Year In Review Ethical Stem Cell Study May Pave Way for Brain Injury Cure

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TBN's Acquisition Of 'Holy Land Experience' Theme Park Seeks To Change More Lives

June 9, 2007 ORLANDO -- Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), the world's largest religious broadcaster and America's most-watched faith channel, hopes to change more lives through its addition of the "Holy Land Experience" theme park in Orlando, Fl., to the TBN family. Through the acquisition, TBN will bring an integration of the powerful living recreation of ancient Jerusalem with a cutting edge facility that will be used for television production, dramas, musical concerts, special events and movies.

"This marriage will bring an unprecedented synergy to both ministries and the production that is done there will be seen by a worldwide audience. TBN's involvement made sense, because both ministries are about changing and effecting people's lives. We've been doing that for 34 years," said Paul Crouch, Jr., TBN Vice President of Administration. "We believe this opportunity was heaven sent because it bought TBN an Orlando-based facility to fulfill it's local programming obligations for WGTL CH-52 and it will provide "The Holy Land Experience" with much needed promotion to bring more people to the theme park and Orlando as a whole."

The Holy Land Experience could well be considered Orlando's most inspiring destination as visitors experience a full day of discovery that takes them 2,000 years back in time to the world of the Bible. It brings to life ancient Israel as a unique, thriving world filled with fascinating exhibits and venues. Visitors learn about the Wilderness Tabernacle and the Great Temple; discover the amazing history of the Bible; explore the city of Jerusalem in miniature; see re-enactments of Jesus' ministry, His life, death, and resurrection; and feel the power and passion of our original musical productions.

WGTL TV, Channel 52, has a reach of over four million viewers in the Orlando and Cocoa Beach metropolitan areas with TBN's wide range of innovative faith-based programming. In October of 2006, TBN celebrated the inaugural broadcast of WGTL Ch-52 in Orlando with a dedicatory service attended by TBN founders Paul and Jan Crouch, Pastor Benny Hinn, Singer and Preacher Judy Jacobs hosted by Pastor George Cope and Calvary Assembly in Winter Park, Fl.

The combination of the production facilities and the Holy Land Experience offers Orlando visitors a powerful and unique faith based experience that can be promoted worldwide through the TBN network. The promotional capability can drive visitors to the complex.

"Some of the staff was asking what is going to be the immediate effect here at the park and my answer was 'I'm planning on you having more people coming through the turnstiles this summer,'" said Crouch. "Universal Studios does the same thing. We want the 'Holy Land Experience' to be a faith-based version of that."

About TBN
TBN is the world's largest religious network and America's most watched faith network. Each day TBN offers 24 hours of commercial-free inspirational programming that appeals to people in a wide variety of denominations. Beginning in 1973 as a single UHF station in southern California, TBN now reaches every major continent via 65 satellites and more than 12,500 television and cable affiliates worldwide. In the United States, TBN is available to 92 percent of the total households. Its website receives more than 27 million visitors monthly. For more information on TBN, visit www.tbn.org

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Year In Review Ethical Stem Cell Study May Pave Way for Brain Injury Cure

2006-12-26 -- WDC Media News --

December 26, 2006
Originally published on January 4, 2006

(AgapePress) - A Texas children's hospital is working with the University of Texas' Medical School in a unique clinical trial using bone marrow stem cells to treat children's brain trauma. This trial, which does not involve ethically problematic and controversial embryonic stem cells, is the first to use stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injury, for which there is currently no reparative therapy.

Dr. James Baumgartner, M.D., is an associate professor of pediatric neurosurgery and one of the principal investigators on the project. He says this procedure will be "an absolutely novel treatment, the first ever with potential to repair a traumatically damaged brain."

This initial clinical trial will involve ten children, head injury patients between the ages of five and fourteen. Baumgartner says the study at this stage is being used to prove the safety of the procedure -- a therapy that entails harvesting marrow stem cells from a child's hip, processing the stem cells, and giving them back through an intravenous line.

The doctor notes that he is optimistic about the trial because of previous animal testing. "Typically after head injury, the two biggest problems you have are related to coordination and memory," he explains. And, in experiments using bone marrow stem cells to treat specimens with induced head injuries, he adds, "both memory and coordination were improved in these animals after the treatment."

Examination of the experimental animals' brain matter showed that the bone marrow stem cells had differentiated into other cell types and had also demonstrated healing tendencies, Baumgartner continues. Now he hopes to see the procedure produce the same in human trials.

A closer look at the area of injury in the lab specimens' brains reveals that "these stem cells have turned into some of the cells that normally make up brain," the researcher says, "and they also seem to induce a kind of healing phenomenon around the site of injury. We're hopeful that those same things will happen in the children we treat." However, he points out, this University of Texas Medical School study is just a small clinical trial with only ten children, so the results will not be definitive.

Nevertheless, Baumgartner believes this study could have a definite impact on the future of the research even though, as a "Phase I" clinical trial, its primarily emphasis is to establish that its methods are safe. Observing the therapeutic effects of the procedure is a secondary goal, he says, but a larger study will be conducted if this initial clinical trial yields positive results.

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