Category Archives: Cell Medicine

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 29-Jan-2014 Contact: Shaun Mason smason@mednet.ucla.edu 310-206-2805 University of California - Los Angeles Scientists from UCLA's Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research were today awarded grants totaling more than $3.5 million by California's stem cell agency for their ongoing efforts to advance revolutionary stem cell science in medicine. Recipients of the awards from the California Institute of Renerative Medicine (CIRM) included Lili Yang ($614,400), who researches how stem cells become rare immune cells; Denis Evseenko ($1,146,468), who is studying the biological niche in which stem cells grow into cartilage; Thomas Otis and Bennet Novitch ($1,148,758), who are using new techniques to study communication between nerve and muscle cells in spinal muscular atrophy; and Samantha Butler ($598,367), who is investigating the molecular elements that drive stem cells to become the neurons in charge of our sense of touch. "These basic biology grants form the foundation of the revolutionary advances we are seeing in stem cell science," said Dr. Owen Witte, professor and director of the Broad Stem Cell Research Center. "Every cellular therapy that reaches patients must begin in the laboratory with ideas and experiments that will lead us to revolutionize medicine and … Continue reading →

Mouse cells exposed to an acidic environment turned into embryonic-like "STAP" cells. These were used to generate an entire fetus. A simple lab treatment can turn ordinary cells from mice into a new kind of stem cell, according to a surprising study that hints at a new way to grow tissue for treating illnesses like diabetes and Parkinsons disease. Researchers in Boston and Japan exposed spleen cells from newborn mice to an acidic environment. In lab tests, that made the cells act like embryonic stem cells, showing enough versatility to produce the tissues of a mouse embryo, for example. Cells from skin, muscle, fat and other tissue of newborn mice went through the same change, which could be triggered by exposing cells to any of a variety of stressful situations, researchers said. Its very simple to do. I think you could do this actually in a college lab, said Dr. Charles Vacanti of Brigham and Womens Hospital in Boston, an author of two papers published online Wednesday by the journal Nature. They can be found here and here. If it works in humans, the method could improve upon an existing method of generating artificial embryonic stem cells, called induced pluripotent … Continue reading →

Current ratings for: Scientists make pure precursor liver and pancreas cells from stem cells Public / Patient: 5 (1 vote) Health Professionals: 5 (1 vote) A new study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, describes how scientists have developed a way of producing highly sought populations of a pure tissue-specific cell from human pluripotent stem cells. Human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) are precursor cells than can produce over 200 distinct cell types in the human body. They hold great promise for regenerative medicine and drug screening. The idea is to be able to generate a range of pure tissue types by manipulating these precursor cells. However, it is proving very challenging to obtain large numbers of pure, untainted, tissue-specific cells from hPSCs. Part of the problem is how to ensure they receive highly specific signals, that do not coax them down paths that lead to a range of other tissue types. Now, a team led by the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) in the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) has developed a new way of coaxing hPSCs to produce highly pure populations of endoderm, a valuable cell type that gives rise to organs like the liver and … Continue reading →

Haruko Obokata / Nature Japanese researchers have created a new type of stem cell just by pressuring normal cells in the body. This image shows a mouse embryo created using these cells, which are genetically engineered to glow green. Scientists have made a whole new type of stem cell using little more than a little acid, and they say it may represent a way to skip all the complex and controversial steps that it now takes to make cells to regenerate tissues and organs. The team in Japan includes some of the foremost experts in making what are called pluripotent stem cells master cells that have the power to morph into any type of cells, from blood to bone to muscle. These master cells look and act like an embryo right after conception and, like a days-old embryo, have the power to generate new tissue of any type. Making these powerful cells usually requires the use of embryos something many disapprove of or tricky mixtures of genes to turn back the clock. While theres not an immediate use for the discovery, it could add to the arsenal of tools that scientists can use in trying to find ways to repair … Continue reading →

In experiments that could open a new era in stem cell biology, scientists have found a cheap and easy way to reprogram mature cells from mice back into an embryonic-like state that allowed them to generate many types of tissue. The research, described as game-changing by experts in the field, suggests human cells could in future be reprogrammed by the same technique, offering a simpler way to replace damaged cells or grow new organs for sick and injured people. Chris Mason, chair of regenerative medicine bioprocessing at University College London, who was not involved in the work, said its approach was "the most simple, lowest-cost and quickest method" to generate so-called pluripotent cells - able to develop into many different cell types - from mature cells. "If it works in man, this could be the game changer that ultimately makes a wide range of cell therapies available using the patient's own cells as starting material - the age of personalized medicine would have finally arrived," he said. The experiments, reported in two papers in the journal Nature on Wednesday, involved scientists from the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan and Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in … Continue reading →

28 January 2014-Scientists from the Genome Institute of Singapore (GIS) in A*STAR have developed a novel method of directing human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into highly pure populations of endoderm[1], a valuable cell type that gives rise to organs including the liver and pancreas. These cells are highly sought-after for therapeutic and biotechnological purposes, but have been historically difficult to attain from hPSCs. The ability to generate pure endoderm at higher yields from hPSCs is a key and important step towards the use of stem cells in clinical applications. The discovery, published in the prestigious scientific journal Cell Stem Cell in January 2014, was led by Dr Bing Lim, Senior Group Leader and Associate Director of Cancer Stem Cell Biology at the GIS, Dr Lay Teng Ang, a postdoctoral fellow from Dr Lims lab, and Kyle Loh, a graduate student at Stanford University School of Medicine. hPSCs are stem cells that can generate over 200 distinct cell types in the human body. They respond to multiple external protein instructions to differentiate into other cell types. Therefore, generating one single cell type from hPSCs, and a pure population of that given cell type, is delicate as hPSCs have a tendency to … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 27-Jan-2014 Contact: Birgitte Svennevig birs@sdu.dk University of Southern Denmark Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have identified how a mutated protein can lead to holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane. Such holes cause high blood pressure, and the discovery can now lead to new and better medication for high blood pressure. High blood pressure can be caused by many things - one of them being a specific mutated protein. Now the researchers at University of Southern Denmark have found out exactly what unfortunate events in the human organism are initiated by the mutated protein. "This knowledge can now lead to new and better medicines for high blood pressure", says the lead author of a new scientific publication, PhD student Wojciech Kopec from the Center for Biomembrane Physics (MEMPHYS) at the University of Southern Denmark. He explains that some years ago research colleagues from University of Aarhus found out that a particular mutated protein is associated with high blood pressure. But the exact mechanism at play could not be clarified until now. Wojciech Kopec and his colleagues, Himanshu Khandelia and Bastien Loubet from Memphys and Hanne Poulsen from University of Aarhus, have now revealed … Continue reading →

RICHMOND (WRIC) - 8News is taking the lead to bring awareness about sickle cell disease. It's an inherited blood disorder that affects 4,000 people in Virginia. Yet many of them suffer in silence because of various stigmas. 8News anchor Amie McLain explores some of them and tells us where support is available. With all these pictures on her wall, you can tell family means a lot to Bridget Wilson -- and for her, a good support system starts at home. When her twin boys Brendon and Bryant were born with sickle cell disease -- she became their number one advocate. For the past 25 years, she's been right at their side through hospital visits, health scares and horrific pain. "One of the twins told me that he felt like he wanted to die because the pain was so intense," she says. "So as a mother that breaks your heart because there's nothing you can do but try to help them cope with the pain." Ironically, one big stigma is that sickle cell patients don't experience much pain. "They really think when they come into the hospital and they're in a pain crisis that they are drug seekers." For that reason, … Continue reading →

By Steve Gorman, Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski, Reuters San Francisco city leaders, after losing a key round in court against the cell phone industry, have agreed to revoke an ordinance that would have been the first in the United States to require retailers to warn consumers about potentially dangerous radiation levels. In a move watched by other U.S. states and cities considering similar measures, the city Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to settle a lawsuit with the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association by accepting a permanent injunction against the right-to-know cell phone ordinance. The group had alleged the law violated its free-speech rights, and the settlement marked a victory for the industry as the Federal Communications Commission considers a reassessment of safe radiation exposure limits adopted in 1996. "This is just a terrible blow to public health," Ellen Marks, an advocate for the measure, said outside the supervisors' chambers. She said her husband suffers from a brain tumor on the same side of his head to which he most often held his mobile phone. The industry association has asserted the San Francisco ordinance, if put into effect, would mislead consumers about the relative risks posed by cell phones, contrary … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 23-Jan-2014 Contact: Vanessa Wasta wasta@jhmi.edu 410-614-2916 Johns Hopkins Medicine In laboratory experiments conducted on human cell lines at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, scientists have shown that people carrying certain mutations in two hereditary cancer genes, BRCA2 and PALB2, may have a higher than usual susceptibility to DNA damage caused by a byproduct of alcohol, called acetaldehyde. The scientists say they suspect that the two genes in their normal forms evolved to protect cells against the damaging effects of acetaldehyde, which can lead to cancer. While the scientists caution that the research is preliminary, they say their findings suggest that studies on disease risk factors should take into account these particular genetic variations and the use of alcohol. "We need to identify which behaviors in certain populations increase disease risk, and keep in mind that our genetic susceptibility plays a large role in cancer risk," says Scott Kern, M.D ., the Everett and Marjorie Kovler Professor in Pancreas Cancer Research at Johns Hopkins. Acetaldehyde (pronounced ah-set-AL-deh-hide) is produced during the metabolism of alcohol and is known to cause DNA damage. Scientists say the chemical is ubiquitous in nature, found in many sources, including apples and gut … Continue reading →