Feature Channels: Stem Cells

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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.

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Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have demonstrated that normal development of the eye requires the right amount of a neural stem cell gene be expressed at the right time and place.

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The University of California, San Diego will host a public conference, "Social Justice and Stem Cell Research," on Saturday, May 13. This free event will be held on the La Jolla campus in UCSD Center Hall from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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The discovery that bone-marrow derived stem cells can regenerate damaged renal cells in an animal model of Alport syndrome provides a potential new strategy for managing this inherited kidney disease and offers the first example of how stem cells may be useful in repairing basement membrane matrix defects and restoring organ function.

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Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have been awarded $2 million to establish a Center for the Development of Stem Cell Therapies for Human Diseases.

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Scientists uncover signatures near crucial developmental genes; analysis provides framework for understanding cells' unusual plasticity.

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A single dose of adult donor stem cells given to animals that have neurological damage similar to that experienced by adults with a stroke or newborns with cerebral palsy can significantly enhance recovery from these types of injuries, researchers say.

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In a breakthrough that could allow therapeutic drugs to reach market faster and at lower cost, researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed a way to conduct "human" drug trials on animals.

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A mutation in blood stem cells occurs in patients with a blood disorder called polycythemia vera (PV), scientists at the Moores Cancer Center at UC, San Diego, and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine and Comprehensive Cancer Center at Stanford have confirmed.

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Scientists have uncovered new information about what orchestrates the complex balance between blood stem cells and mature blood cells, a relationship that is often disrupted in leukemia. The results will lead to a better understanding of the behavior of leukemic cells.

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Liquid crystals, the same phase-shifting materials used to display information on cell phones, monitors and other electronic equipment, can also be used to report in real time on the differentiation of embryonic stem cells.

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An article in the March 1, 2006 issue of Cancer Research reports on an animal study in which bone-marrow derived neural stem cells and a newly discovered cytokine worked synergistically to track and kill glioma cells and offer long-term protection.

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Therapy that involved bone marrow stem cells did not improve cardiac function in patients following a heart attack, according to a study.

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Researchers have shown that endocrine progenitor stem cells exist in the adult human pancreas, and they have demonstrated that these stem cells can be transformed into insulin-producing cells.

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A study has provided the first comprehensive map of a part of the adult human brain containing astrocytes, cells known to produce growth factors critical to the regeneration of damaged neural tissue and that potentially serve as brain stem cells.

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Whitehead Institute scientists have found that the same protein that causes neurodegenerative conditions such as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (mad cow disease) is also important for helping certain adult stem cells maintain themselves.

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A new study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online Early Edition provides compelling visual evidence that hematopoietic, or blood-forming, stem cells prefer a solitary life.

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New study may lead to improved stem cell therapies for patients with compromised immune systems due to intensive cancer therapy or autoimmune disease. Researchers found that the sympathetic nervous system plays a critical role in coaxing bone marrow stem cells into the bloodstream.

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Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member and MIT professor of biology Harvey Lodish have discovered a way to multiply an adult stem cell 30-fold, an expansion that offers tremendous promise for treatments such as bone marrow transplants and perhaps even gene therapy.

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Analyzing the complete gene-expression profiles of both cloned and fertilization-derived stem cells in mice, scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research now have concluded that the two are indistinguishable.

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Scientists have developed a precisely defined stem cell culture system free of animal cells and used it to derived two new human embryonic stem cell lines.

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This research is the first to demonstrate a way to genetically correct sickle cell disease using RNA interference. The technique should be broadly applicable to use therapeutically in stem cells or malignant cells.

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Working with heart attack-stricken mice, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists has shown that embryonic stem cells may one day live up to their clinical promise.

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UW-Madison scientists have found a new way to sneak drugs past the blood-brain barrier by engineering and implanting progenitor brain cells derived from stem cells to produce and deliver a critical growth factor that has already shown clinical promise for treating Parkinson's disease.

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In a series of experiments in animals, researchers at Johns Hopkins have successfully used a technique that tracks mesenchymal stem cells via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to monitor the progress of the cells in repairing tissue scarred by heart attack.

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A new study suggests that stem cells act as construction supervisors, directing the work of other cells, rather than doing the heavy lifting themselves.

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New experiments that prevented rat sperm stem cells from changing permanently into sperm have brought researchers one step closer to coaxing such cells to behave like embryonic stem cells, capable of growing into many other types of cells in the body.

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Stem cells derived from human heart tissue develop into multicellular, spherical structures called cardiospheres that express the normal properties of primitive heart tissue, smooth muscle and blood vessel cells, according to a study by Johns Hopkins researchers.

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A single cell with the potential to repair damaged heart muscle tissue...regenerate injured bone...create new cartilage or skin...even reverse nerve damage. Human stem cells offer tremendous hope for the development of revolutionary medical treatments for these and a variety of other human health problems.

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Stem Cell Research 101 is a one-day primer on the science, ethics and politics of stem cell research for policymakers, journalists and interested citizens. Tuesday, Nov. 15, in Washington, D.C.

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Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a crucial cellular signal that controls the fate of stem cells in the brains of adult mice.

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Researchers have discovered the presence of functional ion channels in human embryonic stem cells. These ion channels act like electrical wires and permit ESCs, versatile cells that possess the unique ability to become all cell types of the body, to conduct and pass along electric currents.

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Brain tumors called ependymomas that occur in different parts of the central nervous system appear to arise from subpopulations of stem cells called radial glia cells (RGCs), according to investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

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An encouraging study has shown that transplantation of bone marrow stem cells into the heart improves heart function and blood flow in heart attack patients for up to six months.

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Scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research have successfully demonstrated that a theoretical"”and controversial"”technique for generating embryonic stem cells is indeed possible.

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A Children's Hospital Boston surgeon has isolated fetal cells from amniotic fluid (mesenchymal stem cells, a generation removed from embryonic stem cells) and used them to grow new tracheal tissue to repair a congenital tracheal defect in utero.

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Researchers working with human embryonic stem cells have uncovered the process responsible for the single-most tantalizing characteristic of these cells: their ability to become just about any type of cell in the body, a trait known as pluripotency.

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Scott Gilbert's "˜Bioethics and the New Embryology' lays out the science of stem cells and other issues.

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A team of scientists has used a non-invasive imaging technique, called SPECT/CT, to successfully trace stem cells' destinations after being injected into the body to treat animal hearts damaged by myocardial infarction, or heart attack.

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An international team of researchers has discovered that human embryonic stem cell lines accumulate changes in their genetic material over time.

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National and international scientists, including those from the University of Virginia Health System, will announce findings from a significant number of studies showing that adult stem cells from adipose tissue (fat) could eventually be used to treat injured or damaged tissues.