Feature Channels: Regenerative Medicine

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In a lab on the upper floors of Engineering Hall, something is growing. It’s not a plant. And it’s not an animal. What Ronke Olabisi is growing in her lab is us. From new skin and retinal tissue to hearts and livers, she’s developing the tools to rebuild and repair the human body. A UCI assistant professor of biomedical engineering, Olabisi has been working with regenerative tissue for the better part of seven years, using a hydrogel based on polyethylene glycol diacrylate.

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When trauma, illness, or injury causes significant muscle loss, reconstructive procedures for bioengineering functional skeletal muscles can fall short, resulting in permanent impairments. Finding a synergy in the importance of biochemical signals and topographical cues, researchers developed an efficient technique for muscle regeneration and functional restoration in injured rats. They describe results from the technique in Applied Physics Reviews.

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Irvine, Calif., May 5, 2021 – If you haven’t had knee surgery, you may have a friend or relative who has. But do you know anyone who has had an operation on their jaw? Although the temporomandibular joint is crucial to speaking, chewing and even breathing, treatments for TMJ disorders are far less common than those for the knee.

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There has been marked increase in the number of people over 65 who have needed spinal fusion surgery, and many researchers have focused on trying to create a biomimetic scaffold that induces vascularization. In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers present a solution to address the challenge: The team designed a microchannel scaffold made of a collagen and hydroxyapitite combination, with each strut consisting of micrometer-scaled microchannels. The microchannels have induced growth of blood vessels in a mouse model.

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Difficult-to-treat, chronic wounds in preclinical models healed with normal scar-free skin after treatment with an acellular product discovered at Mayo Clinic. Derived from platelets, the purified exosomal product, known as PEP, was used to deliver healing messages into cells of preclinical animal models of ischemic wounds. The Mayo Clinic research team documented restoration of skin integrity, hair follicles, sweat glands, skin oils and normal hydration. Ischemic wounds occur when arteries are clogged or blocked, preventing important nutrients and oxygen from reaching the skin to drive repair. This groundbreaking study titled, "TGF-β Donor Exosome Accelerates Ischemic Wound Healing," is published in Theranostics.

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The technique used in this preclinical study could aid tissue regeneration following severe accidents, surgical resections, or progressive muscle loss due to age or genetic disease.

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The Piotrowski Lab has reported newly identified invasive ionocytes in the sensory organs of larval and adult zebrafish fish that may provide clues to how sensory organs continue to function in changing environments.

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As regenerative therapies for blinding diseases move closer to clinical trials, the National Eye Institute’s functional imaging consortium, a part of the NEI Audacious Goals Initiative (AGI), is pioneering noninvasive technologies to monitor the function of the retina’s light-sensing neurons and their connections to the brain.

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A one-time injection of an experimental stem cell therapy can repair brain damage and improve memory function in mice with conditions that replicate human strokes and dementia, a new UCLA study finds.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have developed a topical drug that regenerates and restores the function of erectile nerves damaged by radical prostatectomy, the most common treatment for localized prostate cancer. The drug was tested in rats, and the findings were published online today in JCI Insight.

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Reparative hydrogel mimics the composition and mechanics of the brain

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A UCLA-led research team has identified a chemical cocktail that enables the production of large numbers of muscle stem cells, which can self-renew and give rise to all types of skeletal muscle cells.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified genes responsible for hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) regeneration via the assembly of the ribosome, the protein factories in cells that translate mRNA sequences into amino acid sequences. The findings, which were published in Cell Stem Cell, highlight the importance of proper ribosome assembly in stem cell regeneration and identify possible targets for future therapies for ribosomopathies, childhood disorders that lead to bone marrow failure (BMF).

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Using genetic engineering, researchers at UT Southwestern and Indiana University have reprogrammed scar-forming cells in mouse spinal cords to create new nerve cells, spurring recovery after spinal cord injury. The findings, published online today in Cell Stem Cell, could offer hope for the hundreds of thousands of people worldwide who suffer a spinal cord injury each year.

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Injecting hydrogels containing stem cell or exosome therapeutics directly into the pericardial cavity could be a less invasive, less costly, and more effective means of treating cardiac injury.

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While the amazing regenerative power of the liver has been known since ancient times, the cells responsible for maintaining and replenishing the liver have remained a mystery. Now, research from the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) has identified the cells responsible for liver maintenance and regeneration while also pinpointing where they reside in the liver.

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David Kaplan, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering at Tufts University School of Engineering, has been elected to the National Academy of Engineering in recognition of his contributions to silk-based materials for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

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The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has elected to its College of Fellows Evan Y. Snyder, M.D., Ph.D., professor and founding director of the Center for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute. Snyder was nominated, reviewed, and elected by his peers and members of the College of Fellows for his seminal contributions to regenerative medicine.

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A new study from UCLA and Stanford University researchers finds that three-dimensional human stem cell-derived brain organoids can mature in a manner that is strikingly similar to human brain development.

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In November 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) designation for a promising engineered cellular therapy called AB-205. AB-205 acts promptly to repair injured vascular niches of organs to prevent or reduce severe toxicities in patients who have Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) undergoing high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantion.

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The 2021 Kappa Delta Young Investigator Award was presented to Lin Han, PhD, for research on the structure and function of cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) and its impact on tissue regeneration and disease evolution in osteoarthritis (OA).

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Cato T. Laurencin, MD, PhD, was named the 2021 Kappa Delta Ann Doner Vaughn Award recipient for his 30 years of scientific research in musculoskeletal regenerative engineering, the field which he founded and brought to the forefront of translational medicine.

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Working with fish, birds and mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report new evidence that some animals’ natural capacity to regrow neurons is not missing, but is instead inactivated in mammals. Specifically, the researchers found that some genetic pathways that allow many fish and other cold-blooded animals to repair specialized eye neurons after injury remain present in mammals as well, but are turned off, blocking regeneration and healing.

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Researchers at the RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research in Japan have discovered a recipe for continuous cyclical regeneration of cultured hair follicles from hair follicle stem cells.

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Scientists from Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago were able to regenerate functional urinary bladder tissue in a rodent model using human bone marrow derived stem and progenitor cells. Their findings, published in Scientific Reports, offer great promise to children suffering from end stage bladder dysfunction, for whom surgery carries significant risks.

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LA based company Harmony Farms Inc. donates masks to the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine in NC.

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Researchers from the Uniformed Services University (USU) recently identified pint-sized antibodies, or “nanobodies,” that could protect against COVID-19. At least one of these nanobodies – produced by a llama named Cormac – also appears to work well in either liquid or aerosol form, suggesting it could also help protect a person’s lungs from infections.

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Leaders in stem cell science and regenerative medicine will combine two separate courses into one in June 2021.

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Injecting a gene therapy vector into one eye of someone suffering from LHON, the most common cause of mitochondrial blindness, significantly improves vision in both eyes, scientists have found.

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UCLA researchers are the first to create a version of COVID-19 in mice that shows how the disease damages organs other than the lungs. Using their model, the scientists discovered that the SARS-CoV-2 virus can shut down energy production in cells of the heart, kidneys, spleen and other organs.

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Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have combined synthetic biology with a machine learning algorithm to create human liver organoids with blood and bile handling systems. When implanted into mice with failing livers, the lab-grown replacement livers extended life.

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DALLAS – Dec. 3, 2020 – A team led by UT Southwestern has derived a new “intermediate” embryonic stem cell type from multiple species that can contribute to chimeras and create precursors to sperm and eggs in a culture dish.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have created a drug that can lure stem cells to damaged tissue and improve treatment efficacy—a scientific first and major advance for the field of regenerative medicine. The discovery, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could improve current stem cell therapies designed to treat such neurological disorders as spinal cord injury, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and other neurodegenerative disorders; and expand their use to new conditions, such as heart disease or arthritis.

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Laurencin will accept the honor during the 2020 Virtual MRS Spring/Fall Meeting, where at 4:00 pm (ET), Wednesday, December 2, he will present his award lecture, Regenerative Engineering: Materials and Convergence.

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A team at Aalto University has used bacteria to produce intricately designed three-dimensional objects made of nanocellulose. With their technique, the researchers are able to guide the growth of bacterial colonies through the use of strongly water repellent – or superhydrophobic – surfaces.

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A new hydrogel can trigger the body’s adaptive immune system, leading to improved tissue repair abilities

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A newly developed light-sensing protein called the MCO1 opsin restores vision in blind mice when attached to retina bipolar cells using gene therapy. The National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, provided a Small Business Innovation Research grant to Nanoscope, LLC for development of MCO1. The company is planning a U.S. clinical trial for later this year.

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The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) continues to demonstrate its commitment to advancing the quality of musculoskeletal care in a fully transparent and scientific way. Debuting today as a new member benefit, the AAOS Biologics Dashboard is a dynamic online tool designed to help orthopaedic surgeons navigate the approval status of biologic-based interventions. The development of the AAOS Biologics Dashboard is just one of several efforts within the Academy’s Biologics Initiative that offers evidence-based guidance to the musculoskeletal health community. An additional effort is the revision of two biologics-related position statements, recently approved by the AAOS Board of Directors.

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NuShores Biosciences, a spin-off company of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, has received a three-year, $2.8 million contract from the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, a biomedical technology consortium associated with the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command. The contract will enable NuShores to develop intelligent automated production of its NuCress™ bone void filler scaffold products using its factory-in-a-box concept. Key collaborators on the project include UA Little Rock and MiQ Partners of Cincinnati.

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Department of Urology uses bioregenerative medicine to improve erectile function and continence after robotic radical prostatectomy

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Research in pigs shows that using the exosomes naturally produced from a mix of heart muscle, endothelial and smooth muscle cells — all derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells — yields regenerative benefits equivalent to the injected human induced pluripotent stem cell-cardiac cells.

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Imagine this: A patient learns that they are losing their sight because an eye disease has damaged crucial cells in their retina. Then, under the care of their doctor, they simply grow some new retinal cells, restoring their vision. Although science hasn’t yet delivered this happy ending, researchers are working on it – with help from the humble zebrafish. When a zebrafish loses its retinal cells, it grows new ones. This observation has encouraged scientists to try hacking the zebrafish’s innate regenerative capacity to learn how to treat human disease. That is why among the National Eye Institute’s 1,200 active research projects, nearly 80 incorporate zebrafish.

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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys, Fondazione Santa Lucia IRCCS, and Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome have shown that pharmacological (drug) correction of the content of extracellular vesicles released within dystrophic muscles can restore their ability to regenerate muscle and prevent muscle scarring. The study, published in EMBO Reports, reveals a promising new therapeutic approach for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), an incurable muscle-wasting condition.

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University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researchers are about to start recruiting for the first U.S. clinical trial looking at treating Peyronie’s disease, a painful and agonizing condition common in men, with platelet-rich plasma (PRP).

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Hepatocytes – the chief functional cells of the liver – are natural regenerators, and the lymph nodes serve as a nurturing place where they can multiply. Researchers demonstrated that large animals with ailing livers can grow a new organ in their lymph nodes from their own hepatocytes.

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Researchers have identified a microRNA (miRNA) that could promote hair regeneration. This miRNA – miR-218-5p – plays an important role in regulating the pathway involved in follicle regeneration, and could be a candidate for future drug development.

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Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute has received an award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to advance promising drug candidates for COVID-19. The research team will test two existing drugs against “mini lungs in a dish” that have been infected with SARS-CoV-2.