubman Institute’s mission of funding talented, proven clinician-scientists at U-M, and their promising junior counterparts, through grant programs that support these physicians’ laboratory research.

And now, generous donors have made it possible to teach and encourage the medical science leaders of tomorrow.  Michigan philanthropists Joel and Shelley Tauber, longtime U-M supporters and members of the Taubman Institute’s Leadership Advisory Board, are the benefactors of the institute’s newest initiative, the Tauber Family Student Internship Program.  

This five-year financial commitment will finance three student internships each year, allowing undergraduate students to work within the laboratories of Taubman Scholars or Emerging Scholars.  It’s hoped that the exposure to cutting-edge translational medical research will encourage these budding scientists to choose a lifetime of striving to bring new cures and treatments to patients with difficult diseases.

“When young, imagining a future for oneself can be overwhelming,” the Taubers said.  “We want to be part of inspiring young people to pursue a future in medical research by exposing them to Michigan's scientific environment.

“Our goal is to enable interested and qualified young students to be part of teams that are focused on understanding and advancing medicine and its ability to treat disease.”

For 2013, three students will assist in the Program for Neurology Research & Discovery, the laboratory of Taubman Institute Director Dr. Eva Feldman.  They are:

•    Anna Bakeman, a student at the Medical College of Wisconsin
•    Rebecca Glasser, a student at Harvard University
•    Zachary Kelly, a student at Emory University

All of the interns will have an opportunity to work on projects ranging from stem cell derivation to the analysis of skin samples taken from neurology patients.  

Rebecca Glasser, a West Bloomfield, Mich. native and a sophomore studying molecular and cellular biology at Harvard, says the internship meshes with her career aspiration to work as a clinician-scientist.

“Working in the lab is a manifestation of everything I’ve learned in school,” she said.  “It’s great to actually see how everything comes together in the lab, rather than just in a textbook.  It’s really given me perspective on what I want to do.”

New PBS documentary on ALS airing May 5 & 7; to feature Taubman Insitute Director Dr. Eva Feldman

A new PBS documentary, "One Step Ahead," featuring Dr. Eva Feldman and a Michigan man whose ALS journey inspired a group of Ann Arbor volunteers aired on WTVS Detroit Public Television on May 5 and May 7.  It's now up for viewing on Vimeo.

The documentary is produced by Palindrome Productions, Inc. and features Ann Arbor Active Against ALS (www.A2A3.org), an advocacy and fundraising group that came together after U-M professor Bob Schoeni was diagnosed with ALS in 2008.

More from the A2A3 website:

Ann Arbor Active Against ALS, the grassroots movement inspired by Schoeni’s diagnosis, continually searches for fundraising ways to shore up cure-based funding for ALS. “One Step Ahead” explores how this positive approach guides Bob, his family, his medical team, and his supporters during a seven-month period in 2012. Fundraising efforts highlighted include six women who swim the English Channel to raise global awareness about ALS, as well as raising money for ALS research; the joint effort of A2A3 and University of Michigan’s Phi Delta Theta, and their annual Boxcar Derby; and A2A3’s Family Field Day, where examples of an active lifestyle are encouraged and demonstrated.

Michigan Daily on ALS stem cell trial

By Rachel Premack

The Michigan Daily

Those living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease — typically lose their lives within three to five years of being diagnosed as they eventually lose control of the muscles needed to move, speak and breathe. Treatment options are often scare.

However, new research at the University is aiming to correct the deficit of treatment options. Following approval by an independent ethics review committee, University researchers will begin to conduct a clinical trial using direct injection of stem cells into the spinal cord of ALS patients.

Principal investigator Eva Feldman, director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, said this trial could possibly result in new options for treatment.

“Stem cells provide a new treatment avenue in a disease where there are few other viable options,” Feldman said.

Lisa Bardach, a speech pathologist at ALS of Michigan, said Michigan has a higher incidence of ALS than other states, adding that the community is enthusiastic about the potential research.

“People who have ALS couldn't care less about those politics. It’s very exciting research because it’s something that gives us hope, and anything that gives us hope is a wonderful thing,” Bardach said.

The disease involves the degeneration of motor neuron — cells that convey impulses from the brain to muscles. Four percent of patients live longer than 10 years and most die of respiratory failure within three to five years.

Click here to read the entire article. 

Visiting Professor Lecture Series continues April 29 with stem cell expert, Dr. Joshua Hare

Visiting Professor Lecture Series continues April 29 with stem cell expert, Dr. Joshua Hare.

The Taubman Institute's Visiting Professor Lecture series continued April 29 with a presentation by Dr. Joshua M. Hare, M.D., senior associate dean for experimental and regenerative medicine and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

Dr. Hare is a clinician-scientist whose laboratory studies stem cell applications for cardiovascular regeneration.

His talk concerned the clinical trial of a stem cell therapy for people whose heart tissue had been scarred.  The study, dubbed Poseidon, showed a reduction in scar tissue and other positive outcomes following the injection of stem cells directly to the heart.  The procedure, which uses a catheterization process similar to that used in angioplasty, will continue to be tested in an upcoming Phase II trial. 

Visiting Professor lectures are generally held monthly and represent the Taubman Institute's ongoing commitment to furthering translational medical research by creating opportunities for the most talented physician-researchers to exchange knowledge and ideas.

State leaders laud Taubman Institute accomplishments

Leaders of state and local government visited the Taubman Institute on March 18 to tour Taubman Scholar labs and discuss the potential medical research offers for both improving the health of residents and establishing new jobs and businesses in Michigan.

Meeting with Taubman Institute Founder and Chair A. Alfred Taubman and Director Dr. Eva Feldman were state Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson and George Miller, director of the Oakland County Department of Health and Human Services. They were joined by Cynthia Wilbanks, U-M’s vice president for government relations, and Linden Nelson, a Michigan entrepreneur.

The promise of stem cells for the treatment of disease was among the topics discussed. Dr. Feldman gave an update on her landmark trial of a new stem cell therapy for ALS, and Dr. Gary Smith, director of the MStem Cell Laboratories (U-M’s newly renamed stem cell derivation lab), told the visitors about the 16 new stem cell lines that MStem has developed – including one that carries the gene for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart defect that often strikes down young athletes.

The cells from that line can be grown into heart cells that actually beat on their own in the petri dish, Dr. Smith said, and thus allow physicians to study the progression of the disease in ways that aren’t possible on human subjects.

“I have always been a staunch believer in the promise of stem cells to alleviate disease, and the scientists we support through the Taubman Institute continue to amaze me, their own colleagues and the entire scientific community with the remarkable results of their visionary research,” said Mr. Taubman.

Following an update by Max Wicha’s, a Taubman Scholar and director of U-M’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, on his pioneering clinical trials targeting cancer stem cells, the group traveled to U-M’s North Campus Research Complex for a tour of the 2.1 million square-foot facility, including Dr. Wicha’s new state-of-the-art cancer research lab.

“It’s amazing to see the world class research happening right in our own backyard,” said Sen. Richardville. “The University of Michigan's Taubman Institute is leading the world in medical research for diseases like cancer and ALS. They are truly ‘the Leaders and the Best.’"

FDA approves Phase II of stem cell trial for ALS led by U-M's Dr. Eva Feldman

Approval clears way for expanded U-M clinical trial role.

For nearly two years, University of Michigan neurologist Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D. has led the nation’s first clinical trial of stem cell injections in patients with the deadly degenerative disease known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, often called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Now, a new approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration paves the way for U-M to become the second site in the trial, pending approval of the U-M Institutional Review Board. To date, the first phase of the trial has taken place at Emory University, with Feldman serving as principal investigator.

The FDA approval of a Phase II trial was announced today by Neuralstem, the company whose product the trial is testing. The Phase II trial will continue to evaluate the safety of the stem cell injections, delivered directly into patients’ spinal cords in escalating doses of up to 400,000 cells per injection, with a maximum of 40 injections. It will also assess any signs that the injections might be impacting patients’ ALS symptoms or progression.

Feldman serves as an unpaid consultant to the company, and has led the analysis of results from the Phase I trial. In data presented last year, spinal cord injections of up to 100,000 cells were delivered safely and tolerated well -- with possible signs that in one subgroup of participants, ALS progression may have been interrupted.

Read more

April E-newsletter: Hope for new ovarian cancer therapies

April 2013 Newsletter »

Emerging Scholar Dr. Ron Buckanovich tests multiple ovarian cancer therapies

Ovarian cancer kills some 14,000 women per year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and is the deadliest cancer of the female reproductive system.

The standard of care for ovarian cancer - platinum and taxane chemotherapy - has not changed for decades.  But the laboratory of Taubman Emerging Scholar Dr. Ronald Buckanovich is pursuing several promising research paths that aim to find new therapies for this disease, including a new investigation that targets cancer stem cells.

Because cancer stem cells stem cells are thought to be the source of ovarian cancer resistance to therapy and to disease recurrence, factors that regulate the survival and proliferation of these cells represent exciting new targets, Dr. Buckanovich said.

One such factor – the gene that regulates normal stem cells in human hair follicles and body fat – has been identified in two separate studies as a factor in ovarian tumors.  The increased presence of this gene, known as EGFL6, in ovarian tumors also is correlated with poor prognosis in ovarian cancer patients.

Read more...