Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: February 28, 2011
Summary:
A pediatric brain tumor that causes gruesome suffering is finally yielding its secrets. For the first time, scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have cultured human cells from this cancer, Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma, and used those cells to create an animal model of the disease. Their discoveries will facilitate research on new treatments for DIPG, a tumor of school-aged children that is now almost universally fatal. The study is published online Feb. 28 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Human Stem Cells from Fat Tissue Fuse With Rat Heart Cells and Beat
Source: Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Date: February 28, 2011
Summary:
According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal, scientists have successfully fused human stem cells derived from subcutaneous adipose (fat) tissue with muscle cells from rat hearts. Not only did these cells "talk" to form new muscle cells altogether, but they actually beat.
Using newborn rats, scientists studied the combination of rat heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) and human adipose (fat) stem cells derived from human subcutaneous adipose tissue. They found that the two fused and formed new heart muscle cells with several nuclei. When kept in a culture environment, these cells beat. These new cells exhibited an ability to compensate for a loss of cardiomyocytes as following a myocardial infarction, via fusion with cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, this study shows that contrary to previous findings suggesting that genetic modification of certain embryonic genes in adult stem cells is required as a prerequisite for turning into heart cells, the human stem cells used in this study were not genetically modified.
Date: February 28, 2011
Summary:
According to new research published online in The FASEB Journal, scientists have successfully fused human stem cells derived from subcutaneous adipose (fat) tissue with muscle cells from rat hearts. Not only did these cells "talk" to form new muscle cells altogether, but they actually beat.
Using newborn rats, scientists studied the combination of rat heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes) and human adipose (fat) stem cells derived from human subcutaneous adipose tissue. They found that the two fused and formed new heart muscle cells with several nuclei. When kept in a culture environment, these cells beat. These new cells exhibited an ability to compensate for a loss of cardiomyocytes as following a myocardial infarction, via fusion with cardiomyocytes. Furthermore, this study shows that contrary to previous findings suggesting that genetic modification of certain embryonic genes in adult stem cells is required as a prerequisite for turning into heart cells, the human stem cells used in this study were not genetically modified.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Aging, interrupted
Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: February 23, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, CA—The current pace of population aging is without parallel in human history but surprisingly little is known about the human aging process, because lifespans of eight decades or more make it difficult to study. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies replicated premature aging in the lab, allowing them to study ageing-related disease in a dish.
In the February 23, 2011 advance online edition of the journal Nature, Juan-Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Ph.D. a professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression Laboratory, and his team report that they successfully generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from skin cells obtained from patients with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria-who age eight to 10 times faster than the rest of us-and differentiated them into smooth muscle cells displaying the telltale signs of vascular aging.
The Washington Examiner published a news story today based on this news release.
Date: February 23, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, CA—The current pace of population aging is without parallel in human history but surprisingly little is known about the human aging process, because lifespans of eight decades or more make it difficult to study. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies replicated premature aging in the lab, allowing them to study ageing-related disease in a dish.
In the February 23, 2011 advance online edition of the journal Nature, Juan-Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Ph.D. a professor in the Salk Institute's Gene Expression Laboratory, and his team report that they successfully generated induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from skin cells obtained from patients with Hutchinson-Gilford progeria-who age eight to 10 times faster than the rest of us-and differentiated them into smooth muscle cells displaying the telltale signs of vascular aging.
The Washington Examiner published a news story today based on this news release.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
StemCells, Inc. Completes Dosing in Second Trial of HuCNS-SC(R) Neural Stem Cells
Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: February 17, 2011
Summary:
StemCells, Inc. today announced that the fourth and final patient in its Phase I clinical trial in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD) has been transplanted with the Company's HuCNS-SC(R) cells (purified human neural stem cells). PMD is a fatal myelination disorder that afflicts male children. This clinical trial, which is being conducted in collaboration with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, is the first to evaluate neural stem cells as a potential treatment for a myelination disorder. Results of the trial will be reported in early 2012.
Date: February 17, 2011
Summary:
StemCells, Inc. today announced that the fourth and final patient in its Phase I clinical trial in Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD) has been transplanted with the Company's HuCNS-SC(R) cells (purified human neural stem cells). PMD is a fatal myelination disorder that afflicts male children. This clinical trial, which is being conducted in collaboration with UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital, is the first to evaluate neural stem cells as a potential treatment for a myelination disorder. Results of the trial will be reported in early 2012.
World’s first chemical guided missile could be the answer to wiping out cancer
Source: Deakin University
Date: 17 February 2011
Summary:
Deakin University medical scientists have created the world’s first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile, placing them a step closer to creating a medical ‘smart bomb’ that would seek out and eradicate the root of cancer cells. The Deakin researchers have worked with scientists in India and Australia to create the world’s first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that acts like a guided missile to seek out and bind only to cancer stem cells. The aptamer has the potential to deliver drugs directly to the stem cells (the root of cancer cells) and also to be used to develop a more effective cancer imaging system for early detection of the disease. Their discoveries have been published recently in an international cancer research journal, Cancer Science.
Date: 17 February 2011
Summary:
Deakin University medical scientists have created the world’s first cancer stem cell-targeting chemical missile, placing them a step closer to creating a medical ‘smart bomb’ that would seek out and eradicate the root of cancer cells. The Deakin researchers have worked with scientists in India and Australia to create the world’s first RNA aptamer, a chemical antibody that acts like a guided missile to seek out and bind only to cancer stem cells. The aptamer has the potential to deliver drugs directly to the stem cells (the root of cancer cells) and also to be used to develop a more effective cancer imaging system for early detection of the disease. Their discoveries have been published recently in an international cancer research journal, Cancer Science.
Erg gene key to blood stem cell ‘self-renewal’
Source: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Date: 17 February 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have begun to unravel how blood stem cells regenerate themselves, identifying a key gene required for the process. The discovery that the Erg gene is vitally important to blood stem cells’ unique ability to self-renew could give scientists new opportunities to use blood stem cells for tissue repair, transplantation and other therapeutic applications. The scientists said the research aimed to understand how blood stem cells are made. The study is published in the February edition of Genes and Development.
Date: 17 February 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have begun to unravel how blood stem cells regenerate themselves, identifying a key gene required for the process. The discovery that the Erg gene is vitally important to blood stem cells’ unique ability to self-renew could give scientists new opportunities to use blood stem cells for tissue repair, transplantation and other therapeutic applications. The scientists said the research aimed to understand how blood stem cells are made. The study is published in the February edition of Genes and Development.
Friday, February 11, 2011
Pace Picks Up for Clinical Trials to Evaluate Stem Cell Therapies
Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: February 11, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco provided an update of their research and the progress of clinical trials during a scientific symposium honoring the opening of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building on the UCSF Parnassus campus. The symposium included presentations about the development of stem cell therapies and groundbreaking clinical trials by leading scientists from California companies.
Scientist from Palo Alto-based StemCells Inc. discussed a decade-long program through which the company has developed neural stem cells for the treatment of several medical conditions. The company earlier completed a Phase I trial in which the cells were well tolerated in six patients with advanced stages of a rare and normally fatal disease called infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, commonly known as Batten Disease. StemCells Inc. now is conducting a Phase I trial in another rare and fatal brain disorder called Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD), in which the protective myelin sheath fails to develop around nerves.
StemCells Inc. is also engaged in pre-clinical studies and aims to develop protocols to treat more common, less fatal diseases, including other disorders involving loss of myelin, and age-related macular degeneration. The company has been authorized to begin treating spinal cord injury in a Swiss clinical trial.
Date: February 11, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco provided an update of their research and the progress of clinical trials during a scientific symposium honoring the opening of the Ray and Dagmar Dolby Regeneration Medicine Building on the UCSF Parnassus campus. The symposium included presentations about the development of stem cell therapies and groundbreaking clinical trials by leading scientists from California companies.
Scientist from Palo Alto-based StemCells Inc. discussed a decade-long program through which the company has developed neural stem cells for the treatment of several medical conditions. The company earlier completed a Phase I trial in which the cells were well tolerated in six patients with advanced stages of a rare and normally fatal disease called infantile neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, commonly known as Batten Disease. StemCells Inc. now is conducting a Phase I trial in another rare and fatal brain disorder called Pelizaeus-Merzbacher Disease (PMD), in which the protective myelin sheath fails to develop around nerves.
StemCells Inc. is also engaged in pre-clinical studies and aims to develop protocols to treat more common, less fatal diseases, including other disorders involving loss of myelin, and age-related macular degeneration. The company has been authorized to begin treating spinal cord injury in a Swiss clinical trial.
HOW NASAL STEM CELLS MIGHT PREVENT CHILDHOOD DEAFNESS
Source: Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Date: 11 February 2011
Summary:
Australian scientists have shown for the first time in mice that nasal stem cells injected into the inner ear have the potential to reverse or restore hearing during early onset sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when hearing cells in the cochlea lose their function. Frequently inherited, and usually starting during infancy and early childhood, the condition can slow a child’s development and lead to speech and language problems.
Drs Jeremy Sullivan, Sonali Pandit and Sharon Oleskevich from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, found that stem cells appear to release ‘factors’, or chemical substances, that help preserve the function of cochlear hearing cells, without the stem cells becoming part of the tissue of the inner ear. Their findings are published in STEM CELLS, now online.
Date: 11 February 2011
Summary:
Australian scientists have shown for the first time in mice that nasal stem cells injected into the inner ear have the potential to reverse or restore hearing during early onset sensorineural hearing loss. Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when hearing cells in the cochlea lose their function. Frequently inherited, and usually starting during infancy and early childhood, the condition can slow a child’s development and lead to speech and language problems.
Drs Jeremy Sullivan, Sonali Pandit and Sharon Oleskevich from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, found that stem cells appear to release ‘factors’, or chemical substances, that help preserve the function of cochlear hearing cells, without the stem cells becoming part of the tissue of the inner ear. Their findings are published in STEM CELLS, now online.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Preclinical data on potential benefits of stem cell therapy for stroke
Source: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Date: February 10, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) presented new results at the American Heart Association International Stroke Conference that demonstrated how MultiStem®, a novel stem cell therapy being developed by Athersys, Inc., provided multiple benefits when administered in preclinical models of ischemic stroke. The study, conducted by leading researchers from the Department of Neurology at the UTHealth Medical School working in collaboration with scientists at Athersys, illustrated the potential benefits of MultiStem therapy for treating stroke. Researchers observed that intravenous administration of MultiStem one day after a stroke reduced inflammatory damage in the brain and resulted in a significant improvement in motor skills.
Date: February 10, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) presented new results at the American Heart Association International Stroke Conference that demonstrated how MultiStem®, a novel stem cell therapy being developed by Athersys, Inc., provided multiple benefits when administered in preclinical models of ischemic stroke. The study, conducted by leading researchers from the Department of Neurology at the UTHealth Medical School working in collaboration with scientists at Athersys, illustrated the potential benefits of MultiStem therapy for treating stroke. Researchers observed that intravenous administration of MultiStem one day after a stroke reduced inflammatory damage in the brain and resulted in a significant improvement in motor skills.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Skin cells help to develop possible heart defect treatment in first-of-its-kind Stanford study
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: February 9, 2011
Summary:
STANFORD, Calif. — Using skin cells from young patients who have a severe genetic heart defect, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have generated beating heart cells that carry the same genetic mutation. The newly created human heart cells — cardiomyocytes — allowed the researchers for the first time to examine and characterize the disorder at the cellular level.
In a study to be published online Feb. 9 in Nature, the investigators also report their identification of a promising drug to reverse the heart malfunction — for which there are currently no decent treatments — after using these newly created heart cells to check the effects of a plethora of compounds.
The new approach involved converting skin cells to heart cells in a dish by reprogramming them to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, so that the cells are capable of "differentiating" into a multitude of cell types. The scientists then chemically coaxed these induced pluripotent stem cells to become heart cells. The iPS-cell approach represents a big advance because no good alternative methods for studying human heart malfunction at the cellular level now exist.
Date: February 9, 2011
Summary:
STANFORD, Calif. — Using skin cells from young patients who have a severe genetic heart defect, Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have generated beating heart cells that carry the same genetic mutation. The newly created human heart cells — cardiomyocytes — allowed the researchers for the first time to examine and characterize the disorder at the cellular level.
In a study to be published online Feb. 9 in Nature, the investigators also report their identification of a promising drug to reverse the heart malfunction — for which there are currently no decent treatments — after using these newly created heart cells to check the effects of a plethora of compounds.
The new approach involved converting skin cells to heart cells in a dish by reprogramming them to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, so that the cells are capable of "differentiating" into a multitude of cell types. The scientists then chemically coaxed these induced pluripotent stem cells to become heart cells. The iPS-cell approach represents a big advance because no good alternative methods for studying human heart malfunction at the cellular level now exist.
Friday, February 04, 2011
New induced stem cells may unmask cancer at earliest stage
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: February 4, 2011
Summary:
By coaxing healthy and diseased human bone marrow to become embryonic-like stem cells, a team of Wisconsin scientists has laid the groundwork for observing the onset of the blood cancer leukemia in the laboratory dish. Human bone marrow cells were coaxed to become pluripotent, all-purpose stem cells (right) in a new study by a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher Igor Slukvin, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Slukvin’s group turned banked healthy and diseased human bone marrow into blank-slate stem cells, which have potential use in therapy and could become a powerful laboratory model, as the new induced cells made from diseased marrow carry the same genetic mutations that cause the blood cancer chronic myeloid leukemia. The research was reported today in the journal Blood.
Date: February 4, 2011
Summary:
By coaxing healthy and diseased human bone marrow to become embryonic-like stem cells, a team of Wisconsin scientists has laid the groundwork for observing the onset of the blood cancer leukemia in the laboratory dish. Human bone marrow cells were coaxed to become pluripotent, all-purpose stem cells (right) in a new study by a team led by University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell researcher Igor Slukvin, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Slukvin’s group turned banked healthy and diseased human bone marrow into blank-slate stem cells, which have potential use in therapy and could become a powerful laboratory model, as the new induced cells made from diseased marrow carry the same genetic mutations that cause the blood cancer chronic myeloid leukemia. The research was reported today in the journal Blood.
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Scientists Unlock One Mystery of Tissue Regeneration
Source: University of Rochester
Date: February 3, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Rochester have now identified a genetic switch that controls oxidative stress in stem cells and thus governs stem cell function. The researchers studied the function of two genes, Nrf2 and Keap1, which were already known as regulators of cellular responses to oxidative stress. The research team was surprised to discover that, in contrast to other cell types, Nrf2 was active within the stem cells even in the absence of stress. This finding suggested that Nrf2 might have an unusual role in the control of stem cell function. The work is being published in the February 4 issue of the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell.
Date: February 3, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Rochester have now identified a genetic switch that controls oxidative stress in stem cells and thus governs stem cell function. The researchers studied the function of two genes, Nrf2 and Keap1, which were already known as regulators of cellular responses to oxidative stress. The research team was surprised to discover that, in contrast to other cell types, Nrf2 was active within the stem cells even in the absence of stress. This finding suggested that Nrf2 might have an unusual role in the control of stem cell function. The work is being published in the February 4 issue of the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Transplanted human placenta-derived stem cells show therapeutic potential in stroke models
Source: University of South Florida (USF Health)
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
Human amniotic epithelial cells, stem cells derived from human placenta left over from live births and generally discarded, proliferated and differentiated when they interacted with one kind of melatonin receptor, MT1. This potentially therapeutic response occurred when the stem cells were transplanted into laboratory test tube and animal models of stroke. The same cells did not perform similarly when interacting with melatonin receptor MT2.
Researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, and co-researchers in Brescia, Italy, concluded that the placenta-derived stem cells and their interaction with MT1 promoted functional recovery in the laboratory mice with modeled stroke. Their study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Pineal Research.
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
Human amniotic epithelial cells, stem cells derived from human placenta left over from live births and generally discarded, proliferated and differentiated when they interacted with one kind of melatonin receptor, MT1. This potentially therapeutic response occurred when the stem cells were transplanted into laboratory test tube and animal models of stroke. The same cells did not perform similarly when interacting with melatonin receptor MT2.
Researchers from the University of South Florida's Department of Neurosurgery and Brain Repair, and co-researchers in Brescia, Italy, concluded that the placenta-derived stem cells and their interaction with MT1 promoted functional recovery in the laboratory mice with modeled stroke. Their study is published in the current issue of the Journal of Pineal Research.
Engineered cells could usher in programmable cell therapies
Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
Boston, MA - In work that could jumpstart the promising field of cell therapy, in which cells are transplanted into the body to treat a variety of diseases and tissue defects, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have engineered cells that could solve one of the key challenges associated with the procedure: control of the cells and their microenvironment following transplantation.
In the work, reported in the journal Biomaterials on January 26, the team reports creating tiny internal depots within human mesenchymal adult stem cells, which among other functions are key to the generation of several tissues. These depots can slowly release a variety of agents to influence the behavior of not only the cells containing the depots, but also those close to them and even much farther away. The team demonstrated this by prompting mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into the cells that make bone.
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
Boston, MA - In work that could jumpstart the promising field of cell therapy, in which cells are transplanted into the body to treat a variety of diseases and tissue defects, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have engineered cells that could solve one of the key challenges associated with the procedure: control of the cells and their microenvironment following transplantation.
In the work, reported in the journal Biomaterials on January 26, the team reports creating tiny internal depots within human mesenchymal adult stem cells, which among other functions are key to the generation of several tissues. These depots can slowly release a variety of agents to influence the behavior of not only the cells containing the depots, but also those close to them and even much farther away. The team demonstrated this by prompting mesenchymal stem cells to differentiate into the cells that make bone.
MicroRNA Cocktail Helps Turn Skin Cells into Stem Cells
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, Calif., – Stem cells are ideal tools to understand disease and develop new treatments; however, they can be difficult to obtain in necessary quantities. In particular, generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be an arduous task because reprogramming differentiated adult skin cells into iPS cells requires many steps and the efficiency is very low – researchers might end up with only a few iPS cells even if they started with a million skin cells. A team at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) set out to improve this process. In a paper published February 1 in The EMBO Journal, the team identified several specific microRNAs (miRNAs) that are important during reprogramming and exploited them to make the transition from skin cell to iPS cell more efficient.
Date: February 1, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, Calif., – Stem cells are ideal tools to understand disease and develop new treatments; however, they can be difficult to obtain in necessary quantities. In particular, generating induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be an arduous task because reprogramming differentiated adult skin cells into iPS cells requires many steps and the efficiency is very low – researchers might end up with only a few iPS cells even if they started with a million skin cells. A team at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) set out to improve this process. In a paper published February 1 in The EMBO Journal, the team identified several specific microRNAs (miRNAs) that are important during reprogramming and exploited them to make the transition from skin cell to iPS cell more efficient.
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