Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report they have created a method of mapping how the central nervous system develops by tracking the genes expressed in cells. The technique, demonstrated in mouse retinas for this study, follows the activity of the genes used by individual cells during development, allowing researchers to identify patterns in unprecedented detail. This precise kind of road map, say the researchers, could be used to develop future regenerative treatments for blinding and other neurological diseases

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University of Washington researchers developed a strategy to keep proteins intact and functional in synthetic biomaterials for tissue engineering. Their approach modifies proteins at a specific point so that they can be chemically tethered to scaffolds using light.

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Study Identifies New Stem Cell Type That Can Significantly Improve Cardiac Function

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UC San Diego researchers discover new role for epidermal growth factor receptor in blood stem cell development, a crucial key to being able to generate them in the laboratory, and circumvent the need for bone marrow donation.

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The American Academy of Dermatology has honored oncologist Jennifer Whangbo, MD, PhD, and dermatologist Jennifer Huang, MD, FAAD, as Patient Care Heroes for their collaboration in caring for pediatric stem cell transplant patients.

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More than one million stem cell treatments have been conducted in the United States during the past ten years. Physicians and other healthcare providers are beginning to realize regenerative medicine is the future of medicine; however major health issues remain unanswered. Dr. Nathan Bryan, one the country’s leading experts in the mechanism of nitric oxide, will tell more than seven thousand physicians attending the 27th Annual Spring Conference of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine on Saturday that “the ability to use our own cells to heal our own body make good medical sense.

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Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys have shown that a protein called BMI1 is a promising drug target for an AML subtype in which two normally separate genes, CALM and AF10, fuse together. The findings, published in Experimental Hematology, provide a rationale for evaluating a BMl1-inhibiting drug that is currently in clinical development for solid tumors.

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Treating a stubborn blood disease that strikes children may come down to tweaking energy production in stem cells, suggests research out of West Virginia University. Wei Du, an assistant professor in the School of Pharmacy, is investigating the link between how stem cells make energy and how Fanconi anemia develops.

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*For the first time, researchers have developed a non-intrusive way to generate large quantities of stem cells using only a small amount of blood* *The stem cells can repair cells damaged as a result of vascular diseases, which has the potential to prevent blindness and reverse the need for amputations*

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Using stem cells derived from six people, UC San Diego School of Medicine researchers recapitulated retinal cells in the lab. This “eye-in-a-dish” model allowed them to identify genetic variants that cause age-related macular degeneration, a common cause of vision loss.

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Recent work highlights a better way to grow smooth muscle cells, one of the two cellular building blocks of arteries, from pluripotent stem cells. This research is part of an effort to create artery banks — similar to blood banks common today — with readily-available material to replace diseased arteries during surgery.

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A new study published in Cell Reports by a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Wisconsin Institute for Discovery and School of Medicine and Public Health could improve the efficiency of creating induced pluripont stem cells.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report that adult cells reprogrammed to become primitive stem cells, called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), make tiny “cargo packets” able to deliver potentially restorative or repairing proteins, antibodies or other therapies to aged cells. They say the human iPSCs they studied produced much more of the packets, formally known as extracellular vesicles, than other kinds of adult stem cells commonly used for this purpose in research.

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Neurodegenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS) affect millions of people worldwide and occur when parts of the nervous system lose function over time. Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have discovered that a type of skin-related stem cell could be used to help regenerate myelin sheaths, a vital part of the nervous system linked to neurodegenerative disorders.

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The Immaculate Conception? Forget Sperm and Eggs, Hebrew University Researchers have Created Embryo Stem Cells from Skin Cells

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Scientists at the UCLA Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research have been awarded a $4.6 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine – also known as CIRM – to support a phase I clinical trial of a novel treatment for advanced sarcomas and other cancers with a specific tumor marker called NY-ESO-1.

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UC San Francisco researchers have discovered a new type of stem cell in mouse muscles that is resistant to radiation and other forms of cellular stress. The findings have implications for improving recovery for cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy and could even lead to treatments to protect future astronauts from the ravages of deep-space radiation.

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Scientists from Sanford Burnham Prebys have uncovered a molecular signaling pathway involving Stat3 and Fam3a proteins that regulates how muscle stem cells decide whether to self-renew or differentiate—an insight that could lead to muscle-boosting therapeutics for muscular dystrophies or age-related muscle decline. The study was published in Nature Communications.

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A gene that is necessary for prenatal growth has been shown to be essential in maintaining crucial stem cells in the adult brain and intestine, a Rutgers study has discovered.