Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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Allen Institute researchers create stem cell lines that label important genes for cell biologists

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Killing cancer cells indirectly by powering up fat cells in the bone marrow could help acute myeloid leukemia patients, according to a study from McMaster University's Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute and published in Nature Cell Biology.

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CRISPR-UMI, a novel method developed at IMBA, facilitates extremely robust and sensitive screens by tracking single mutants within a population of cells.

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Study in journal Nature Medicine demonstrates, for the first time, that glioblastoma (GBM) is driven by two distinct subsets of cancer stem cells. Moreover, each subtype of glioma stem cells is driven by distinct transcriptional programs for growth and treatment resistance, and these different cell populations correspond to well-known morphological differences within the GBM itself. More importantly, the researchers found that while chemotherapeutic agents targeting each subtype achieve modest efficacy alone, they are synergistic when combined as demonstrated in a mouse model.

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New research from scientists at Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) at the University of Utah and collaborators at University of Utah Health (U of U Health) sheds light on the complex process that occurs in the development of human sperm stem cells.

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Four Harvard Medical School scientists are among 86 recipients nationwide honored by the National Institutes of Health High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program.

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An international research team that includes engineers from Iowa State University has demonstrated that an engineering technology that’s been used in cell studies can also be used for drug testing on parasitic roundworms used as a model whole organism.

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UNLV researchers have developed a new method for extracting tooth root pulp that quadruples the number of stem cells that can be harvested and replicated to treat a variety of medical conditions.

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Research led by Dr. Carlos Arteaga, Director of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center, has identified potential targets for treatment of triple negative breast cancer, the most aggressive form of breast cancer.

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The University of Louisville has received one of its largest grants for medical research in the school’s 219-year history, a $13.8 million award from the National Institutes of Health to study a promising new type of adult cardiac stem cell that has the potential to treat heart failure.

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A North Dakota State University research team led by Dr. Yagna Jarajapu in pharmaceutical sciences has been awarded more than $1.3 million in a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health for research to combat the negative impact of diabetes on blood vessels.

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A proposal to create a living model of the human retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, won $90,000 in the National Eye Institute (NEI) 3-D Retina Organoid Challenge (3-D ROC). The NEI 3-D ROC is an initiative that seeks to design human retinas from stem cells. Erin Lavik, Sc.D., at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, led the awarded team. The NEI is part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Adding or removing water from a stem cell can change the destiny of the cell to either pre-fat cells or pre-bone cells, researchers have discovered in a new study published in PNAS.

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Two drugs, already approved for safe use in people, may be able to improve therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a blood cancer that affects myeloid cells, according to results from a University of Iowa study in mice.

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Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center have developed the first U.S. pig model for stroke treatments.

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Stem Cell-derived Hypothalamic Neurons in the Elucidation of the Pathogenesis of Human Obesity: A New Frontier

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Glycosylation is the most abundant protein modification - over half of the proteins in our cells are ‘decorated’ with glycans. These sugar structures alter protein activities in all organisms – from bacteria to human - influencing fundamental processes, like protein folding and transport, cell migration, cell-cell interactions, and immune responses.

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A recent study led by Samantha Butler at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA has overturned a common belief about how a certain class of proteins in the spinal cord regulate the formation of nervous system cells—called neurons—during embryonic development.

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The incidence of heart disease is on the rise, and new therapeutic strategies are needed.

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Scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA have initiated a phase 1 clinical trial to test a novel cancer treatment for certain kinds of cancers that have a specific tumor marker called NY-ESO-1.

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Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found a new approach to the “reprogramming” of ordinary adult cells into stem cells.

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In new research, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have converted skin cells from healthy adults directly into motor neurons without going through a stem cell state. The technique makes it possible to study motor neurons of the human central nervous system in the lab. Unlike commonly studied mouse motor neurons, human motor neurons growing in the lab would be a new tool since researchers can’t take samples of these neurons from living people but can easily take skin samples.

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Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have made a discovery about muscular dystrophy disorders that suggest new possibilities for treatment. In a study published today online in Stem Cell Reports, researchers found that stem cells in the muscles of muscular dystrophy patients may, at an early age, lose their ability to regenerate new muscle, due to shortened telomeres

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Researchers in Germany have demonstrated that hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) transplants can be improved by treatments that temporarily prevent the stem cells from dying. The approach, which is described in a paper to be published September 7 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, could allow those in need of such transplants, including leukemia and lymphoma patients, to be treated with fewer donor stem cells while limiting potential adverse side effects.

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In a mouse study designed to understand how chronic inflammation in sinusitis damages the sense of smell, scientists at Johns Hopkins say they were surprised to learn that the regeneration of olfactory tissue requires some of the same inflammatory processes and chemicals that create injury and loss of smell in the first place.

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A new biomedical tool using nanoparticles that deliver transient gene changes to targeted cells could make therapies for a variety of diseases — including cancer, diabetes and HIV — faster and cheaper to develop, and more customizable.

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Researchers at the University of Georgia’s Regenerative Bioscience Center have developed Brain Glue, a substance that could one day serve as a treatment for traumatic brain injuries, or TBIs.

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More than one-and-a-half years after implantation, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and the San Diego Veterans Administration Medical Center report that human neural stem cells (NSCs) grafted into spinal cord injuries in laboratory rats displayed continued growth and maturity, with functional recovery beginning one year after grafting.

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The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) today unanimously approved an $18.29 million grant to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to fund a phase Ib/IIa clinical trial of a novel combination drug therapy for B-cell cancers.

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Not much is known about stem cell metabolism, but a new study from the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) has found that stem cells take up unusually high levels of vitamin C, which then regulates their function and suppresses the development of leukemia.

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The University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center began helping New Mexicans with blood disorders a little more than one year ago. It is the state’s only bone marrow transplant program. The program offers treatment choices for people with lymphoma and myeloma and will expand to help people with other blood disorders.

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UCLA researchers have discovered a new way to activate the stem cells in the hair follicle to make hair grow. The research, led by scientists Heather Christofk and William Lowry, may lead to new drugs that could promote hair growth for people with baldness or alopecia, which is hair loss associated with such factors as hormonal imbalance, stress, aging or chemotherapy treatment.

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Cardiac stem cell infusions could someday help reverse the aging process in the human heart, making older ones behave younger, according to a new study from the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

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An international team of scientists, led by University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers, has created a human stem cell-based model of a rare, but devastating, inherited neurological autoimmune condition called Aicardi-Goutieres Syndrome (AGS). In doing so, the team was able to identify unusual and surprising underlying genetic mechanisms that drive AGS and test strategies to inhibit the condition using existing drugs.

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The first few weeks after sperm meets egg still hold many mysteries. Among them: what causes the process to fail, leading to many cases of infertility. But scientists haven’t had a good way to explore the biology behind this phenomenon. Now, a new achievement using human stem cells could give researchers a chance to see what they couldn’t before, while avoiding ethical issues associated with studying actual embryos.

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A research team has overcome challenges that have limited gene therapy. They demonstrate how their novel approach with skin transplantation could enable a wide range of gene-based therapies to treat human diseases. The researchers provide “proof-of-concept,” treating mice with two common related human ailments: type-2 diabetes and obesity.

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Researchers from UNC and NC State are developing a potential stem cell treatment for several lung conditions, such as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and cystic fibrosis – often-fatal conditions that affect tens of millions of Americans.

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Researchers at Baylor Scott & White Research Institute reveal curcumin has potential to overcome chemoresistance in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, a common but aggressive form of cancer in the pancreas.

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Research teams at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute from three colleges — Engineering, Science, and Veterinary Medicine — are developing new approaches to treat glioblastoma, the aggressive form of brain cancer diagnosed in U.S. Sen. John McCain.

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A stem cell-based method created by University of California, Irvine scientists can selectively target and kill cancerous tissue while preventing some of the toxic side effects of chemotherapy by treating the disease in a more localized way.

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Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have found that stem cells in the brain’s hypothalamus govern how fast aging occurs in the body. The finding, made in mice, could lead to new strategies for warding off age-related diseases and extending lifespan. The paper was published online today in Nature.

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University of Colorado Cancer Center study published online ahead of print in the journal Oncogene offers compelling evidence explaining failure of retinoic acid trials against breast cancer and offers a possible strategy for their use.

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Stem cell centers claim to offer effective treatment to patients with heart failure, despite the fact that the treatment is not approved for such use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says the author of research letter in the current issue of JAMA Internal Medicine.

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The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) today unanimously approved a $5.8 million award to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to develop a new immunotherapy in which patients’ cells would be equipped with a special receptor that recognizes and targets cancer stem cells, whose survival abilities often render standard therapies ineffective or short-term.

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UW-Madison researchers have invented an all-chemical replacement for the confusing, even dangerous materials, now used to grow stem cells.

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Immune cells with a general knack for recognizing and killing many types of infected or abnormal cells also can be engineered to hunt down cells with specific targets on them to treat cancer, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Leukemia

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Dr. Zea Borok of the Keck School of Medicine of USC has received a $6.9 million, seven-year NIH grant that could lead to new therapies for common lung diseases

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Recent strides toward understanding dry eye are leading to better and longer-lasting therapies for the millions of people in the U.S. who are affected by the condition.

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Leukemia researchers led by Dr. John Dick have traced the origins of relapse in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to rare therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells that are already present at diagnosis and before chemotherapy begins.