Stem Cells That “Fool” Immune System May Provide Vaccination for Cancer

Source: University of Connecticut
Date: November 23, 2009

Summary:

University of Connecticut Health Center researchers in collaboration with scientists from China have revealed the potential for human stem cells to provide a vaccination against colon cancer, reports a study published in October in STEM CELLS. This discovery, led by immunology experts Dr. Bei Liu and Dr. Zihai Li, builds upon a century-old theory that immunizing with embryonic materials may generate an anti-tumor response. However, this theory has never before been advanced beyond the use of animal embryonic materials, and the discovery that human stem cells are able to immunize against colon cancer is both new and unexpected.

New research shows versatility of amniotic fluid stem cells

Source: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Date: November 23, 2009

Summary:

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – For the first time, scientists have demonstrated that stem cells found in amniotic fluid meet an important test of potential to become specialized cell types, which suggests they may be useful for treating a wider array of diseases and conditions than scientists originally thought. Reporting in Oncogene, a publication of Nature Publishing Group, the research teams of Anthony Atala, M.D., director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Markus Hengstschläger, Ph.D., from the Medical University of Vienna, have shown that these amnion stem cells can form three-dimensional aggregates of cells known as embryoid bodies (EBs). It is believed that cells at this stage of development can be directed to become virtually any cell in the human body.

First Reconstitution of an Epidermis from Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Source: INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale)
Date: November 20, 2009

Summary:

In a a study carried out by the I-STEM* Institute (I-STEM/ Inserm UEVE U861/AFM) in France, published in The Lancet on 21 November 2009, researchers have just succeeded in recreating a whole epidermis from human embryonic stem cells. The goal is to one day be able to propose this unlimited resource of cells as an alternative treatment in particular for victims of third degree burns.

Below are links to media coverage of this development from various news sources:

Scientific American

New Scientist

The Times

HealthDay News

WebMD

BBC News

Agence France Presse (AFP)

Scotsman

Advanced Cell Technology Files IND With FDA For First Human Clinical Trial Using Embryonic Stem Cells to Treat Eye Disease

Source: Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.
Posted: November 19, 2009 10:00 AM ET

Summary:

In an official company news release, Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. a biotechnology company in the field of stem cell research, announced it has filed an application with the Food & Drug Administration to begin a study using embryonic treat patients with Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD), a degenerative eye disease:

WORCESTER, Mass.--Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. announced today that it filed an Investigational New Drug (IND) Application with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to initiate a Phase I/II multicenter study using embryonic stem cell derived retinal cells to treat patients with Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD). Among the most common causes of untreatable blindness in the world are degenerative diseases of the retina. As many as 10 million people in the United States have photoreceptor degenerative disease. While most of these patients have Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), a smaller number of patients have Stargardt’s, an Orphan disease and one of the most common forms of juvenile macular blindness. The treatment for eye disease uses stem cells to re-create a type of cell in the retina that supports the photoreceptors needed for vision. These cells, called retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), are often the first to die off in SMD and AMD, which in turn leads to loss of vision.

Drug studied as possible treatment for spinal injuries

Source: Purdue University
Date: November 19, 2009

Summary:

Researchers have shown how an experimental drug might restore the function of nerves damaged in spinal cord injuries by preventing short circuits caused when tiny "potassium channels" in the fibers are exposed. The chemical compound also might be developed as a treatment for multiple sclerosis. Because nerves usually are not severed in a common type of spinal cord trauma, called "compression" injuries, the drug offers hope as a possible treatment, said Riyi Shi, a professor in Purdue University's Department of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Center for Paralysis Research and Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering.

Stem cells alleviate tumor treatment side effects

Source: University of California- Irvine
Date: November 17, 2009

Summary:

Human embryonic stem cells could help people with learning and memory deficits after radiation treatment for brain tumors, suggests a new UC Irvine study. Research with rats found that transplanted stem cells restored learning and memory to normal levels four months after radiotherapy. In contrast, irradiated rats that didn't receive stem cells experienced a more than 50 percent drop in cognitive function.

"Our findings provide the first evidence that such cells can be used to ameliorate radiation-induced damage of healthy tissue in the brain," says Charles Limoli, UCI radiation oncology associate professor and senior author of the study, appearing online the week of Nov. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Your own stem cells can treat heart disease: Transplanting people’s own stem cells into heart lessens pain, improves ability to walk

Source: Northwestern University
Date: November 18, 2009

Summary:

CHICAGO ---The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of patients with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. They also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn't receive stem cells. The stem cells were injected in an effort to spur the growth of small blood vessels in the heart muscle.

Here is a story from HealthDay News about this development.

On your last nerve: Researchers advance understanding of stem cells

Source: North Carolina State University
Date: November 17, 2009

Summary:

Researchers from North Carolina State University have identified a gene that tells embryonic stem cells in the brain when to stop producing nerve cells called neurons. The research is a significant advance in understanding the development of the nervous system, which is essential to addressing conditions such as Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological disorders.

Researchers find potential treatment for Huntington's disease

Source: Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Date: November 15, 2009

Summary:

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research, the University of British Columbia's Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics and the University of California, San Diego have found that normal synaptic activity in nerve cells (the electrical activity in the brain that allows nerve cells to communicate with one another) protects the brain from the misfolded proteins associated with Huntington's disease.

In contrast, excessive extrasynaptic activity (aberrant electrical activity in the brain, usually not associated with communication between nerve cells) enhances the misfolded proteins' deadly effects. Researchers also found that the drug Memantine, which is approved to treat Alzheimer's disease, successfully treated Huntington's disease in a mouse model by preserving normal synaptic electrical activity and suppressing excessive extrasynaptic electrical activity. The research was published in the journal Nature Medicine on November 15.

How Does The Pancreas In An Embryo ‘Know’ Which Cells Are To Produce Insulin?

Source: Lund University
Date: November 13, 2009

Summary:

How does the developing pancreas in an embryo 'know' which cells are to produce insulin and which cells are to have other assignments? Researchers need to understand this if they want to be able to treat type-1 diabetes with stem cells developed into insulin-producing beta cells. At Lund University scientists have uncovered pioneering new knowledge, and are publishing it in the journal Cell.

Coverage Summary: UC Irvine Embryonic Stem Cell Cognitive Function Restoration Study

Below is a summary of news coverage of the recent announcement by researchers at University of California, Irvine that embryonic stem cells restored cognitive function in brains damaged by radiation:

Ivanhoe Newswire, November 12, 2009: "Stem Cells Restore Brain Function":

Human embryonic stem cells could reverse learning and memory deficits people experience after undergoing radiation treatment for brain tumors. Research with rats found that transplanted stem cells restored learning and memory to normal levels four months after radiation therapy. In contrast, irradiated rats that didn't receive stem cells experienced a more than 50 percent drop in cognitive function.

Los Angeles Times Health, November 10, 2009: "Embryonic stem cells may restore brains damaged by radiation":

Scientists at UC Irvine and UC San Francisco have found a potential new use for human embryonic stem cells – helping cancer patients recover the cognitive function lost when their brains are treated with radiation. People with tumors in their head or neck often undergo radiation therapy after the cancer is surgically removed. That radiation helps kill off any malignant cells left behind. But it can also debilitate the region of the brain called the hippocampus, which is responsible for learning, memory and processing of spatial information. It is also one of only two areas in the brain known to produce new neurons.

Agence France Presse (AFP), November 10, 2009: "Stems cells repair brain function in irradiated rats":

WASHINGTON — Human embryonic stem cells may one day be used to help people recover abilities to learn and remember that are lost after radiation treatment for brain tumors, experiments on rats suggest. In a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that transplanted stem cells in rats restored learning and memory within four months of radiotherapy.

Mouse Gene Suppresses Alzheimer’s Plaques and Tangles

Source: Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Date: November 11, 2009

Summary:

Investigators at Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and colleagues have identified a novel mouse gene (Rps23r1) that reduces the accumulation of two toxic proteins that are major players in Alzheimer’s disease: amyloid beta and tau. The amyloid and tau lowering functions of this gene were demonstrated in both human and mouse cells. Amyloid beta is responsible for the plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Tau causes the tangles found within patients’ brain cells. The study was published in the journal Neuron on November 12. These findings could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

Longevity tied to genes that preserve tips of chromosomes

Albert Einstein College of Medicine
November 11, 2009

Summary:

A team led by researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University has found a clear link between living to 100 and inheriting a hyperactive version of an enzyme that rebuilds telomeres – the tip ends of chromosomes. The findings appear in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In investigating the role of telomeres in aging, the Einstein researchers studied Ashkenazi Jews because they are a homogeneous population that was already well studied genetically. Three groups were enrolled: 86 very old — but generally healthy —
Gil Atzmon, Ph.D.people (average age 97); 175 of their offspring; and 93 controls (offspring of parents who had lived a normal lifespan).

Researchers found that participants who have lived to a very old age have inherited mutant genes that make their telomerase-making system extra active and able to maintain telomere length more effectively. For the most part, these people were spared age-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, which cause most deaths among elderly people.

Geron Collaborators Publish Data on hESC-Derived Glial Progenitor Cell Therapy in Cervical Spinal Cord Injury

Source: Geron Corporation
Date: November 11, 2009

Summary:

Geron Corporation today announced the publication of data showing that oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs), when transplanted into a rodent model of cervical spinal cord injury, reduced tissue damage within the lesion and improved recovery of locomotor function. These data provide preclinical proof-of-concept for the use of GRNOPC1, Geron's hESC-derived oligodendrocyte progenitor product, in patients with cervical spinal cord injuries. Over half of the 11,000 human spinal cord injuries that are sustained in the U.S. annually are in the cervical region.

The study was authored by Geron collaborator Dr. Hans S. Keirstead and colleagues at the Reeve-Irvine Research Center and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center at the University of California at Irvine. The paper was published online in advance of print in the journal Stem Cells.

Stem cells restore cognitive abilities impaired by brain tumor treatment, UCI study finds

Source: University of California - Irvine
Date: November 9, 2009

Summary:

Human embryonic stem cells could help people with learning and memory deficits after radiation treatment for brain tumors, suggests a new UC Irvine study appearing online the week of Nov. 9 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Research with rats found that transplanted stem cells restored learning and memory to normal levels four months after radiotherapy. In contrast, irradiated rats that didn't receive stem cells experienced a more than 50 percent drop in cognitive function. In the UCI study, stem cells were transplanted into the heads of rats that had undergone radiation treatment. They migrated to a brain region known to support the growth of neurons, scientists observed, and developed into new brain cells.

Researchers discover new source of brain cells. Discovery could speed progress on stem cell treatments of brain disorders

Source: University of California - Davis
Date: November 9, 2009

Summary:

(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Twenty-six years after scientists first suspected their existence, UC Davis researchers provide definitive evidence that certain neural progenitor cells, which can be identified by their expression of a myelin gene promoter, are present throughout the adult brain and spinal cord, and that these cells are capable of differentiating into neurons.

Using genetic fate mapping — a technique for detailing the developmental path of cells — Pleasure and his team found that cells known as PPEPs (pronounced pee-peps) differentiate into the three main types of neural cells: astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and neurons. Neurons are the main cells of the brain, responsible for communicating with each other and responding to stimuli. The other two cell types — known as glial cells — play supporting roles in brain functions.

The findings, reported in June 2009 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, open up a new way of thinking about using multipotent progenitor cells to treat diseases of the brain and spinal cord, such as Huntington’s disease and traumatic brain injury. Now the UC Davis team and other stem cell scientists have a new class of endogenous neural progenitor cells with which to work.

Embryonic Stem Cell Therapy Restores Walking Ability In Rats With Neck Injuries

Source: University of California - Irvine
Date: November 9, 2009

Summary:

The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries -- a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage. In January, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration gave Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., permission to test the UC Irvine treatment in individuals with thoracic spinal cord injuries, which occur below the neck. However, trying it in those with cervical damage wasn't approved because preclinical testing with rats hadn't been completed.

Results of the cervical study currently appear online in the journal Stem Cells. UCI scientist Hans Keirstead hopes the data will prompt the FDA to authorize clinical testing of the treatment in people with both types of spinal cord damage. About 52 percent of spinal cord injuries are cervical and 48 percent thoracic.

UC Irvine has produced a video that explains the results of this finding.

Findings show nanomedicine promising for treating spinal cord injuries

Source: Purdue University
Date: November 8, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at Purdue University have discovered a new approach for repairing damaged nerve fibers in spinal cord injuries using nano-spheres that could be injected into the blood shortly after an accident. The synthetic "copolymer micelles" are drug-delivery spheres about 60 nanometers in diameter, or roughly 100 times smaller than the diameter of a red blood cell. Researchers have been studying how to deliver drugs for cancer treatment and other therapies using these spheres. Medications might be harbored in the cores and ferried to diseased or damaged tissue. Purdue researchers have now shown that the micelles themselves repair damaged axons, fibers that transmit electrical impulses in the spinal cord. Findings are detailed in a research paper appearing Sunday (Nov. 8) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.

Scientists Successfully Reprogram Blood Cells to Correct Lysosomal Storage Disease

Source: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Date: November 6, 2009

Summary:

Researchers have transplanted genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells into mice so that their developing red blood cells produce a critical lysosomal enzyme -preventing or reducing organ and central nervous system damage from the often-fatal genetic disorder Hurler's syndrome. The research team from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center reports its preclinical laboratory results this week in the early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study suggests a new approach to molecular gene therapy and a much-needed improved treatment option for children with Hurler's syndrome, said Dao Pan, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Hematology/Cancer Biology at Cincinnati Children's and the study's principal author. It also is the first study to demonstrate that
developing red blood cells can be used to produce lysosomal enzymes.

Gene therapy technique slows ALD brain disease

Source: American Association for the Advancement of Science
Date: 5 November 2009

Summary:

A strategy that combines gene therapy with blood stem cell therapy may be a useful tool for treating a fatal brain disease, French researchers have found. These findings appear in the 6 November 2009 issue of the journal Science. In a pilot study of two patients monitored for two years, an international team of researchers slowed the onset of the debilitating brain disease X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) using a lentiviral vector to introduce a therapeutic gene into patient's blood cells. Although studies with larger cohorts of patients are needed, these results suggest that gene therapy with lentiviral vectors, which are derived from disabled versions of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), could potentially become instrumental in treating a broad range of human disorders.

Study shows neural stem cells in mice affected by gene associated with longevity

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
November 5, 2009

Summary:

A gene associated with longevity in roundworms and humans has been shown to affect the function of stem cells that generate new neurons in the adult brain, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The study in mice suggests that the gene may play an important role in maintaining cognitive function during aging.

“It’s intriguing to think that genes that regulate life span in invertebrates may have evolved to control stem cell pools in mammals,” said Anne Brunet, PhD, assistant professor of genetics. She is the senior author of the research, published Nov. 6 in Cell Stem Cell.

First use of antibody and stem cell transplantation to successfully treat advanced leukemia

Source: Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Date: November 5, 2009

Summary:

For the first time, researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have reported the use of a radiolabeled antibody to deliver targeted doses of radiation, followed by a stem cell transplant, to successfully treat a group of leukemia and pre-leukemia patients for whom there previously had been no other curative treatment options.

All fifty-eight patients, with a median age of 63 and all with advanced acute myeloid leukemia or high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome - a pre-leukemic condition - saw their blood cancers go into remission using a novel combination of low-intensity chemotherapy, targeted radiation delivery by an antibody and a stem-cell transplant. Forty percent of the patients were alive a year after treatment and approximately 35 percent had survived three years, about the same rates as patients who received similar treatment but whose disease was already in remission and who had much more favorable risk for relapse when therapy began.

Results of the research appear online in the journal Blood. The principal investigator and corresponding author of the paper is John Pagel, M.D., Ph.D, a transplant oncologist and assistant member of the Hutchinson Center's Clinical Research Division.

Lung tissue generated from human embryonic stem cells

Source: BioMed Central
November 4, 2009

Summary:

Scientists in Belgium have successfully differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into major cell types of lung epithelial tissue using a convenient air-liquid interface. The technique, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Respiratory Research, could provide an alternative to lung transplants for patients with lung injury due to chronic pulmonary disease and inherited genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.

SCIENTISTS REVEAL HOW INDUCED PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS DIFFER FROM EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS AND TISSUE OF DERIVATION

Source: Johns Hopkins Medicine
Date: November 4, 2009

Summary:

The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. Although genetically identical to the mature body cells from which they are derived, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are notably special in their ability to self-renew and differentiate into all kinds of cells. And now scientists have detected a remarkable if subtle molecular disparity between the two: They have distinct “epigenetic” signatures; that is, they differ in what gets copied when the cell divides, even though these differences aren’t part of the DNA sequence.

Unraveling the mechanisms behind organ regeneration in zebrafish

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: November 2, 2009

Summary:

Unlike humans, zebrafish are able to regenerate amputated appendages. The search for the holy grail of regenerative medicine -- the ability to "grow back" a perfect body part when one is lost to injury or disease -- has been under way for years, yet the steps involved in this seemingly magic process are still poorly understood.

Now researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified an essential cellular pathway in zebrafish that paves the way for limb regeneration by unlocking gene expression patterns last seen during embryonic development. They found that a process known as histone demethylation switches cells at the amputation site from an inactive to an active state, which turns on the genes required to build a copy of the lost limb.

Their findings, which will be published in a forthcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A., help to explain how epimorphic regeneration—the regrowing of morphologically and functionally perfect copies of amputated limbs—is controlled, an important step toward understanding why certain animals can do it and we cannot.

Regeneration Can be Achieved after Chronic Spinal Cord Injury

Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: October 28, 2009

Summary:

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine report that regeneration of central nervous system axons can be achieved in rats even when treatment is delayed more than a year after the original spinal cord injury. Reporting in the October 29 issue of the Cell Press journal Neuron, the UC San Diego team demonstrated successful regeneration of adult spinal cord axons into, and then beyond, an injury site in the cervical spinal cord, the middle region of the neck. Treatment was begun at time periods ranging from six weeks to as long as 15 months after the original injury in rats.

Stem Cell Therapy May Offer Hope for Acute Lung Injury

Source: University of Illinois at Chicago
Date: October 28, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have shown that adult stem cells from bone marrow can prevent acute lung injury in a mouse model of the disease. Their results are reported online in the October issue of the journal Stem Cells.

Stem Cells Changed Into Precursors For Sperm, Eggs

Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
Date: October 28, 2009

Summary:

Human embryonic stem cells derived from excess IVF embryos may help scientists unlock the mysteries of infertility for other couples struggling to conceive, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Researchers at the school have devised a way to efficiently coax the cells to become human germ cells -- the precursors of egg and sperm cells -- in the laboratory. Unlike previous research, which yielded primarily immature germ cells, the cells in this most-recent study functioned well enough to generate sperm cells.

Here is a link to a news story associated with this news release from the San Jose Mercury News.

New Process for Embryonic Stem Cell Differentiation Discovered

Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH)
Date: October 26, 2009

Summary:

In a novel approach to the study of embryonic stem cells, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have discovered a potential means of controlling differentiation into desired cell types, by demonstrating that sugars play a major role in modulating stem cell differentiation into tissues. These findings appear online on October 26, 2009 in Circulation.

Scientists develop novel method to generate functional hepatocytes for drug testing

Source: University of Edinburgh
Date: October 20, 2009

Summary:

Scientists have for the first time produced liver cells from adult skin cells using the induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology. The study, led by the University of Edinburgh's MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine, paves the way for the creation of a stem cell library that can be used for in vitro hepatic disease models.

Presently primary human hepatocytes (PHHs) are the 'gold standard' cell type used in predictive drug toxicology. These cells are derived from dead or donor tissue. The cells can only survive for three to five days and do not have the ability to multiply. PHH cells are therefore a scarce and expensive resource. This study shows an alternative way of sourcing hepatocytes, by creating hepatic endoderm using the iPSC technology and then differentiating it into hepatocytes.

Growing Cartilage from Stem Cells

Source: University of California - Davis
Date: October 20, 2009

Summary:

Damaged knee joints might one day be repaired with cartilage grown from stem cells in a laboratory, based on research by Professor Kyriacos Athanasiou, chair of the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering and his colleagues. Using adult stem cells from bone marrow and skin as well as human embryonic stem cells, Athanasiou and his group have already grown cartilage tissue in the lab. Now they are experimenting with various chemical and mechanical stimuli to improve its properties.

Identifying Safe Stem Cells To Repair Spinal Cords

Source: Society for Neuroscience
Date: October 20, 2009

Summary:

Animal research is suggesting new ways to aid recovery after spinal cord injury. New studies demonstrate that diet affects recovery rate and show how to make stem cell therapies safer for spinal injury patients. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2009, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news on brain science and health.

In other animal studies, researchers identified molecules that encourage spinal cord regeneration and ways to block molecules that discourage it. The findings may help shape therapies for the more than one million people in North America who have spinal cord injuries.

Stem Cell Transplants May Prevent Devastating Eye Diseases

Source: Oregon Health & Science University
Date: October 19, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at OHSU's Casey Eye Institute and StemCells Inc., have demonstrated that placing human neural stem cells in the back of the eye of rats protects cone photoreceptors in the eye from progressive degeneration and preserves eyesight. The results were presented at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Chicago today and were selected from thousands of other papers to be released to the press.

Small mechanical force induces strong biological responses in embryonic stem cells

Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Date: October 19, 2009

Summary:

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed cell differentiation include therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicine. Results suggest that small forces may indeed play critical roles in inducing strong biological responses in embryonic stem cells, and in shaping embryos during their early development. The research is published in Nature Materials.

What drives our genes? Salk researchers map the first complete human epigenome

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
October 14, 2009

Summary:

LA JOLLA, CA—Although the human genome sequence faithfully lists (almost) every single DNA base of the roughly 3 billion bases that make up a human genome, it doesn't tell biologists much about how its function is regulated. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute provide the first detailed map of the human epigenome, the layer of genetic control beyond the regulation inherent in the sequence of the genes themselves.

Their study, published in the Oct. 14, 2009 advance online edition of the journal Nature, compared the epigenomes of human embryonic stem cells and differentiated connective cells from the lung called fibroblasts, revealing a highly dynamic, yet tightly controlled, landscape of chemical signposts known as methyl-groups. The head-to-head comparison brought to light a novel DNA methylation pattern unique to stem cells, which may explain how stem cells establish and maintain their pluripotent state, the researchers say.

Researchers find triggers in cells' transition from colitis to cancer

Source: University of Florida
Date: October 12, 2009

Summary:

University of Florida researchers have grown tumors in mice using cells from inflamed but noncancerous colon tissue taken from human patients, a finding that sheds new light on colon cancer and how it might be prevented. Scientists observed that cancer stem cells taken from the gastrointestinal system in patients with a chronic digestive disease called ulcerative colitis will transform into cancerous tumors in mice. The finding, now online and to be featured on the cover of the Thursday (Oct. 15) issue of Cancer Research, may help explain why patients with colitis have up to a 30-fold risk of developing colon cancer compared with people without the disease.

Beating, conductive heart muscle cells grown in lab

Source: Duke University
Date: October 12, 2009

Summary:

DURHAM, N.C. -- By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living “heart patch” to repair heart tissue damaged by disease.

In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional “patch” made up of heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue exhibited the two most important attributes of heart muscle cells -– the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses. The mold looks much like a piece of Chex cereal in which researchers varied the shape and length of the pores to control the direction and orientation of the growing cells.

The researchers grew the cells in an environment much like that found in natural tissues. They encapsulated the cells within a gel composed of the blood-clotting protein fibrin, which provided mechanical support to the cells, allowing them to form a three-dimensional structure. They also found that the cardiomyocytes flourished only in the presence of a class of “helper” cells known as cardiac fibroblasts, which comprise as much as 60 percent of all cells present in a human heart.

Doctors Use Patient’s Own Stem Cells to Grow Facial Bone in Groundbreaking Procedure

Source: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Date: October 12, 2009

Summary:

In a first-of-its kind procedure, physicians have used stem cells taken from the fat tissue of a 14-year-old boy and combined them with growth protein and donor tissue to grow viable cheek bones in the teen. The new procedure dramatically improves the options surgeons have for repairing bone deficiencies caused by traumatic injuries – such as those from car accidents or soldiers wounded in battle – or by disease and genetic conditions, according to Jesse Taylor, MD, a surgeon and researcher in the Division of Craniofacial and Pediatric Plastic Surgery at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. An estimated 7 million people in the United States have defects in bone continuity so severe that repair is difficult.

Genetics of Patterning the Cerebral Cortex: How stem cells yield functional regions in "gray matter"

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: October 12, 2009

Summary:

LA JOLLA, CA—The cerebral cortex, the largest and most complex component of the brain, is unique to mammals and alone has evolved human specializations. Although at first all stem cells in charge of building the cerebral cortex—the outermost layer of neurons commonly referred to as gray matter—are created equal, soon they irrevocably commit to forming specific cortical regions. But how the stem cells' destiny is determined has remained an open question.

In the Oct. 11 advance online edition of Nature Neuroscience, scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies report that they have identified the first genetic mechanism that determines the regional identity of progenitors tasked with generating the cerebral cortex. Their discovery reveals a critical period during which a LIM homeodomain transcription factor known as Lhx2 decides over the progenitors' regional destiny: Once the window of opportunity closes, their fate is sealed.

Researchers pave the way for effective liver treatments

Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: October 9, 2009

UCSD researchers have developed a novel high-throughput cellular array technology that is being used to assess the complex relationships between hepatic stellate cells and components of their microenvironment.
A combination of bioengineering and medical research at the University of California, San Diego has led to a new discovery that could pave the way for more effective treatments for liver disease.

In this work, the researchers have utilized an array system that can identify the biological components that can lead to or alleviate liver disease. The technology works by controlling the range of environments surrounding star-shaped liver cells called hepatic stellate cells (HSCs). HSCs are the major cell type involved in liver fibrosis, which is the formation of scar tissue in response to liver damage. The activated stellate cell is responsible for secreting collagen that produces a fibrous scar, which can lead to cirrhosis.

Current approaches to identify the factors affecting HSC biology typically focus on each factor individually, ignoring the complex cross-talk between the many components acting on the cells. The high-throughput cellular array technology developed by UCSD researchers systematically assesses and probes the complex relationships between hepatic stellate cells and components of their microenvironment. By doing this, they found that certain proteins are critical in regulating HSC activation and that the proteins influence one another's actions on the cells. The findings were published in a paper entitled "Investigating the role of the extracellular environment in modulating hepatic stellate cell biology with array combinatorial microenvironments" in the September 2009 issue of Integrative Biology.

Liver cells grown from patients' skin cells

Source: Medical College of Wisconsin
Date: October 8, 2009

Summary:

Scientists at The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee have successfully produced liver cells from patients' skin cells opening the possibility of treating a wide range of diseases that affect liver function. The study was led by Stephen A. Duncan, D. Phil., Marcus Professor in Human and Molecular Genetics, and professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy, along with postdoctoral fellow Karim Si-Tayeb, Ph.D., and graduate student Ms. Fallon Noto.

Major step forward in cell reprogramming

Source: Harvard University
Date: October 8, 2009

Summary:

A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made a major advance toward producing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are safe enough to use in treating diseases in patients. The chemical that the team used is a small molecule that members named RepSox in honor of another Boston team. It replaces Sox2 and cMyc, two of the four genes currently being used to reprogram adult skin cells into an embryonic-like state.

“This demonstrates that we’re halfway home, and remarkably we got halfway home with just one chemical,” said Kevin Eggan, an HSCI principal faculty member who is the senior author of the paper being published online today by the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Major improvements made in engineering heart repair patches from stem cells

Source: University of Washington
Date: October 7, 2009

Summary:

University of Washington (UW) researchers have succeeded in engineering human tissue patches free of some problems that have stymied stem-cell repair for damaged hearts.

The disk-shaped patches can be fabricated in sizes ranging from less than a millimeter to a half-inch in diameter. Until now, engineering tissue for heart repair has been hampered by cells dying at the transplant core, because nutrients and oxygen reached the edges of the patch but not the center. To make matters worse, the scaffolding materials to position the cells often proved to be harmful.

Heart tissue patches composed only of heart muscle cells couldn't grow big enough or survive long enough to take hold after they were implanted in rodents, the researchers noted in their article, published last month in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers decided to look at the possibility of building new tissue with supply lines for the oxygen and nutrients that living cells require.

World’s first engineered T cell receptor trial opens with new cellular therapy for HIV

Source: Adaptimmune Ltd. / University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Date: 7 October 2009

Summary:

Researchers at Adaptimmune Limited and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, today announced the approval of an Investigational New Drug (IND) application from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and opening for enrolment of the first ever study using patients’ cells carrying an engineered T cell receptor to treat HIV (SL9 HA-GAG-TCR). The trial may have important implications in the development of new treatments for HIV potentially slowing – or even preventing – the onset of AIDS.

Enhanced stem cells promote tissue regeneration

Source: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Date: October 5, 2009

Summary:

MIT engineers have boosted stem cells’ ability to regenerate vascular tissue (such as blood vessels) by equipping them with genes that produce extra growth factors (naturally occurring compounds that stimulate tissue growth). In a study in mice, the researchers found that the stem cells successfully generated blood vessels near the site of an injury, allowing damaged tissue to survive.

After removing stem cells from mouse bone marrow, the researchers used specially developed nanoparticles to deliver the gene for the growth factor VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor). The stem cells were then implanted into damaged tissue areas. These nanoparticles, which the MIT team has also tested to deliver cancer treatments, are believed to be safer than the viruses often used for gene delivery.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, week of Oct. 5, 2009.

Umbilical cord blood as a readily available source for off-the-shelf, patient-specific stem cells

Source: Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: October 1, 2009

Summary:

Umbilical cord blood cells can successfully be reprogrammed to function like embryonic stem cells, setting the basis for the creation of a comprehensive bank of tissue-matched, cord blood-derived induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for off-the-shelf applications, report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Center for Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona, Spain.
"Cord blood stem cells could serve as a safe, "ready-to-use" source for the generation of iPS cells, since they are easily accessible, immunologically immature and quick to return to an embryonic stem cell-like state," says Juan-Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, Ph.D., a professor in the Salk's Gene Expression Laboratory, who led the study published in the October issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Scientists discover clues to what makes human muscle age

Source: University of California - Berkeley
Date: September 30, 2009

Summary:

A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has identified critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating these pathways, the researchers were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself. The findings will be reported in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed, scientific publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

Clues To Reversing Aging Of Human Muscle Discovered

Source: University of California - Berkeley
Date: September 30, 2009

Summary:

A study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has identified critical biochemical pathways linked to the aging of human muscle. By manipulating these pathways, the researchers were able to turn back the clock on old human muscle, restoring its ability to repair and rebuild itself. The findings will be reported in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed, scientific publication of the European Molecular Biology Organization.

ANTIOXIDANT CONTROLS SPINAL CORD DEVELOPMENT

Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Date: September 17, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered how one antioxidant protein controls the activity of another protein, critical for the development of spinal cord neurons. The research, publishing this week in Cell, describes a never-before known mechanism of protein control. Previous research had shown that the GDE2 protein can cause immature cells in the spinal cord to differentiate into motor neurons, the nerve cells that connect to and control muscle contraction. Too little GDE2 causes motor neurons to not develop, while too much GDE2 causes them to develop too quickly, depleting progenitor pools.

Master gene that switches on disease-fighting cells identified by scientists

Source: Imperial College London
Date: 15 September 2009

Summary:

The master gene that causes blood stem cells to turn into disease-fighting 'Natural Killer' (NK) immune cells has been identified by scientists, in a study published in Nature Immunology today. The discovery could one day help scientists boost the body's production of these frontline tumour-killing cells, creating new ways to treat cancer. The researchers have 'knocked out' the gene in question, known as E4bp4, in a mouse model, creating the world's first animal model entirely lacking NK cells, but with all other blood cells and immune cells intact. This breakthrough model should help solve the mystery of the role that Natural Killer cells play in autoimmune diseases, such as diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Some scientists think that these diseases are caused by malfunctioning NK cells that turn on the body and attack healthy cells, causing disease instead of fighting it. Clarifying NK cells' role could lead to new ways of treating these conditions. The study was carried out by researchers at Imperial College London, UCL and the Medical Research Council’s National Institute for Medical Research.

Discovered key gene for the formation of new neurons

Source: Ciência Viva
Date: 13 September 2009

Summary:

Scientists discovered a gene - called AP2gamma - crucial for the neural development of the visual cortex, in a discovery that can have implications for the therapeutics of neural regeneration as well as provide new clues about how the brain evolved into higher sophistication in mammals. The article will come out in the journal Nature Neuroscience today.

How stem cells make skin: scientists come a step closer to understanding skin, breast and other cancers

Source: European Molecular Biology Laboratory
Date: September 13, 2009

Summary:

Stem cells have a unique ability: when they divide, they can either give rise to more stem cells, or to a variety of specialised cell types. In both mice and humans, a layer of cells at the base of the skin contains stem cells that can develop into the specialised cells in the layers above. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, in collaboration with colleagues at the Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas (CIEMAT) in Madrid, have discovered two proteins that control when and how these stem cells switch to being skin cells. The findings, published online today in Nature Cell Biology, shed light on the basic mechanisms involved not only in formation of skin, but also on skin cancer and other epithelial cancers.

Adult stem cell prostate cancer coverage summary

Below is a summary of news coverage of the recent announcement by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center that a new type of stem cell discovered in the prostate of adult mice can be a source of prostate cancer:

Agence France Presse (AFP), September 9, 2009: "Newly found stem cell causes prostate cancer: mouse study":

PARIS — Scientists in the United States, working with mice, have found a new type of stem cell in the prostate gland and shown that mutations in it can cause cancer, a study released Wednesday says. The discovery boosts evidence that cancers can be caused by modifications in stem cells, the dynamic precursor cells that develop into and replenish the body's specific tissues, it says. It also appears to resolve a mystery about the origin of prostate cancer, and could open new pathways for treatment of the deadly disease.

Reuters, September 9, 2009 5:29pm EDT: "Researchers find prostate cancer stem cell":

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Researchers have found a stem cell, a kind of master cell, that may cause at least some types of prostate cancer. Their findings are only experimental -- the stem cells were found in mice -- but could explain at least some types of prostate cancer and eventually offer new ways to treat it, they reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature.

HealthDay News, September 9, 2009: "Getting Closer to the Origins of Prostate Cancer: Newly discovered stem cell, common STD could help spur tumors, studies find":

"Two studies take significant steps toward solving major mysteries about prostate cancer -- the exact spot in the gland where tumors can originate, and how to distinguish fast-growing malignancies that are life-threatening from the slower-growing kind that can safely be left alone."

"One study, reported in the Sept. 9 online edition of Nature, describes a previously unknown form of prostate stem cell that can become cancerous if genetic controls go haywire. The prostate consists of several layers of cells, with the lowest, the basal layer, playing a supporting role and the luminal layer, just above it, doing the actual work of the gland."

"The second report, published online Sept. 9 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, uncovered an association between infection with a sexually transmitted parasite, Trichomonas vaginalis, and an increased risk of prostate cancer, especially the virulent form of the disease."

BBC News, 10 September 2009: "Stem cell link to prostate cancer":

A newly identified type of stem cell may cause some cases of prostate cancer, research on mice suggests.
The cells, found among those which line the inner cavity of the prostate gland, can produce copies of themselves, and other, more mature cell types. But researchers showed that when the cells were deliberately mutated by switching off a tumour suppressor gene they rapidly formed tumours. The Columbia University study appears in the journal Nature.

First stem cell clinical trial for treating brain’s “communication highway” to begin

Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: September 10, 2009

Summary:

UCSF researchers are set to begin a Phase I clinical trial in collaboration with StemCells, Inc. to test the safety and preliminary effectiveness of using neural stem cells to treat children with a rare, fatal form of a brain disorder known as Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD). Currently, there are no effective treatments for the fatal forms of the disease, which affects males that inherit a single defective gene.

The trial is the first neural stem cell trial in the United States designed to treat a disease resulting from a lack of “myelin,” a substance that insulates nerve cells’ communications fibers. Nerve cells communicate through axons that function much like electrical wires. Myelin is the insulating coat that surrounds the axons to prevent short circuits. Damage to the cells in the brain that make myelin, called “oligodendrocytes,” is the hallmark of multiple sclerosis and is involved in certain forms of cerebral palsy.

Coverage Summary of Conversion Of Fat Stem Cells Into Pluripotent Stem Cells

Below is a summary of news coverage of the recent announcement by researchers at Stanford University Medical Center that adult stem cells from fat were converted to pluripotent stem cells:

Medical News Today, 09 September 2009 - 2:00 PDT: "Making Stem Cells From Liposuction Leftovers Is Easier Say Researchers":

Writing in a new study, US researchers said it was easier and just as safe to make stem cells from fat cells freshly isolated from patients, for instance from cells present in liposuction "leftovers", than it was to make them from skin cells as other studies have done recently. The study was the work of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California and was published online ahead of print on 8 September in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS.

Scientific American, September 8, 2009: "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Created from Fat Cells":

The standard way to make induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for medical research is to scrape skin cells and mix up their internal clocks, coaxing them back into pluripotency over a matter of weeks. But now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have turned their attention to another cell type in abundant supply: fat cells. The team of cardiologists and plastic surgeons found adipose fat cells to be much more efficient than skin cells at turning back into stem cells.

Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2009: "Stem cell researchers uncover promise in fat":

That fat you've been carrying on your hips, thighs and belly can be transformed with relative ease into cells that eventually may be capable of repairing a wide range of your damaged or diseased tissues, according to a new report by Stanford University researchers. Stem cells found in fat deposits, it turns out, are more primitive than are many adult stem cells harvested from tissues such as skin and blood. With comparatively less effort than is required to make, for instance, a stem cell derived from skin return to an undifferentiated cell form, fat cells can be reprogrammed to become muscle, neuron and stomach lining cells, finds a new study slated for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Reuters, September 8, 2009, 6:48pm EDT: "Liposuction leftovers make easy stem cells: study":

Fat sucked out of chunky thighs or flabby bellies might provide an easy source of stem cells made using new and promising technology, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. They found immature fat cells in the material removed during liposuction were easy to transform into cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells. They were easier to work with than the skin cells usually used to make iPS cells, the team at Stanford University's School of Medicine in California reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. IPS cells are made using genes that take them back in time to a more immature and pliable state. They can then be re-directed to form heart cells, bone cells, brain cells or any other type of desired cell.

Nature, 7 September 2009: "Flab and freckles could advance stem cell research":

"Fat cells and pigment-producing skin cells can be reprogrammed into stem cells much faster and more efficiently than the skin cells that are usually used — suggesting large bellies and little black moles could provide much-needed material for deriving patient-specific stem cells."

San Jose Mercury News, September 7, 2009: "Stanford scientists turn liposuction leftovers into embryonic-like stem cells":

In medicine's version of winning the daily double, Stanford University researchers took ordinary fat cells and transformed them into what are effectively embryonic stem cells — those versatile cellular building blocks that can morph into a variety of tissues. Scientists warn it's too soon to use excess fat to cure disease. But in theory, it would allow people to grow personalized replacement parts for ailing organs. And it avoids the use of embryos, which has embroiled the field in political and ethical debates.

Bloomberg News, September 7, 2009: "Liposuction Fat Turns to Stem Cells Quicker Than Skin in Study":

Human fat, widely available and easily harvested with liposuction, morphed into stem cells more efficiently than skin cells in a study, giving scientists an alternative to the use of embryonic cells. Three years ago, Shinya Yamanaka, of Kyoto University in Japan, showed that skin cells could be genetically manipulated to become any other cell type, much like embryonic stem cells. This process was hailed as avoiding the destruction of embryos and letting scientists create new therapies by making stem cells from patients who are ill.
Since then, researchers have sought to overcome two drawbacks to Yamanaka’s method. One is that the viruses and genes used to reprogram skin cells can trigger tumor growth. The second is that the process is inefficient, with less than 1 percent of skin cells becoming all-purpose cells. The new research, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may solve the second problem.

New Type Of Adult Stem Cells Found In Prostate May Be Involved In Cancer Development

Source: Columbia University Medical Center
Date: September 9, 2009

Summary:

A new type of stem cell discovered in the prostate of adult mice can be a source of prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. The researchers found the rare stem cells, called CARNs (which stands for “castration-resistant Nkx3.1-expressing cells”), within the ducts inside the mouse prostate. The stem cells are involved in regenerating prostate tissue, but the researchers also found that CARNs can give rise to cancer if certain tumor suppressor genes in the cells are inactivated. The findings will be published in an advance online edition of Nature on September 9, 2009.

'Liposuction Leftovers' Easily Converted To Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: September 7, 2009

Summary:

Globs of human fat removed during liposuction conceal versatile cells that are more quickly and easily coaxed to become induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, than are the skin cells most often used by researchers, according to a new study from Stanford’s School of Medicine. The fact that the cells can also be converted without the need for mouse-derived “feeder cells” may make them an ideal starting material for human therapies. Feeder cells are often used when growing human skin cells outside the body, but physicians worry that cross-species contamination could make them unsuitable for human use. The findings will be published online Sept. 7 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers identify protein controlling brain formation

Source: University of Toronto
Date: September 4, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at the University of Toronto have identified a protein which plays a key role in the development of neurons, which could enhance our understanding of how the brain works and how diseases such as Alzheimer's occur. U of T graduate student John Calarco, working in the labs of Professor Ben Blencowe (Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto) and Professor Mei Zhen (Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital), has identified a protein known as nSR100, which is only found in vertebrate species and which controls a network of "alternative splicing events" that are located in the messages of genes with critical functions in the formation of the nervous system. The findings are published in a paper in the current edition of the journal Cell.

Neurobiologists Identify an Essential Protein for Axon Regrowth in Animal Model

Source: University of California - San Diego
September 2, 2009

Summary:

Neurobiologists working with Yishi Jin at UC San Diego have shown that a protein called DLK-1 helps axons find their way and form proper connections once they reach the correct destination. DLK-1 works through a short chain of chemical signals that preserve the recipe for a particular protein. Jin and Andrew Chisholm, both biology professors at UC San Diego, and their co-authors report their finding this week in the journal Cell.

Study reveals benefit of adult stem cells for acute lung injury

Source: University of California - San Francisco
Date: September 1, 2009

Summary:

UCSF scientists have demonstrated that adult human mesenchymal stem cells reverse the effects of injury in a novel human lung preparation in the lab. The finding, they say, could lead to the development of stem cell therapies for patients with acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, conditions that presently have a high rate of mortality and no pharmacological treatments. Their study is published in the September 1 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Wisconsin team grows retina cells from skin-derived stem cells

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
August 24, 2009

Summary:

MADISON — A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells — suggesting a future in which damaged retinas could be repaired by cells grown from the patient's own skin.

Even sooner, the discovery will lead to laboratory models for studying genetically linked eye conditions, screening new drugs to treat those conditions and understanding the development of the human eye. A Waisman Center research team led by David Gamm, an assistant professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and Jason Meyer, a research scientist, announced their discovery in the Aug. 24 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

'Glow-in-the-dark' red blood cells made from human stem cells

Source: Monash University
Date: August 24, 2009

Summary:

Victorian stem cell scientists from Monash University have modified a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line to glow red when the stem cells become red blood cells. The modified hESC line, ErythRED, represents a major step forward to the eventual aim of generating mature, fully functional red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells. The research, conducted by a team led by Professors Andrew Elefanty and Ed Stanley at the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell Laboratories that included scientists at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, was published in today's issue of the prestigious journal, Nature Methods.

New insight into how stems cells develop into other types of cells

Source: University of Cambridge
Date: August 20, 2009

Summary:

Scientists have uncovered a vital link in the chain of events that gives stem cells their remarkable properties. Researchers from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research at the University of Cambridge have pinpointed the final step in a complex process that gives embryonic stem cells their unique ability to develop into any of the different types of cells in the body (from liver cells to skin cells). Their findings, published today in the journal Cell, have important implications for efforts to harness the power of stem cells for medical applications.

Watching stem cells repair the human brain

Source: Tel Aviv University
Date: August 19, 2009

Summary:

There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient's own bone marrow, can be found ― and literally seen ― in laboratories at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Yoram Cohen of TAU's School of Chemistry has recently proven the viability of these innovative stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, using in-vivo MRI. Dr. Cohen has been able to track their progress within the brain, and initial studies indicate they can identify unhealthy or damaged tissues, migrate to them, and potentially repair or halt cell degeneration. His findings have been reported in the journal Stem Cells.

Nanomagnets guide stem cells to damaged tissue

Source: University College London
Date: August 17, 2009

Summary:

Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, University College London scientists announced. The cross disciplinary research, published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions, demonstrates a technique where endothelial progenitor cells - a type of stem cell shown to be important in vascular healing processes - have been magnetically tagged with a tiny iron-containing clinical agent, then successfully targeted to a site of arterial injury using a magnet positioned outside the body. Following magnetic targeting, there was a five-fold increase in cell localisation at a site of vascular injury in rats. The team also demonstrated a six-fold increase in cell capture in an in vitro flow system (where microscopic particles are suspended in a stream of fluid and examined to see how they behave).

How to Make a Lung: Cell-Regeneration Molecules Essential Signals for Early Lung Development, Penn Study Finds

Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Date: August 17, 2009

Summary:

A tissue-repair-and-regeneration pathway in the human body, including wound healing, is essential for the early lung to develop properly. Genetically engineered mice fail to develop lungs when two molecules in this pathway, Wnt2 and Wnt2b, are knocked out. The findings are described by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine this week in Developmental Cell. Several molecular signals are important for proper lung development but not much is known about the early signals that turn on the genes needed to specify the lung at the right place and time in the embryo. Clinically, understanding how a lung develops is important in treating or preventing a host of lung and pulmonary diseases in children.

Researchers discover chemical that kills cancer stem cells

Source; Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: August 13, 2009

Summary:

A multi-institutional team of Boston-area researchers has discovered a chemical that works in mice to kill the rare but aggressive cells within breast cancers that have the ability to seed new tumors. These cells, known as cancer stem cells, are thought to enable cancers to spread — and to reemerge after seemingly successful treatment. Although further work is needed to determine whether this specific chemical holds therapeutic promise for humans, the study shows that it is possible to find chemicals that selectively kill cancer stem cells. The findings appear in today's advance online edition of Cell.

New method takes aim at aggressive cancer cells

Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: August 13, 2009

Summary:

A multi-institutional team of Boston-area researchers has discovered a chemical that works in mice to kill the rare but aggressive cells within breast cancers that have the ability to seed new tumors. These cells, known as cancer stem cells, are thought to enable cancers to spread — and to reemerge after seemingly successful treatment. Although further work is needed to determine whether this specific chemical holds therapeutic promise for humans, the study shows that it is possible to find chemicals that selectively kill cancer stem cells. The scientists’ findings appear in the August 13 advance online issue of Cell.

Technique enables efficient gene splicing in human embryonic stem cells

Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
August 13, 2009

Summary:

A novel technique allows researchers to efficiently and precisely modify or introduce genes into the genomes of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs) and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, according to Whitehead scientists. The method uses proteins called zinc finger nucleases and is described in the August 13 issue of Nature Biotechnology.

Scientists make multiple types of white blood cells directly from embryonic and adult stem cells

Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: August 10, 2009

Summary:

In an advance that could help transform embryonic stem cells into a multipurpose medical tool, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have transformed these versatile cells into progenitors of white blood cells and into six types of mature white blood and immune cells. While clinical use is some years away, the new technique could produce cells with enormous potential for studying the development and treatment of disease. The technique works equally well with stem cells grown from an embryo and with adult pluripotent stem cells, which are derived from adult cells that have been converted until they resemble embryonic stem cells. Eventually they found a recipe that would cause the cells to move through a process of progressive specialization into a variety of adult cells. Slukvin's study was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

STAT3 Gene Regulates Cancer Stem Cells in Brain Cancer

Source: Tufts University
Date: August 10, 2009

Summary:

In a study published online in advance of print in Stem Cells, Tufts researchers report that the STAT3 gene regulates cancer stem cells in brain cancer. Cancer stem cells have many characteristics of stem cells and are thought to be the cells that drive tumor formation. The researchers report that STAT3 could become a target for cancer therapy, specifically in Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM), a type of malignant and aggressive brain tumor.

New steps forward in cell reprogramming

Source: Harvard University
Date: August 9, 2009

Summary:

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have substantially improved the odds of successfully reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by blocking the activity of the gene that instructs the cells to stop dividing.

Konrad Hochedlinger and colleagues at the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine also found that reprogramming efforts are more likely to be successful if they target immature cells rather than their more mature counterparts for reprogramming.
Induced pluripotent cells are adult cells that have been reprogrammed back to an embryo-like state in which they have regained the potential to turn into any of the 220 cell types in the body, such as liver cells, skin cells, or heart cells. “This has been a main question and main interest in the field for a long time,” says Hochedlinger. “When you work with mature cells, for some reason only a few of them actually reprogram into an iPS cell: Why is the reprogramming process so inefficient?”
The team has devised two solutions for the problem of inefficiency, one of which involves selecting only certain cell types for reprogramming. The work is being published in two separate reports, one in the journal Nature, and the other in Nature Genetics.

Pancreas cells can be stimulated to produce insulin

Source: Max Planck Institute
Date: August 6, 2009

Summary:

If the insulin-producing cells of our body based, it can develop diabetes - one of the most common metabolic disease of western industrialized nations. Through the body's own insulin-producing cells to replace, has long been a dream of diabetes researchers. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry (Göttingen) this goal are now one step closer to. Turns the researchers in diabetic mice, a single gene in the pancreatic cells, it turned them into insulin-producing cells. Could this conversion in humans selectively regulate the future, this could open up new therapeutic pathways to diabetes successfully treated. The study is published in the journal Cell

Below is additional coverage of this development from various sources:

Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, August 6, 2009: "Researchers Show Non-Insulin-Producing Alpha Cells in the Pancreas Can Be Converted To Insulin-Producing Beta Cells":

"In findings that add to the prospects of regenerating insulin-producing cells in people with type 1 diabetes, researchers in Europe -- co-funded by the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation -- have shown that insulin-producing beta cells can be derived from non-insulin-producing cells in the pancreas."

Los Angeles Times, August 8, 2009: "Scientists alter pancreatic cells to treat Type 1 diabetes":

"... a team of European and American researchers showed that pancreatic cells in diabetic mice could be reprogrammed into beta cells by turning on just one gene, called Pax4. The scientists gave the mice a chemical called streptozotocin that killed off their beta cells while preserving other types of pancreatic cells. Then they activated the Pax4 gene, which does most of its work during fetal development."

What Makes Stem Cells Tick? Researchers Identify Phosphorylated Signaling Proteins in Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Source: Burnham Institute for Medical Research
Date: August 6, 2009

Summary:

LA JOLLA, Calif., -- Investigators at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) and The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have made the first comparative, large-scale phosphoproteomic analysis of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) and their differentiated derivatives. The data may help stem cell researchers understand the mechanisms that determine whether stem cells divide or differentiate, what types of cells they become and how to control those complex mechanisms to facilitate development of new therapies. The study was published in the August 6 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Scientists Find Key to Strengthening Immune Response to Chronic Infection

Source: Wistar Institute
Date: August 6, 2009

A team of researchers from The Wistar Institute has identified a protein that could serve as a target for reprogramming immune system cells exhausted by exposure to chronic viral infection into more effective “soldiers” against certain viruses like HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B, as well as some cancers, such as melanoma.

Effective response by key immune cells in the body, called T cells, is crucial for control of many widespread chronic viral infections such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. Virus-specific CD8 T cells, also known as “killer” T cells, often lose their ability to control viral replication and become less effective over time, a process known as T cell exhaustion. Understanding how optimal antiviral T cell responses are suppressed in these circumstances is crucial to developing strategies to prevent and treat such persisting infections.

In the August 6 on-line issue of Immunity, the research team led by Wistar assistant professor E. John Wherry, Ph.D., describes how the protein Blimp-1 (B-lymphocyte-induced maturation protein 1) represses the normal differentiation of CD8 T cells into memory T cells, which recognize disease-causing agents from previous infections and enable the body to mount faster, stronger immune responses. The team also reports that Blimp-1 causes exhausted CD8 T cells to express inhibitory receptors, which prevent recognition of specific antigens, further weakening immune response.

Scientists find common trigger in cancer and normal stem cell reproduction

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: August 6, 2009

Summary:

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered, for the first time, a common molecular pathway that is used by both normal stem cells and cancer stem cells when they reproduce themselves. In a paper to be published Aug. 7 in the journal Cell, Michael Clarke, MD, the Karel H. and Avice N. Beekhuis Professor in Cancer Biology, and his colleagues showed that breast cancer stem cells and normal breast stem cells turn down the creation of a specific group of cell signals when they are reproducing. Increasing the amount of one of these signals, called miR-200c, strongly suppressed the ability of both cancer stem cells and normal stem cells to divide and reproduce. The discovery of a common regulatory pathway in both kinds of stem cells supports the idea that cancer stem cells and normal stem cells share fundamental properties.

U of T researchers learn how blood cells 'talk'

Source: University of Toronto
Date: August 5, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a new model that explains how cells communicate and specifically reveals how blood cells "talk" to each other. The result could help transform treatments for diseases such as leukemia.

The paper, published online by the journal Molecular Systems Biology, details how a team led by Canada Research Chair in Stem Cell Bioengineering Professor Peter Zandstra (Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry) revealed a new mathematical model that links functional cellular assays to specific model outputs, defines cell-level kinetic parameters such as cell cycle rates and self-renewal probabilities as functions of culture variables, and simulates feedback regulation using cell-cell interaction networks.

Stem cell hierarchy offers potential for isolating, growing cells

Source: University of Toronto
Date: August 4, 2009

Summary:

Researchers at the University of Toronto Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering (IBBME) and Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH), led by U of T's Professor J.E. Davies, have made important progress in stem cell research that will allow for numerous applications of multi-faceted stem cells known as mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). This research will advance the selection of specific cells to target specific diseases, ultimately enabling clinicians to "personalize" treatment for patients.

The important research published today in the Public Library of Science journal, PloS-ONE [http://www.plosone.org/home.action], is entitled Human Mesenchymal Stem Cells Self-Renew and Differentiate According to a Deterministic Hierarchy. The paper provides the experimental proof of the existence of a human MSC at the single cell level, a key step that has previously eluded the scientific community. The researchers have for the first time, defined a mesenchymal stem cell hierarchy that introduces the possibility of isolating and growing MSCs of different capacities for different clinical applications or drug discovery.This development builds on the team's previous finding that the richest source of MSCs in the body is found in umbilical cord tissue that is normally discarded at birth.

Gene signature for cancer stem cells may provide drug targets

Source: Baylor College of Medicine
Date: August 4, 2009

Summary:

A subset of tumor cells that remain after a woman with breast cancer undergoes treatment with either anti-cancer or anti-hormone therapy shows a "gene signature" that could be used to define targets for developing new drugs against the disease, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine. The report appears in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

New stem cell research could make lab mice redundant

Source: University of Bath
Date: 04 August 2009

Summary:

Researchers from the University of Bath are embarking on a project to use stem cell technology that could reduce the number of animal experiments used to study conditions such as motor neurone disease. Dr Vasanta Subramanian, from the University’s Department of Biology & Biochemistry, will be developing a technique using human stem cells to study this debilitating neurological disease, greatly reducing the number of animals used in research.

Scientists find way to coax human stem cells into becoming T cells

Source: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
Date: August 4, 2009

Summary:

Canadian researchers have developed a way to direct unspecified human stem cells into becoming progenitor (or early) T cells, which then go to the thymus and give rise to mature T cells, an essential ingredient in immune system reconstitution. This critical advance in regenerative medicine, published in the July 30 edition of Blood, makes possible new approaches to treating people with severe immune deficiencies, such as children born with little or no immune system, or people who have had chemotherapy. Scientists at Sunnybrook Research Institute created the human progenitor T cells from stem cells in the lab using a method that they patented. They then implanted them into immune-deficient mice, wherein the unspecified cells travelled to the thymus and produced mature T cells.

Researchers Demonstrate How Stem Cell Line Regenerates New Cardiac Cells

Source: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Date: August 3, 2009

Summary:

As the field of stem cell based therapies has progressed, there have been numerous questions about the exact way one of the most promising lines of adult stem cells works to repair damaged heart muscle. Although cells obtained from adult bone marrow are proving to be useful to treat heart disease, there has been a major controversy over whether they are true stem cells capable of forming new heart muscle.

Cardiologists at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have definitively shown that mesenchymal stem cells from bone marrow do in fact form new heart muscle and blood vessels, leading to major degrees of tissue repair in hearts damaged by a heart attack. Their findings have been published in the August 3 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Finding the Right Connection after Spinal Cord Injury

Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: August 3, 2009

Summary:

In a major step in spinal cord injury research, scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have demonstrated that regenerating axons can be guided to their correct targets and re-form connections after spinal cord injury. Their findings will be published in the advance online edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience on August 2.

The UC San Diego study looked at regenerating sensory axons in rat models of spinal cord injury. Sensory systems of the body send axons – long, slender projections of the neuron – into the spinal cord to convey information regarding touch, position, and pain. Many sensory axons are covered by an insulating myelin sheath which helps these impulses travel efficiently to the brain.

The UC San Diego scientists showed that regenerating axons can be guided to correct targets using a type of chemical hormone called a growth factor. The team utilized a type of chemical hormone, a nervous system growth factor called neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), to guide regenerating sensory axons to the appropriate target and support synapse formation. Regeneration required two other treatments at the same time: placing a cell bridge in the spinal cord injury site to support axon growth, and a “conditioning” stimulus to the injured neuron that turned on regeneration genes for new growth.

Stem cell ‘daughters’ lead to breast cancer

Source: Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Date: 3 August 2009

Summary:

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute scientists have found that a population of breast cells called luminal progenitor cells are likely to be responsible for breast cancers that develop in women carrying mutations in the gene BRCA1.

BRCA1 gene mutations are found in 10-20 per cent of women with hereditary breast cancer. Women with BRCA1 mutations often develop 'basal-like' breast cancer, which is a particularly aggressive form of the disease.

A team led by Associate Professors Jane Visvader and Geoff Lindeman from the institute's Victorian Breast Cancer Research Consortium Laboratory have discovered that luminal progenitor cells – the 'daughters' of breast stem cells – are the likely source of basal-like breast tumours. Their finding, published in today's issue of the international journal Nature Medicine, represents a major shift in the way scientists think breast cancer develops.

Scientists discover bladder cancer stem cell

Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: August 3, 2009

Summary:

STANFORD, Calif. — Researchers at Stanford's School of Medicine have identified the first human bladder cancer stem cell and revealed how it works to escape the body's natural defenses. The study will be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Aug. 3.