Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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In a survey of more than one thousand infertility patients with frozen embryos, 60 percent of patients report that they are likely to donate their embryos to stem cell research, a level of donation that could result in roughly 2000 to 3000 new embryonic stem cell lines. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Duke University report the startling findings in the July 6, 2007 issue of Science.

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At the heart of most, if not all cancers, lie a handful of wayward stem cells that feed the ever growing tumor mass, but their scarcity make it difficult for scientists to study them. Now, times of plenty may lie ahead as a breast cancer cell line "“ established long ago "“ turned out to behave a lot like cancer stem cells.

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Researchers found that deleting a gene important in embryo development leads to premature aging and loss of stem cell reservoirs in adult mice. This gene, ATR, is essential for the body's response to damaged DNA.

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Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.

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Researchers have manipulated mouse fibroblasts and, without using any eggs or embryos, turned them into cells with such developmental elasticity that they appear identical to embryonic stem cells.

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Rats paralyzed due to loss of blood flow to the spine returned to near normal ambulatory function six weeks after receiving grafts of human spinal stem cells (hSSCs), researchers from the UCSD School of Medicine report. The study, led by Martin Marsala, M.D., UC San Diego professor of anesthesiology, is published in the June 29, 2007 issue of the journal Neuroscience, which is now online.

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Diabetes researchers, investigating how the body supplies itself with insulin, discovered to their surprise that adult stem cells, which they expected to play a crucial role in the process, were nowhere to be found. Instead, the insulin-producing beta cells themselves divide and replenish their own population. The basic science finding may point to new future diabetes treatments.

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Results of two studies funded by Project A.L.S. and appearing in today's advance online publication of Nature Neuroscience demonstrate that embryonic stem cells may provide a new tool for studying disease mechanisms and for identifying drugs to slow ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

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In the final stage of muscle fiber development, the cell membranes of attached myoblasts open up and fuse together, but the way in which they merge has remained a mystery. Scientists have discovered that a protein called WIP plays a key role in muscle cell fusion. This finding may help design new methods for healing muscle tissue using stem cells.

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A newly discovered small molecule called IQ-1 plays a key role in preventing embryonic stem cells from differentiating into one or more specific cell types, allowing them to instead continue growing and dividing indefinitely, according to research performed by a team of scientists who have recently joined the stem-cell research efforts at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California.

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The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) has awarded $2.5 million to Gay M. Crooks, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) and research-scientist at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, for research in blood formation from stem cells.

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Vanderbilt University Medical Center is the first in the state to perform a novel therapy that uses bone marrow stem cells to stimulate regeneration of the heart muscle after a heart attack.

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The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health is among the first medical centers in the country taking part in a novel clinical trial investigating if a subject's own stem cells can treat a form of severe coronary artery disease.

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Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) can treat degenerative diseases safely and effectively, and do so by invoking multiple mechanisms. These were a few of a number of conclusions arrived at by an international collaboration led by Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., to be published in Nature Medicine.

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A new study involving a type of stem cells from the lungs of transplant patients demonstrates for the first time that these progenitor cells reside in adult organs and are not derived from bone marrow, which leads to the possibility that the cells may be able to help with the rejection of donated organs.

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A cannibalistic process called autophagy spurs dying embryonic stem cells to send "eat me" and "come get me" signals to have their corpses purged, a last gasp that paves the way for normal mammalian development, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have safely transplanted cardiac preprogrammed embryonic stem cells into diseased hearts of mice successfully regenerating infarcted heart muscle without precipitating the growth of a cancerous tumor -- which, so far, has impeded successful translation into practice of embryonic stem cell research.

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UCLA scientists received seven of 72 seed grants awarded today by the state to fund stem cell research, the first money distributed for work on human embryonic stem cells since California voters approved Proposition 71 in November 2004. Seed grant funding totaled $45 million.

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Researchers from the University of Southern California (USC) receive approximately $3.4 million from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for stem cell research.

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Cardiologists are increasingly using adult stem cells in clinical trials to repair hearts following heart attacks, but no one has understood how the therapy actually works. Now, in animal experiments, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have deconstructed the process, describing how the stem cells fuse with heart muscle cells to create new cells that repopulate the ailing organ.

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Human nerve stem cells transplanted into rats' damaged spinal cords have survived, grown and in some cases connected with the rats' own spinal cord cells in a Johns Hopkins laboratory, overturning the long-held notion that spinal cords won't allow nerve repair.

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The International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) releases International Guidelines for the Conduct of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research.

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University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers have discovered the small number of cells in pancreatic cancer that are capable of fueling the tumor's growth. The finding is the first identification of cancer stem cells in pancreatic tumors.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan Medical Center have, for the first time, identified human pancreatic cancer stem cells. Their work indicates that these cells are likely responsible for the aggressive tumor growth, progression, and metastasis that define this deadly cancer.

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In an elegant, multiple-gene knockout experiment, a team of Boston scientists has discovered that a trio of molecules, called FoxOs, are fundamentally critical in preventing some cancers, maintaining blood vessel stability, and in keeping blood-forming stem cells healthy.

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USC Researchers recently made significant strides toward settling a decades-old debate centering on the role played by stem cells in cancer development. According to the study's findings, genes that are reversibly repressed in embryonic stem cells are over-represented among genes that are permanently silenced in cancers; this link lends support to the increasingly discussed theory that cancer is rooted in small populations of stem cells.

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Researchers have successfully regenerated tooth root and supporting periodontal ligaments to restore tooth function.

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Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report a new and efficient strategy, using eggs alone, for creating embryonic stem cells suitable for transplantation and cell-based therapies. The technique (done just in mice so far) would apply only to females, who would donate their own eggs to create genetically-matched ES cells. Findings will appear in online in Science on December 14.

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Americans' support for stem cell research has declined slightly, reversing a three-year trend, but an overwhelming majority paradoxically supports the use of such cells in pursuit of treatment for themselves or family members, according to the sixth annual Virginia Commonwealth University Life Sciences Survey released Thursday.

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The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health has awarded $10.2 million over five years to a bioengineering research partnership at the University of Washington devoted to heart muscle regeneration through tissue engineering and embryonic stem cell research.

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A team from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee has applied for a patent on their work to isolate, grow and identify a new and readily-available type of adult stem cell that is found in the bulge of hair follicles, and appears to have a potential for diversification similar to that of embryonic stem cells.

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A sugar molecule present on embryonic stem cells also has been found on the surface of a type of adult stem cell, a discovery that may help researchers isolate and purify adult stem cells for use in therapies aimed at bone healing, tendon repair and cartilage regeneration, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center report.

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Helping to change current thinking about how the heart is formed, investigators at Children's Hospital Boston have identified a type of stem cell that gives rise to at least two different cell types that make up the heart. The findings, to appear in Cell, bring researchers a step closer to being able to regenerate tissues to repair congenital heart defects in children and damage caused by heart attacks in adults.

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Johns Hopkins scientists have successfully grown large numbers of stem cells taken from adult pigs' healthy heart tissue and used the cells to repair some of the tissue damage done to those organs by lab-induced heart attacks. Pigs' hearts closely resemble those in humans, making them a useful model in such research.

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A phase I trial of non-myeloablative or reduced intensity hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) in patients with systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) has proven safe and well tolerated, according to research presented this week at the American College of Rheumatology Annual Scientific Meeting in Washington, DC.

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William M. Caldwell, IV, Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. today issued this statement to the media and the investment community.

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Adult stem cells increase insulin production in mice with type 2 diabetes, demonstrating the potential of adult stem cells to address diabetes, say Tulane University gene therapy researchers. The article is published online this week in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.

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A key scientific finding released today shows a human virus targets fat stem cells to cause formation of more, fatter, fat cells. This finding may lead to new insights into the study of obesity.

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Stem cells derived from human fat tissue were reported today to demonstrate early success in reconstructive surgeries in over 30 patients in Japan that underwent facial and breast procedures. The results from an investigator-initiated study by Dr. Kotaro Yoshimura of Tokyo University in Japan were presented today at the 4th Annual Meeting for the International Fat Applied Technology Society taking place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

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In a novel effort to simplify and speed up safe human stem cell research, Johns Hopkins has set up a "one-stop shop" to preserve, create, supply and test high-quality cell lines for its own researchers now and the greater scientific community later.

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Researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that transplanting human stem cells into spinal cords of rats bred to duplicate Lou

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Scientists have predicted that embryonic stem cells might lead to cures for various diseases and conditions such as heart disease, Parkinson's or spinal cord injuries. Now, a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has isolated adult stem cells from blood that can be directed to turn into five types of cells, including bone, blood vessel and nerve cells.

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Several University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers will present findings at the American Chemical Society's national meeting, held through Thursday, Sept. 14, in San Francisco. Among them, two presentations will highlight research that could benefit cardiac health and stem cell research.

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After conducting research at Scotland's Roslin Institute (birthplace of Dolly the cloned sheep) and creating in-vitro models of obesity and Parkinson's Disease for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Gabriela Cezar has returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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UCLA researchers have transformed adult stem cells taken from human adipose "“ or fat tissue "“ into smooth muscle cells, which help the normal function of a multitude of organs like the intestine, bladder, and arteries. The research may help lead to use of fat stem cells for smooth muscle tissue engineering and repair.

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In a study published July 1 in the journal Blood, University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine researchers suggest that donor T cells change the fate of blood stem cells.

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Researchers have isolated a new source of adult stem cells that appear to have the potential to differentiate into several cell types. These cells may one day have applications for a host of disorders, including peripheral nerve disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury.

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Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine have demonstrated for the first time that human embryonic stem cells can be genetically manipulated and coaxed to develop into mature T-cells, raising hopes for a gene therapy to combat AIDS.

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Using an animal model of embryonic stem cell development, researchers with the University of Florida's McKnight Brain Institute have begun to answer one of the most fundamental questions in science - how does a batch of immature cells give rise to an organ as extraordinarily complex as the human brain?

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In a dramatic display of stem cells' potential for healing, a team of Johns Hopkins scientists reports that they've engineered new, completed, fully-working motor neuron circuits -- neurons stretching from spinal cord to target muscles -- in paralyzed adult animals.