At the sixth annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, a task force of leaders in the field announced a draft set of guidelines to ensure that rigorous best practices are applied to the clinical translation of stem cell research from the laboratory to human subjects.
A single organ may contain more than one type of adult stem cell "“ a discovery that complicates prospects for using the versatile cells to replace damaged tissue as a treatment for disease, according to a new study from the laboratory of geneticist Mario Capecchi, the University of Utah's Nobel Laureate.
When forming attitudes about embryonic stem cell research, people are influenced by a number of things. But understanding science plays a negligible role for many people.
Bolstered by supportive policies and public research dollars, the United Kingdom, Israel, China, Singapore and Australia are producing unusually large shares of human embryonic stem cell research. While states like California and New York are picking up more research funding in the U.S.
Using a novel investigatory technique, researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have established that osteoblasts, cells responsible for bone formation, are also directly involved in the proliferation and expansion of blood-forming hematopoietic stem cells.
Research from the University of Southern California (USC) has discovered a new mechanism to allow embryonic stem cells to divide indefinitely and remain undifferentiated. The study, which was published in today's issue of the journal Nature, also reveals how embryonic stem cell multiplication is regulated, which may be important in understanding how to control tumor cell growth.
It's usually assumed that stem cells differentiate via a set of "instructions" and prescribed pathways. However, new research shows that the decision is made collectively by an entire network of genes and proteins -- through a simple, elegant system that maintains cells in a stable state, yet enables them to differentiate as needed. It also suggests a more efficient way of differentiating stem cells in the lab.
Cells that undergo an epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) show properties of stem cells, including the ability to self-renew. In addition, stem cells exhibit properties of cells that undergo EMT. Strikingly, both normal and cancer stem cells can be generated from differentiated cells by EMT. Understanding the role of EMT in adult stem cell creation may lead toward the development of healthy stem cells for regenerative medicine and provide drug targets for cancer.
California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) announced a nearly $27 million award to USC to help fund its new stem cell building.
A study led by a researcher at the University of Southern California has found a new model to explain how signals between cells in the embryo control limb development.
Stem cell researchers at UCLA were able to grow functioning cardiac cells using mouse skin cells that had been reprogrammed into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells.
Fully differentiated mouse cells, such as mature B cells, can be reprogrammed to embryonic-stem-cell-like induced pluripotent stem (IPS) cells, without the use of an egg. Using reprogrammed mature B cells, researchers may be able to create mouse models that will aid in understanding autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis and type 1 diabetes.
Preliminary data from one of the first clinical trials to test a stem cell-targeting drug in cancer patients shows that while the drug did not prolong survival, its suppressing effect on patients' stem cells was impressive enough to send investigators looking for a better drug to try.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have for the first time used drug-treated blood stem cells to repair heart damage in an animal model, results that might point to methods for healing injuries from heart attacks or disease.
New research shows that delivering molecules within aggregates of embryonic stem cells via biodegradable microspheres enhances the efficiency and purity of differentiation.
Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have identified a gene that is responsible for the division and movement of marrow-derived, blood-forming stem cells, a finding that could have major implications for the future of bone marrow and blood cell transplantation.
By revealing the inner workings of a common cell-to-cell signaling system, University of Michigan biologists have uncovered new clues about mysterious and contentious creatures called cancer stem cells.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have uncovered the molecular underpinnings of one of the earliest steps in human development using human embryonic stem cells. Their identification of a critical signal mediated by the protein BMP-4 that drives the differentiation of stem cells into what will become the placenta, will be published in the April issue of Cell Stem Cell.
A unique partnership between industry and academia has led to human clinical trials of a new drug for a rare class of blood diseases called myeloproliferative disorders (MPD), which are all driven by the same genetic mutation and can evolve into leukemia.
For a rich source of stem cells to be engineered into new blood vessels or skin tissue, clinicians may one day look no further than the hair on their patients' heads, according to new research published earlier this month by University at Buffalo engineers.
Stem cell researchers from UCLA used a high resolution technique to examine the genome, or total DNA content, of a pair of human embryonic stem cell lines and found that while both lines could form neurons, the lines had differences in the numbers of certain genes that could control such things as individual traits and disease susceptibility.
A protein known as REST blocks the expression of a microRNA that prevents embryonic stem cells from reproducing themselves and causes them to differentiate into specific cell types, scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report in the journal Nature.
In a previous study, researchers showed that a protein called REST"”which keeps neural programs silent in most parts of the body"”serves as a tumor suppressor. Now they've identified a protein that promotes tumor growth by tagging REST for destruction, thereby activating neural programs.
The surprise discovery could mean better detection and treatment of nerve and heart diseases.
Solving a long-standing biological mystery, UCLA stem cell researchers have discovered that blood stem cells, the cells that later differentiate into all the cells in the blood supply, originate and are nurtured in the placenta.
A review of previously published research suggests that stem cells harvested from an adult's blood or marrow may provide treatment benefit to select patients for some autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular disorders, according to an article in the February 27 issue of JAMA.
For the first time, researchers have used embryonic stem cells to develop functioning immune system blood cells -- an important step in eventually using embryonic stem cells as an alternative source of cells for traditional bone marrow transplantations.
Mount Sinai researchers have discovered that the release of blood stem cells from bone marrow is regulated by the brain through the cyclical human biological clock, via adrenergic signals transmitted by the sympathetic nervous system. These new findings point out that the harvest of stem cells for transplantation may be improved by timing it at the peak of their release.
In response to the State of the Union Address, the International Society for Stem Cell Research applauds the President's direction to Federal agencies to provide additional funding for induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS cells) research, but stresses this action is not sufficient to allow all important stem cell research to be done.
Using embryonic stem cells from mice, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have prompted the growth of healthy "“ and more importantly, functioning "“ muscle cells in mice afflicted with a human model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) have identified a novel cyclic signaling in the dermis that coordinates stem cell activity and regulates regeneration in large populations of hairs in animal models.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.
Stem cells -- popularly known as a source of biological rejuvenation -- may play harmful roles in the body, specifically in the growth and spread of cancer. Amongst the wildly dividing cells of a tumor, scientists have located cancer stem cells. Physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College are studying these cells with hopes of combating malignant cancers in the brain.
The VCU Life Sciences Survey is the first poll to reflect the discovery reported internationally in November that human skin cells can be used to create stem cells or their near equivalents.
Researchers have discovered a key molecular switch that regulates cancer stem cells. This switch, which belongs to a class of molecules called microRNAs, can decrease a cancer stem cell's ability to propagate tumors.
Researchers at UAB and Whitehead Institute report correcting the basic genetic mutation in mouse models of sickle cell anemia through use of induced pluripotent stem cells, iPS cells.
Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have found a marker that can be used to identify stem cells in breast tumors, suggesting a potential simple test that could help determine the best treatment for breast cancer.
Researchers have discovered that blood stem cells are capable of patrolling the body's organs where they seek out, and respond to, pathogens. They appear to be proactive participants in our innate immune response.
New collaboration created between Southern California institutions for research into stem cells. Institutions include: USC, Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, House Ear Institute, City of Hope, Caltech and UC Santa Barbara.
Engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have transformed a polymer found in common brown seaweed into a device that can support the growth and release of stem cells at the sight of a bodily injury or at the source of a disease.
A stem cells' immediate neighborhood, a specialized environment also known as the stem cell niche, provides crucial support needed for stem cell maintenance. But nothing lasts forever, found scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. During the aging process, the level of support drops off, diminishing the stem cells' ability to replenish themselves (self-renew) indefinitely.
Patients living with Myasthenia Gravis (MG) may breathe easier thanks to a rare bone marrow transplant procedure performed at The Bone Marrow Transplant Program at University of California, San Diego Medical Center, the only program in the western United States that has attempted this procedure.
The protein Oct4, which helps to maintain embryonic stem cells, has been shown to be virtually absent in adult stem cells. These results question the findings of more than 50 studies that found Oct4 in various adult stem cells, and put claims of pluripotent adult stem cells into perspective.
Anti-cancer treatments often effectively shrink the size of tumors, but some might have an opposite effect, actually expanding the small population of cancer stem cells believed to drive the disease, according to findings presented Sept. 19 by Vasyl Vasko, M.D. Ph.D., a pathologist at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.
Easily accessed and plentiful, adult stem cells found in a male patient's testicles might someday be used to create a wide range of tissue types to help him fight disease -- getting around the need for more controversial embryonic stem cells.
Engineers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed tools to help solve two of the main problems slowing the progress of stem cell research "” how to quickly test stem cell response to different drugs or genes, and how to create a large supply of healthy, viable stem cells to study from only a few available cells.
Researchers from Georgia Tech and Emory University have discovered that gently shaking embryonic stem cells, similar to how an embryo is shaken in the mother's womb, improves their development and could some day even be used to control what type of cell they eventually become.
A consortium of scientists, led in part by USC School of Dentistry researcher Songtao Shi, has identified unique cells within the adult tendon that have stem-cell characteristics--including the ability to proliferate and self-renew. The research team was able to isolate these cells and regenerate tendon-like tissue in the animal model.
A drug that shuts down a critical cell-signaling pathway in the most common and aggressive type of adult brain cancer successfully kills cancer stem cells thought to fuel tumor growth and help cancers evade drug and radiation therapy, a Johns Hopkins study shows.
How do adult stem cells protect themselves from accumulating genetic mutations that can lead to cancer?
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