Source: University of Gothenburg
Date: May 9, 2011
Summary:
For the first time ever in the world, researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy have produced a blood vessel from stem cells and then used it in an operation on a 10-year-old girl at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Surgeon and Professor Michael Olausson was able to create a new connection with the aid of this blood vessel between the liver and the intestines, necessary to cure the girl. The girl is now in good health, and her prognosis is very good.
The girl developed during her first year of life a blood clot in the blood vessel that leads blood from the intestines to the liver. This introduced the risk that she would experience life-threatening internal bleeding. The condition can be cured if it is possible to direct the blood along the correct path, back into the liver. In optimal cases, the surgery can be performed using blood vessels from other parts of the patient’s body, but a liver transplant may be necessary if the surgery is unsuccessful due to a lack of sufficient blood vessels. A liver transplant will involve subsequent lifelong treatment with immunosuppressive drugs.
Blood vessels from a dead donor were used in the present case. The vessel was then chemically treated to remove all cells RNA and DNA. This left just the supporting tissue. Stem cells were then obtained from the girl’s bone marrow and these were added to the supporting tissue. A new blood vessel grew in just under four weeks. This was used during the surgery in order to create the new connection between the liver and the intestines, necessary to cure the girl.
Monday, May 09, 2011
Friday, May 06, 2011
Engineers Patch a Heart: Tissue-Engineering Platform Enables Heart Tissue to Repair Itself
Source: Columbia University
Date: May 6, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day.
Researchers developed a novel cell therapy to treat myocardial infarction (heart damage that follows a heart attack). They were able, for the first time, to combine the use of human repair cells that were conditioned during in-vitro culture to maximize their ability to revascularize and improve blood flow to the infarcted tissue with a fully biological composite scaffold designed to deliver these cells to the damaged heart. With this platform, they could both keep the cells within the infarct bed (in contrast to the massive cell loss associated with infusion of cells alone) and enhance cell survival and function in the infarct bed, where most of the cells would have died because of the obstruction of their blood supply.
Date: May 6, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at Columbia Engineering have established a new method to patch a damaged heart using a tissue-engineering platform that enables heart tissue to repair itself. This breakthrough, recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is an important step forward in combating cardiovascular disease, one of the most serious health problems of our day.
Researchers developed a novel cell therapy to treat myocardial infarction (heart damage that follows a heart attack). They were able, for the first time, to combine the use of human repair cells that were conditioned during in-vitro culture to maximize their ability to revascularize and improve blood flow to the infarcted tissue with a fully biological composite scaffold designed to deliver these cells to the damaged heart. With this platform, they could both keep the cells within the infarct bed (in contrast to the massive cell loss associated with infusion of cells alone) and enhance cell survival and function in the infarct bed, where most of the cells would have died because of the obstruction of their blood supply.
Thursday, May 05, 2011
Normal stem cells made to look and act like cancer stem cells
Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
CHAPEL HILL, NC — Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, after isolating normal stem cells that form the developing placenta, have given them the same properties of stem cells associated with an aggressive type of breast cancer.
The scientific first opens the door for developing novel targeted therapies aimed at triple negative breast cancer. Known also as TNBC, this is a highly recurrent tumor that spreads aggressively beyond its original site in the breast and carries a poor prognosis for patients who have it. The study will be published online Friday, May 6, by the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
CHAPEL HILL, NC — Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, after isolating normal stem cells that form the developing placenta, have given them the same properties of stem cells associated with an aggressive type of breast cancer.
The scientific first opens the door for developing novel targeted therapies aimed at triple negative breast cancer. Known also as TNBC, this is a highly recurrent tumor that spreads aggressively beyond its original site in the breast and carries a poor prognosis for patients who have it. The study will be published online Friday, May 6, by the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Study identifies stem cell-related changes that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline
Source: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) offers an explanation for why our brains produce fewer and fewer neurons with age, a phenomenon thought to underlie age-related cognitive decline. The study, published as the cover story in the May 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, suggests that this drop in production is due to the shrinking cache of adult stem cells in our brains.
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) offers an explanation for why our brains produce fewer and fewer neurons with age, a phenomenon thought to underlie age-related cognitive decline. The study, published as the cover story in the May 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, suggests that this drop in production is due to the shrinking cache of adult stem cells in our brains.
Study identifies stem cell-related changes that may contribute to age-related cognitive decline
Source: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) offers an explanation for why our brains produce fewer and fewer neurons with age, a phenomenon thought to underlie age-related cognitive decline. The study, published as the cover story in the May 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, suggests that this drop in production is due to the shrinking cache of adult stem cells in our brains. The new neurons are critical for some facets of memory—for instance, when similar events need to be memorized as separate episodes—and for the response to anti-depressant therapies and repair after brain injury.
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. – A new study from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) offers an explanation for why our brains produce fewer and fewer neurons with age, a phenomenon thought to underlie age-related cognitive decline. The study, published as the cover story in the May 6 issue of Cell Stem Cell, suggests that this drop in production is due to the shrinking cache of adult stem cells in our brains. The new neurons are critical for some facets of memory—for instance, when similar events need to be memorized as separate episodes—and for the response to anti-depressant therapies and repair after brain injury.
What Decides Neural Stem Cell Fate? A gene called SOX2 acts as a stem cell gatekeeper – only cells expressing it have the potential to become neurons
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Early in embryonic development, the neural crest - a transient group of stem cells - gives rise to parts of the nervous system and several other tissues. But little is known about what determines which cells become neurons and which become other cell types. A team led by Dr. Alexey Terskikh at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) recently found that expression of a gene called SOX2 maintains the potential for neural crest stem cells to become neurons in the peripheral nervous system, where they interface with muscles and other organs. Their results, published online May 5 by the journal Cell Stem Cell, could help better inform therapies aimed at neurocristopathies, diseases caused by defects in the neural crest or neurons, which include microphthamia and CHARGE syndrome.
Date: May 5, 2011
Summary:
Early in embryonic development, the neural crest - a transient group of stem cells - gives rise to parts of the nervous system and several other tissues. But little is known about what determines which cells become neurons and which become other cell types. A team led by Dr. Alexey Terskikh at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) recently found that expression of a gene called SOX2 maintains the potential for neural crest stem cells to become neurons in the peripheral nervous system, where they interface with muscles and other organs. Their results, published online May 5 by the journal Cell Stem Cell, could help better inform therapies aimed at neurocristopathies, diseases caused by defects in the neural crest or neurons, which include microphthamia and CHARGE syndrome.
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Regenerating Nerve Cells: Research Offers Hope in New Treatment for Spinal Cord Injuries
Source: Rutgers University
Date: May 3, 2011
Summary:
Rutgers researchers have developed an innovative new treatment that could help minimize nerve damage in spinal cord injuries, promote tissue healing and minimize pain. After a spinal cord injury there is an increased production of a protein (RhoA) that blocks regeneration of nerve cells that carry signals along the spinal cord and prevents the injured tissue from healing.
Scientists at the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc. have developed a chemically synthesized siRNA molecule that decreases the production of the RhoA protein when administered to the spine and allows regeneration of the nerve cells. The study is published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Date: May 3, 2011
Summary:
Rutgers researchers have developed an innovative new treatment that could help minimize nerve damage in spinal cord injuries, promote tissue healing and minimize pain. After a spinal cord injury there is an increased production of a protein (RhoA) that blocks regeneration of nerve cells that carry signals along the spinal cord and prevents the injured tissue from healing.
Scientists at the W.M. Keck Center for Collaborative Neuroscience and Quark Pharmaceuticals Inc. have developed a chemically synthesized siRNA molecule that decreases the production of the RhoA protein when administered to the spine and allows regeneration of the nerve cells. The study is published in the Journal of Neurotrauma.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Researchers Discover Mechanism That Could Convert Certain Cells Into Insulin-Making Cells
Source: University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Date: April 29, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from UCLA's Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center have taken an important step in that direction. They report in the April issue of the journal Developmental Cell that they may have discovered the underlying mechanism that could convert other cell types into pancreatic beta cells.
Date: April 29, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from UCLA's Larry L. Hillblom Islet Research Center have taken an important step in that direction. They report in the April issue of the journal Developmental Cell that they may have discovered the underlying mechanism that could convert other cell types into pancreatic beta cells.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
New Gene Therapy Technique on Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Holds Promise in Treating Immune System Disease
Source: American Society of Hematology
Date: April 28, 2011
Summary:
Researchers have developed an effective technique that uses gene therapy on stem cells to correct chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) in cell culture, which could eventually serve as a treatment for this rare, inherited immune disorder, according to a new study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology.
After discovering that the disease could be reproduced in cell culture, the researchers then sought to correct the disease and produce healthy neutrophils in culture. They used synthetic proteins called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) to target a corrective gene at a specifically defined location in the genome of the X-CGD iPS cells. The iPS cells were then carefully screened to identify those containing a single copy of the corrective gene properly inserted only at the safe site. The researchers observed that some of the gene-corrected iPS cells could differentiate into neutrophils that produced normal levels of hydrogen peroxide, effectively "correcting" the disease.
Date: April 28, 2011
Summary:
Researchers have developed an effective technique that uses gene therapy on stem cells to correct chronic granulomatous disease (CGD) in cell culture, which could eventually serve as a treatment for this rare, inherited immune disorder, according to a new study published in Blood, the Journal of the American Society of Hematology.
After discovering that the disease could be reproduced in cell culture, the researchers then sought to correct the disease and produce healthy neutrophils in culture. They used synthetic proteins called zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) to target a corrective gene at a specifically defined location in the genome of the X-CGD iPS cells. The iPS cells were then carefully screened to identify those containing a single copy of the corrective gene properly inserted only at the safe site. The researchers observed that some of the gene-corrected iPS cells could differentiate into neutrophils that produced normal levels of hydrogen peroxide, effectively "correcting" the disease.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Scientists create stable, self-renewing neural stem cells
Source: University of California - San Diego
Date: April 25, 2011
Summary:
In a paper published in the April 25 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and colleagues report a game-changing advance in stem cell science: the creation of long-term, self-renewing, primitive neural precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) that can be directed to become many types of neuron without increased risk of tumor formation.
Date: April 25, 2011
Summary:
In a paper published in the April 25 early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco and colleagues report a game-changing advance in stem cell science: the creation of long-term, self-renewing, primitive neural precursor cells from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) that can be directed to become many types of neuron without increased risk of tumor formation.
Scientist makes key innovations in stem-cell technology
Source: Gladstone Institutes
Date: April 25, 2011
Summary:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has made two significant stem-cell discoveries that advance medicine and human health by creating powerful new approaches for using stem cells and stem-cell-like technology.
In two papers being published on April 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sheng Ding, PhD, reveals novel and safer methods not only for transforming embryonic stem cells into large numbers of brain cells with multiple uses, but also for transforming adult skin cells into so-called neural stem cells—cells that are just beginning to become brain cells. Dr. Ding last month joined Gladstone, a leading and independent biomedical-research organization, where he is expected to make a significant contribution to the institute's exemplary stem-cell research.
Date: April 25, 2011
Summary:
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has made two significant stem-cell discoveries that advance medicine and human health by creating powerful new approaches for using stem cells and stem-cell-like technology.
In two papers being published on April 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sheng Ding, PhD, reveals novel and safer methods not only for transforming embryonic stem cells into large numbers of brain cells with multiple uses, but also for transforming adult skin cells into so-called neural stem cells—cells that are just beginning to become brain cells. Dr. Ding last month joined Gladstone, a leading and independent biomedical-research organization, where he is expected to make a significant contribution to the institute's exemplary stem-cell research.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Enhanced cord blood stem cell transplants safe in long-term studies
Source: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Date: April 19, 2011
Summary:
An innovative experimental treatment for boosting the effectiveness of stem-cell transplants with umbilical cord blood has a favorable safety profile in long-term animal studies, report scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Children's Hospital Boston (CHB).
Analysis of long-term safety testing in nonhuman primates, published online by the journal Cell Stem Cell, revealed that, after one year following transplant, umbilical cord blood units treated with a signaling molecule called 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 reconstituted all the normal types of blood cells, and none of the animals receiving treated cord blood units developed cancer.
Date: April 19, 2011
Summary:
An innovative experimental treatment for boosting the effectiveness of stem-cell transplants with umbilical cord blood has a favorable safety profile in long-term animal studies, report scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), and Children's Hospital Boston (CHB).
Analysis of long-term safety testing in nonhuman primates, published online by the journal Cell Stem Cell, revealed that, after one year following transplant, umbilical cord blood units treated with a signaling molecule called 16,16-dimethyl PGE2 reconstituted all the normal types of blood cells, and none of the animals receiving treated cord blood units developed cancer.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Successful strategy developed to regenerate blood vessels
Source: University of Western Ontario
Date: April 18, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have discovered a way to stimulate the formation of highly functional new blood vessels. Scientists have developed a strategy in which a biological factor, called fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9), is delivered at the same time that the body is making its own effort at forming new blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue.
Their findings are published online in Nature Biotechnology.
Date: April 18, 2011
Summary:
Researchers at the University of Western Ontario have discovered a way to stimulate the formation of highly functional new blood vessels. Scientists have developed a strategy in which a biological factor, called fibroblast growth factor 9 (FGF9), is delivered at the same time that the body is making its own effort at forming new blood vessels in vulnerable or damaged tissue.
Their findings are published online in Nature Biotechnology.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Patients' own cells yield new insights into the biology of schizophrenia
Source: Penn State University / Salk Institute for Biological Studies
Date: April 13, 2011
Summary:
A team of scientists at Penn State, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and other institutions have developed a method for recreating a schizophrenic patient's own brain cells, which then can be studied safely and effectively in a Petri dish. The method brings researchers a step closer to understanding the biological underpinnings of schizophrenia. The method also is expected to be used to study other mysterious diseases such as autism and bipolar disorder, and the researchers hope that it will open the door to personalized medicine -- customized treatments for individual sufferers of a disease based on genetic and cellular information.
The study will be published in a future edition of the journal Nature and will be posted on the journal's advance online website on April 13.
Date: April 13, 2011
Summary:
A team of scientists at Penn State, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and other institutions have developed a method for recreating a schizophrenic patient's own brain cells, which then can be studied safely and effectively in a Petri dish. The method brings researchers a step closer to understanding the biological underpinnings of schizophrenia. The method also is expected to be used to study other mysterious diseases such as autism and bipolar disorder, and the researchers hope that it will open the door to personalized medicine -- customized treatments for individual sufferers of a disease based on genetic and cellular information.
The study will be published in a future edition of the journal Nature and will be posted on the journal's advance online website on April 13.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Principal Investigator, Presents Interim Safety Results for Neuralstem ALS Trial
Source: Neuralstem, Inc.
Date: April 12, 2011
Summary:
ROCKVILLE,MD PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CUR) announced that Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the Phase I safety trial of Neuralstem's human spinal cord stem cells (HSSC) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and unpaid Neuralstem consultant, presented interim safety data on the first nine patients. Dr. Feldman reported yesterday at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting (http://www.aan.com/go/am11) that all nine ALS patients remain alive and that there were no unresolved serious adverse reactions related to surgery. Of the three ambulatory patients who were treated, all remain ambulatory with no serious adverse events secondary to surgery.
Date: April 12, 2011
Summary:
ROCKVILLE,MD PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Amex: CUR) announced that Eva Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the Phase I safety trial of Neuralstem's human spinal cord stem cells (HSSC) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), and unpaid Neuralstem consultant, presented interim safety data on the first nine patients. Dr. Feldman reported yesterday at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting (http://www.aan.com/go/am11) that all nine ALS patients remain alive and that there were no unresolved serious adverse reactions related to surgery. Of the three ambulatory patients who were treated, all remain ambulatory with no serious adverse events secondary to surgery.
Monday, April 11, 2011
Scientists identify a surprising new source of cancer stem cells
Source: Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered that a differentiated cell type found in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, the first time such behavior has been observed in mammalian cells. These results refute scientific dogma, which states that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own. This surprising finding, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may have implications for the development of cancer therapeutics, particularly those aimed at eradicating cancer stem cells.
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Whitehead Institute researchers have discovered that a differentiated cell type found in breast tissue can spontaneously convert to a stem-cell-like state, the first time such behavior has been observed in mammalian cells. These results refute scientific dogma, which states that differentiation is a one-way path; once cells specialize, they cannot return to the flexible stem-cell state on their own. This surprising finding, published online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), may have implications for the development of cancer therapeutics, particularly those aimed at eradicating cancer stem cells.
Gene find could aid nerve repair
Source: University of Edinburgh
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
Scientists have pinpointed a gene that controls how quickly a person’s nerves can regenerate after injury or disease.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh say the find could lead to better understanding and treatment of conditions that affect the body’s nerves, such as motor neurone disease and carpal tunnel syndrome. Scientists say the discovery could also help to predict how quickly a person’s nerves will recover from a severe physical trauma, such as being involved in a car accident. In the long term, the research could help to develop more appropriate treatment programmes for those people who are likely to experience a slow recovery. The findings have been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
Scientists have pinpointed a gene that controls how quickly a person’s nerves can regenerate after injury or disease.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh say the find could lead to better understanding and treatment of conditions that affect the body’s nerves, such as motor neurone disease and carpal tunnel syndrome. Scientists say the discovery could also help to predict how quickly a person’s nerves will recover from a severe physical trauma, such as being involved in a car accident. In the long term, the research could help to develop more appropriate treatment programmes for those people who are likely to experience a slow recovery. The findings have been published in the journal Human Molecular Genetics.
‘Universal’ virus-free method turns blood cells to beating heart cells
Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a simplified, cheaper, all-purpose method they say can be used by scientists around the globe to more safely turn blood cells into heart cells. The method is virus-free and produces heart cells that beat with nearly 100 percent efficiency, they claim.
To get stem cells taken from one source (such as blood) and develop them into a cell of another type (such as heart), scientists generally use viruses to deliver a package of genes into cells to first get them to turn into stem cells. However, viruses can mutate genes and initiate cancers in newly transformed cells. To insert the genes without using a virus, Zambidis’ team turned to plasmids, which are rings of DNA that replicate briefly inside cells and eventually degrade.
Adding to the complexity of coaxing stem cells into other cell types is the expensive and varied recipe of growth factors, nutrients and conditions that bathe stem cells during their transformation. The recipe of this “broth” differs from lab to lab and cell line to cell line.
Reporting in the April 8 issue of Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS ONE), Zambidis' team described what he called a "painstaking, two-year process" to simplify the recipe and environmental conditions that house cells undergoing transformation into heart cells. They found that their recipe worked consistently for at least 11 different stem cell lines tested and worked equally well for the more controversial embryonic stem cells, as well as stem cell lines generated from adult blood stem cells, their main focus.
Date: April 11, 2011
Summary:
Johns Hopkins scientists have developed a simplified, cheaper, all-purpose method they say can be used by scientists around the globe to more safely turn blood cells into heart cells. The method is virus-free and produces heart cells that beat with nearly 100 percent efficiency, they claim.
To get stem cells taken from one source (such as blood) and develop them into a cell of another type (such as heart), scientists generally use viruses to deliver a package of genes into cells to first get them to turn into stem cells. However, viruses can mutate genes and initiate cancers in newly transformed cells. To insert the genes without using a virus, Zambidis’ team turned to plasmids, which are rings of DNA that replicate briefly inside cells and eventually degrade.
Adding to the complexity of coaxing stem cells into other cell types is the expensive and varied recipe of growth factors, nutrients and conditions that bathe stem cells during their transformation. The recipe of this “broth” differs from lab to lab and cell line to cell line.
Reporting in the April 8 issue of Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS ONE), Zambidis' team described what he called a "painstaking, two-year process" to simplify the recipe and environmental conditions that house cells undergoing transformation into heart cells. They found that their recipe worked consistently for at least 11 different stem cell lines tested and worked equally well for the more controversial embryonic stem cells, as well as stem cell lines generated from adult blood stem cells, their main focus.
Friday, April 08, 2011
Dopamine Controls Formation of New Brain Cells
Source: Karolinska Institutet
Date: 8 April 2011
Summary:
A study of the salamander brain has led researchers at Karolinska Institutet to discover a hitherto unknown function of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In an article published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell they show how in acting as a kind of switch for stem cells, dopamine controls the formation of new neurons in the adult brain. Their findings may one day contribute to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.
The study was conducted using salamanders which unlike mammals recover fully from a Parkinson's-like condition within a four-week period. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by the death of dopamine-producing cells in the mid-brain. As the salamander re-builds all lost dopamine-producing neurons, the researchers examined how the salamander brain detects the absence of these cells. This question is a fundamental one since it has not been known what causes the new formation of nerve cells and why the process ceases when the correct number have been made.
What they found out was that the salamander's stem cells are automatically activated when the dopamine concentration drops as a result of the death of dopamine-producing neurons, meaning that the neurotransmitter acts as a constant handbrake on stem cell activity.
Date: 8 April 2011
Summary:
A study of the salamander brain has led researchers at Karolinska Institutet to discover a hitherto unknown function of the neurotransmitter dopamine. In an article published in the scientific journal Cell Stem Cell they show how in acting as a kind of switch for stem cells, dopamine controls the formation of new neurons in the adult brain. Their findings may one day contribute to new treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson's.
The study was conducted using salamanders which unlike mammals recover fully from a Parkinson's-like condition within a four-week period. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterised by the death of dopamine-producing cells in the mid-brain. As the salamander re-builds all lost dopamine-producing neurons, the researchers examined how the salamander brain detects the absence of these cells. This question is a fundamental one since it has not been known what causes the new formation of nerve cells and why the process ceases when the correct number have been made.
What they found out was that the salamander's stem cells are automatically activated when the dopamine concentration drops as a result of the death of dopamine-producing neurons, meaning that the neurotransmitter acts as a constant handbrake on stem cell activity.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Self-Made Eye: Formation of Optic Cup from Embryonic Stem Cells
Source: RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
New research from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology shows how mouse stem cells spontaneously form into optic cups, the precursors of eyes. The research sheds light on the embryonic development of complex tissues. A breakthrough report describes how mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are able to differentiate and assemble into an optic cup, capable of giving rise to a tissue exhibiting the stratified structure characteristic of the retina in vivo. Published in Nature, the study used a cutting-edge three-dimensional tissue culture system not only to demonstrate this self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, but the underlying cell dynamics as well.
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
New research from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology shows how mouse stem cells spontaneously form into optic cups, the precursors of eyes. The research sheds light on the embryonic development of complex tissues. A breakthrough report describes how mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are able to differentiate and assemble into an optic cup, capable of giving rise to a tissue exhibiting the stratified structure characteristic of the retina in vivo. Published in Nature, the study used a cutting-edge three-dimensional tissue culture system not only to demonstrate this self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, but the underlying cell dynamics as well.
New Highly Efficient Way to Make Reprogrammed Stem Cells
Source: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have devised a totally new and far more efficient way of generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), immature cells that are able to develop into several different types of cells or tissues in the body. The researchers used fibroblast cells, which are easily obtained from skin biopsies, and could be used to generate patient-specific iPSCs for drug screening and tissue regeneration. The promise of this line of research is to one day efficiently generate patient-specific stem cells in order to study human disease as well as create a cellular "storehouse" to regenerate a person's own cells, for example heart or liver cells. Despite this promise, generation of iPSCs is hampered by low efficiency, especially when using human cells.
The study is published this week in Cell Stem Cell.
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
PHILADELPHIA - Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have devised a totally new and far more efficient way of generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), immature cells that are able to develop into several different types of cells or tissues in the body. The researchers used fibroblast cells, which are easily obtained from skin biopsies, and could be used to generate patient-specific iPSCs for drug screening and tissue regeneration. The promise of this line of research is to one day efficiently generate patient-specific stem cells in order to study human disease as well as create a cellular "storehouse" to regenerate a person's own cells, for example heart or liver cells. Despite this promise, generation of iPSCs is hampered by low efficiency, especially when using human cells.
The study is published this week in Cell Stem Cell.
The self-made eye: Formation of optic cup from ES cells
Source: Riken Institute / Riken Cener for Developmental Biology
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
Developmental processes are increasingly well-characterized at the molecular and cell biological levels, but how more complex tissues and organs involving the coordinated action of multiple cell types in three dimensions is achieved remains something of a black box. One question of particular interest and importance is whether signaling interactions between neighboring tissues are essential to guiding organogenesis, or whether these can arise autonomously from developmental routines inherent to a given primordial tissue. Finding answers to these questions will be critical both to a better understanding of embryonic phenomena and to the ability to control the differentiation of cell populations into desired configurations.
In a breakthrough new report, RIKEN Cener for Developmental Biology researchers describe how mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are able to differentiate and assemble into an optic cup, capable of giving rise to a tissue exhibiting the stratified structure characteristic of the retina in vivo. Published in Nature, the study used a cutting-edge three-dimensional tissue culture system not only to demonstrate this self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, but the underlying cell dynamics as well.
Date: April 7, 2011
Summary:
Developmental processes are increasingly well-characterized at the molecular and cell biological levels, but how more complex tissues and organs involving the coordinated action of multiple cell types in three dimensions is achieved remains something of a black box. One question of particular interest and importance is whether signaling interactions between neighboring tissues are essential to guiding organogenesis, or whether these can arise autonomously from developmental routines inherent to a given primordial tissue. Finding answers to these questions will be critical both to a better understanding of embryonic phenomena and to the ability to control the differentiation of cell populations into desired configurations.
In a breakthrough new report, RIKEN Cener for Developmental Biology researchers describe how mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) are able to differentiate and assemble into an optic cup, capable of giving rise to a tissue exhibiting the stratified structure characteristic of the retina in vivo. Published in Nature, the study used a cutting-edge three-dimensional tissue culture system not only to demonstrate this self-organizing capacity of pluripotent stem cells, but the underlying cell dynamics as well.
First patient to get stem cell therapy comes forward
Source: Washington Post
Posted: April 7, 2011 12:22 AM EDT
Summary:
The Washington Post reports a 21-year-old Alabama nursing student who was paralyzed from the chest down in a car crash in September has come forward to identify himself as the volunteer for a clinical trial using embryonic stem cells sponsored by Geron Corporation and conducted at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
Posted: April 7, 2011 12:22 AM EDT
Summary:
The Washington Post reports a 21-year-old Alabama nursing student who was paralyzed from the chest down in a car crash in September has come forward to identify himself as the volunteer for a clinical trial using embryonic stem cells sponsored by Geron Corporation and conducted at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Human Taste Cells Regenerate in a Dish
Source: Monell Chemical Senses Center
Date: April 6, 2011
Summary:
PHILADELPHIA – Following years of futile attempts, new research from the Monell Center demonstrates that living human taste cells can be maintained in culture for at least seven months. The findings provide scientists with a valuable tool to learn about the human sense of taste and how it functions in health and disease. This advance ultimately will assist efforts to prevent and treat taste loss or impairment due to infection, radiation, chemotherapy and chemical exposures.
Monell scientists first demonstrated in 2006 that taste cells from rats could successfully be maintained in culture. In the current study, published online in the journal Chemical Senses, they then applied that methodology to a more clinically relevant population -- humans.
Taking tiny samples of tongue tissue from human volunteers, the researchers first adapted existing techniques to demonstrate that the human taste cells indeed can regenerate in culture. They went on to show that the new taste cells were functional, maintaining key molecular and physiological properties characteristic of the parent cells. For example, the new cells also were activated by sweet and bitter taste molecules.
Date: April 6, 2011
Summary:
PHILADELPHIA – Following years of futile attempts, new research from the Monell Center demonstrates that living human taste cells can be maintained in culture for at least seven months. The findings provide scientists with a valuable tool to learn about the human sense of taste and how it functions in health and disease. This advance ultimately will assist efforts to prevent and treat taste loss or impairment due to infection, radiation, chemotherapy and chemical exposures.
Monell scientists first demonstrated in 2006 that taste cells from rats could successfully be maintained in culture. In the current study, published online in the journal Chemical Senses, they then applied that methodology to a more clinically relevant population -- humans.
Taking tiny samples of tongue tissue from human volunteers, the researchers first adapted existing techniques to demonstrate that the human taste cells indeed can regenerate in culture. They went on to show that the new taste cells were functional, maintaining key molecular and physiological properties characteristic of the parent cells. For example, the new cells also were activated by sweet and bitter taste molecules.
Human Taste Cells Regenerate in a Dish
Source: Monell Chemical Senses Center
Date: April 6, 2011
Summary:
Following years of futile attempts, new research from the Monell Center demonstrates that living human taste cells can be maintained in culture for at least seven months. The findings provide scientists with a valuable tool to learn about the human sense of taste and how it functions in health and disease. This advance ultimately will assist efforts to prevent and treat taste loss or impairment due to infection, radiation, chemotherapy and chemical exposures.
To dispel the long-held belief, the Monell scientists first demonstrated in 2006 that taste cells from rats could successfully be maintained in culture. In the current study, published online in the journal Chemical Senses, they then applied that methodology to a more clinically relevant population -- humans. Taking tiny samples of tongue tissue from human volunteers, the researchers first adapted existing techniques to demonstrate that the human taste cells indeed can regenerate in culture. They went on to show that the new taste cells were functional, maintaining key molecular and physiological properties characteristic of the parent cells. For example, the new cells also were activated by sweet and bitter taste molecules.
Date: April 6, 2011
Summary:
Following years of futile attempts, new research from the Monell Center demonstrates that living human taste cells can be maintained in culture for at least seven months. The findings provide scientists with a valuable tool to learn about the human sense of taste and how it functions in health and disease. This advance ultimately will assist efforts to prevent and treat taste loss or impairment due to infection, radiation, chemotherapy and chemical exposures.
To dispel the long-held belief, the Monell scientists first demonstrated in 2006 that taste cells from rats could successfully be maintained in culture. In the current study, published online in the journal Chemical Senses, they then applied that methodology to a more clinically relevant population -- humans. Taking tiny samples of tongue tissue from human volunteers, the researchers first adapted existing techniques to demonstrate that the human taste cells indeed can regenerate in culture. They went on to show that the new taste cells were functional, maintaining key molecular and physiological properties characteristic of the parent cells. For example, the new cells also were activated by sweet and bitter taste molecules.
Tuesday, April 05, 2011
Scientists make skin repair discovery: Bone Marrow Cells That Transform Into Skin Cells Could Revolutionize Approach to Wound Treatment
Source: King's College London
Date: 5 April 2011
Summary:
Researchers at King's College London and Osaka University in Japan have identified specific bone marrow cells that can transform into skin cells to repair damaged skin tissue, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team has uncovered how this process works, providing new insights into the mechanisms behind skin repair. This significant advance has the potential to revolutionise approaches to wound treatment in the future, which could benefit people with chronic wounds such as leg ulcers, pressure sores and burns, as well as genetic skin diseases such as epidermolysis bullosa, which causes painful blisters on the skin.
Date: 5 April 2011
Summary:
Researchers at King's College London and Osaka University in Japan have identified specific bone marrow cells that can transform into skin cells to repair damaged skin tissue, according to a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The team has uncovered how this process works, providing new insights into the mechanisms behind skin repair. This significant advance has the potential to revolutionise approaches to wound treatment in the future, which could benefit people with chronic wounds such as leg ulcers, pressure sores and burns, as well as genetic skin diseases such as epidermolysis bullosa, which causes painful blisters on the skin.
Monday, April 04, 2011
Patient's Own Cells May Hold Therapeutic Promise After Reprogramming, Gene Correction
Source: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Date: April 4, 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Morgridge Institute for Research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of California and the WiCell Research Institute moved gene therapy one step closer to clinical reality by determining that the process of correcting a genetic defect does not substantially increase the number of potentially cancer-causing mutations in induced pluripotent stem cells.
Their work, scheduled for publication the week of April 4 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by a Wynn-Gund Translational Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, suggests that human induced pluripotent stem cells altered to correct a genetic defect may be cultured into subsequent generations of cells that remain free of the initial disease. However, although the gene correction itself does not increase the instability or the number of observed mutations in the cells, the study reinforced other recent findings that induced pluripotent stem cells themselves carry a significant number of genetic mutations.
In the study, the researchers used a technique called episomal reprogramming to generate the induced pluripotent stem cells. In contrast to techniques that use retroviruses, episomal reprogramming doesn't involve inserting DNA into the genome. This technique allowed them to produce cells that were free of potentially harmful transgene sequences.
The scientists then corrected the actual retinal disease-causing gene defect using a technique called homologous recombination. The stem cells were extensively "characterized" or studied before and after the process to assess whether they developed significant additional mutations or variations. The results showed that the culture conditions required to correct a genetic defect did not substantially increase the number of mutations.
Date: April 4, 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Morgridge Institute for Research, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of California and the WiCell Research Institute moved gene therapy one step closer to clinical reality by determining that the process of correcting a genetic defect does not substantially increase the number of potentially cancer-causing mutations in induced pluripotent stem cells.
Their work, scheduled for publication the week of April 4 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and funded by a Wynn-Gund Translational Award from the Foundation Fighting Blindness, suggests that human induced pluripotent stem cells altered to correct a genetic defect may be cultured into subsequent generations of cells that remain free of the initial disease. However, although the gene correction itself does not increase the instability or the number of observed mutations in the cells, the study reinforced other recent findings that induced pluripotent stem cells themselves carry a significant number of genetic mutations.
In the study, the researchers used a technique called episomal reprogramming to generate the induced pluripotent stem cells. In contrast to techniques that use retroviruses, episomal reprogramming doesn't involve inserting DNA into the genome. This technique allowed them to produce cells that were free of potentially harmful transgene sequences.
The scientists then corrected the actual retinal disease-causing gene defect using a technique called homologous recombination. The stem cells were extensively "characterized" or studied before and after the process to assess whether they developed significant additional mutations or variations. The results showed that the culture conditions required to correct a genetic defect did not substantially increase the number of mutations.
Newly discovered epigenetic tag offers insight into embryonic stem cell regulation
Source: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Date: 4 April 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Babraham Institute have gained a new understanding of how molecular signals and switches control how an embryo develops into an adult. The new research, published today (3 April) in the journal Nature, details how a newly discovered form of epigenetic regulation controls the development of embryonic stem (ES) cells.
The research, funded by BBSRC, MRC, the University of Cambridge and EPIGENOME, has important implications for regenerative medicine as it could offer new methods for controlling how ES cells differentiate in every cell in the human body and, potentially, to the growing field of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells where adult stem cell are 'reprogrammed'.
Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells present in the early embryo, which have the capacity to differentiate into all the specialised cells that make up the adult body. As an embryo develops, the cells respond to signals and differentiate to acquire a particular fate, for example a skin cell. Cell fate is governed not only by the genome, but also by chemical changes to DNA that alter the DNA structure but not its sequence. These 'epigenetic' tags are one of the ways that genes get switched on or off in different places at different times, enabling different tissues and organs to arise from a single fertilised egg and also helps to explain how our genes can be influenced by the environment.
The new research reveals that a new type of epigenetic modification, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), plays a critical role mediating the external signals that instruct a cell how to develop; this tiny chemical tag (5hmC) is attached to or removed from the genetic sequence depending on the message received, switching genes on or off. The researchers managed to identify the location of this tag throughout the genome, using high throughput sequencing methods. They observed for so called pluripotency-related genes that, as 5hmC decreases, another previously known epigenetic modification, 5-methylcytosine (5mC) increases - this shift has consequences in determining how genes function and hence a cell's developmental fate.
Date: 4 April 2011
Summary:
Scientists from the Babraham Institute have gained a new understanding of how molecular signals and switches control how an embryo develops into an adult. The new research, published today (3 April) in the journal Nature, details how a newly discovered form of epigenetic regulation controls the development of embryonic stem (ES) cells.
The research, funded by BBSRC, MRC, the University of Cambridge and EPIGENOME, has important implications for regenerative medicine as it could offer new methods for controlling how ES cells differentiate in every cell in the human body and, potentially, to the growing field of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells where adult stem cell are 'reprogrammed'.
Embryonic stem (ES) cells are pluripotent cells present in the early embryo, which have the capacity to differentiate into all the specialised cells that make up the adult body. As an embryo develops, the cells respond to signals and differentiate to acquire a particular fate, for example a skin cell. Cell fate is governed not only by the genome, but also by chemical changes to DNA that alter the DNA structure but not its sequence. These 'epigenetic' tags are one of the ways that genes get switched on or off in different places at different times, enabling different tissues and organs to arise from a single fertilised egg and also helps to explain how our genes can be influenced by the environment.
The new research reveals that a new type of epigenetic modification, 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), plays a critical role mediating the external signals that instruct a cell how to develop; this tiny chemical tag (5hmC) is attached to or removed from the genetic sequence depending on the message received, switching genes on or off. The researchers managed to identify the location of this tag throughout the genome, using high throughput sequencing methods. They observed for so called pluripotency-related genes that, as 5hmC decreases, another previously known epigenetic modification, 5-methylcytosine (5mC) increases - this shift has consequences in determining how genes function and hence a cell's developmental fate.
Friday, April 01, 2011
Why stem cells don’t just want to make neurons
Source: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Date: 1 April 2011
Summary:
Research being presented at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science conference provides another piece in the puzzle of why it can be so hard to produce large numbers of the same type of cell in the lab -- a process that is vital for scaling up stem cell production for therapeutic use. This knowledge will help researchers to develop strategies for obtaining the desired cell type for use in either research or medicine.
The work will be presented by Dr Robert Kelsh from the University of Bath and was funded in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). It shows for the first time that a gene called Sox10 coordinates a vital part of healthy development: once a stem cell has committed to becoming a neuron it sends out a signal telling surrounding cells to become something else -- a characteristic that certainly hinders making pure samples of these cells for therapies.
Date: 1 April 2011
Summary:
Research being presented at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science conference provides another piece in the puzzle of why it can be so hard to produce large numbers of the same type of cell in the lab -- a process that is vital for scaling up stem cell production for therapeutic use. This knowledge will help researchers to develop strategies for obtaining the desired cell type for use in either research or medicine.
The work will be presented by Dr Robert Kelsh from the University of Bath and was funded in part by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). It shows for the first time that a gene called Sox10 coordinates a vital part of healthy development: once a stem cell has committed to becoming a neuron it sends out a signal telling surrounding cells to become something else -- a characteristic that certainly hinders making pure samples of these cells for therapies.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Human Embryonic Stem Cells Provide New Insight Into Muscular Dystrophy
Source: Cell Press
Date: March 31, 2011
Summary:
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common inherited muscular dystrophy in adults. New research published online on March 31st in the journal Cell Stem Cell, uses human embryonic stem cells to make a clinically important contribution to the understanding of this disease, and highlights the incredible potential that embryonic stem cells hold for unraveling the complex molecular mechanisms involved in a variety of human conditions.
Date: March 31, 2011
Summary:
Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is the most common inherited muscular dystrophy in adults. New research published online on March 31st in the journal Cell Stem Cell, uses human embryonic stem cells to make a clinically important contribution to the understanding of this disease, and highlights the incredible potential that embryonic stem cells hold for unraveling the complex molecular mechanisms involved in a variety of human conditions.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Researchers discover how brain's memory center repairs damage from head injury
Source: University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Date: March 30, 2011
Summary:
DALLAS –– Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have described for the first time how the brain’s memory center repairs itself following severe trauma – a process that may explain why it is harder to bounce back after multiple head injuries.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, reports significant learning and memory problems in mice who were unable to create new nerve cells in the brain’s memory area, the hippocampus, following brain trauma.
The scientists developed unique transgenic mice that were unable to create hippocampal neurons when exposed to a usually harmless chemical called ganciclovir soon after brain injury. Four groups of these transgenic mice received either sham surgery or a controlled cortical injury (CCI) to mimic the diffuse damage of a moderate to severe head injury, and two of the groups were exposed to ganciclovir, Dr. Kernie said.
After a month – the time earlier experiments indicated it takes for neural stem cells to mature and integrate as neurons into the hippocampus – the researchers gave the mice a learning task called the Morris water maze in which the mice had to find a white platform hidden in a white pool of water. On the first day of learning the task, there were no group-noteworthy differences in swim speed, indicating no motor impairment in the test mice. During the next 10 days, however, the test group spent more time swimming along the edges of the tank, and they traveled longer distances to reach the platform.
Date: March 30, 2011
Summary:
DALLAS –– Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center have described for the first time how the brain’s memory center repairs itself following severe trauma – a process that may explain why it is harder to bounce back after multiple head injuries.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, reports significant learning and memory problems in mice who were unable to create new nerve cells in the brain’s memory area, the hippocampus, following brain trauma.
The scientists developed unique transgenic mice that were unable to create hippocampal neurons when exposed to a usually harmless chemical called ganciclovir soon after brain injury. Four groups of these transgenic mice received either sham surgery or a controlled cortical injury (CCI) to mimic the diffuse damage of a moderate to severe head injury, and two of the groups were exposed to ganciclovir, Dr. Kernie said.
After a month – the time earlier experiments indicated it takes for neural stem cells to mature and integrate as neurons into the hippocampus – the researchers gave the mice a learning task called the Morris water maze in which the mice had to find a white platform hidden in a white pool of water. On the first day of learning the task, there were no group-noteworthy differences in swim speed, indicating no motor impairment in the test mice. During the next 10 days, however, the test group spent more time swimming along the edges of the tank, and they traveled longer distances to reach the platform.
Pasadena, CA. to Host 2011 World Stem Cell Summit October 3 – 5
Source: Genetics Policy Institute
Posted: March 30, 2011 11:00 AM EDT
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genetics Policy Institute announced today that the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit is scheduled for Oct. 3 – 5 at the Pasadena Convention Center.
Genetics Policy Institute, City of Hope, Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, California Institute of Technology and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) have united to organize the world’s largest interdisciplinary stem cell meeting. The Summit will feature more than 170 prominent scientists, business leaders, regulators, policy-makers, advocates, economic development officers and experts in law and ethics, who will discuss the latest scientific discoveries, business models, legal and regulatory solutions and best practices. The event is expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees from 25 nations, 60 exhibitors and more than 150 endorsing organizations and media partners.
Among the confirmed speakers are Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, PhD, (Whitehead Institute, MIT), Professor Sir Ian Wilmut (MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine), Professor Chris Mason MBBS, PhD, FRCS (University College London) and Alan Trounson, PhD, (California Institute for Regenerative Medicine).
California was selected as the location for this year’s Summit because of the state’s commitment to stem cell science, evidenced by voters’ approval in 2004 of Proposition 71. This action led to the establishment of a state stem cell agency and a funding process for regenerative medicine research leading to $3 billion in stem cell research and therapy development for patients of chronic disease and injury.
Bernard Siegel, founder of the Summit and executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, emphasized that, “Our purpose is to unite, educate and harmonize the global stem cell community. California is in the vanguard of the most innovative leaders in stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The state’s investment will pay lasting dividends in the form of jobs, economic development, and, most importantly, the translation of scientific discoveries into cures.”
Bob Klein, Chairman of the Governing Board of CIRM, stated, “The World Stem Cell Summit is an extraordinarily important meeting of scientific researchers striving to convert the leading edge of stem cell research into therapies to reduce human suffering. The Summit’s presence in Pasadena highlights California’s leadership role in financing and building a global infrastructure for the development of innovative stem cell therapies; California has partnered with ten nations to bring the best of the world’s stem cell research together in world-class teams to drive the development of therapies."
Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, stated, “As CIRM places a priority on developing therapies and finding cures, we welcome the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit’s focus on translational regenerative medicine. By working with the regenerative medicine business and investment community, who will be joining us in Pasadena, we can forge collaborations with California researchers and companies to accelerate effective therapies.”
Richard Jove, PhD, director of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, noted: “We are pleased to welcome the Summit to the Los Angeles area, where stem cell research is flourishing at so many world class local institutions. City of Hope has a long history of advancing stem cell research and successfully applying those advances to save lives. More recently we have expanded our efforts and are able to serve as a national resource for other institutions developing and manufacturing stem cell-based therapies through our on-site, state-of-the-art GMP facilities. The summit will be a tremendous opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas as well as form new collaborations from across town to around the world.”
Clive Svendsen, PhD, the director of Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, noted that, “Here at Cedars Sinai we have made a robust commitment to advance regenerative medicine – from disease modeling to the discovery of effective cellular treatments. The Regenerative Medicine Institute unites both basic scientists and physician scientists across multiple medical specialties to translate findings from the research bench directly to the bedside. Having previously co-organized the World Stem Cell Summit in Wisconsin, I am very pleased to be involved once again in this exciting meeting.”
Dr. Paul Patterson, Professor of Biological Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, stated, “We are extremely pleased that the organizers chose Pasadena to host the World Stem Cell Summit. The diverse program presents a comprehensive view of the stem cell world and the Caltech community looks forward to presenting advances in the development of important new technologies based on stem cell science and developmental biology.”
For more information about sponsoring or attending the World Stem Cell Summit, contact Alan Fernandez at (650) 847-1640 or email Alan@genpol.org. To learn more about the Summit, visit: www.worldstemcellsummit.com.
Posted: March 30, 2011 11:00 AM EDT
PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Genetics Policy Institute announced today that the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit is scheduled for Oct. 3 – 5 at the Pasadena Convention Center.
Genetics Policy Institute, City of Hope, Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, California Institute of Technology and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) have united to organize the world’s largest interdisciplinary stem cell meeting. The Summit will feature more than 170 prominent scientists, business leaders, regulators, policy-makers, advocates, economic development officers and experts in law and ethics, who will discuss the latest scientific discoveries, business models, legal and regulatory solutions and best practices. The event is expected to attract more than 2,000 attendees from 25 nations, 60 exhibitors and more than 150 endorsing organizations and media partners.
Among the confirmed speakers are Rudolf Jaenisch, MD, PhD, (Whitehead Institute, MIT), Professor Sir Ian Wilmut (MRC Centre for Regenerative Medicine), Professor Chris Mason MBBS, PhD, FRCS (University College London) and Alan Trounson, PhD, (California Institute for Regenerative Medicine).
California was selected as the location for this year’s Summit because of the state’s commitment to stem cell science, evidenced by voters’ approval in 2004 of Proposition 71. This action led to the establishment of a state stem cell agency and a funding process for regenerative medicine research leading to $3 billion in stem cell research and therapy development for patients of chronic disease and injury.
Bernard Siegel, founder of the Summit and executive director of the Genetics Policy Institute, emphasized that, “Our purpose is to unite, educate and harmonize the global stem cell community. California is in the vanguard of the most innovative leaders in stem cell research and regenerative medicine. The state’s investment will pay lasting dividends in the form of jobs, economic development, and, most importantly, the translation of scientific discoveries into cures.”
Bob Klein, Chairman of the Governing Board of CIRM, stated, “The World Stem Cell Summit is an extraordinarily important meeting of scientific researchers striving to convert the leading edge of stem cell research into therapies to reduce human suffering. The Summit’s presence in Pasadena highlights California’s leadership role in financing and building a global infrastructure for the development of innovative stem cell therapies; California has partnered with ten nations to bring the best of the world’s stem cell research together in world-class teams to drive the development of therapies."
Alan Trounson, president of CIRM, stated, “As CIRM places a priority on developing therapies and finding cures, we welcome the 2011 World Stem Cell Summit’s focus on translational regenerative medicine. By working with the regenerative medicine business and investment community, who will be joining us in Pasadena, we can forge collaborations with California researchers and companies to accelerate effective therapies.”
Richard Jove, PhD, director of Beckman Research Institute of City of Hope, noted: “We are pleased to welcome the Summit to the Los Angeles area, where stem cell research is flourishing at so many world class local institutions. City of Hope has a long history of advancing stem cell research and successfully applying those advances to save lives. More recently we have expanded our efforts and are able to serve as a national resource for other institutions developing and manufacturing stem cell-based therapies through our on-site, state-of-the-art GMP facilities. The summit will be a tremendous opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas as well as form new collaborations from across town to around the world.”
Clive Svendsen, PhD, the director of Cedars-Sinai Regenerative Medicine Institute, noted that, “Here at Cedars Sinai we have made a robust commitment to advance regenerative medicine – from disease modeling to the discovery of effective cellular treatments. The Regenerative Medicine Institute unites both basic scientists and physician scientists across multiple medical specialties to translate findings from the research bench directly to the bedside. Having previously co-organized the World Stem Cell Summit in Wisconsin, I am very pleased to be involved once again in this exciting meeting.”
Dr. Paul Patterson, Professor of Biological Sciences at the California Institute of Technology, stated, “We are extremely pleased that the organizers chose Pasadena to host the World Stem Cell Summit. The diverse program presents a comprehensive view of the stem cell world and the Caltech community looks forward to presenting advances in the development of important new technologies based on stem cell science and developmental biology.”
For more information about sponsoring or attending the World Stem Cell Summit, contact Alan Fernandez at (650) 847-1640 or email Alan@genpol.org. To learn more about the Summit, visit: www.worldstemcellsummit.com.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Enzyme Essential for Healthy Lung Development Discovered
Source: Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Date: March 29, 2011
Summary:
LOS ANGELES – Investigators at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have provided the first evidence that Eya1 protein phosphatase is a crucial regulator of the development of embryonic lung epithelial stem cells.
The correct functioning of lung epithelium is essential to life. Cellular polarity of lung epithelial cells, meaning that they have an asymmetrical orientation or a front and back, is crucial. Dysregulation of cell polarity has been associated with developmental disorders as well as cancer. Until now, little has been known about the mechanism that controls cell polarity, cell fate and self-renewal of embryonic lung epithelial stem cells. David Warburton, MD, director of Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine at The Saban Research Institute, and Ahmed El-Hashash, PhD, senior research scientist carrying out this study, will release their findings in the upcoming issue of Development.
Date: March 29, 2011
Summary:
LOS ANGELES – Investigators at The Saban Research Institute of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have provided the first evidence that Eya1 protein phosphatase is a crucial regulator of the development of embryonic lung epithelial stem cells.
The correct functioning of lung epithelium is essential to life. Cellular polarity of lung epithelial cells, meaning that they have an asymmetrical orientation or a front and back, is crucial. Dysregulation of cell polarity has been associated with developmental disorders as well as cancer. Until now, little has been known about the mechanism that controls cell polarity, cell fate and self-renewal of embryonic lung epithelial stem cells. David Warburton, MD, director of Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine at The Saban Research Institute, and Ahmed El-Hashash, PhD, senior research scientist carrying out this study, will release their findings in the upcoming issue of Development.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Signal uncovered to help control when stem cells become fat cells
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: March 28, 2011
Summary:
A research team at the Stanford University School of Medicine and UC-San Francisco has uncovered a molecular signal that plays an important role in directing one type of “adult” stem cells to mature into fat cells. The finding could help scientists design better drugs for type-2 diabetes and other diseases associated with obesity. And it may eventually lead to therapies for disorders of low muscle mass, such as pediatric muscular dystrophies or muscle degeneration in the elderly. The study appeared March 18 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Date: March 28, 2011
Summary:
A research team at the Stanford University School of Medicine and UC-San Francisco has uncovered a molecular signal that plays an important role in directing one type of “adult” stem cells to mature into fat cells. The finding could help scientists design better drugs for type-2 diabetes and other diseases associated with obesity. And it may eventually lead to therapies for disorders of low muscle mass, such as pediatric muscular dystrophies or muscle degeneration in the elderly. The study appeared March 18 in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Stanford scientists build Parkinson's disease in a dish with cells from Google founder's mom
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Posted: March 27, 2011 07:56:46 AM PDT
Summary:
The San Jose Mercury News reports scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have grown cells with traits of Parkinson's disease in a lab:
Posted: March 27, 2011 07:56:46 AM PDT
Summary:
The San Jose Mercury News reports scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have grown cells with traits of Parkinson's disease in a lab:
...Stanford University scientists say they have re-enacted this tragedy in a petri dish -- growing the young neurons from the donated skin cells of Parkinson's patient Genia Brin, the mother of Google co-founder Sergey Brin -- and then watching them sicken and perish. This feat, co-authored in this month's issue of the journal Cell by Stanford's Renee Reijo Pera, could accelerate the search for a cure of the crippling disorder. The research makes it possible, for the first time in medical history, to study the diseased cells and test compounds that might slow or even prevent their development.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Research May Lead to New Treatments for Parkinson’s Disease and Other Neurological Disorders
Source: Marshall University Research Corporation
Date: March 24, 2011
Summary:
Scientists at Marshall University are conducting research that may someday lead to new treatments for repair of the central nervous system. The group has identified and analyzed unique adult animal stem cells that can turn into neurons. The neurons they found appear to have many of the qualities desired for cells being used in development of therapies for slowly progressing, degenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis, and for damage due to stroke or spinal cord injury. The research was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Cellular Physiology.
Date: March 24, 2011
Summary:
Scientists at Marshall University are conducting research that may someday lead to new treatments for repair of the central nervous system. The group has identified and analyzed unique adult animal stem cells that can turn into neurons. The neurons they found appear to have many of the qualities desired for cells being used in development of therapies for slowly progressing, degenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease and multiple sclerosis, and for damage due to stroke or spinal cord injury. The research was published in a recent issue of the Journal of Cellular Physiology.
Stem cell therapy for age-related macular degeneration -- a step closer to reality
Source: Georgetown University Medical Center
Date: March 24, 2011
Summary:
Washington, D.C. – The notion of transplanting adult stem cells to treat or even cure age-related macular degeneration has taken a significant step toward becoming a reality. In a study published today in Stem Cells, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to create retinal cells derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells that mimic the eye cells that die and cause loss of sight. The research shows that this critical step in regenerative medicine for AMD has greatly progressed.
Date: March 24, 2011
Summary:
Washington, D.C. – The notion of transplanting adult stem cells to treat or even cure age-related macular degeneration has taken a significant step toward becoming a reality. In a study published today in Stem Cells, Georgetown University Medical Center researchers have demonstrated, for the first time, the ability to create retinal cells derived from human-induced pluripotent stem cells that mimic the eye cells that die and cause loss of sight. The research shows that this critical step in regenerative medicine for AMD has greatly progressed.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Stem cells in heart form scar after heart attack
Source: Baylor College of Medicine
Date: March 22, 2011
Summary:
HOUSTON -- A fibroblast is not always just a fibroblast – particularly in the heart. In a heart attack, fibroblasts – special repair cells that form a scar after injury – come from a population of stem cells that reside within the heart, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital in a report that appears in the journal Cardiovascular Research. By contrast, earlier work showed that the fibroblasts responsible for fibrosis – excess fibrous connective tissue – found in cardiomyopathy or heart failure came from a special kind of white blood cell called a monocyte, which originates in the bone marrow. The finding has implications for the treatment of heart failure, said Dr. Mark Entman, chief of the division of cardiovascular sciences in the department of medicine at BCM and the paper's corresponding author.
Date: March 22, 2011
Summary:
HOUSTON -- A fibroblast is not always just a fibroblast – particularly in the heart. In a heart attack, fibroblasts – special repair cells that form a scar after injury – come from a population of stem cells that reside within the heart, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and the Methodist Hospital in a report that appears in the journal Cardiovascular Research. By contrast, earlier work showed that the fibroblasts responsible for fibrosis – excess fibrous connective tissue – found in cardiomyopathy or heart failure came from a special kind of white blood cell called a monocyte, which originates in the bone marrow. The finding has implications for the treatment of heart failure, said Dr. Mark Entman, chief of the division of cardiovascular sciences in the department of medicine at BCM and the paper's corresponding author.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Stem Cells May Show Promise for People with Rapidly Progressing MS
Source: American Academy of Neurology
Date: March 21, 2011
Summary:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A long term study reports about the effectiveness of replacing bone marrow, purposely destroyed by chemotherapy, with autologous (self) stem cell rescue for people with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the March 22, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For the treatment, chemotherapy drugs are used to kill all of the patient's blood cells, including the immune cells that are believed to be attacking the body's own central nervous system. Bone marrow stem cells removed from the patient are purified and transplanted back into the body, which saves life by replacing the blood cells and also is proposed to 'reboot' the immune system.
HealthDay News and WebMD published news stories based on this news release today.
Date: March 21, 2011
Summary:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – A long term study reports about the effectiveness of replacing bone marrow, purposely destroyed by chemotherapy, with autologous (self) stem cell rescue for people with aggressive forms of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study is published in the March 22, 2011, print issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. For the treatment, chemotherapy drugs are used to kill all of the patient's blood cells, including the immune cells that are believed to be attacking the body's own central nervous system. Bone marrow stem cells removed from the patient are purified and transplanted back into the body, which saves life by replacing the blood cells and also is proposed to 'reboot' the immune system.
HealthDay News and WebMD published news stories based on this news release today.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Researchers discover molecular determinant of cell identity
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: March 20, 2011
Summary:
If a big bunch of your brain cells suddenly went rogue and decided to become fat cells, it could cloud your decision-making capacity a bit. Fortunately, early in an organism's development, cells make firm and more-or-less permanent decisions about whether they will live their lives as, say, skin cells, brain cells or, well, fat cells. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine may help solve the mystery of how . The researchers discovered how a particular variety of the biomolecule RNA that had been thought to be largely irrelevant to cellular processes plays a dynamic regulatory role in protein selection. In unraveling this molecular mechanism, the study also offers enticing clues as to how certain cancers may arise. The study is published online March 20 in Nature.
Date: March 20, 2011
Summary:
If a big bunch of your brain cells suddenly went rogue and decided to become fat cells, it could cloud your decision-making capacity a bit. Fortunately, early in an organism's development, cells make firm and more-or-less permanent decisions about whether they will live their lives as, say, skin cells, brain cells or, well, fat cells. A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine may help solve the mystery of how . The researchers discovered how a particular variety of the biomolecule RNA that had been thought to be largely irrelevant to cellular processes plays a dynamic regulatory role in protein selection. In unraveling this molecular mechanism, the study also offers enticing clues as to how certain cancers may arise. The study is published online March 20 in Nature.
Friday, March 18, 2011
STEM CELLS MAY BE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING THE ORIGINS OF COLON CANCER AND DETECTING RELAPSE
Source: Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona)
Date: 18 March 2011
Summary:
Colorectal cancer cells trigger a set of genes similar to those found in intestinal stem cells, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have found. The team of researchers, led by ICREA researcher Eduard Batlle, propose that patients with colorectal cancer undergo genetic tests of their intestinal epithelium in order to predict a higher risk of relapse. The results of the study, published online this week in Cell Stem Cell, offer new possibilities for diagnosing and treating the disease.
Date: 18 March 2011
Summary:
Colorectal cancer cells trigger a set of genes similar to those found in intestinal stem cells, scientists at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) have found. The team of researchers, led by ICREA researcher Eduard Batlle, propose that patients with colorectal cancer undergo genetic tests of their intestinal epithelium in order to predict a higher risk of relapse. The results of the study, published online this week in Cell Stem Cell, offer new possibilities for diagnosing and treating the disease.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Study First to Show Stem Cell Injections Reduce Heart Damage and Improve Function
Source: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
Stem cell researchers have shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced heart size, reduced scar tissue and improved function to injured heart areas. The findings, from a small trial conducted at the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are published in the March 17 issue of Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In this study, physicians used a corkscrew-shaped catheter to inject stem cells retrieved from the patient’s own bone marrow. The patients were eight men, average age of 57, who had chronically enlarged, low-functioning hearts. Specifically, the Miller School researchers found that the heart size decreased an average of 15 to 20 percent, or about three times what is possible with current medical therapies. Scar tissue went down by an average of 18.3 percent and there was dramatic improvement in the function of specific heart areas that were damaged.
The research team used two different types of bone marrow stem cells in the study — mononuclear or mesenchymal stem cells. The study did not examine whether one type of cell works better than the other. All patients in the study benefited from the therapy and tolerated the injections with no serious adverse events.
HealthDay News, MedPage Today, WebMD and The Miami Herald published news stories on this study today.
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
Stem cell researchers have shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced heart size, reduced scar tissue and improved function to injured heart areas. The findings, from a small trial conducted at the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, are published in the March 17 issue of Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.
In this study, physicians used a corkscrew-shaped catheter to inject stem cells retrieved from the patient’s own bone marrow. The patients were eight men, average age of 57, who had chronically enlarged, low-functioning hearts. Specifically, the Miller School researchers found that the heart size decreased an average of 15 to 20 percent, or about three times what is possible with current medical therapies. Scar tissue went down by an average of 18.3 percent and there was dramatic improvement in the function of specific heart areas that were damaged.
The research team used two different types of bone marrow stem cells in the study — mononuclear or mesenchymal stem cells. The study did not examine whether one type of cell works better than the other. All patients in the study benefited from the therapy and tolerated the injections with no serious adverse events.
HealthDay News, MedPage Today, WebMD and The Miami Herald published news stories on this study today.
Heart damage improves, reverses after stem cell injections in a preliminary human trial
Source: American Heart Association
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
DALLAS – Researchers have shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced heart size, reduced scar tissue and improved function to injured heart areas, according to a small trial published in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers said that while this research is in the early stages, the findings are promising for the more than five million Americans who have enlarged hearts due to damage sustained from heart attacks. These patients can suffer premature death, have major disability and experience frequent hospitalizations. Options for treatment are limited to lifelong medications and major medical interventions, such as heart transplantation, according to Joshua M. Hare, M.D., the study’s senior author and professor of medicine and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami in Miami, Fla.
Using catheters, researchers injected stem cells derived from the patient’s own bone marrow into the hearts of eight men (average age 57) with chronically enlarged, low-functioning hearts.
Specifically, researchers found:
• Heart size decreased an average of 15 percent to 20 percent, which is about three times what is possible with current medical therapies.
• Scar tissue decreased by an average of 18.3 percent.
• And there was dramatic improvement in the function, or contraction, of specific heart areas that were damaged.
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
DALLAS – Researchers have shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced heart size, reduced scar tissue and improved function to injured heart areas, according to a small trial published in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.
Researchers said that while this research is in the early stages, the findings are promising for the more than five million Americans who have enlarged hearts due to damage sustained from heart attacks. These patients can suffer premature death, have major disability and experience frequent hospitalizations. Options for treatment are limited to lifelong medications and major medical interventions, such as heart transplantation, according to Joshua M. Hare, M.D., the study’s senior author and professor of medicine and director of the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami in Miami, Fla.
Using catheters, researchers injected stem cells derived from the patient’s own bone marrow into the hearts of eight men (average age 57) with chronically enlarged, low-functioning hearts.
Specifically, researchers found:
• Heart size decreased an average of 15 percent to 20 percent, which is about three times what is possible with current medical therapies.
• Scar tissue decreased by an average of 18.3 percent.
• And there was dramatic improvement in the function, or contraction, of specific heart areas that were damaged.
Scientists Create Stem Cells from Schizophrenia Patients
Source: Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
Using skin cells from adult siblings with schizophrenia and a genetic mutation linked to major mental illnesses, Johns Hopkins researchers have created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) using a new and improved "clean" technique.
Reporting online February 22 in Molecular Psychiatry, the team confirms the establishment of two new lines of iPS cells with mutations in the gene named Disrupted In Schizophrenia 1, or DISC1. They made the cells using a nonviral "epiosomal vector" that jumpstarts the reprogramming machinery of cells without modifying their original genetic content with foreign DNA from a virus.
The stem cells from these two new lines, the scientists say, can be coaxed to become brain cells such as neurons. Because they have the DISC1 mutation, they stand to play an important role in the screening of drugs for treatments of major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, as well as provide clues about the causes of these diseases.
Date: March 17, 2011
Summary:
Using skin cells from adult siblings with schizophrenia and a genetic mutation linked to major mental illnesses, Johns Hopkins researchers have created induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) using a new and improved "clean" technique.
Reporting online February 22 in Molecular Psychiatry, the team confirms the establishment of two new lines of iPS cells with mutations in the gene named Disrupted In Schizophrenia 1, or DISC1. They made the cells using a nonviral "epiosomal vector" that jumpstarts the reprogramming machinery of cells without modifying their original genetic content with foreign DNA from a virus.
The stem cells from these two new lines, the scientists say, can be coaxed to become brain cells such as neurons. Because they have the DISC1 mutation, they stand to play an important role in the screening of drugs for treatments of major mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, as well as provide clues about the causes of these diseases.
Monday, March 14, 2011
StemCells, Inc. Initiates World's First Neural Stem Cell Trial in Spinal Cord Injury
Source: StemCells, Inc.
Date: March 14, 2011
Summary:
PALO ALTO, Calif., (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- StemCells, Inc. announced today the initiation of a Phase I/II clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC(R) human neural stem cells in chronic spinal cord injury. This trial is now open for enrollment, and will accrue patients with both complete and incomplete degrees of paralysis who are three to 12 months post-injury. The trial is being conducted in Switzerland at the Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, a world leading medical center for spinal cord injury and rehabilitation, and is being led by Armin Curt, MD, Professor and Chairman, Spinal Cord Injury Center at the University of Zurich, and Medical Director of the Paraplegic Center at the Balgrist University Hospital.
Date: March 14, 2011
Summary:
PALO ALTO, Calif., (GlobeNewswire via COMTEX) -- StemCells, Inc. announced today the initiation of a Phase I/II clinical trial of its proprietary HuCNS-SC(R) human neural stem cells in chronic spinal cord injury. This trial is now open for enrollment, and will accrue patients with both complete and incomplete degrees of paralysis who are three to 12 months post-injury. The trial is being conducted in Switzerland at the Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, a world leading medical center for spinal cord injury and rehabilitation, and is being led by Armin Curt, MD, Professor and Chairman, Spinal Cord Injury Center at the University of Zurich, and Medical Director of the Paraplegic Center at the Balgrist University Hospital.
Friday, March 11, 2011
Stem Cells Take Cues From Fluid in the Brain
Source: George Washington University Medical Center
Date: March 11, 2011
Summary:
Proteins in fluids bathing the brain are essential for building the brain, discover scientists in a report published March 10 in the journal Neuron. The finding promises to advance research related to neurological disease, cancer and stem cells. Before now, the fluid surrounding the brain was generally considered to be a sort of salt-solution that simply maintained the brain's ionic balance. Recent reports of fluctuating proteins in the fluid suggested otherwise, however. And thus, a multi-institutional research teams at the Children's Hospital in Boston, led by Maria Lehtinen, Mauro Zappaterra and Christopher Walsh and researchers from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., decided to take a closer look at what proteins in the fluid do. What they found shocked them: As embryos and their brains are growing, a type of protein that tells brain cells to multiply increases in the so-called cerebrospinal fluid.
The current team extracted cerebrospinal fluid from mouse embryos around two weeks after conception, when their brains develop most quickly. The fluid contained high levels of a protein, insulin-like growth factor or Igf2, which is known to help stem cells multiply and differentiate. Notably, the protein isn’t elevated after birth. When the authors blocked Igf2, stem cells in the brain stopped making brain cells, which resulted in abnormally tiny mice brains. And when the team placed brain stem cells in a dish filled with Igf2-rich, embryonic cerebrospinal fluid, the cells proliferated rapidly.
Date: March 11, 2011
Summary:
Proteins in fluids bathing the brain are essential for building the brain, discover scientists in a report published March 10 in the journal Neuron. The finding promises to advance research related to neurological disease, cancer and stem cells. Before now, the fluid surrounding the brain was generally considered to be a sort of salt-solution that simply maintained the brain's ionic balance. Recent reports of fluctuating proteins in the fluid suggested otherwise, however. And thus, a multi-institutional research teams at the Children's Hospital in Boston, led by Maria Lehtinen, Mauro Zappaterra and Christopher Walsh and researchers from the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C., decided to take a closer look at what proteins in the fluid do. What they found shocked them: As embryos and their brains are growing, a type of protein that tells brain cells to multiply increases in the so-called cerebrospinal fluid.
The current team extracted cerebrospinal fluid from mouse embryos around two weeks after conception, when their brains develop most quickly. The fluid contained high levels of a protein, insulin-like growth factor or Igf2, which is known to help stem cells multiply and differentiate. Notably, the protein isn’t elevated after birth. When the authors blocked Igf2, stem cells in the brain stopped making brain cells, which resulted in abnormally tiny mice brains. And when the team placed brain stem cells in a dish filled with Igf2-rich, embryonic cerebrospinal fluid, the cells proliferated rapidly.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Stem cells may provide treatment for brain injuries Preliminary results show safety of bone marrow stem cells in traumatic brain injury
Source: University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Date: March 10, 2011
Summary:
HOUSTON –– Stem cells derived from a patient’s own bone marrow were safely used in pediatric patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to results of a Phase I clinical trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The results were published in this month’s issue of Neurosurgery, the journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
Date: March 10, 2011
Summary:
HOUSTON –– Stem cells derived from a patient’s own bone marrow were safely used in pediatric patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to results of a Phase I clinical trial at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The results were published in this month’s issue of Neurosurgery, the journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.
Cerebral Spinal Fluid Guides Stem Cell Development in the Brain
Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Date: March 10, 2011
Summary:
Cerebrospinal fluid—the clear and watery substance that bathes the brain and spinal cord—is much more important to brain development than previously realized. Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Christopher Walsh, his postdoctoral fellow Maria Lehtinen, former student Mauro Zappaterra, and their colleagues have discovered that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contains a complex mix of proteins that changes dramatically with age. In the lab, CSF by itself is enough to support the growth of neural stem cells, and this effect is particularly robust in young brains.
What's more, the protein make-up of CSF in people with malignant brain cancer is different from that of healthy people, the researchers found. "This suggests that the CSF can make a more supportive or less supportive environment for tumor growth," notes Walsh, Chief of Genetics at Children's Hospital Boston. The work is published in the March 10, 2011, issue of the journal Neuron.
Date: March 10, 2011
Summary:
Cerebrospinal fluid—the clear and watery substance that bathes the brain and spinal cord—is much more important to brain development than previously realized. Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Christopher Walsh, his postdoctoral fellow Maria Lehtinen, former student Mauro Zappaterra, and their colleagues have discovered that cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) contains a complex mix of proteins that changes dramatically with age. In the lab, CSF by itself is enough to support the growth of neural stem cells, and this effect is particularly robust in young brains.
What's more, the protein make-up of CSF in people with malignant brain cancer is different from that of healthy people, the researchers found. "This suggests that the CSF can make a more supportive or less supportive environment for tumor growth," notes Walsh, Chief of Genetics at Children's Hospital Boston. The work is published in the March 10, 2011, issue of the journal Neuron.
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Earliest Cardiovascular Progenitors That Arise During the Differentiation of Pluripotent Stem Cells Isolated
Source: Libre de Bruxelles, Universit
Date: March 8, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) led by Dr. Cédric Blanpain have isolated the earliest cardiovascular progenitors that arise during the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) have the capacity to differentiate into any cell type in the body, including cardiac and vascular cells, which give hope that one day, we can use these cells to replace the death or damaged cells in various diseases. The discovery of novel methods allowing the purification of cardiovascular progenitors during embryonic stem cell differentiation is thus essential before these cells could be used in large scale to treat patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases or for drug discovery.
Researchers led by Dr Cédric Blanpain, FNRS researcher at IRIBHM, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, studied the mechanisms that govern the specification of cardiovascular progenitors during pluripotent stem cell differentiation. In a new study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, the ULB researchers used genetically engineered embryonic stem cells that become fluorescent when the stem cells become cardiovascular progenitors. By isolating these fluorescent cells, they purified the cardiovascular progenitors and differentiated these cells into beating cardiac cells in vitro and in vivo.
Date: March 8, 2011
Summary:
Researchers from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB) led by Dr. Cédric Blanpain have isolated the earliest cardiovascular progenitors that arise during the differentiation of pluripotent stem cells. Pluripotent stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) have the capacity to differentiate into any cell type in the body, including cardiac and vascular cells, which give hope that one day, we can use these cells to replace the death or damaged cells in various diseases. The discovery of novel methods allowing the purification of cardiovascular progenitors during embryonic stem cell differentiation is thus essential before these cells could be used in large scale to treat patients suffering from cardiovascular diseases or for drug discovery.
Researchers led by Dr Cédric Blanpain, FNRS researcher at IRIBHM, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Belgium, studied the mechanisms that govern the specification of cardiovascular progenitors during pluripotent stem cell differentiation. In a new study published in the Journal of Cell Biology, the ULB researchers used genetically engineered embryonic stem cells that become fluorescent when the stem cells become cardiovascular progenitors. By isolating these fluorescent cells, they purified the cardiovascular progenitors and differentiated these cells into beating cardiac cells in vitro and in vivo.
Researchers discover drug that stops progression of Parkinson's disease in mice
Source: University of Colorado Denver
Date: March 8, 2011
Summary:
AURORA, Colo. – In a major breakthrough in the battle against Parkinson’s disease, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have discovered a drug that stops the progression of the degenerative illness in mice and is now being tested on humans. The results have been published on-line in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Date: March 8, 2011
Summary:
AURORA, Colo. – In a major breakthrough in the battle against Parkinson’s disease, researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have discovered a drug that stops the progression of the degenerative illness in mice and is now being tested on humans. The results have been published on-line in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Monday, March 07, 2011
Laboratory-Grown Urethras Implanted in Patients, Scientists Report
Source: Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Date: March 7, 2011
Summary:
WINSTON-SALEM, NC –– Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reported today on a new advance in tissue engineering. The team is the first in the world to use patients’ own cells to build tailor-made urinary tubes and successfully replace damaged tissue. In an article published Online First by The Lancet, the research team reports replacing damaged segments of urinary tubes (urethras) in five boys. Tests to measure urine flow and tube diameter showed that the engineered tissue remained functional throughout the six-year (median) follow-up period.
Here is a link to a summary of news media coverage about this finding from the Wake Forest University Office of Communications and External Relations.
Date: March 7, 2011
Summary:
WINSTON-SALEM, NC –– Researchers at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reported today on a new advance in tissue engineering. The team is the first in the world to use patients’ own cells to build tailor-made urinary tubes and successfully replace damaged tissue. In an article published Online First by The Lancet, the research team reports replacing damaged segments of urinary tubes (urethras) in five boys. Tests to measure urine flow and tube diameter showed that the engineered tissue remained functional throughout the six-year (median) follow-up period.
Here is a link to a summary of news media coverage about this finding from the Wake Forest University Office of Communications and External Relations.
A New Stem Cell Enters the Mix: Induced Conditional Self-Renewing Progenitor (ICSP) Cells
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: March 7, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, Calif.,– In the past few months, a slew of papers have indicated that the therapeutic potential of a promising type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, might be limited by reprogramming errors and genomic instability. iPS cells are engineered by reprogramming fully differentiated adult cells, often skin cells, back to a primitive, embryonic-like state. Given these problems, a team of researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), Chung-Ang University in Korea, the University of British Columbia, Harvard Medical School and elsewhere wondered if there might be a better way to regenerate lost tissue to treat conditions like heart disease and stroke. Writing March 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they outline a method to obtain a new kind of stem cell they call “induced conditional self-renewing progenitor (ICSP) cells.”
In this study, ICSP cells differentiated into active neurons and other brain cell types with therapeutic payoff for an adult rat model of intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke -- the rodents show improved behavioral performance. Although the long-term genomic stability of ICSP cells remains to be seen, no adverse effects have arisen over five months of observation. The team envisions that this ICSP approach will also extend to progenitor cells obtained from other organs, such as heart, pancreas, or muscle, potentially accelerating the use of stem cell therapies for a broad range of diseases.
Date: March 7, 2011
Summary:
LA JOLLA, Calif.,– In the past few months, a slew of papers have indicated that the therapeutic potential of a promising type of stem cell, called induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, might be limited by reprogramming errors and genomic instability. iPS cells are engineered by reprogramming fully differentiated adult cells, often skin cells, back to a primitive, embryonic-like state. Given these problems, a team of researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham), Chung-Ang University in Korea, the University of British Columbia, Harvard Medical School and elsewhere wondered if there might be a better way to regenerate lost tissue to treat conditions like heart disease and stroke. Writing March 4 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they outline a method to obtain a new kind of stem cell they call “induced conditional self-renewing progenitor (ICSP) cells.”
In this study, ICSP cells differentiated into active neurons and other brain cell types with therapeutic payoff for an adult rat model of intracerebral hemorrhagic stroke -- the rodents show improved behavioral performance. Although the long-term genomic stability of ICSP cells remains to be seen, no adverse effects have arisen over five months of observation. The team envisions that this ICSP approach will also extend to progenitor cells obtained from other organs, such as heart, pancreas, or muscle, potentially accelerating the use of stem cell therapies for a broad range of diseases.
Sunday, March 06, 2011
New Test for 'Pluripotent' Stem Cells
Source: Scripps Research Institute
Date: March 6, 2011
Summary:
"Pluripotent" stem cells -- which have the potential to mature into almost any cell in the body -- are being widely studied for their role in treating a vast array of human diseases and for generating cells and tissues for transplantation. Now, a team of Scripps Research Institute scientists has created a quality control diagnostic test that will make it much easier for researchers to determine whether their cell lines are normal pluripotent cells. The study was published in an online version of Nature Methods on March 6, 2011.
Date: March 6, 2011
Summary:
"Pluripotent" stem cells -- which have the potential to mature into almost any cell in the body -- are being widely studied for their role in treating a vast array of human diseases and for generating cells and tissues for transplantation. Now, a team of Scripps Research Institute scientists has created a quality control diagnostic test that will make it much easier for researchers to determine whether their cell lines are normal pluripotent cells. The study was published in an online version of Nature Methods on March 6, 2011.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Human Stem Cells Transformed Into Neurons Lost In Alzheimer’s
Source: Northwestern University
Date: March 4, 2011
Summary:
CHICAGO --- Northwestern Medicine researchers for the first time have transformed a human embryonic stem cell into a critical type of neuron that dies early in Alzheimer's disease and is a major cause of memory loss. This new ability to reprogram stem cells and grow a limitless supply of the human neurons will enable a rapid wave of drug testing for Alzheimer's disease, allow researchers to study why the neurons die and could potentially lead to transplanting the new neurons into people with Alzheimer's. The paper will be published March 4 in the journal Stem Cells.
Human skin cells transformed into stem cells and then neurons
In new, unpublished research, Northwestern Medicine scientists also have discovered a second novel way to make the neurons. They made human embryonic stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells) from human skin cells and then transformed these into the neurons. Scientists made these stem cells and neurons from skin cells of three groups of people: Alzheimer's patients, healthy patients with no family history of Alzheimer's, and healthy patients with an increased likelihood of developing the disease due to a family history of Alzheimer's because of genetic mutations or unknown reasons.
The Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times and HealthDay News published news stories based on this news release today.
Date: March 4, 2011
Summary:
CHICAGO --- Northwestern Medicine researchers for the first time have transformed a human embryonic stem cell into a critical type of neuron that dies early in Alzheimer's disease and is a major cause of memory loss. This new ability to reprogram stem cells and grow a limitless supply of the human neurons will enable a rapid wave of drug testing for Alzheimer's disease, allow researchers to study why the neurons die and could potentially lead to transplanting the new neurons into people with Alzheimer's. The paper will be published March 4 in the journal Stem Cells.
Human skin cells transformed into stem cells and then neurons
In new, unpublished research, Northwestern Medicine scientists also have discovered a second novel way to make the neurons. They made human embryonic stem cells (called induced pluripotent stem cells) from human skin cells and then transformed these into the neurons. Scientists made these stem cells and neurons from skin cells of three groups of people: Alzheimer's patients, healthy patients with no family history of Alzheimer's, and healthy patients with an increased likelihood of developing the disease due to a family history of Alzheimer's because of genetic mutations or unknown reasons.
The Daily Telegraph, Chicago Sun-Times and HealthDay News published news stories based on this news release today.
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Scientists create neurons with symptoms of Parkinson's disease from patient's skin cells
Source: Stanford University School of Medicine
Date: March 3, 2011
Summary:
Neurons have been derived from the skin of a woman with a genetic form of Parkinson’s disease and have been shown to replicate some key features of the condition in a dish, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The scientists hope to use the neurons to learn more about the disorder and to test possible treatments. Such a tool is critical because there are no good animal models for Parkinson’s disease. It also validates the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to model various diseases. The research which appears in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell.
Date: March 3, 2011
Summary:
Neurons have been derived from the skin of a woman with a genetic form of Parkinson’s disease and have been shown to replicate some key features of the condition in a dish, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The scientists hope to use the neurons to learn more about the disorder and to test possible treatments. Such a tool is critical because there are no good animal models for Parkinson’s disease. It also validates the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to model various diseases. The research which appears in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell.
New Method Allows Human Embryonic Stem Cells to Avoid Immune System Rejection
Source: Stanford University Medical Center
Date: March 3, 2011
Summary:
A short-term treatment with three immune-dampening drugs allowed human embryonic stem cells to survive and thrive in mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Without such treatment, the animals' immune systems quickly hunt down and destroy the transplanted cells. The finding is important because it may allow humans to accept transplanted stem cells intended to treat disease or injury without requiring the ongoing use of powerful immunosuppressant medications.
Just as it does with transplanted organs, the human body recognizes foreign cells and rejects them. Embryonic stem cells, or ES cells, and the tissues they become are by definition immunologically different from any potential recipient. Physicians also have to overcome the fact that unspecialized ES cells can form tumors when transplanted into the body. The study is published in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell.
This paper, in tandem with a previous study by Wu published in February in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, helps to recast a scientific debate over the relative benefits of embryonic stem cells as compared with iPS cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be created from a person's own skin or other cells.
Date: March 3, 2011
Summary:
A short-term treatment with three immune-dampening drugs allowed human embryonic stem cells to survive and thrive in mice, according to researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Without such treatment, the animals' immune systems quickly hunt down and destroy the transplanted cells. The finding is important because it may allow humans to accept transplanted stem cells intended to treat disease or injury without requiring the ongoing use of powerful immunosuppressant medications.
Just as it does with transplanted organs, the human body recognizes foreign cells and rejects them. Embryonic stem cells, or ES cells, and the tissues they become are by definition immunologically different from any potential recipient. Physicians also have to overcome the fact that unspecialized ES cells can form tumors when transplanted into the body. The study is published in the March issue of Cell Stem Cell.
This paper, in tandem with a previous study by Wu published in February in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, helps to recast a scientific debate over the relative benefits of embryonic stem cells as compared with iPS cells, or induced pluripotent stem cells, which can be created from a person's own skin or other cells.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Researchers focus on human cells for spinal cord injury repair: Derived from stem cells – restore movement in animal models
Source: University of Colorado School of Medicine
Date: March 2, 2011
Summary:
AURORA, Colo. - For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provides tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well. The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and indicates that transplantation of these cells represents a potential new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and other central nervous system disorders. Working together, research teams at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Rochester Medical Center have made a major breakthrough in the use of human astrocytes for repairing injured spinal cords in rats.
Date: March 2, 2011
Summary:
AURORA, Colo. - For the first time, scientists discovered that a specific type of human cell, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provides tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain locomotor function as well. The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and indicates that transplantation of these cells represents a potential new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord injuries and other central nervous system disorders. Working together, research teams at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and University of Rochester Medical Center have made a major breakthrough in the use of human astrocytes for repairing injured spinal cords in rats.
Researchers Focus on Human Cells in Spinal Cord Injury Repair: Derived from Stem Cells – Appear to Aid Repair, Restore Movement in Animal Models
Source: University of Rochester Medical Center
Date: March 2, 2011
Summary:
For the first time, scientists at University of Rochester Medical Center discovered that specific human cells, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain function as well. The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and suggests that transplantation of these cells may represent a new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord and other central nervous system injuries.
Date: March 2, 2011
Summary:
For the first time, scientists at University of Rochester Medical Center discovered that specific human cells, generated from stem cells and transplanted into spinal cord injured rats, provide tremendous benefit, not only repairing damage to the nervous system but helping the animals regain function as well. The study, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, focuses on human astrocytes – the major support cells in the central nervous system – and suggests that transplantation of these cells may represent a new avenue for the treatment of spinal cord and other central nervous system injuries.
Scientists Discover Genetic Abnormalities After Creation of Stem Cells
Source: Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute
Date: March 2, 2011
Toronto, ON and Helsinki, Finland — Dr. Andras Nagy’s laboratory at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and Dr. Timo Otonkoski’s laboratory at Biomedicum Stem Cell Center (University of Helsinki), as well as collaborators in Europe and Canada have identified genetic abnormalities associated with reprogramming adult cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The findings give researchers new insights into the reprogramming process, and will help make future applications of stem cell creation and subsequent use safer.
The study was published online today in Nature.
Date: March 2, 2011
Toronto, ON and Helsinki, Finland — Dr. Andras Nagy’s laboratory at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital and Dr. Timo Otonkoski’s laboratory at Biomedicum Stem Cell Center (University of Helsinki), as well as collaborators in Europe and Canada have identified genetic abnormalities associated with reprogramming adult cells to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The findings give researchers new insights into the reprogramming process, and will help make future applications of stem cell creation and subsequent use safer.
The study was published online today in Nature.
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
StemCells, Inc. to start unique stem cell trial for spinal Cord Injury
Source: KGO-TV / ABC7 News - San Francisco, CA
Posted: March 1, 2011 8:58 PM PST
Summary:
KGO-TV - San Francisco, CA reports on the announcement by StemCells Inc., a biotechnology company in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine, that it will begin a clinical trial to attempt to to restore motor function in patients with spinal cord injuries. Below is a link to a TV video news story about the trial.
Posted: March 1, 2011 8:58 PM PST
Summary:
KGO-TV - San Francisco, CA reports on the announcement by StemCells Inc., a biotechnology company in the field of stem cell research and regenerative medicine, that it will begin a clinical trial to attempt to to restore motor function in patients with spinal cord injuries. Below is a link to a TV video news story about the trial.
How Long Do Stem Cells Live?
Source: Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute
Date: March 1, 2011
Summary:
When patients receive a bone marrow transplant, they are getting a new population of hematopoietic stem cells. Fresh stem cells are needed when a patient is low on red blood cells, as in anemia, or white blood cells, which can be caused by cancer or even cancer treatments such as irradiation or chemotherapy. The problem is that a bone marrow transplant might not succeed because the transplanted stem cells don't live long enough or because they proliferate too well, leading to leukemia.
To help determine how long a bone marrow (stem cell) graft will last, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a mathematical model that predicts how long a stem cell will live and tested those predictions in a mouse model. The study, led by Christa Muller-Sieburg, Dr. rer. nat., was published online the week of February 28, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Date: March 1, 2011
Summary:
When patients receive a bone marrow transplant, they are getting a new population of hematopoietic stem cells. Fresh stem cells are needed when a patient is low on red blood cells, as in anemia, or white blood cells, which can be caused by cancer or even cancer treatments such as irradiation or chemotherapy. The problem is that a bone marrow transplant might not succeed because the transplanted stem cells don't live long enough or because they proliferate too well, leading to leukemia.
To help determine how long a bone marrow (stem cell) graft will last, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) have developed a mathematical model that predicts how long a stem cell will live and tested those predictions in a mouse model. The study, led by Christa Muller-Sieburg, Dr. rer. nat., was published online the week of February 28, in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
New Cell Therapy a Promising Atherosclerosis Treatment
Source: Karolinska Institutet
Date 1 March 2011
Summary:
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown in a new study on mice, that cell therapy can be used to reverse the effect of 'bad' LDL cholesterol and reduce the inflammation that leads to atherosclerosis. The new cell therapy, which is presented in the scientific journal Circulation, can open the way for new therapies for stroke and myocardial infarction if the results prove translatable to humans.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammation of the blood vessels. Cholesterol is transported in the blood in particles called LDL ('bad' cholesterol) that can accumulate in the vessel walls. This triggers the body's immune system to react against LDL, which then cause inflammation in the vessels, and eventually thrombus formation. If such a thrombus forms in the coronary artery, the patient suffers a myocardial infarction; if it forms in the brain, a stroke can result.
The research group, under the direction of Professor Göran K Hansson at the Centre for Molecular Medicine, have developed a cell therapy that selectively dampens vascular inflammation induced by LDL. The therapy makes use of dendritic cells, which are characterized by a high degree of plasticity that renders them amenable to manipulation.
The mouse studies now presented in Circulation have demonstrated substantial protective effects of the treatment, with a reduction of the atherosclerosis process of up around 70 percent. Last year, the researchers published results showing that antibodies recognizing the receptors that drive the immune reaction have protective effects, and now the same group is presenting a cell therapy that is at least as efficacious. It is hoped that this will pave the way for a completely new generation of selective anti-inflammatory therapies for cardiovascular disease.
Date 1 March 2011
Summary:
Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have shown in a new study on mice, that cell therapy can be used to reverse the effect of 'bad' LDL cholesterol and reduce the inflammation that leads to atherosclerosis. The new cell therapy, which is presented in the scientific journal Circulation, can open the way for new therapies for stroke and myocardial infarction if the results prove translatable to humans.
Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammation of the blood vessels. Cholesterol is transported in the blood in particles called LDL ('bad' cholesterol) that can accumulate in the vessel walls. This triggers the body's immune system to react against LDL, which then cause inflammation in the vessels, and eventually thrombus formation. If such a thrombus forms in the coronary artery, the patient suffers a myocardial infarction; if it forms in the brain, a stroke can result.
The research group, under the direction of Professor Göran K Hansson at the Centre for Molecular Medicine, have developed a cell therapy that selectively dampens vascular inflammation induced by LDL. The therapy makes use of dendritic cells, which are characterized by a high degree of plasticity that renders them amenable to manipulation.
The mouse studies now presented in Circulation have demonstrated substantial protective effects of the treatment, with a reduction of the atherosclerosis process of up around 70 percent. Last year, the researchers published results showing that antibodies recognizing the receptors that drive the immune reaction have protective effects, and now the same group is presenting a cell therapy that is at least as efficacious. It is hoped that this will pave the way for a completely new generation of selective anti-inflammatory therapies for cardiovascular disease.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Discoveries offer first new hope in three decades for lethal pediatric brain tumor
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.
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.
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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