Source: WebMD
Date: January 31, 2006
Summary:
WebMD reports on a new study using bone marrow stem cells to attempt to treat lupus:
"When people with severe lupus have failed other treatment options, their stem cells may help save their lives. The finding, published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, doesn't amount to a cure for lupus, a disease of the immune system. However, half of the study's 48 patients who got the procedure lived five more years without lupus, and even more (84%) survived for at least five years even if they didn't have complete remission."
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Monday, January 30, 2006
Prions may hold key to stem cell function
Source: New Scientist
Posted: 22:00 30 January 2006
Summary:
The curative properties of stem cells may rely on prions, a special class of protein that can change the shape and function of other proteins around them, a new study suggests, the type of protein made infamous by mad cow disease. Prions are a special class of protein that can change the shape and function of other proteins around them. While these are found throughout any mammal’s body, the understanding of their biological role is limited. What is known is that prions that become misshapen, through some unknown process, can result in BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) – mad cow disease – and its equivalents in other animals. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, have now found that adult stem cells in bone marrow gradually lose their ability to regenerate without their normal complement of membrane-bound prions.
Posted: 22:00 30 January 2006
Summary:
The curative properties of stem cells may rely on prions, a special class of protein that can change the shape and function of other proteins around them, a new study suggests, the type of protein made infamous by mad cow disease. Prions are a special class of protein that can change the shape and function of other proteins around them. While these are found throughout any mammal’s body, the understanding of their biological role is limited. What is known is that prions that become misshapen, through some unknown process, can result in BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy) – mad cow disease – and its equivalents in other animals. Researchers at the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, US, have now found that adult stem cells in bone marrow gradually lose their ability to regenerate without their normal complement of membrane-bound prions.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Role Of The Nervous System In Regulating Stem Cells Discovered
Source: Medical News Today
Date: January 27, 20006
Summary:
Study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine may provide new hope for cancer patients and others with compromised immune systems. New study by Mount Sinai researchers may lead to improved stem cell therapies for patients with compromised immune systems due to intensive cancer therapy or autoimmune disease. The study is published in this week's issue of Cell.
Date: January 27, 20006
Summary:
Study led by Mount Sinai School of Medicine may provide new hope for cancer patients and others with compromised immune systems. New study by Mount Sinai researchers may lead to improved stem cell therapies for patients with compromised immune systems due to intensive cancer therapy or autoimmune disease. The study is published in this week's issue of Cell.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Stem Cell Study Seeks To Prevent Heart Failure
Source: University of Rochester Medical Center
Date: January 23, 2006
Summary:
University of Rochester Medical Center researchers today announced the launch of a study that will examine whether transplanted stem cells can be safely used to treat damaged heart muscle in patients just after their first heart attack. The first-of-its-kind study in heart attack patients will seek to demonstrate the safety, and roughly measure efficacy, of three intravenous doses of adult human stem cells versus placebo in lessening damage to heart muscle within ten days of first heart attack.
Date: January 23, 2006
Summary:
University of Rochester Medical Center researchers today announced the launch of a study that will examine whether transplanted stem cells can be safely used to treat damaged heart muscle in patients just after their first heart attack. The first-of-its-kind study in heart attack patients will seek to demonstrate the safety, and roughly measure efficacy, of three intravenous doses of adult human stem cells versus placebo in lessening damage to heart muscle within ten days of first heart attack.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Stroke Brain Fix
Source: ScienCentral News
Date: January 20, 2006
Summary:
Brain researchers may have found a way to make stroke-damaged nerve cells re-grow, spurring strotke recovery by blocking a natural inhibitor of nerve cell re-growth.
Date: January 20, 2006
Summary:
Brain researchers may have found a way to make stroke-damaged nerve cells re-grow, spurring strotke recovery by blocking a natural inhibitor of nerve cell re-growth.
Growing Nerve Cells
Source: ScenCentral News
Date: January 20, 2006
Summary:
Researchers have been looking at stem cells as a way help the body repair itself, even with injuries that are now often considered permanent, such as brain, spinal cord or nerve injuries. Embryonic stem cells have been shown to be very useful, but many object to their use on ethical grounds.
Date: January 20, 2006
Summary:
Researchers have been looking at stem cells as a way help the body repair itself, even with injuries that are now often considered permanent, such as brain, spinal cord or nerve injuries. Embryonic stem cells have been shown to be very useful, but many object to their use on ethical grounds.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Custom-Made Microbes, at Your Service
Source: New York Times
Date: January 17, 2006
Summary:
There are bacteria that blink on and off like Christmas tree lights and bacteria that form multicolored patterns of concentric circles resembling an archery target. Yet others can reproduce photographic images. While much of the early work has consisted of eye-catching, if useless, stunts like the blinking bacteria, the emerging field could one day have a major impact on medicine and industry. For instance, Christina D. Smolke, an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, is trying to develop circuits of biological parts to sit in the body's cells and guard against cancer. If they detected a cancer-causing mechanism had been activated, they would switch on a gene to have the cell self-destruct.
Date: January 17, 2006
Summary:
There are bacteria that blink on and off like Christmas tree lights and bacteria that form multicolored patterns of concentric circles resembling an archery target. Yet others can reproduce photographic images. While much of the early work has consisted of eye-catching, if useless, stunts like the blinking bacteria, the emerging field could one day have a major impact on medicine and industry. For instance, Christina D. Smolke, an assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, is trying to develop circuits of biological parts to sit in the body's cells and guard against cancer. If they detected a cancer-causing mechanism had been activated, they would switch on a gene to have the cell self-destruct.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Scientists identify gene needed for brain, cord connections
Source: Stanford Report
Date: January 11, 2006
Summary:
A team of Stanford researchers has identified a specific gene that is necessary for the development of connections between the brain and the spinal cord. The findings could be critical for understanding the development of the human brain and treating spinal cord injuries.
Date: January 11, 2006
Summary:
A team of Stanford researchers has identified a specific gene that is necessary for the development of connections between the brain and the spinal cord. The findings could be critical for understanding the development of the human brain and treating spinal cord injuries.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Eye Cell Implants Improve Motor Symptoms For Parkinson Patients
Source: JAMA and Archives Journals
Date: January 10, 2006
Summary:
A preliminary study suggests that implants of cells from the human retina improved motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease, and they appear to be safe and well tolerated, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Date: January 10, 2006
Summary:
A preliminary study suggests that implants of cells from the human retina improved motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease, and they appear to be safe and well tolerated, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Thursday, January 05, 2006
Stem cell may drive breast cancer
Source: BBC News
Posted: January 5, 2006 08:53 GMT
Summary:
BBC News reports on a new discovery of rare stem cells that may at the root of breast and other cancers"
"Scientists believe recurring breast cancer could be caused by newly discovered rare stem cells transformed into a "tumour factory" by genetic errors. Researchers believe that as well as driving all breast development, the cells may have a key role in cancer."
Posted: January 5, 2006 08:53 GMT
Summary:
BBC News reports on a new discovery of rare stem cells that may at the root of breast and other cancers"
"Scientists believe recurring breast cancer could be caused by newly discovered rare stem cells transformed into a "tumour factory" by genetic errors. Researchers believe that as well as driving all breast development, the cells may have a key role in cancer."
Monday, January 02, 2006
How Plants Regulate How Many Stem Cells They Have
Source: Max Planck Society
Posted: January 2, 2006
Summary:
Totipotent stem cells allow plants to build new organs throughout their whole life. But it has been unclear how hormones and genetic factors work together to prevent plants from having growth that is either stunted, or uncontrolled and tumor-like. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology have now uncovered a feedback mechanism, involving a growth-enhancing hormone and a regulatory protein, which controls the number of stem cells the plant produces. (Nature, December 22, 2005). The results are of great importance for all of stem cell research.
Posted: January 2, 2006
Summary:
Totipotent stem cells allow plants to build new organs throughout their whole life. But it has been unclear how hormones and genetic factors work together to prevent plants from having growth that is either stunted, or uncontrolled and tumor-like. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology have now uncovered a feedback mechanism, involving a growth-enhancing hormone and a regulatory protein, which controls the number of stem cells the plant produces. (Nature, December 22, 2005). The results are of great importance for all of stem cell research.
Stem cell breakthrough raises hope of new treatments
Source: Guardian Unlimited - UK
Date: January 2, 2006
Summary:
Scientists have created human stem cell cultures without using any animal cells for the first time. The breakthrough will bring possible treatments for diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's a step closer.
Date: January 2, 2006
Summary:
Scientists have created human stem cell cultures without using any animal cells for the first time. The breakthrough will bring possible treatments for diseases such as diabetes, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's a step closer.
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