| |
|
October
1, 2004 |
| |
| If
you are unable to view these articles or access the links,
please visit the ASBMT Web Site at
www.asbmt.org to read this
issue. To be removed from this distribution list, please see
instructions at bottom. |
| |
 |
Top
Stories |
| |
|
|
|
Legislation and Regulation |
| |
|
|
|
Clinical
Research |
| |
|
|
|
Pharmaceutical
News |
| |
|
|
|
Association
News |
| |
|
|
|
Calendar |
| |
|
|
|
Job &
Fellowship Connections |
|
|
|
|
|
Monthly Journal |
|
|
|
|
|
eNews
Archives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tandem BMT Meetings
Feb 10 - 14, 2005
Keystone, Colorado |
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
ASBMT and Public Advocacy
How assertive should ASBMT be in areas of public policy? Advise your
Society’s leaders through this multiple-choice poll. |
|
 |
|
|
|
(Note: Your answers to this interactive poll are anonymous.)
|
|
|
|
Last
Month's Poll Results |
Last month readers were asked about
policies on the use of nurse practitioners in the
transplant center.
Excluding the “don’t know” and “not applicable”
responses, 89% said that their transplant center does
use nurse practitioners.
Among those using nurse practitioners: |
|
• |
81 percent said nurse practitioners
administer pre-medication for pain or anxiety. |
|
• |
43 percent said
nurse practitioners administer conscious sedation
for bone marrow biopsy. |
|
|
|
|
Calendar |
• October
American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
30th Annual Meeting
Oct. 1-6
San Antonio Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas
4th Annual Conference on Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic
Stem Cells
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT),
with the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
Oct. 14-16
Wyndham Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
International Cytokine Society (ICS)
and International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR)
Cytokines in Cancer and Immunity
Oct. 21-25
Caribe Hilton Hotel
San Juan, Puerto Rico
American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
57th Annual Meeting
Oct. 23-26
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland
American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
54th Annual Meeting
Oct. 26-30
Toronto Convention Centre
Toronto, Ontario
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
17th Annual Council Meeting
Oct. 29-31
Hilton Minneapolis Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota
• November
European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT)
12th Annual Meeting
Nov. 4-7
Tampere Hall Congress Center
Tampere, Finland
• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
46th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-7
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
44th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-8
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
2005
• January
Stem Cell Transplantation in Children: Current Results
and Controversies
Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Jan. 20-22
DoubleTree La Posada
Scottsdale, Arizona
• February
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 10-14
Keystone Conference Center
Keystone, Colorado
• March
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
and Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST)
9th Annual Winter Symposium
March 16-20
Fairmont Banff Springs
Banff, Alberta
European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
31st Annual Meeting
March 20 – 23
Prague Congress Centre
Prague, Czech Republic
• April
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
96th Annual Meeting
April 16-20
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, California
• May
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
11th Annual Meeting
May 4-7
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center
Vancouver, British Columbia
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
5th Annual Conference
May 12-16
Boston, Massachusetts
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPH/O)
18th Annual Meeting
May 14-16
Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel
Washington, D.C.
American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
41st Annual Meeting
May 14-17
Orlando, Florida
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
American Transplant Congress
May 20-25
Seattle, Washington
2006
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 15-19
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Top
Stories |
| |
Umbilical matrix is rich source of stem cells
Wharton’s jelly, the material that forms the matrix in the
umbilical cord, could provide a potentially inexhaustible source
of stem cells, according to researchers at Kansas State
University. These cells, called cord matrix stem cells, have
been shown to differentiate into multiple cell types.
 |
|
|
|
India establishes stem cell research center
The All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi,
India, is setting up a stem cell research center. The facility
is designed to help scientists advance basic and applied
research in stem cell technologies, as relevant to India’s
health needs.
|
| |
Retinal cells created from human embryonic
stem cells
Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology in Massachusetts have
created retinal cells using human embryonic stem cells. In
addition, the cells cluster into small globes, with some cells
resembling those that make rods and cones. The creation of the
stem cell lines used in this research was funded solely through
private donations, circumventing the ban on using federal funds
to create new stem cell lines.
|
| |
Spain to allow embryonic stem cell research
Starting at the end of October, Spain will allow embryonic
stem cell research, according to the Spanish health minister.
Spain plans to have two research centers – one in Catalonia,
specializing in regenerative medicine, and a stem cell bank in
Granada, which opened in January 2004.
|
|
|
|
 A
Word from President Armand Keating, M.D.
Glance down at your computer keyboard. Grab onto
both ends with your hands to steady yourself. The unheard
of is about to be announced.
You are all too familiar with medical societies changing
their dues. Invariably it involves an increase.
It’s with great pleasure that I announce that ASBMT dues
are being lowered for 2005. (Do lean a little closer to
the computer screen so I can see the amazed expression.)
The ASBMT Board of Directors has adopted the following
changes for the coming year:
• Dues for Members will be $175 – down from the current
$225.
• Dues for Association Members (MDs and PhDs not directly
involved in the clinical practice of blood and marrow
transplantation or cellular research) will be $175 – down
from the current $225.
• Dues for Affiliate Members (allied non-MD and non-PhD
professionals and administrators) will be $125 – down from
the current $175.
• Dues for In-Training Members will be $75.
Dues were raised in 2001 because of the costs of moving
the journal to a monthly publication schedule and other
fiscal needs of the Society. You stood by the Society when
times were lean. Our membership enrollment actually grew
that year. It’s increased by 29 percent since.
Now, when it appears we have made it through that
difficult period, the Society’s leaders want to return
dues in good faith to the pre-2001 levels.
This doesn’t mean that your Society is awash in cash and
fiscal reserves. (If only it were so!) But it does mean
that our young organization has reached a plateau of
financial stability, in no small part because of the
success and growth of our journal, Biology of Blood and
Marrow Transplantation, and the annual Tandem BMT
Meetings.
Membership dues represent 14 percent of the Society’s
total revenues. The majority of ASBMT income is earned on
journal and annual meeting revenues and grants from
industry.
The dues reduction will “cost” the Society about 2 percent
of current revenues. However, the Board is banking on the
lower dues spurring recruitment of new members, thereby
more than offsetting the foregone income.
Now here’s your part of the bargain. In a few days you’ll
be receiving an e-mail about paying 2005 dues online by
credit card. If you do that – and respond right away – it
will short-circuit the dues statement that otherwise would
be mailed to you later in the month. That will save the
costs of preparing and mailing the statement and
processing payments that are mailed back. And it will
assure that there are no reminder notices and no
interruption in the copies of your journal come January.
Before damage is done to your keyboard, you can release it
now to go recruit your colleagues. Some of them probably
are not yet members of this remarkable medical society.
- Cheers, Armand |
|
|
|
|
Clinical
Research |
| |
Mini stem cell transplants may boost cancer survival
A series of mini stem cell transplants, combined with lower
doses of chemotherapy, appears to lead to higher survival rates
in patients with cancer. Researchers at the M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center say survival of lymphoma patients receiving this
treatment is 80 percent, compared to 40 to 50 percent with
patients undergoing standard chemotherapy.
Treated allogeneic stem cell transplants rebuild liver in
mice
Liver progenitor cells removed from mice, treated with a
healthy human gene and returned to the mice, begin to rebuild
the liver with cells that express the human gene, according to a
study published in the online issue of the journal Hepatology.
Researchers at the University of Florida used green fluorescent
protein to mark the donor cells, and 18 weeks after
transplantation, 40 to 50 percent of the regenerated liver
contained this protein.
Human umbilical cord blood cells successfully treat strokes
in rats
Treating rats suffering from induced strokes with human
umbilical cord blood cells reveals that, the larger the dose of
cells, the smaller the volume of damage to the brain, according
to a report published in the October issue of the journal
Stroke. Researchers from the University of South Florida also
discovered that the human cells were located only in the injured
brain hemisphere and the spleen.
Cells may prove to be natural heart pacemakers
In a bid to replace electronic pacemakers, Israeli
researchers coaxed human embryonic stem cells to differentiate
into standard heart muscle cells and injected them into the
hearts of pigs with abnormally slow heart rates. In 11 of 13
pigs, the injected cells produced their own heart rhythm.
|
|
|
|
Pharmaceutical News |
|
|
Patent application filed for human pancreatic beta islets
development method
Vitro Diagnostics Inc., in Aurora, Colo., has filed a patent
application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office
to cover its method for growing and differentiating human
pancreatic beta islets. The company developed an invitro model
system of human stem cells that can be induced to form beta
islets that produce and secrete insulin in response to elevated
glucose stimulation.
|
|
|
|
Association
News |
|
|
|
Dues will be lower for ASBMT members in 2005
A reduction in dues has been announced by the ASBMT Board of
Directors. Member dues will be $175 -- down from the current
$225. There will be similar reductions in Associate Member and
Affiliate Member categories.
Continued growth of ASBMT programs expected next year
At the same time that dues are being reduced, ASBMT will expand
programs that further the Society’s mission to support stem cell
research, scholarly publication, physician education and
clinical practice.
Registration is open for 2005 Tandem BMT Meetings
Go online for early registration rates for the 2005 Tandem BMT
Meetings, Feb. 10-14 at Keystone Conference Center in Keystone,
Colo. The early registration deadline is Oct. 18.
Tandem BMT Meetings abstract deadline is Oct. 18
The deadline for online submission of abstracts for the 2005
Tandem BMT Meetings is Oct. 18. Scientific program time slots
have been set aside for oral presentation of about 60 accepted
abstracts, as determined by the Abstract Review Committees.
Additional abstracts will be presented in two poster sessions.
40 travel grants available for 2005 Tandem BMT Meetings
The ASBMT Executive Committee has announced 40 travel grants of
$1,000 each for young investigators (not more than five years in
the BMT field) submitting abstracts to the 2005 Tandem BMT
Meetings in February.
Free ASBMT membership for trainees
Postdoctoral fellows and physicians-in-training for blood and
marrow transplantation are eligible for free membership in the
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. During
the months of October and November, annual dues will be waived
for new trainees who apply for membership in the Society.
BBMT features review on steroid-resistant GvHD
This month’s issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation presents a review of GvHD therapies. “Novel
Approaches to the Therapy of Steroid-Resistant Graft-versus-Host
Disease” is authored by Drs. Joseph Antin, Allen Chen, Daniel
Couriel, Vincent Ho, Richard Nash and Daniel Weisdorf. Also in
the October issue is a conference summary and abstracts from the
Second Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Symposium held
this past May in Los Angeles.
Autoimmune diseases: When homeland security fails
Autoimmune diseases can be viewed as an insurrection by security
forces charged with protecting us from lurking outside dangers.
Although treatments for human autoimmune disease generally have
been disappointing, investigators are beginning to compile an
impressive array of early clinical data suggesting a potentially
important role for hematopoietic cell transplantation. These
advances are reviewed in the current issue of Blood and
Marrow Transplantation Reviews.
4th Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic Stem Cells Conference this
month
The annual conference on mesenchymal stem cell biology, stem
cell plasticity and cell therapy for cardiac, pulmonary and
neurologic diseases will be Oct. 14-15, in New Orleans. ASBMT is
a co-sponsor.
Transplants vs. low-dose therapy in NHL is topic of online CME
program
Dr. James Armitage presents recent data on non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, focusing on clinical evidence that compares the
outcomes of hematopoietic cell transplant to other therapies.
The online program provides information on patient selection,
expected outcomes of autologous and allogeneic transplantation,
and the pros and cons of each choice in comparison to other
therapies.
Cord blood registry expands by three banks
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) has added three new
cord blood member banks, increasing the number of units on its
public cord blood registry by more than 20 percent.
Deadline for Stem Cell Research Foundation grants is Oct. 19
Grant awards of up to $50,000 per year for two years are
available from the Stem Cell Research Foundation. The
application deadline is Oct. 19.
ASBMT Monthly Poll: ASBMT and Public Advocacy
How assertive should ASBMT be in areas of public policy? Advise
your Society’s leaders through this multiple-choice poll.
vote here... |
| |
| |
|
