Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a venture capital firm in the Silicon Valley has just bet on adult stem cell research. While the amount of funding is still not known, we do know that they’ve invested in a new Bay Area company, iZumi Bio Inc.

Collaborative work with iZumi and San Francisco based J.David Gladstone Institutes, “will build on breakthrough methods of creating “induced pluripotent stem cells,” which are adult skin cells that can be coaxed to develop into many cell types. These cells might some day help to regenerate injured spinal cords or damaged hearts, scientists hope.

The technology sidesteps the ethical objections raised against research in human embryonic stem cells, which are derived from early stage human embryos that are often destroyed in the process. In addition, the technology may help avoid immune system rejection of replacement tissues, because an adult patient’s cell could be the source of stem cells that are a genetic match to that individual.

“We all feel the (induced pluripotent stem cells) technology has the potential to transform the regenerative medicine space,” said Thane Kreiner, chief executive officer of iZumi.”"

There is an old saying that may be a cliche`, but it is true nonetheless: Money talks. In ESCR and human cloning research, the silence has been deafening: Venture capitalists having done their due diligence, they have widely avoided the field knowing the difference between facts on the ground and the bilious political hype emanating from Big Biotech aimed at getting a blank check (financial and ethical) from the govt.

But now, with the astounding early success of the IPSCs, “the money” is beginning to speak. From the story:

“We all feel the (induced pluripotent stem cells) technology has the potential to transform the regenerative medicine space,” said Thane Kreiner, chief executive officer of iZumi…”Our intent is to collaborate broadly with the best scientists in the world,” he said.

The iZumi agreement is Gladstone’s first collaboration in the stem cell field with a private company. The work will concentrate on the potential use of stem cells in cardiovascular medicine and drug discovery, Srivastava said.

The creation of pluripotent stem cells from adult human cells may accelerate the emergence of commercial products in the field, Srivastava said. Stem cells derived from adults known to have certain diseases could be used as research tools by pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs, he said. Conceivably, young adults may someday want to bank stem cells as possible future sources of treatment.

Actual therapies from stem cells as replacement tissues may be no more than a dozen years away, Srivastava said. “It’s not just a pipe dream any more.”

This opening–along with the venture capital pouring into adult stem cell research–may be the most important validation of the future of regenerative medicine as a wholly ethical and uncontroversial field that I have yet seen.

Apparently many doctors don’t tell cancer patients when they enter the terminal stage of the disease. From the story:

Only one-third of terminally ill cancer patients in a new, federally funded study said their doctors had discussed end-of-life care. Surprisingly, patients who had these talks were no more likely to become depressed than those who did not, the study found. They were less likely to spend their final days in hospitals, tethered to machines. They avoided costly, futile care. And their loved ones were more at peace after they died./blockquote>
The story proceeds to inaccurately describe AB 2747 as being about making sure people are told when they are dying when its real purpose is to open the door to backdoor assisted suicide via dehydration and terminal sedation, and thereby corrupt palliative care properly understood. Also, the bill defines terminal illness as one year to live–a time so far out that a doctor could be wildly inaccurate. But I have discussed that bill, its ultimate purpose, and media ignorance and biases before–and will again. So, for now, let’s focus on the primary thrust of the story.

This is a sensitive issue, but patients deserve the truth without taking away hope in the understanding that there are few sure things in life–even with cancer. My dad’s doctor told me and I told him–which for us was a very good way to go because we were so tight. His cancer was terminal but there was a small chance for life extenstion with chemo. Dad took the option and had a very good year as a result–which the doctor had not expected–during which he traveled and enjoyed life. We put him into hospice as he entered his final few months of decline.

An even better example: A friend of mine had a seizure. It was caused by lung cancer that had metastasized to the brain. The cancer was inoperable other than to remove the lung. He was told he had 3 months to live–eight years ago. He lived because he took every aggressive measure he could–and he believes, because of a whole lot of prayer.

On the other hand, as the story notes, not being candid impedes the patient from receiving proper hospice care opportunities. Indeed, I have another friend who did not get into hospice until two weeks before he died because the doctor refused to tell him it was in a terminal stage–and he only got into hospice after his wife forced a proper referral after I threw a fit about the unalleviated pain he was in.

Part of the problem, I think, is our hospice system. For those of us in the USA, hospice is often perceived as a kind of “abandon hope all ye who enter here” matter because in order to receive the services, patients must eschew all curative and most life sustaining treatment. When I interviewed Dame Cicely Saunders, the founder of modern hospice, she told me that was a profound weakness of the American system. In the UK, such a choice does not have to be made and people more readily enter hospice care knowing that if they want that last shot of chemo, they can have it (leaving aside for the moment, the problems with the NHS).

If we want more people in hospice, if we want to give them hope while still being able to care for them best when they are dying, a good way would be to change our hospice approach. Then perhaps doctors would be less reticent to tell patients that it looks like their time has come.

An unusual ranking of pharmaceutical companies is being unveiled this week. It evaluates them by how easy they make it for patients in poor countries to get drugs and vaccines. (New York Times)

When DMC Pharmacy opens this summer on Route 50 in Chantilly, the shelves will be stocked with allergy remedies, pain relievers, antiseptic ointments and almost everything else sold in any drugstore. But anyone who wants condoms, birth control pills or the Plan B emergency contraceptive will be turned away. (Washington Post)

California health regulators have dealt a blow to direct-to-consumer genetic testing start-ups by demanding that 13 companies halt sales in the state until they prove they have met quality and reliability standards. (Los Angeles Times)

A method of storing human eggs which allows women to postpone motherhood is as safe as conventional IVF treatment, research suggests.

A Canadian study, published in the journal Reproductive Biomedicine Online, looked at 200 children conceived using “vitrified” eggs. (BBC)

The report card is an effort to reduce the cost of claims processing to doctors and help them as they negotiate contracts with insurance companies, he said. The report card will help patients if it reduces wasteful administrative costs, Dolan added. (AP)

Kleiner is backing a new Bay Area company, iZumi Bio Inc., which had its public premiere Monday with the announcement of a research collaboration with the J. David Gladstone Institutes, based in San Francisco. The nonprofit institute is a center of scientific work on novel methods of “reprogramming” adult cells to recover the versatile properties of embryonic stem cells, which can morph into any cell type in the body. (San Francisco Chronicle)