CORAL GABLES, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–On Thursday, January 21, 2010, the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research (SCF) is hosting “Accelerate the Cure,” a fundraiser with Dr. Joshua Hare, Louis Lemberg Professor of Medicine, Director, Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine.

“We can now inject the cells exactly where we want to in the inside of the heart, and we can do it in multiple locations”

WHERE: THE COLLECTION, Jaguar Showroom, 200 Bird Road, Coral Gables

WHEN: Thursday, January 21, 2010 7 pm – 10 pm

RSVP (required): Open to the public and media. $50 / person. Call (305) 968-8024 or email Sabrina@sabrinacohenfoundation.org

“Accelerate the Cure” is another example of the Sabrina Cohen Foundation’s dedication to community outreach and education, furthering its mission to raise funds for targeted disease based stem cell research. Up to 150 guests will be attending the affair, including University of Miami faculty, distinguished business owners and South Florida residents.

Known for his work at Johns Hopkins University, Dr. Joshua Hare, a Cardiologist, is a world-renowned pioneer in the use of adult stem cells to repair heart damage. He currently has three ongoing FDA-approved clinical trials studying stem cell therapies for heart disease. Many researchers view heart disease, the number one killer of Americans, as the next “big frontier” in stem cell treatment. “We can now inject the cells exactly where we want to in the inside of the heart, and we can do it in multiple locations,” noted Dr. Hare.

At the event, Dr. Hare will give an update about his latest research findings and introduce attendees to ISCI, a new state of the art stem cell research facility. Sign-up for private lab tours will follow the presentation. Guests will also have the opportunity to win a weekend loan on a Jaguar Xf through a raffle. Cocktails and Hors d’oeuvres will be served.

Based in Miami Beach, the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research, a 501c3 non-profit organization, was founded in 2006 by advocate and quadriplegic, Sabrina Cohen, who’s been living with a spinal cord injury since 1992. SCF is dedicated to becoming a leader in the fight against disease by funding top scientists in the country. Dr. Hare’s work is slated to be the next grant recipient of SCF.

Event sponsors include THE COLLECTION, Northwestern Mutual Financial Network and Pritikin Longevity Center and Spa.

For more info, send all emails to Sabrina@sabrinacohenfoundation.org

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100113005963&newsLang=en

In 1992, a car crash left 14-year-old Miami Beach native Sabrina Cohen a quadriplegic. She underwent rigorous years of therapy, but her head hung low. “I didn’t want to be known as the girl in the wheelchair,” she recalls. High school graduation made her realize life would go on, with her or without her, so she went to college, graduated, and opened her own ad agency. But in 2004, after hearing a presentation on stem cell research, Cohen changed course. “That talk ignited in me a hope that had long since simmered down,” she says, “that someday I would walk again.” Shuttering the agency, she worked for the Genetics Policy Institute, then launched her own foundation to help people donate funds for stem cell research in the United States. With a volunteer base of friends, relatives and even the firefighters who helped rescue her, she organized fundraising events and this year reached a milestone. The Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research bestowed its first grant: a $25,000 check to University of California-Irvine researcher Hans Keirstead, who has studied restoring mobility in paralyzed rats and whose current research on spinal cord injuries yielded the world’s first-ever embryonic stem cell treatment to be tested in humans. Now 31, Cohen says she truly found her calling. “If I can walk again, that will be wonderful. But I’m in love with stem cells because they can cure other diseases as well.”

Being a WebMD Health Hero means being faced with difficult, sometimes seemingly impossible challenges. A Health Hero not only surmounts them but also uses them as motivation to help others. And that’s exactly what Sabrina Cohen is doing with her 501 c3 nonprofit, The Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research, an advocacy organization that’s dedicated to fighting diseases by funding advanced stem cell research in the United States since 2006. But why stem cell research? It has the potential to impact and treat a host of 70 diseases including lupus, Alzheimer’s, spinal cord injuries, deafness, leukemia, diabetes and more.

“As a patient advocate fighting for medical breakthroughs, this $2,500 donation from WebMD means so much more than just a dollar figure. This recognition means hope, possibility and belief in the science of stem cell research. The money will be earmarked towards further education and direct funding of the leading research in the U.S.,” said Cohen.

The Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research recently bestowed its first grant of $25,000 to University of California, Irvine, researcher Hans Keirstead who has studied restoring mobility in paralyzed rats and whose current research on spinal cord injuries yielded the world’s first-ever embryonic stem cell treatment to be tested in humans.

Cohen’s not new to advocacy. After being in a car accident in 1992, she became a quadriplegic at the young age of 14 years old. “I didn’t want to be known as the girl in the wheelchair,” she recalls. But she did what she had to do. She graduated from high school, went on to college and eventually opened her own advertising agency recruiting South Florida clients. In 2004, her life would change course forever. After hearing a presentation on stem cell research, she joined forces with the Genetics Policy Institute, which eventually led her to founding her own nonprofit organization.

The business community is also taking notice of Cohen. She just received the “Amethyst Arts & Culture Non Profit Award” from The Diamond Palm Award for Excellence in Business - Hosted by the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce. Business Leader Media, a premiere business resource for South Florida Business Professionals, just named her a 2009 “Mover & Shaker,” an award that honors up-and-coming local business leaders.

Visit all of WebMD’s 2009 American Health Heroes at
http://www.webmd.com/healthheroes/default.htm

View the Press Release on Business Wire
http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091120005041&newsLang=en
November 20, 2009

Last month I attended the 2009 World Stem Cell Summit in Baltimore, Maryland. It was an incredible three-day scientific conference that brought more than 1,000 people from 34 countries together. I saw many familiar faces but even more new ones, which proved to me how rapidly this industry is growing. Throughout my visit, I couldn’t stop thinking about how five years ago this cause was all about “hope and possibility.” Now, things felt like they were actually coming to fruition.

The conference began with the signing of an agreement between Maryland, with Governor
O’Malley, and California, with Bob Klein of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine,
to share stem cell research. Back in 2006, the Maryland General Assembly passed an act, that to date, has provided $56 million through the state’s Stem Cell Research Fund. California allocated 3 billion in funds for research in 2004. The intention of the agreement was to set an example of how to keep the stem cell community powerful and united, a challenge repeatedly discussed.

The summit included routine statements from various scientists and industry leaders such as: “We are moving from an era of treatment to an era of cures… instead of fixing your pancreas, we will be building you a new one.”

In attendance were many bio-entrepreneurs, scientists, patient advocates and representatives from the NIH and FDA. Talks covering research updates in diabetes with Dr. Camilo Ricordi, spinal cord injury with Dr. John McDonald, heart disease with Dr. Joshua Hare, and cancer with Curt Civin - to talks of medical tourism, securing patents and biotech advances, started daily at 8am and ended by 6pm. At lunch, one could choose from 49 “experts” to chat over their particular field, including lunch with me and how to start a 501c3 nonprofit stem cell advocacy group, to lunch with Marc Unger of the Fluidigm group, who said that “stem cell culture chips will become an indispensable part of every stem cell lab.”

Dr. Tina Guanting Qui of the Bristol Eye Hospital in Great Britain, spoke about “Ophthalmology and Stem Cell Regenerative Medicine.” Her work, which is highly theoretical and only recently tried on rats, relies on the opposite end of the life cycle - on stem cells harvested from the eyes of people dead fewer than 48 hours. Qui proposed taking neural progenitor cells from the photo receptors of the deceased, noting that most donors come from families where blindness is present, and forcing regeneration before introducing the cells. This is a form of “gene delivery” into the receptors of a patient suffering form macular degeneration.

To my surprise, Dr. Wise Young, founding director of the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and a professor at Rutgers, said that by November 2009 China will be closing its doors to medical tourism. Therefore, individuals with spinal cord injuries seeking stem cell treatments from China, will no longer be accepted as patients. He said in the next few years, other countries, including India, will do the same. He stressed how important funding in the U.S. is to eventually provide safe and proper treatments in our own backyard, eliminating unrestricted treatment and harmful outcomes. All the while, stem cell tourism, going to another country and trying a stem cell treatment not available in your own nation, was a hot subject. Would you do it? What if doctors told you there was nothing they could do to alleviate your condition, or your loved one’s? Would you go abroad, try an untested medical treatment just in case? Would you spend your life savings on it? These were very important questions that were tossed around, reinforcing why this field is so emotionally charged.

Dr. Alan Moore, President of Stem Cell Therapeutics in Canada, told me about the stem cell therapies he’s working on for acute stroke victims and multiple sclerosis. At the summit he announced a novel, Drug-Based approach to neuron regeneration and upcoming clinical trials. On a side note, he advised that the best thing for chronic stoke victims is aerobic exercises to increase heart rate a minimum of one hour a day.

My talk, which came in on the last day of the conference, was all about the history of my stem cell research advocacy, how I started my own nonprofit and what the foundation is up to. I sat on a panel entitled, SOCIETY TRACK: A New Era for Human Embryonic Stem Cells, with moderator K. Sue O’Shea, University of Michigan, Kevin Wilson, American Society for Cell Biology, and scientist Mark Noble, University of Rochester.

All in all, I left the conference with more information and exciting news than I came in with, feeling so optimistic and proud to be associated with such a charged and promising cause. The most important message that truly sank in was the united belief from each scientist that “treatments and cures are very possible and realistic for all areas of disease.” Unfortunately, however, they all stated that the main barrier to medical breakthroughs is not enough funding. “Hmmmm…” I thought to myself on the plane ride home, “I still have a lot of work to do.”

For those of you who are interested in viewing segments of the conference or would like to watch the conference in its entirety via the summit webcast, please take a minute to sign up and view the World Stem Cell Summit 2009 Webcast at
http://www.worldstemcellsummit.com/2009_webcast_entry.html

View my Interview with Capital News Service at the Summit by visiting
http://www.youtube.com/user/SCFoundation#p/a

Thank you for taking the time to keep up with my efforts. I look forward to sharing more and more cutting edge news with you as the field of stem cell research progresses!

Sincerely,
Sabrina Cohen
President / Founder

P.S. Are you interested in stem cell treatments or know someone who is? Please do a little research first at www.Quackwatch.com

MIAMI BEACH, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–On Saturday, June 6, Dr. Hans Keirstead, whose team developed the first FDA approved embryonic stem cell-derived treatment for spinal cord injuries, will present his latest findings at a cocktail reception. The host of the evening is the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research who will award their first ever grant in the amount of $25,000.

WHERE: Palms Hotel & Spa, 3025 Collins Avenue, Miami Beach, FL 33140

WHEN: Saturday, June 6, 2009 from 7:30 PM to 10:30 PM

RSVP (required): The reception is open to the public and media. RSVP to Sabrina@sabrinacohenfoundation.org

“My foundation is elated to support such promising work and eager to award Dr. Keirstead with a gift to further his research and ensure our commitment to this field” said Sabrina Cohen, who founded her nonprofit to raise awareness and funds for stem cell research. “It’s an exciting time with the recent shift in policy and announcement of the first FDA approved human trial.”

Dr. Keirstead, Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Co-Director of the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the UC Irvine Reeve-Irvine Research Center, will be the Keynote Speaker and Award Recipient of the night.

The event is being held to thank supporters and inspire others to join in Sabrina’s efforts. Up to 200 South Floridians, including local politicians and business owners, will attend the intimate affair at The Palms Hotel.

Nearly 1.6 million Americans are living with some form of paralysis that may benefit from stem cell research. Sabrina suffered her spinal cord injury in an automobile accident when she was 14 years old.

Based in Miami Beach, the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research, a 501c3 non-profit organization, was founded in 2006 by advocate and quadriplegic, Sabrina Cohen, who has been living with a spinal cord injury since 1992. The foundation is dedicated to becoming a leader in the fight against disease and recognized as an “Organization for Cures.”

Event sponsors: Miami Physical Therapy, Magno International, Great Florida Bank, 944 Magazine

Regarding my foundation, I’m pleased to announce that Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Representative Dan Gelber and Florida State Representative Richard Steinberg just joined my Honorary Board! Joining my Science Advisory Board are Dr. Joshua Hare, Director of the Stem Cell Interdisciplinary Institute in Miami, and Dr. Camillo Ricordi from the Diabetes Research Institute in Miami. Joining my Advisory Board include Bernard Siegel from the Genetics Policy Institute, Alan T. Brown (PR guru and spinal cord injury advocate and fundraiser) and David Evensky (financial advisor).

So there I was, gathering with close to 600 of the world’s leading stem cell researchers, patient advocates, pharmaceutical and biotech executives, and people from the venture capital world. The 3 day adventure began with a VIP Cocktail Reception the evening before the conference. I met with Brock Reeve, Exec Director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Steven Burrill, president of Burrill Life Sciences Media Group, and of course, my mentor and friend Bernie Siegel with the Genetics Policy Institute. They all seemed pretty calm and cool, but I’m sure the nerves were kicking in as all 3 men were about to play a huge role in the conference.

As expected, the next morning I arrived at the Hynes Convention Center bright and early, surrounded by an enthused crowd. Bernie made the welcoming remarks and introduced a panel of experts to kick start. Not too long after, I felt tears streaming down my face as fellow advocate Brooke Ellison took stage and spoke of her struggles with a spinal cord injury. Not only could I relate, I wanted to help. Even more. Not only myself, or her, but the thousands suffering who don’t have the opportunity to share their words. What a way to start the conference. Full of meaning, full of hope.

The day and and a half progressed into more meaning and more hope, as some of the top scientists in the field, including Doug Melton, Steven Eggan and Camillo Ricordi, spoke. We heard from the biotech companies and venture capitalists to get their business perspective on the issue. The awards dinner was a great way to acknowledge some of the leaders in the field, including the Student Society for Stem Cell Research, and Micheal J. Fox. I spoke on a panel to introduce the Sabrina Cohen Foundation for Stem Cell Research and my advocacy efforts. By my side was Eve Harold (author of Stem Cell Wars), Don Reed (Roman -Reed Act) Sean Tipton, Tricia Brooks and Michael Mangelio (formerly associates of the Christopher Reeve Foundation). I think it gave a unique perspective on how one individual can make a difference.
By afternoon, we broke out into smaller session groups. I attended the “Cancer and Stem Cells” as I was most curious to hear the progress with that disease since it is less talked about. I figured out why, since its pretty complex. I thoroughly enjoyed a round-table discussion with John Hlinko, a friend, advocate and member of my board. We discussed what role stem cell research will play in the 2008 political elections. Cynthia Poreh, another friend and member of my board, flew in from Miami to attend the conference and learn more. I believe she got much out of it and is excited to do more, as am I.

Overall, it was a fabulous educational and networking experience. Bernie, you were “Over the top!”

To read more about the summit and see how my “Unlock the Cells” slogan made an appearance at the event, please visit
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2007/10.04/09-stemcell.html

I really enjoyed the opportunity to express my thoughts. To hear my interview and everything else I had to say visit www.sabrinacohenfoundation.org, under “Newsroom”