NEW YORK, July 12 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ -- NeoStem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: NBS) ("NeoStem" or the "Company"), an international biopharmaceutical company with operations in the U.S. and China, today announced that it has been awarded a $700,000 contract from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center (USAMRMC-TATRC) under U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity contract number: (W81XWH-10-2-0039). This contract is for the purpose of evaluating the use of topically applied bone marrow-derived adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for rapid wound healing. The Company previously announced that this funding was included in the Department of Defense FY09 Appropriations Bill and will begin receiving funds to initiate the program in 2010.

Soldiers in combat suffer massive wounds to bone and tissue quite unlike most injuries that civilian doctors treat. Explosive blasts, rarely encountered in civilian life, cause about 2/3 of the injuries in Iraq. Musculoskeletal injuries account for about 70% of war wounds, and 55% of those are wounds to the arms and legs. Fractures account for 26% of combat injuries.

Thanks to advances in medical care and body and vehicle armor, 90% of these wounded soldiers survive. Their severe injuries, however, may require numerous surgeries for reconstruction. Strategies to improve and speed bone healing could reduce the number of orthopaedic surgeries required and improve patient outcomes for a large percentage of all wounded soldiers.

Gives patients access to own fat tissue for future cosmetic & reconstructive surgical procedures.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioLife Cell Bank, LLC (www.BioLifeCellBank.com) has opened the first U.S. StemSource® Cell Bank, which offers patients a way to safely and affordably store their own adipose (fat) tissue or their own naturally occurring adipose (fat) tissue-derived stem and regenerative cells. This gives patients and physicians easy, multi-use access to cells and tissue for future approved or allowed reconstructive fat grafting or augmentation procedures using the patients' own cells and/or tissue. Tissue and/or cells are extracted using a simple and safe liposuction procedure, and can be stored indefinitely.

Melbourne, Australia; 19 May 2010: Australia's regenerative medicine company, Mesoblast Limited (ASX:MSB; ADR:MBLTY), today announced that it has received clearance from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin Phase 2 clinical trials of its "off-the-shelf" or allogeneic stem cell product NeoFuse^TM for fusion of the cervical spine in the neck. As with all of Mesoblast's previous Investigational New Drug (IND) submissions, FDA clearance was obtained within the minimum 30-day period.

Bone stem cells could in future be used instead of bone from donors as part of an innovative new hip replacement treatment, according to scientists at the University of Southampton.

A team from the University's School of Medicine believe that introducing a patient's own skeletal stem cells into the hip joint during bone grafting would encourage more successful regrowth and repair.

The grafting technique is used to repair the thigh bone and joint during replacement (known as 'revision') hip replacement therapy, a procedure in which surgeons introduce donor bone to the damaged area to provide support for the new hip stem.