Harvard Stem Cell Institute publishes initial clinical trial results

Starting with a discovery within zebrafish in 2007, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have published initial results of a Stage Ib human clinical trial of a therapeutic that has the potential to improve the achievements of blood stem cell transplantation. This marks the first time, just nine brief years after Harvard’s major dedication to stem cell biology, that will investigators have carried a breakthrough from the lab bench to the clinic—fulfilling the promise on which HSCI was founded. The particular Phase 1b safety study, published in the journal Bloodstream , included 12 adult individuals undergoing umbilical cord blood transplantation for leukemia or lymphoma on the Dana Farber Cancer Institute plus Massachusetts General Hospital. Each of the individuals received two umbilical cord bloodstream units, one untreated and one more treated with the small molecule, 16, sixteen dimethyl prostaglandin E2 (dmPGE2). All 12 patients had reconstitution of the immune systems and renewed bloodstream formation, and 10 of the 12 patients had blood formation extracted solely from the dmPGE2-treated umbilical wire blood unit. The clinical testing is now entering Phase II, which will assess the treatment’s efficacy at 8 medical centers with 60 patients. Results are expected within 18-24 months. Like much of the work conducted under the HSCI umbrella, this “first” depended upon the collaboration of scientists at di...
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