Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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Researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee have discovered that in zebrafish, decreased levels of the neurotransmitter gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) cue the retina, the light-sensing tissue in the back of the eye, to produce stem cells. The finding sheds light on how the zebrafish regenerates its retina after injury and informs efforts to restore vision in people who are blind.

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Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified a stem cell-regulating gene that affects tumor growth in patients with brain cancer and can strongly influence survival rates of patients. The findings, published in the online edition of Nature Scientific Reports, could move physicians closer to their goal of better predicting the prognosis of patients with brain tumors and developing more personalized treatments for them.

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Researchers from Columbia Engineering and Columbia University Medical Center have—for the first time—maintained a fully functional lung outside the body for several days. They designed the cross-circulation platform that maintained the viability and function of the donor lung and the stability of the recipient over 36-56 hours, used the advanced support system to fully recover the functionality of lungs injured by ischemia and made them suitable for transplant. (Nature Biomedical Engineering 3/6)

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Researchers have developed a new way to identify and sort stem cells that may one day allow clinicians to restore vision to people with damaged corneas using the patient’s own eye tissue.

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As people get older so do the hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) that form their blood, creating an increased risk for compromised immunity and certain blood cancers. Now researchers are reporting in the scientific journal EMBO that the bone marrow niche where HSC’s form also ages, contributing to the problem. In a study published March 2, scientists in Germany and the United States propose rejuvenating the bone marrow niche where HSCs are created.

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A research team comprised of members from The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Stowers Institute for Medical Research, and Children’s Mercy are looking at ways to target cancer stem cells to ensure that once a cancer patient goes into remission, they are not at risk of their cancer returning.

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The regenerative biology team at the Morgridge Institute for Research, led by stem cell pioneer and University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor James Thomson, is studying whether stem cell differentiation rates can be accelerated in the lab and made available to patients faster.

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Scientists at Rutgers and other universities have created a new way to identify the state and fate of stem cells earlier than previously possible. Understanding a stem cell’s fate – the type of cell it will eventually become – and how far along it is in the process of development can help scientists better manipulate cells for stem cell therapy.

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In a significant advance in improving the safety of donor stem cell transplants, a major clinical trial led by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has shown that a novel agent can protect against the most common viral infection that patients face after transplantation.

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Sanford Research scientists recently published a review article in an issue of Stem Cells Translational Medicine focused on the study of and utility of adult-derived stem cells.

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Working with human breast cancer cells and mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have identified a biochemical pathway that triggers the regrowth of breast cancer stem cells after chemotherapy.

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In 2013, Mass. Eye and Ear researchers restored partial hearing to mice by regenerating hair cells — tiny, sound-sensing cells in the ear, which are lost through noise damage, age, etc., and do not regenerate on their own — by converting stem cells found in the ear into hair cells. However, the success of restoring hearing through this approach was limited by the small number of cells that could be turned into hair cells. In a new study in Cell Reports, a research team from Mass. Eye and Ear, Brigham and Women's Hospital and MIT has shown that they can augment the number of those cells, and then convert that large population into hair cells, lending hope that full hearing can be restored to those with hearing loss due to damaged hair cells.

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Today, the latest rocket launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, included a payload of several samples of donated adult stem cells from a research laboratory at Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus.

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Upstate Medical University has opened a $15 million, 20,000 square foot cord blood bank that features a state of the art processing laboratory and cryogenic storage containers that can store nearly 14,500 units of cord blood. The bank will collect, test, process, store and distribute umbilical cord blood donated by families throughout central and northern New York to be used by those in need of life-saving medical treatments and for medical research.

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Adult stem cells collected directly from human fat are more stable than other cells – such as fibroblasts from the skin – and have the potential for use in anti-aging treatments, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. They made the discovery after developing a new model to study chronological aging of these cells.

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Researchers in Germany have discovered that a tumor suppressor protein thought to prevent acute myeloid leukemia (AML) can actually promote a particularly deadly form of the disease. The study, “RUNX1 cooperates with FLT3-ITD to induce leukemia,” which will be published online February 17 in The Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggests that targeting this protein could be an effective treatment for certain AML patients.

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For the first time, NIH-funded researchers have used stem cells to grow intestinal tissues with a functioning nervous system. The advance creates new opportunities for studying intestinal diseases, nutritional health, and diabetes. It also brings researchers one step closer to growing patient-specific human intestines for transplant.

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Mount Sinai researchers have created a novel model that shows the step-by-step progression from normal blood cells to leukemia and its precursor diseases, creating replicas of the stages of the disease to test the efficacy of therapeutic interventions at each stage, according to a study to be published in Cell Stem Cell. This research marked the first time scientists have been able to transplant leukemia from humans to a test tube and then into mice for study, a landmark feat that will allow for valuable research to help find therapies for blood cancer patients in the future.

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Mayo Clinic’s Todd and Karen Wanek Family Program for Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are collaborating to delay and prevent heart failure for hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a rare and complex form of congenital heart disease in which the left side of a child's heart is severely underdeveloped.

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A single blood test and basic information about a patient’s medical status can indicate which patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are likely to benefit from a stem cell transplant, according to new research by scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

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The rise of MRSA infections is limiting the treatment options for physicians and surgeons. Now, an international team of researchers, led by Elizabeth Loboa, dean of the University of Missouri College of Engineering, has used silver ion-coated scaffolds, or biomaterials that are created to hold stem cells, which slow the spread of or kill MRSA while regenerating new bone. Scientists feel that the biodegradable and biocompatible scaffolds could be the first step in the fight against MRSA in patients.

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Research led by scientists at UC San Francisco and Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has used brain “organoids” — tiny 3D models of human organs that scientists grow in a dish to study disease — to identify root causes of Miller-Dieker Syndrome (MDS), a rare genetic disorder that causes fatal brain malformations.

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The prospect of regenerating bone lost to cancer or trauma is a step closer to the clinic as University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have identified two proteins found in bone marrow as key regulators of the master cells responsible for making new bone.

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Using immature stem cells to create a miniature model of the gut in the laboratory, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and the University of Pittsburgh have determined how infection-causing enteroviruses enter the intestine.

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News release about the first person enrolled in the first stem cell trial for cystic fibrosis.

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A new study in rats shows that stem cell secretions, called exosomes, appear to protect cells in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye. The findings, published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine, point to potential therapies for glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the United States. The study was conducted by researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health.

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Generating mature and viable heart muscle cells from human or other animal stem cells has proven difficult for biologists.

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Cardiac muscle patches in this proof-of-concept research may represent an important step toward the clinical use of 3-D-printing technology, as researchers have grown heart tissue by seeding a mix of human cells onto a 1-micron-resolution scaffold made with a 3-D printer.

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Researchers at from the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center have found that the BRCA1 gene is required for the survival of blood forming stem cells, which could explain why patients with BRCA1 mutations do not have an elevated risk for leukemia. The stem cells die before they have an opportunity to transform into a blood cancer.

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The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has approved a pair of $2 million awards to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers to advance studies of new treatments for Zika virus infections and the use of stem cell-derived natural killer (NK) cells to target ovarian cancer and other malignancies.

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In the latest edition of the journal “Science”, Jürgen Knoblich, a leading authority on stem cells and deputy director of the IMBA (Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences), together with international experts, presents a first ethical guideline for research into human organ models. In the article, he also argues for critical and responsible engagement with the new technology.

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As cells age and stop dividing, their fat content changes, along with the way they produce and break down fat and other molecules classified as lipids. By providing broad insights into the connection between lipids and cellular aging, the findings open the door for additional research that could one day support the development of lipid-based approaches to preventing cell death or hastening it in cancerous tumors.

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Scientists funded by the National Institutes of Health have developed a new way to identify the state and fate of individual stem cells earlier than previously possible.

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Get the latest on Zika in the Zika Virus News Source

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TAMPA, Fla. – Graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) is the leading cause of non-relapse associated death in patients who receive stem cell transplants.  In a new study published as the cover story in Science Translational Medicine, Moffitt Cancer Center researchers show that a novel treatment can effectively inhibit the development of GVHD in mice and maintain the infection- and tumor-fighting capabilities of the immune system.

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In-vitro gametogenesis is an experimental technique that allows scientists to grow embryos in a lab by reprograming adult cells to become sperm and egg cells.

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Antibiotic use represents a special challenge, in which too much of a good thing can be dangerous to public health as a whole. The fight against a common, costly, hospital-acquired infection known as Clostridium difficile, or C. diff offers an illuminating case study in the area of so-called antibiotic stewardship.

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NYU Langone Medical Center has announced that internationally recognized surgeon and scientist Diane M. Simeone, MD, will join its Perlmutter Cancer Center on March 1 to serve as associate director for translational research and to lead its newly established pancreatic cancer center.

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The first FDA-approved clinical trial of its kind in the United States using a person’s own fat-derived adult stem cells to treat shoulder injuries is available at Sanford Health.

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The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Affimed N.V., a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing highly targeted cancer immunotherapies, today announced an exclusive strategic clinical development and commercialization collaboration to evaluate Affimed’s TandAb technology in combination with MD Anderson’s natural killer cell (NK) product.

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Researchers have developed a synthetic version of a cardiac stem cell. These synthetic stem cells offer therapeutic benefits comparable to those from natural stem cells and could reduce some of the risks associated with stem cell therapies.

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Using human embryonic stem cells to create a type of cardiac cells known as sinotrial (SA) node pacemaker cells, researchers have developed a biological pacemaker that overcomes many of the limitations of electrical pacemakers.

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Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM) and the Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute (ISCI) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have begun testing to see whether adult stem cells derived from bone marrow benefit children with the congenital heart defect hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS).

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Miqin Zhang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Washington, is looking for ways to help the body heal itself when injury, disease or surgery cause large-scale damage to one type of tissue in particular: skeletal muscle.

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Denis Evseenko, MD, PhD, of Keck Medicine of USC receives a $2.5 million grant from CIRM to develop an off-the-shelf therapy for osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis affects tens of millions of Americans, with that number expected to grow exponentially due to obesity and longer lifespans.

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Delivery of stem cells to damaged tooth roots using a collagen-derived biomaterial is effective at regenerating dental pulp-like tissue and shows promise as a potential therapy for restoring natural tooth function in a rodent model.

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A ‘living bandage’ made from stem cells, which could revolutionise the treatment and prognosis of a common sporting knee injury, has been trialled in humans for the first time by scientists at the Universities of Liverpool and Bristol.

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In a Cancer Research paper, researchers: 1) identify a biomarker enzyme associated with aggressive glioma brain tumors, 2) reveal the regulatory mechanism for that enzyme, and 3) demonstrate potent efficacy, using a mouse model of glioma, for a small molecule inhibitor they have developed.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report success in using a cocktail of cell-signaling chemicals to further wind back the biological clock of human embryonic stem cells (ESCs), giving the cells the same flexibility researchers have prized in mice ESCs.