The annual award honors Roberts’ special service to the patients and families that are served by the ASTCT community.
CHICAGO, February 9, 2024 (Newswire.com)
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The American Society for Transplantation and Cellular Therapy® (ASTCT) will present Robin Roberts, Good Morning America anchor, with its 2024 Public Service Award at the 2024 Tandem Meetings | Transplantation & Cellular Therapy Meetings of ASTCT® and CIBMTR® on Friday, February 23. The annual award recognizes an individual who has advanced the interests of patients or given special service to the patients and families ASTCT serves.
ASTCT is essential in securing the highest industry standards and guidelines for hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) and cellular therapy patients to bring the best in comprehensive care across the world. Gene and cell therapy are at the cutting edge of medicine today, and ASTCT serves as a resource organization for physicians, researchers and patients, to ensure that the highest quality of data and information is accessible to all who need it. With an international professional membership of 3,600 physicians, investigators and healthcare professionals from more than 45 countries, ASTCT’s mission is dedicated to improving the application and success of advanced life-saving therapies.
In 2012, Roberts received a life-saving blood stem cell transplant to treat myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). Over the past 10 years, Roberts has been an advocate for the NMDP Registry. Roberts uses her platform to raise awareness and encourage thousands of people to join the registry. Over 140 of those individuals have gone on to donate life-saving blood stem cells to patients in need.
“Robin Roberts is an inspiration to us all,” said ASTCT president Miguel-Angel Perales, MD. “Faced with a devastating diagnosis, she used her platform to bring awareness to bone stem cell transplant and a voice to the many patients in need of a donor. She continues to be a champion for patients by showcasing their stories to a global audience. Her advocacy efforts save the lives of the patients we treat each day and advance breakthroughs in HCT and cell therapy.”
70% of patients who need a life-saving bone marrow or cord blood transplant do not have a fully matched donor in their family. ASTCT works in partnership with patient and donor advocate organizations to remove barriers to transplantation and protect donors who choose to save a life. ASTCT endeavors every day to bring visionary tools, guidelines and resources to pioneer and elevate stem and immune cell therapies that will ensure better patient outcomes across many disease categories.
Contact Information:
Jennifer Kasowicz
ASTCT Marketing Director [email protected]
(312) 673-4970
Gb Sciences' innovative approach harnesses the power of plant-based treatments as simplified mixtures that target dangerous hyperinflammatory responses to viral infections.
Gb Sciences, Inc. (OTCQB:GBLX), a leading plant-inspired, biopharmaceutical research and development company, is developing cannabis-inspired anti-inflammatory therapeutics that address Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) caused by viral infections like COVID-19 and others. Over the two pandemic years, more than 540 million people across the world contracted COVID-19 and 6.3 million died from the hyperinflammatory side effects related to this viral infection, which inspired Gb Sciences to create anti-inflammatory drugs designed to treat future viral outbreaks that elicit these dangerous hyperinflammatory responses.
The global anti-inflammatory therapeutics market size was estimated at USD 99.6 billion in 2021, according to Precedence Research, and is expected to hit USD 127.5 billion by 2030, with a registered CAGR of 4.5% from 2022 to 2030. Gb Sciences announced in May 2022 that FHI Clinical would consult and write the draft clinical trial protocol for a first-in-human trial of these proprietary cannabinoid-containing formulations. One key differentiator of Gb Sciences' CRS therapeutic is the early-intervention and preventative opportunities for patients when they first discover they have been exposed to a virus that causes hyperinflammation. This therapeutic may also be useful for patients who are experiencing CRS as a side effect of certain new cancer therapeutics, such as Bispecific T-cell engaging (BiTE) single-chain antibody constructs and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells.
"Our research shows promise for the potential use of cannabinoids within cannabinoid-containing mixtures as a treatment option for hyperinflammation. There is still a need for effective treatments to combat the hyperinflammatory effects of certain viruses. Our cannabis-inspired therapeutics were designed to reset the immune system after hyperinflammation has been triggered, providing relief by targeting our human immune response to a virus, without being tied to a specific variant or the virus itself," said Andrea Small-Howard, President and Chief Science Officer of Gb Sciences.
Gb Sciences used PhAROS™, its proprietary AI-enabled drug discovery platform, to identify these therapeutic mixtures that were designed to reduce the levels of specific cytokines and pro-inflammatory processes triggered by viruses, while preserving the immune functions and cytokines necessary to fight viral infections. Gb Sciences recently published a white paper on their novel development program titled "Utilizing Proprietary AI/ML Technology, Novel Cannabis-Inspired Mixtures Are Developed as Innovative Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics"; download it here.
A proof-of-concept study completed by researchers at Michigan State University in 2021 found that Gb Sciences' proprietary cannabis-inspired minimum essential mixtures (MEM) reduced cytokine release syndrome biomarkers. Gb Sciences' MEM, containing either two or three cannabinoids each, reduced the levels of inflammatory biomarkers more than the sum of the anti-inflammatory effects of the single ingredients tested separately. The ratios of those cannabinoid molecules within the MEM formulations also greatly influenced their anti-inflammatory potential, the study reported.
Gb Sciences, Inc. is a plant-inspired, biopharmaceutical research and development company creating patented disease-targeted formulations of cannabis- and other plant-inspired therapeutic mixtures for the prescription drug market through its Canadian subsidiary GbS Global Biopharma, Inc. The "plant-inspired" active ingredients in its therapeutic mixtures are synthetic homologues identical to the original plant compounds but produced under current Good Manufacturing Practices. Gb Sciences' intellectual property portfolio contains six issued U.S. and three issued foreign patents, as well as 17 U.S. and 51 foreign patent-pending applications. In its drug development pipeline, Gb Sciences has five preclinical phase product development programs. Gb Sciences' lead program for Parkinson's disease is being prepared for a first-in-human clinical trial. Gb Sciences' formulations for chronic pain, anxiety, and depression are currently in preclinical animal studies with researchers at the National Research Council Canada. The company also received positive preclinical proof-of-concept data supporting its complex mixtures for the treatment of Cytokine Release Syndrome, and its lead candidates will be optimized based on late-stage preclinical studies at Michigan State University. Gb Sciences' productive research and development network includes distinguished universities, hospitals, and Contract Research Organizations. To learn more, visit www.gbsciences.com.
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