Happy Thursday to all you fans of biotech! This is the FINAL day of the 2010 BIO International Convention! Were you at the convention? Give us your thoughts and we’ll post it on IAmBiotech!

We’d also like to take the time to congratulate Bob Klein, Chairman of the Governing Board for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, for earning to the 2010 Biotech Humanitarian Award. Mr. Klein was the driving force behind the “California Stem Cell Research and Cures” ballot initiative, which reignited languishing stem cell research with $3 BILLION over 10 years. And speaking of stem cells…

PIG STEM CELLS COULD LEAD TO CURING HUMAN ILLNESSES – Scientists at the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center have created a more accurate model of studying human illnesses using stem cells…by using pigs. This actually makes sense because pigs are physiologically closer to humans than other lab animals are:

According to Dr. Steve Stice, director of the University of Georgia Regenerative Bioscience Center, his team took a bone marrow cell from a pig and injected six new genes, which caused it turn into an embryo-like cell. Pluripotent stem cells were harvested from this embryo-like cell and injected in another pig embryo…So far human embryonic stem cell research has not actually found its way into the human body. Most of the research is still in mice. But mice aren’t the best animal models to get more accurate data on how a treatment may affect a person. For example, mice hearts beat four times faster than a human heart and mice don’t get atherosclerosis (clogged arteries) – but pigs do.

EAT YOUR BROCCOLI KIDS, IT COULD CURE CANCER – Well, sort of. Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center discovered a compound commonly found in broccoli (sulforaphane), prevented new cancerous tumors from growing in mice and killed cancer stem cells in the lab. Study author Duxin Sun had this to say:

“Sulforaphane has been studied previously for its effects on cancer, but this study shows that its benefit is in inhibiting the breast cancer stem cells. This new insight suggests the potential of sulforaphane or broccoli extract to prevent or treat cancer by targeting the critical cancer stem cells.”

RESEARCHERS FIND GENETIC LINK TO TOURETTES – Researchers Yale University identified an extremely rare genetic mutation that could lead to a novel way of treating Tourette syndrome by studying a family where the father and all eight of his children suffer from the neurological disorder.

[Matthew State, co-director of the Yale Program on Neurogenetics]’s lab took DNA samples from all family members and was able to find one region of the genome that everyone with the disorder shared. By analyzing all 51 known genes in the region, the researchers identified a mutation in a gene required to produce histamine. Histamine plays a role in allergic reactions, but is also a neurotransmitter that influences brain functions, including sleep and cognition.
Dr. State has applied for a grant to launch a two-year trial involving 20 adult patients.