Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Researchers at The University of Queensland are part of a global team that has identified a new type of artificial stem cell. UQ Associate Professor Christine Wells (right) said Project Grandiose had revealed it could track new ways to reprogram a normal adult cell, such as skin cells, into cells similar to those found in an early embryo. The development is expected to help researchers explore ways to arrive at new cell types in the laboratory, with important implications for regenerative medicine and stem cell science. Associate Professor Wells, who leads the Stemformatics stem cell research support unit at UQs Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, said the project involved a consortium of 50 researchers from Canada, Australia, Korea, the USA and the Netherlands We all come from just one cell the fertilised egg and this cell contains within its DNA a series of instruction manuals to make all of the many different types of cells that make up our body, AIBN Associate Professor Wells said. These very early stage cells can now be made in the lab by reversing this process of development. Our research reveals the new instructions imposed on a cell when this developmental process is reversed. … Continue reading →

UConn and Cheshire orphan-drug maker Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. are partnering to expand stem-cell research into combating rare diseases. The research collaboration will focus on the discovery and testing of therapeutic candidates to treat rare and disabling disorders for which there are currently no effective treatments, both announced Thursday. "This collaboration targets unmet medical needs for patients while demonstrating the vitality of the life science community in Connecticut," said Jeff Seemann, UConn's vice president for research. It also fits with UConn's and the state's plan "to expand educational opportunities, research, and innovation in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) over the next decade," UConn President Susan Herbst said in a statement. Alexion's highly profitable business model relies on devising treatments, like Soliris, to treat rare a rare form of anemia and other ailments for which mainstream drugs don't currently exist. Their partnership likely will yield valuable data into diseases for which Alexion could develop new treatments. The collaboration will expand on the work of cell biologist David J. Goldhamer, who is associate Director of the UConn Stem Cell Institute. Goldhamer has identified the offending progenitor cell type that drives the pathology of a group of diseases and has developed physiologically relevant … Continue reading →

TIME Health medicine This New Kind of Stem Cell May Revolutionize How We Treat Diseases Scientists have created a new type of stem cell that could speed treatments for diseases and make them safer Ever since Japanese researcher Shinya Yamanaka found a way to treat skin cells with four genes and reprogram them back to their embryonic state, scientists have been buzzing over the promise of stem cell therapies. Stem cells can be coaxed to become any of the bodys cell types, so they could potentially replace diseased or missing cells in conditions such as diabetes or Alzheimers. And Yamanakas method also meant that these cells could be made from patients themselves, so they wouldnt trigger dangerous immune rejections. Now scientists led by Dr. Andras Nagy at Mount Sinai Hospital Lunenfeld-Tannenbaum Research Institute in Toronto report an exciting new advance that could push stem cells even closer to the clinic. In a series of papers in the journals Nature and Nature Communications, the group describes a new class of stem cell, which they called F class, that they generated in the lab. The F class cells, says Nagy, have a few advantages over the Yamanaka-generated induced pluripotent stem cells, or … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 10-Dec-2014 Contact: David McKeon dmckeon@nyscf.org 212-365-7440 New York Stem Cell Foundation @nyscf New York, NY (December 10, 2014) - The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) Research Institute, a non-profit organization dedicated to accelerating cures through stem cell research, announced a collaboration today with the Charcot-Marie-Tooth Association (CMTA), a patient-led disease foundation with the mission to advance research on genetic neuropathies that leads to the development of new therapies. The immediate aim of the collaboration is to develop a bank of induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines for a variety of neuropathy disorders of known genetic causation and to eventually develop personalized drug therapies. NYSCF will make stem cells lines from Charcot-Marie-Tooth patient materials that have been curated in a biobank assembled by Dr. Michael Shy at the University of Iowa, a member of the CMTA STAR consortium of sponsored investigators. Utilizing its automated technology, the NYSCF Global Stem Cell ArrayTM, NYSCF will systematically generate iPSC lines from tissue samples obtained from patients representing a number of disease states. These cell lines will then be used to develop methods for creating differentiated cells that mimic the myelin-producing Schwann cells that are defective in Type 1 Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) … Continue reading →

When Mount Sinai Hospital researcher Dr. Andras Nagy initiated a project to shine a light into the black box of turning specialized cells into stem cells, he wasnt expecting to find a whole new type of stem cell. Nagy says identifying a new class of stem cells means a 100 per cent increase in possible sources of cells for therapeutic use. He describes a stem cell as a blank tablet. They hold great potential to treat diseases that result from damaged tissue or loss of cells, such as Alzheimers, spinal cord injuries and blindness. His latest research, dubbed Project Grandiose because of its sheer scale, aimed to demystify the process by which specialized cells turn into stem cells. Nagy worked with a team of close to 50 researchers across four continents to document this process. These cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells can be used to form any type of cell in the body as an alternative to using the more controversial stem cells from embryos. The findings will be published Thursday in a package of papers in Nature and Nature Communications. The oldest example of a therapy based on stem calls is bone marrow transplants, which … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise Stem cells in early embryos have unlimited potential; they can become any type of cell, and researchers hope to one day harness this rejuvenating power to heal disease and injury. To do so, they must, among other things, figure out how to reliably arrest stem cells in a Peter Pan-like state of indefinite youth and potential. Its clear the right environment can help accomplish this, acting as a sort of Neverland for stem cells. Only now are scientists beginning to understand how. New collaborative research between scientists at Rockefeller University and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center offers an explanation: Stem cells can rewire their metabolism to enhance an erasure mechanism that helps them avoid committing to a specific fate; in turn, this improves stem cells ability to renew themselves. Experiments described today (December 10) in Nature link metabolism, chemical reactions that turn food into energy and cellular building materials, with changes to how genes are packaged, and, as a result, read. It turns out that by skewing their metabolism to favor a particular product, stem cells can keep their entire genome accessible and so maintain their ability to differentiate into any adult … Continue reading →

Embryonic stem cell research speech presentation Speech final project. By: Morgan Webb … Continue reading →

VQ 2014 Toronto - Stem Cell Research: Hype vs. Hope Stem cell researcher Dr. Brian Ballios will talk about the potential of stem-cell derived therapies to restore sight, and the early trials now beginning in t... By: FFBCanada … Continue reading →

Stem cell research PS By: Afrakomah Danko … Continue reading →

Stem Cell Research in Long QT Syndrome - Long QT Family Day | Boston Children's Hospital Dr. William Pu, Assistant in Cardiology at Boston Children's Hospital, discusses stem cell research in long QT syndrome. Learn more: http://www.childrenshosp... By: Boston Children's Hospital … Continue reading →