STEMCELLS 889118 expoldiert gerade !

Und wieder heißt es run byby run !
Stemcells, von mir schon mehrfach vorgestellt, rennt seit Tagen.
Ein Ende ist wohl nicht in Sicht.
Wer weiß, was die Stammzellen-Forschungs-Firma gemacht hat, das jeder nur noch Stemcells haben will ?
Zur Zeit wieder 7,70 Mio Aktien gehandelt !
Eine GPC Biotech fällt und wird wohl weiter in den Keller rauschen.

Mein Kursziel für GPC ? Ich sehe sie noch dieses Jahr bei ca. 7 - 7,50 Euro !

Freue mich über jeden Beitrag & Infos jeder Art über Stemcells !

Gruß Byblos

Mann, der Wert knallt ja heftiger durch die Decke als " Google " !
Fett und ich bin glücklicher Weise voll dabei.

Stemcells könnte bis auf 8 - 10 Dollar Steigen.

Wer hat den Wert im Depot ?


Gruß Byblos

Wie einfach ist Geld zu verdienen.
Eine GPC Biotech kackt ab und eine kleine US Biotech Firma namens Stemcells 889118 geht ab wie Schmidt's Katze !
MAl schauen, wie lange die Party noch geht ! Hoffentlich noch ein paar Tage ! :-) dann kann ich mir von dem fetten Gewinn wieder ein paar tausend GPC's kaufen, die dann wiederum steigen und so weiter und so weiter !!! So läut es genau nach Plan.

Gruß Byblos

Stemcells 889118 oder US Kürzel STEM !

Gruß Byblos


P.S.: über 30% sind aber besser als 12% ! :-)

Haengt die Entwicklung mit der Renshaw and Rodham Konferenz zusammen (26. - 28.10)?

wallstreet-online-forum platziert. ein blick dorthin und du würdest nicht im dunkeln tappen!

gruss meislo


Was hat stem was geron nicht hat??

einen 22 % igen kurssprung bei sehr hohen umsätzen und das ohne news!!

astm kommt auf 11%

und geron schleicht sich mal gerade mit 4,5 % nach oben


am 2. november wird in kaliformien nicht nur über bush und kerry gewählt und abgestimmt!! Es geht auch um die Initiative Nr. 71

Es wird im bundesstaat kaliformien darüber abgestimmt ob eine 3 Milliarden dollar schwere unterstützung der Stammzellenforschung gefördert werden soll. Govaneur Arny Scwarzenegger unterstützt als republikaner ausdrücklich dieses vorhaben!!

Kaliformienen wird wohl kerry unterstützen und die initiative 71 mit einiger wahrscheinlichkeit angenommenn werden.

In kaliformien ist auch geron beheimatet.

Sollte bush die wahl gewinnen (wovon zur Zeit auszugehen ist)so steht kaliformien als richtungsweisender bundesstaat wahrscheinlich gegen Bush.

Initiative 71 wird richtungsweisend sein und nicht die wiederwahl bushs

gruss meislo

Shares of stem cell researchers spiked Wednesday following news that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is endorsing a measure that calls for the establishment of a $3 billion bond offering to fund such research.




NEWS FOR STEM
Stem cell stocks rise on Schwarzenegger endorsement
Kerry pledges lifting stem-cell research restrictions
Biotech, pharma close up; AtheroGenics zigzags
More news for STEM



StemCells (STEM: news, chart, profile) jumped 20 percent to $2.52 in afternoon trading, while shares of Aastrom Biosciences (ASTM: news, chart, profile) gained more than 11 percent to $1.20.

Other advancers included Geron (GERN: news, chart, profile), gaining 5.27 percent at $6.79, and LifeCell (LIFC: news, chart, profile), adding 4.21 at $10.64.

Both StemCells and Geron are headquartered in California, while Aastrom is based in Michigan and LifeCell in New Jersey.

Schwarzenegger broke with Republican Party leaders Monday by saying that he supported the proposal, despite the political controversy over such research and California's severe fiscal challenges. He said he saw the proposal as way of fostering the state's burgeoning biotechnology industry.

The governor added that he personally supported such research in part because his father-in-law, Sargent Shriver, was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The measure, called Proposition 71, will appear on the state's Nov. 2 ballot. If passed, the measure would channel $300 million per year for the next 10 years to California-based researchers.

Many medical experts believe that stem cell research could someday lead to effective treatment and even a cure for Alzheimer's and other diseases.

www.fulldisclosure.com/conferencedetail.asp?client=cb&event=910460#
BIO Emerging Company Investor Forum
13 October 2004

Our final presenting company this afternoon is Geron Corporation of Menlo Park. Geron develops therapeutic and diagnostic products for cancer and cell based therapeutics using its embryonic stem cell technology. The company's lead product is in Phase II studies for the treatment of prostate cancer. Presenting for Geron Corporation, CEO Thomas Okarma.

DR. OKARMA: Thank you and good afternoon. Thanks for coming. Surprisingly, I too will be making forward looking statements, so we call your attention to our risk factors in our most recent SEC filings.

Well, let's start really with who we are and what the game plan is. Historically, both of our therapeutic platforms evolved from our original core competence – telomerase biology. In the case of cancer, telomerase is expressed by all cancers – it's a pan cancer target – so our oncology products are directed against telomerase. On the embryonic stem cell side, telomerase is normally expressed in these cells, enabling for the first time scalable production of cell therapy products.

Our strategy is first to build an oncology business by developing and commercializing our inhibitor drug and our vaccine and by licensing oncolytic virus and diagnostic rights to others such as Cell Genesys and Roche. On the cell therapy side, the strategy is to first achieve proof of principle with our stem cell program which is a year away from our IND filing and to then co-develop with partners other cell therapy products for heart failure, diabetes, neurologic and musculoskeletal diseases. So let's now lower the plane a bit and talk quickly about our oncology program based upon telomerase – still the best clinically validated, universal and specific cancer target. Telomerase achieves cellular immortality for cells by adding DNA back to the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres; so the enzyme is processive and continues to add T2AT3 repeats, thereby elongating the telomere and preventing the cell from reaching apoptosis.


Our first program is based upon a drug that specifically inhibits this enzyme. We have demonstrated it to be active in a wide variety of all major human types–cancer types, in vitro and in vivo. The original compound is called 163; it's a 13 mer that specifically inhibits telomerase and as I mentioned it's been active literally against all major cancers of man which express telomerase. The mechanism of action is straightforward: the drug blocks the active site, shutting down the enzyme. The clinical formulation is 163L, which has a lipid molecule covalently attached to one end. This lipid molecule makes enormous difference. Our GMP manufacturing has been scaled. We have GMP material in house for the Phase I/II which should start next year early. Now, why 163L? First, it's from 2 to 10 fold more potent than 163 in vitro in a wide variety of tumors. That increased potency is also expressed in vivo where a lesser dose of 163 is more powerful in inhibiting telomerase and resulting in telomere shortening. Bioavailability is dramatically improved – a 70 percent reduced dose of 163L is just as effective as a full dose of 163 whether you look at reduced tumor growth, reduced telomerase activity, decreased tumor cell proliferation. The kinetics of this drug are extraordinarily important – a single IV dose of this drug produces telomerase inhibition for more than a week in animals. We have finished now most of our pharmacokinetic work that shows a dramatic difference in the tissue half life of this drug; this has gone through monkey studies. It's enabled us to do modeling that strongly suggests a single IV dose of this drug will easily achieve therapeutic tissue levels. So going forward the milestones are, first, multiple publications over the next months on 163L as a single agent in new tumor types, extending the list of tumors that succumb to the drug. Second, multiple publications at ASH and AACR that describe combination use of 163L that does not extend the toxicity of the second drug – synergy with Taxol in ovarian cancer; Melfolan in myeloma and melanoma; and with Doxorubicin in liver cancer; and, most importantly, the filing of our IND in the first quarter of next year and the initiation of our Phase I/II in hematologic malignancy.


Our second program, in the clinic, is our telomerase vaccine which, like the drug, is demonstrating widespread use – activity against a long list of tumor types because of the ubiquity of telomerase in cancers. The Phase I/II completed at Duke was a randomized study testing two different doses in two different forms of the telomerase antigen. The first thing the protocol proved is that the manufacturing process is efficient and reliable – one blood draw provides enough cells for 12 to 15 vaccinations. The results of the study set a new bar for cancer vaccination. First, the telomerase antigen gave responses in T cells for all but one patient. And secondly, the altered form of telomerase using a signaling sequence not only gave us responses of CD 8 killer cells, but also dramatic responses in CD 4 help, which is required for a robust effect. The story got exciting in the high dose group – again, no adverse reactions but a dramatic increase in T cell anti telomerase levels. These are 4 of the 8 high dose patients whose CD 8 cells are between 1 and 2 percent of the total circulating T cell pool now directed against telomerase. Despite that high level of T cell immunity, absolutely no adverse reactions. Efficacy evidenced by two surrogate markers. First, of the 10 patients who had elevated levels of circulating prostate cancer cells in their blood, 9 of them lost those tumor cells; some of them with a decrease as much as a thousand fold. The cells stopped metastatic disease in its tracks. Secondly, in the high dose group we had a highly statistically significant prolongation of the PSA doubling time, from a pre vaccination value of 2.9 to a post vaccination value of over 100 months. That's essentially stable disease.

So, our milestones in the next few months: full length publication of this study in a very well known peer review journal which will set a new standard in the field of cancer vaccination. We're now transferring this process to Geron with the ultimate aim of selecting a CMO for the manufacturing of the cells. We're initiating several new small studies at Duke to optimize the process using modifications we've also licensed from Merix to make the vaccine more potent, reduce the ex vivo processing and testing, of course, the boost strategy to maintain the T cell levels for a longer period of time.


Quickly turning to the oncolytic virus. This is licensed now to Cell Genesys. We've recently published work in Cancer Gene Therapy that shows a single injection of this virus to be effective in an animal model of human prostate cancer and used in conjunction with Doxorubicin, virtually curative in a model of liver cancer. This product uses the telomerase promoter that restricts the virus replication only to telomerase positive tumor cells. Soon we will hear the decision by Cell Genesys to move this into clinical development.

Lastly, diagnostics partnered with Roche. They have done a 300 patient study in Europe demonstrating this assay has a positive predictive value of 84% in bladder cancer – that means 84 out of 100 people with telomerase in their urine have bladder cancer. The AUA recommends over 15 repeat cystoscopies over 3 years after the diagnosis of bladder cancer because it always recurs. We plan to substitute this assay for those procedures. If all goes well, this could be marketed in Europe in ‘06.

And of course intellectual property that protects the platform and all of these specific products.


Turning to the embryonic stem cell side, a different approach -- all based on perhaps the most marvelous stem cell ever discovered. We've made dramatic progress on this platform. We have two lines that are now fully qualified for human use and both of those lines produce now 8 different therapeutic cell types, each of which has a specific disease application.

Our first application will be in spinal cord injury and we are on track to file our first IND a year from now. These cells express high levels of telomerase without the genetic instability that characterizes cancer cells. So, in these cell types telomerase is an asset and it enables for the first time the generation of scalable manufacturing banks that enable us to make these cell types with scalable, multi dose production lots at enormously low cost of goods. This is like manufacturing a biological drug or a monoclonal antibody. The business model is, starting with the renewable source - embryonic stem cells - we have 8 discrete manufacturing recipes that have as their output frozen, functional cells that are shipped frozen and stored frozen for off the shelf use and we're actually doing this today with our investigators in our animal models of spinal cord injury.

So let's look at this spinal cord injury cell, it's called a glial progenitor, a cell that makes oligodendrocytes. We've shown lots of times the animal, movies which illustrate this fact. If we inject these human cells into the injury of an animal, we significantly improve the animal's function. The control animals drag their tails about the cage; they don't have use of their hind limbs. The animals that receive cells support weight on all four legs and their tail is erect. Why did this occur? When we sacrifice the animals we see two striking findings. First, right where the cells are injected there is exuberant new neural growth. The glial cells make trophic factors that enable the nerves to regrow. Secondly, there is exuberant myelination; we are reinsulating the nerve fibers in the injured spinal cord. This is highly significant. Most importantly, the tissue architecture shown in the cartoon where one oligodendrocyte can myelinate multiple neurons is exactly replicated in these animals. Here is the human glial cell with multiple axons being wrapped with myelin by these cells. So this makes the general point of what this platform can do: restore organ function in an injury or chronic disease by restoring tissue funciton. We have gone so far now as to begin to develop our clinical protocol.

[So this makes the general point of what this platform can do: restore organ function in an injury or chronic disease by restoring tissue function. We have gone so far now as to begin to develop our clinical protocol.]

Patients who get spinal cord injury all go to spinal stabilization surgery within a week and it's at that time that these cells will be injected. The protocol will be a standard dose escalating protocol first starting at thoracal lumbar injuries, then moving up to cervical injuries where the endpoint will be decreased time on a respirator. Milestones going forward is full length publication of the animal work and the progression of our IND enabling studies. Today we are making a GMP embryonic stem cell master bank from which this product will be manufactured. And the IND we expect to file Q4 next year.

Other cell types behind the glial cell. Cardiomyocytes which express all of the right markers showing them to be true human heart muscle cells; moreover, they respond in normal dose response fashion to cardiac drugs, illustrating the second principle of the platform – not only will the cells restore organ function, but they will also restore the organ function's response to drugs which, in the case of heart failure, is lost. These cells have normal electrical properties, predicting their normal function when transplanted. When we transplant them into animals they engraft exuberantly and they integrate with the animal's heart muscle cell, and as striking a result as the spinal cord injured rats – when we infarct an animal with a major left ventricular infarct and inject these human cells into the infarct, these cells a month later restore cardiac contractility back to normal.

Third cell type are the islets -- the big home run here. We know from the Edmonton Protocol that exogenous islets can cure the disease. Well, we have now produced islets. They make glucagon, they make somatotropin, and they make insulin in dose response fashion to glucose. Our first animal studies have demonstrated significant prolongation of life and human insulin in the plasma of the animals.


While you hear lots of talk about oh, these cells will be rejected immunologically – not true. First, we have published now that the embryonic stem cell is immune privileged. What does that mean? Normally when you mix cells of two different people, one person will react – it's called a mixed leukocyte reaction. They do not react to undifferentiated stem cells or cells differentiated from embryonic stem cells. Why? Because these cells have retained the immunosuppressive properties of the blastocyst. Pregnant women rarely immunologically reject an implanting embryo, which is an allograft – it has mother and father antigens. The reason is the embryo suppresses locally the immune response. So do embryonic stem cells. That tells us that we will need very low doses of immune suppression in our first clinical trials. We also now have evidence for a more permanent solution. One of the cell types we know how to make are hematopoetic cells and our collaborators in Canada have shown that the stem cell derived hematopoetic cells form stable chimeras in animals. That means that the animals have made, been made partly human in terms of their blood system. We know from bone marrow and organ transplant studies done in humans that that will tolerize the patient to the organ taken from the donor who gave the bone marrow; the same principle is applicable here. Because these cells are pluripotent, all of the 8 cell types are made from each line, we simply give the hematopoetic cells first to the patient which then tolerizes that patient to any functional cell made from the same line. So then we follow with the therapeutic cell to which that patient should be tolerant.


The last cell type on this side of the operation is the liver cell. This is a near term economic opportunity. These cells make inducible Phase I and Phase II drug metabolizing enzymes; they can therefore be used to rule out drugs early in development that are hepatotoxic, and more importantly, completely define hepatic metabolism of new drugs before they ever enter human clinical trials. We expect to beta test this cell type in pharma in ‘05.

Manufacturing. We mentioned we now have GMP pilot plans at Geron that are completely validated. The manufacturing of these products is truly scalable, which has never been achieved before in cell therapy. To give you an example: A 200 vial master cell bank. If it was all dedicated at today's efficiency to glial cells, the spinal cord product, we would have enough cells for 1.3 million glial doses – that is five times the prevalence of spinal cord injury in the United States.

Our IP is as broad on the stem cell side and deep as it is on the telomerase side. In addition to background IP, we have patents that cover not only how we make these cells, but the cells as composition of matter. Just as deep and broad as if these were single entity compounds.

So that's the Geron of today – a therapeutic product development company with its first product in the clinic, our vaccine; the second, the drug, to enter the clinic first quarter next year; and the surprise to most, the IND for the first embryonic stem cell product to be filed a year from now.

Thanks very much.

wow

Bei welchen der angesprochenen AG s bist Du wie investiert? Ich nur bei Geron! (1k)

grzss meislo

Nach den heutigen Explosionsartigen Anstieg im Top auf 4,85 US$ von 2,70 US$ gab es erst einmal ein schönes Retracement von fast 50% ! Das 38er wurde getestet, hielt nach einer halbstündigen Gegenbewegung nicht Stand.
Aktuell bricht Stemcells von 3,96 auf 4,15 erneut aus und hat somit den Grundstein für einen Schlußkurs von deutlich über 4 US$ gelegt.

Ein paar tausend Euro an einem Abend. Das hatte ich schon 3 Jahre nicht mehr !
Da kommen wieder die alten Zeiten auf, als es den Neuen Markt noch gab, oder die Internetbuden in US explodierten.
Apropo Internet Buden ! Mein nächster Geheimfavorit ist Internet Capital ICGE ! Die sind bald dran !!!

Stemcells werde ich erst einmal noch ein paar Tage laufen lassen. Vielleicht sind die 8-10 Dollar drin. Dann wäre der Braten im warsten Sinne des Wortes oberfett und garr !

Ein vorzeitiges Weihnachtsgeschenk. Habe nicht dagegen einzuwenden.

Unter nasdaq.com unter Eingange von STEM und Company News sind alle Meldungen ein zu sehen ! Was den heutigen Kurssprung veranlaßt hat, werden wir wohl erst im Nachhinein erfahren.

Good trade, good luck !

Gruß Byblos

Das nenne ich richtig fett.

Auch morgen wird es aller Wahrscheinlichkeit nach, bei Stemcells mit fetten Kursplus weiter gehen.
Charttechnisch spricht nichts dagegen.


Gruß Byblos ( der Glückliche )

Was meint Ihr ? Geht die Party heute weiter ?

Im After Hour Handel ist sie leicht zurück gekommen. 3,82 US$ war der letzte Kurs.
Das war aber am Montag ebenso und trotzdem ging sie gestern durch die Decke.
Bin über jede Info dankbar !


Gruß Byblos

Ich habe es im GEfühl, das Stemcells heute in USA mal wieder richtig zulegen wird.
Gestern konnten die Gewinne aus der ersten Stunde nicht gehalten werden.
Hoffentlich läuft's heute besser.

Gruß Byblos

585150

raus aus GPC rein in Geron. Wurde mal wieder belächelt hat mir aber bisher 32% gebracht.

Gruss an alle die noch an GPC glauben

Ich bin bei 1,65 mit ein paar tausend Stücken in Stemcells rein gegangen.
Jetzt schon 93% plus und das nach nur wenigen Tagen !!!
Mein Ziel sind bis nächste Woche 800 - 1000% !
Die Chancen stehen gut !
Ein Wunder das M.Frick & Co. noch nicht auf dieses Stammzellen-Baby aufmerksam geworden sind.
Fest steht, sie läuft und das besser als Geron !!!
Vergleiche die Charts von Geron & Stemcells der letzten 2 Wochen ! :-)

Gruß Byblos

ich sehe das sehr langfristig und wenn du dich mit diesem thema befasst hast und es ev. sogar einmal eine erste heilende gentherapie gibt, kommt keiner mehr an geron vorbei!

PS: ist ja egal ich glaube auf jeden fall an den erfolg fragt sich halt nur wann. aber eines ist sicher wenns klappt kanst du im 10'000er % bereich rechnen.

gruss

Geron hat keine Ambitioen im Bereich der Gentherapie.

doch selber nach!

www.geron.com

Befasse mich nun schon anderthalb jahre mit diesem Wert und wie ich meine ziemlich intensiv. 10000 % sind vielleicht möglich vielleicht auch 20000 % aber wo bitte befasst sich geron mit gentherapie?

gruss meislo

mit CellGenesys. Genveränderte viren auf telomerasebasis.

Hier ist CellGenesys der operator und geron hat nur die rechte an der telomerase vermarktet. Nach meinem verständnis hat dies aber wenig mit gentherapie im bunde.

Cancer Programs : Oncolytic Virus

Another of our anti-cancer therapeutic strategies utilizes viruses that have been manipulated or engineered to have oncolytic, or cancer-killing, properties, enabling them to selectively target and destroy cancer cells which express telomerase. We have cloned the promoter region of the telomerase gene and employ it to switch on genes required for the virus to replicate within the cancer cell. Our data indicate that when tumor cells are infected with the virus, the virus multiplies or replicates within the cancer cells and causes the rupture and death of the tumor cells. When these same engineered viruses infect normal somatic cells, there is no killing effect and the virus dissipates. This selective lytic effect on cancer has been demonstrated in vitro in seven different tumor types: prostate, liver, lung, pancreatic, colorectal, breast and ovarian cancers. These in vitro results have been extended to animal models of liver and prostate cancer with similar effects against the animals’ tumors while sparing normal cells.
We granted a non-exclusive license to Genetic Therapy, Inc. (GTI), a subsidiary of Novartis AG, to use our telomerase promoter technology to develop an oncolytic virus product. In 2003, GTI's oncolytic virus assets and our license to GTI were acquired by Cell Genesys, which was already active in the field of oncolytic viruses, and is continuing the development of oncolytic viruses using the telomerase promoter.





gruss meislo

Danke !

finance.yahoo.com/q?s=GERN


gruss meislo

 www.forbes.com/2004/11/01/cz_sg_1101soapbox.html


California's Stem Cell Follies
Scott Gottlieb, Forbes/Gottlieb Medical Technology Investor, 11.01.04, 2:30 PM ET

Click here to profit from our free Monday morning e-mail dispatch, Forbes Newsletters' Stock of the Week.  
On Wall Street, investment bankers disdainfully refer to two types of investors, "smart money" and "dumb money." In their snooty lexicon, smart money belongs to elite investors that run hedge funds and venture capital catering to the wealthy. Smart money benefits from growing trade in pricey insider information that doesn't flow to regular people. Dumb money belongs to ordinary investors shut out of this elite trafficking. After Tuesday, all of the dumb money may belong to California voters.

Besides selecting a president on Tuesday, Californians will be voting on the celebrated Proposition 71, a state initiative to fund stem-cell research that would eventually cost Californians $6 billion--$3 billion in bonds and $3 billion in interest payments for 10 years. If the prop passes, cash-strapped California taxpayers will be spending their money on a handful of second-rate biotech companies that the smart venture capital money housed around San Francisco's famed Bay Area already passed on. To the smart money, these companies had poor prospects and, in many cases, shoddy or highly speculative science.

That's not to say Wall Street's elite investors didn't make their own investments in stem cell research. But after years of delays, disappointments, and dead ends, most of the venture capital that once flowed into these ventures is slowing down and awaiting better science to come out of institutions and academic research.


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Stem cells are the primordial goop of the human body, human cells that have not yet been differentiated into, say, bone, blood or brain cells. For medical researchers, stem cells represent a mother lode of possible new treatments for diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and more. Capable of differentiating into the full spectrum of other cell types--from a new liver cell to a new neuron--they could be ideal for repairing or replacing diseased organs.

The current furor over stem-cell research is not over their eventual usefulness, but their source: Should researchers use federal money to harvest stem cells from aborted or discarded human embryos? Or should they be restricted to adult stem cells, found in fat, bone, and the brain? Foes of embryonic stem cell research object mostly to the specter of human fetuses becoming incubators to be aborted and harvested simply for their cell products.

In August of 2001, President Bush split the difference between the two political sides by limiting federal funding for stem cell research to lines of embryonic stem cells that already existed. Under the President's policy, no new fetuses would be harvested for their stem cells.

Of course, the limits on federal funding put no restrictions on what the private sector can do. All through the late 1990s investors cited uncertainty over what the government's policy would be as a principal reason for shunning investments in private companies doing stem cell research. They feared an outright government ban on private research. With that not in the cards, one would expect the pace of development to have quickened after the President's policy was unveiled.


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Yet private investment remains tepid, even three years after the President's policy took all political uncertainty off the table. In fact, from 1994 to 2004, only about $300 million in private venture capital money has flowed into the handful of established U.S. biotechnology companies doing research into embryonic and adult stem cells (see chart below). That's out of about $30 billion in venture capital money that flowed into biotechnology over that time. And most of the little money that made its way to these companies was spent on those that did research with adult, not embryonic, stem cells.

Enter the state of California. Now, amidst record state budget deficits, California is prepared to pump $8 billion into a handful of second-rate biotechnology companies on whose scientific fortunes private investors have already decided to largely pass. The persistent enthusiasm for stem cells has outpaced their scientific legitimacy because the issue has been caught up in electoral politics, with Democrats sensing a wedge issue with which to divide voters. Nobody doubts stem cells may one day yield useful medical treatments, it is just not apparent that messing around with embryonic stem cells and all their associated ethical baggage is all that necessary. Many scientists believe everything that can be done with embryonic stem cells can also be done with adult stem cells, harvested from peoples' blood and bone marrow and even their fat.

One place this can be seen is diabetes research. While some studies have claimed progress in getting embryonic stem cells to differentiate into insulin-producing cells in culture, those claims are called into doubt in a recent study in the journal Diabetologia. Researchers from the University of Calgary found that the insulin-producing cells derived from embryonic stem cells are not the "beta cells" needed to reverse diabetes. While the cells were coaxed to produce some insulin, they did not do so in response to changes in sugar levels, and when they were transplanted into mice they formed tumors.


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By contrast, the most promising new treatment for juvenile diabetes in recent years didn't involve stem cells but pancreas cells harvested from donors. It's called the Edmonton protocol. And of the roughly 250 patients who have received the newest version of the transplant, more than 80% have been free from insulin shots or insulin pumps for more than a year.

There have also been some recent advances using adult stem cells to treat diabetes. Researchers in Canada have shown that transplanted adult stem cells from bone marrow can cause pancreatic tissue to repair itself, restoring normal insulin production and reversing symptoms of diabetes. The team has reversed diabetes in mice and hopes to move to human trials. And researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have used adult cells from the spleen to regenerate insulin-producing cells and cure diabetes in mice. Essentially the spleen cells "retrain" the body's immune system to stop attacking its own insulin-producing pancreas cells, and new cells then naturally regenerate.

But politicians, including California's Democratic State Legislature, sense a wedge. They are preying on peoples' desire for cures to debilitating diseases. They are willing to waste $6 billion of their taxpayers' money to make their point.

Don't expect the California money to change the fortunes of science. There's plenty of precedent for this kind of direct investment by a government authority. The trade publication BioCentury recently chronicled investments that Germany made in its homegrown biotechnology industry. The German government invested millions into dozens of second-tier biotechnology companies that ultimately shrank, folded or limped along as small research projects.

If the embryonic stem cells ever appear to have clear advantage over adult cells, there's plenty of money to fund their development. In addition to the federal funds that President Bush has already authorized, private foundations and especially "smart money" on Wall Street stand ready to chase the opportunity. The only question that remains is how much more "dumb money" will be wasted before we settle the issue. On Tuesday, California voters get a chance to decide.



Investments In US Companies Conducting Embryonic And Adult Stem Cell Research: Selected Venture Capital Rounds, 1994-2004
Company  Amount of VC Invested (millions)  
1994  
Geron Corp (nasdaq: GERN - news - people )  $12.6  
1995  
Aastrom Biosciences Inc (nasdaq: ASTM - news - people )  $10.0  
1996  
Geron Corp  $11.7  
Osiris  $10.0  
BioTransplant Inc (nasdaq: BTRN - news - people )  $7.0  
1999  
BresaGen  $7.6  
ViaCell  $6.0  
2000  
Geron  $25.0  
ViaCell  $59.0  
NeuralStem Biopharmaceuticals  $5.5  
NeuroNova AB  $3.45  
VistaGen Inc  $1.0  
Cythera Inc.  $2.0  
2001  
ViaCell  $15.0  
Layton Biosciences  $11.0  
MorphoGen Pharmaceuticals  $8.5  
StemCells Inc (nasdaq: STEM - news - people )  $7.0  
StemSource  $2.5  
Nephros Therapeutics Inc.  $8.7  
2002  
ViaCell  $1.5  
StemCells Inc  $1.1  
Neuronyx Inc  undisclosed  
Nephros Therapeutics Inc.  $17.0  
2003  
ViaCell  $41.5  
Geron  $18.4  
StemCells Inc  $8.15  
Cythera Inc.  $2.0  
Source: BioCentury, American Enterprise Institute. Companies listed may have merged or closed operations over the time period covered.


Total Venture Capital Investment In Biotech By Year
1994  $526,645,000  
1995  $564,705,000  
1996  $934,355,174  
1997  $1,270,235,018  
1998  $1,476,808,860  
1999  $1,957,285,292  
2000  $5,112,286,305  
2001  $4,694,772,847  
2002  $3,955,809,272  
2003  $4,012,864,340  
2004  $4,486,772,956  
Source: BioCentury


Excerpted from the Oct. 18 issue of Dow Theory Forecasts. Click here for more information and to subscribe to Dow Theory Forecasts or click here for more information and to subscribe to Upside.

Scott Gottlieb is a physician and Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Until October, he was Senior Advisor to the head of the Medicare and Medicaid Program, Dr. Mark McClellan. Previously, Dr. Gottlieb was Director of Medical Policy Development at the Food and Drug Administration. For more information and to subscribe to the Forbes/Gottlieb Medical Technology Report, click here.

Stem Cells: Embryonic Vs. Umbilical Cord Blood
Matthew Herper, 11.01.04, 2:55 PM ET

NEW YORK - The death of Christopher Reeve and the upcoming election have reignited the national debate on embryonic stem cells.

These cells have vast potential because they could, in theory, be used to replace any damaged tissue in the body, curing all sorts of diseases. But the gulf between what might be done someday and what can be done now is huge. George W. Bush is the first president to allow federally funded research on these cells. But based on his 2001 decision to fund the research, only 64 lines of those cells can be used by government-funded scientists. Of those cell lines, it is estimated that, at most, 22 are usable.



Here, we contrast embryonic stem cells with another variety, those stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. The comparison gives an idea of how powerful these cell types are and also the great amount of research that still needs to be done. Legislation currently before Congress would allocate more federal money for doing research on these cells. It would also provide for establishing a national bank of umbilical cord blood, which might provide 80% of cancer patients in need of bone marrow transplants with stem cells, as compared with 25% today.

Irving Weissman, a leading stem cell biologist at Stanford University and founder of StemCells (nasdaq: STEM - news - people ), says not to view embryonic stem cells solely as therapies themselves. Given the potential they open up to study genetic diseases, they could be the source of a great deal of drug research over the next 40 years--if the research is allowed to continue .

" This is the largest potential of this technology," Weissman says, " and it would be stupid to ignore this fact."

After Hours
Time (ET) After Hours
Price After Hours
Share Volume
17.14 $ 4.27 700
17.14 $ 4.28 200
17.14 $ 4.27 1400
17.14 $ 4.28 250
17.14 $ 4.28 250
17.14 $ 4.28 500
17.14 $ 4.32 100
17.14 $ 4.28 2500
17.14 $ 4.27 1750
17.13 $ 4.27 100
17.13 $ 4.32 100
17.12 $ 4.27 750
17.11 $ 4.25 500
17.11 $ 4.23 100
17.10 $ 4.26 600
17.09 $ 4.23 5000
17.09 $ 4.23 1300
17.09 $ 4.23 300
17.08 $ 4.24 5000
17.08 $ 4.24 900
17.08 $ 4.23 125
17.07 $ 4.23 4875
17.07 $ 4.22 700
17.07 $ 4.32 100
17.07 $ 4.20 1900
17.07 $ 4.20 3100
17.07 $ 4.23 1000
17.06 $ 4.20 200
17.06 $ 4.20 1700
17.06 $ 4.19 3000
17.06 $ 4.20 700
17.06 $ 4.19 500
17.06 $ 4.19 500
17.05 $ 4.20 2700
17.05 $ 4.20 1000
17.05 $ 4.22 300
17.05 $ 4.22 300
17.05 $ 4.22 700
17.05 $ 4.22 200
17.04 $ 4.23 500
17.04 $ 4.23 1000
17.04 $ 4.24 1000
17.04 $ 4.24 100
17.04 $ 4.24 200
17.04 $ 4.24 1600
17.04 $ 4.25 100
17.04 $ 4.24 100
17.04 $ 4.25 100
17.04 $ 4.24 100
17.04 $ 4.25 100

In der Zeit zwischen 16:00 - 17:00 Uhr amerikanischer Zeit, lag Steamclls schon über 4,30 US$ ! Nach einer kleinen Abverkaufsphase konnte Stemcells aktuell wieder bis auf 4,28 US Dollar anziehen. ( hatte gerade aktuallisiert )
Also, neute Nacht sollte es wohl eher in Richtung 4,30 als 4,20 US$ gehen.

Morgen werden wir dann schön die 4,52 - 4,90 testen und hoffentlich hoch schließen.
Am Mittwoch ist sie geschaffen, die Basic für die Super-Hype-Ralley, oder für den Absturz.
Mittwoch wäre somit ein nicht schlechter Tag die Gewinne bei Steamcells ein zu streichen. Dabei bleibt nur die große Chance, bei positivem Ausgang der Befragung, das Stemcells erst richtig anfangen wird zu knallen ! Das würde dann heißen, das Stemcells die ganze Woche durch laufen wird und evtl. bis nächste Woche Dienstag anhalten.

Was meint Ihr ? Welches Kurspotenzial sehr Ihr, bei einer richtig heißen Ralley ohne Limit. Da wird in USA gezockt, was nur geht ! Je höher umso besser für uns ! :-)

Morgen geht die Party weiter ! Gruß Euer Byblos

Und sie steigt und steigt ! unaufhaltsam macht sie es !
Heute Abend wird es richtig spannend um Stemcells.
Ich schätze mal, das heute die 5 US$ geknackt werden.

Gruß Byblos

Pre-Market
Time (ET) Pre-Market
Price Pre-Market
Share Volume
08.08 $ 4.65 100
08.08 $ 4.67 150
08.08 $ 4.68 450
08.08 $ 4.68 1250
08.08 $ 4.65 850
08.08 $ 4.65 150
08.08 $ 4.65 850
08.08 $ 4.65 5000
08.08 $ 4.65 2500
08.08 $ 4.65 500
08.08 $ 4.65 100
08.08 $ 4.65 1000
08.08 $ 4.65 550
08.08 $ 4.65 150
08.08 $ 4.65 800
08.08 $ 4.65 200
08.08 $ 4.64 1000
08.08 $ 4.65 300
08.08 $ 4.65 200
08.08 $ 4.64 700
08.08 $ 4.64 300
08.08 $ 4.62 400
08.08 $ 4.62 250
08.08 $ 4.62 200
08.07 $ 4.62 130
08.07 $ 4.65 100
08.07 $ 4.62 100
08.07 $ 4.62 300
08.07 $ 4.65 500
08.07 $ 4.65 300
08.07 $ 4.65 2400
08.07 $ 4.65 1000
08.07 $ 4.65 600
08.07 $ 4.65 2000
08.07 $ 4.65 500
08.07 $ 4.65 2000
08.07 $ 4.65 500
08.07 $ 4.65 100
08.07 $ 4.65 100
08.07 $ 4.65 200
08.07 $ 4.65 200
08.07 $ 4.65 600
08.07 $ 4.65 600
08.07 $ 4.65 800
08.07 $ 4.65 4450
08.07 $ 4.65 2000
08.07 $ 4.67 500
08.07 $ 4.67 100
08.07 $ 4.67 200
08.07 $ 4.67 200

Stemcells war aber schon auf über 4,70 US$ gestiegen.
Läßt mal wieder einen fetten Kursanstieg für heute whrscheinlich werden !

Gruß byblos

Pre-Market
Time (ET) Pre-Market
Price Pre-Market
Share Volume
08.24 $ 4.72 100
08.24 $ 4.73 3315
08.24 $ 4.73 300
08.23 $ 4.74 500
08.23 $ 4.74 100
08.23 $ 4.73 1000
08.23 $ 4.73 600
08.23 $ 4.74 400
08.23 $ 4.74 7200
08.23 $ 4.74 2800
08.23 $ 4.74 1000
08.23 $ 4.74 100
08.23 $ 4.74 100
08.23 $ 4.75 500

Tageshoch bis dato 4,75 US Dollar ! Irre !

Gruß Byblos

Gerade ist Stemcells in USA von 4,50 auf 3,66 runter gerauscht.
Schon Minuten später liegt sie wieder über 4 US Dollar.

Grund ?

Bestimmt wurde ein Stimmbezirk ausgezählt and the winner was G. Bush ! So'n shit aber auch.

Mal schauen, was die Aktie macht wenn Kerry einen Erfolg zu verbuchen hat !

Gruß Byblos

P.S.: Jetzt braucht man Nerven wie Stahlseile ! :-)