Provia Labs to Participate in the First International Conference on Dental and Craniofacial Stem Cel

This conference, hosted by Columbia University, brings together researchers investigating the therapeutic potential of stem cells from teeth. Provia Laboratories will exhibit and a company advisor will make an invited research presentation. Provia Labs provides biobanking products and solutions, as well as Store-A-Tooth dental stem cell preservation services.

LEXINGTON, MA (PRWEB) APRIL 19, 2011 Scientists from around the world will gather in New York City next week to share their progress in researching the therapeutic potential of stem cells from teeth.

The First International Conference on Dental and Craniofacial Stem Cells will take place April 27-29. Columbia University's College of Dental Medicine will host the conference at the New York Academy of Sciences. This will be the first assembly of the world's most prominent researchers in the field of dental and craniofacial stem cells. Hundreds of scientists from academia, industry and government are expected to participate.

"A sure sign of expansion and excitement in a scientific field is an initial conference on this scale," said Peter Verlander, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Provia Laboratories, LLC. "Columbia University is helping to catalyze dental stem cell research by convening leading investigators whose work could transform therapies in both regenerative dentistry and medicine."

Provia Labs provides biobanking products and solutions, as well as advisory services and expertise on biospecimen research. In addition, the company offers Store-A-Tooth™, a service that enables families and dental professionals to collect and preserve dental stem cells for future use, as laboratory research leads to stem cell therapies for clinical practice.

Among the scientists presenting at the conference at the invitation of Columbia University will be Paul T. Sharpe, Ph.D., an advisor to Provia Labs. Dr. Sharpe is the Dickinson Professor of Craniofacial Biology and the Director of Research at the Dental Institute, King's College London.

Provia Labs will be an exhibitor at the conference. Company representatives will be available to discuss both the Store-A-Tooth service and the company's other biobanking products and solutions.

In 2000, researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health demonstrated that teeth are a source of stem cells, with the potential to differentiate into various specialized cell types. Stem cells from teeth have already been used in human studies to regrow jawbone and treat periodontal disease. Research into wide-ranging medical applications is early, but promising. Dental stem cells are being studied for their potential to play a role in therapies for type 1 diabetes, spinal-cord injury, heart attack and stroke, corneal damage, and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

Researchers at the conference will be presenting a range of topics to advance knowledge about the biology, function, and eventual clinical application of dental stem cells. What makes the field exciting for both scientists and dentists, as well as the general public, is that stem cells from teeth are an appealing and plentiful source of adult stem cells – they are non-controversial, readily accessible, and can be easily collected during routine dental procedures.

Often the donors of dental stem cells are children and teenagers, since it is an easy process to collect samples when a baby tooth is ready to fall out or a wisdom tooth needs to be extracted. The tooth should be taken out by a dental professional to keep its blood supply intact. After removing the tooth, the dentist or oral surgeon places it into a kit designed to protect the tooth during overnight transport to the cell-preservation facility. There the sample is decontaminated and tested to confirm its sterility, and the dental pulp is harvested. Quality control tests such as flow cytometry are performed to confirm that stem cell biomarkers are present in the samples. The samples are then stored at extremely low temperatures for the potential benefit of donors in future years as stem-cell therapies become more readily available.

About Provia Laboratories LLC Provia Laboratories, LLC (www.provialabs.com) is a health services company specializing in high quality biobanking (the collection, transport, processing, and cryogenic storage of biological specimens). Its dental stem cell banking service, Store-A-Tooth™, gives parents the option to store stem cells today to protect their children's health tomorrow. Store-A-Tooth preserves precious stem cells from baby and wisdom teeth that would otherwise be discarded, so parents can be prepared for advances in stem cell therapies that someday may help treat conditions such as type 1 diabetes, spinal cord injury, heart attack, stroke, and neurological disorders like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's. Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/04/prweb5257954.htm