After conducting clinical trials for spinal cord injuries in the US and China, US-based stemcell transplantation and therapeutics company, StemCyte Inc is planning to conduct the same in India next year.

The company has set up a first-of-its-kind umbilical cord blood (UCB) public bank for India in a joint venture with Chennai-based Apollo Hospitals and Ahmedabad-based Cadila Pharmaceuticals. All set to be operational by the end of this year on the hospital premises in Ahmedabad, the new entity, called StemCyte India Therapeutics Pvt Ltd (SCITPL), will aid in carrying out clinical trials in India. Continue Reading »

CAPE MAY – The city’s beach patrol and fire rescue personnel have answered 20 C-Spine (neck, cervical and spine) injury calls since June 26.

At issue, beaches with sharp drop offs may be causing neck and spine injuries for body surfers and surfers here as a result of sand replenishment by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps have been replenishing the city’s beaches since October 1999. Those who body surf are affected the most by running into a wall of sand at the shoreline.

Chad DeSatnick, a former lifeguard who shattered two vertebrae in his neck eight years ago surfing at Poverty Beach, told City Council August 4 that the beach patrol and firefighters answered three 9-1-1 emergency calls on the city’s beaches alone on August 3. Continue Reading »