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Patients First: Doctor and Patients on Current Adult Stem Cell Benefits

WHEN: Thursday, March 13, 2008 12 noon

WHAT: Capitol Hill briefing by patients and the doctor who treated them on the therapeutic benefits already being realized with adult stem cell treatments.

With Congress considering funding appropriations for the Dept. of Health and Human Services - which includes The National Institutes of Health - it should give priority and increased resources to funding research that is actually helping patients now. Embryonic stem cells have yet to treat a single human patient and this is unlikely to change in the future. Adult stem cells are already providing therapeutic benefit to human patients for 73 diseases and conditions.

WHO: Dr. Richard Burt, M.D., Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Dr. Burt's most recent article, "Clinical Applications of Blood-Derived and Marrow-Derived Stem Cells for Nonmalignant Diseases" (Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 2/27/2008), examined hundreds of studies that were conducted between January 1997 and December 2007, and found that therapies using blood- or bone-marrow derived stem cells can successfully and safely treat heart disease and autoimmune disorders. In 2007, Dr. Burt, along with a team of Brazilian doctors, led a groundbreaking study that used adult stem cells to reverse Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes in patients. That study was also reported in JAMA, 4/11/07.

Amy Daniels, successfully treated with adult stem cells for Systemic Scleroderma

Jill Rosen, successfully treated with adult stem cells for antiphospholipid syndrome (a lupus-like disorder.)

Barry Goudy, successfully treated with adult stem cells for Multiple Sclerosis

WHERE: U.S. Capitol Building, HC-9