Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

7 hours ago Stem cells show auxeticity; the nucleus expands, rather than thins, when it's stretched. Credit: Effigos AG Looking at stem cells through physicists' eyes is challenging some of our basic assumptions about the body's master cells. One of the many mysteries surrounding stem cells is how the constantly regenerating cells in adults, such as those in skin, are able to achieve the delicate balance between self-renewal and differentiation in other words, both maintaining their numbers and producing cells that are more specialised to replace those that are used up or damaged. "What all of us want to understand is how stem cells decide to make and maintain a body plan," said Dr Kevin Chalut, a Cambridge physicist who moved his lab to the University's Wellcome Trust-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute two years ago. "How do they decide whether they're going to differentiate or stay a stem cell in order to replenish tissue? We have discovered a lot about stem cells, but at this point nobody can tell you exactly how they maintain that balance." To unravel this mystery, both Chalut and another physicist, Professor Ben Simons, are bringing a fresh perspective to the biologists' work. Looking at problems … Continue reading →

Embryonic Stem Cells Moot http://www.arthritistreatmentcenter.com Ethical concerns about stem cells for arthritis are moot maybe Stem-cell advances may quell ethics debate Laura Unger writing for the Louisville... By: Nathan Wei … Continue reading →

People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes. A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause "overgrowth" in the offspring's brain. The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports. "We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result in larger brains and, ultimately, autistic behavior, is through the activation of the neural stem cells that reside in the brain of all developing and adult mammals," said Dr. Harley Kornblum, the paper's senior author and a director of the Neural Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In the study, the researchers mimicked environmental factors that could activate the immune system -- such as an infection or an autoimmune disorder -- by injecting a pregnant mouse with a very low dose of lipopolysaccharide, a toxin found in E. coli bacteria. The researchers discovered the toxin caused an excessive production of … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes. A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause overgrowth in the offsprings brain. The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports. We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result in larger brains and, ultimately, autistic behavior, is through the activation of the neural stem cells that reside in the brain of all developing and adult mammals, said Dr. Harley Kornblum, the papers senior author and a director of the Neural Stem Cell Research Center at UCLAs Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In the study, the researchers mimicked environmental factors that could activate the immune system such as an infection or an autoimmune disorder by injecting a pregnant mouse with a very low dose of lipopolysaccharide, a toxin found in E. coli bacteria. The researchers discovered the … Continue reading →

Center for Adult Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine Our goal for the newly established Center for Adult Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine is to shape and lead in the research, ethics, and societal implications for the field of adult... By: Notre Dame Science … Continue reading →

Harvard University researchers have pioneered a technique to grow by the billions the insulin-producing cells people with diabetes lack, a breakthrough that may create new ways to treat the disease. The breakthrough comes after 15 years of seeking a bulk recipe for making beta cells, which sense the level of sugar in the blood and keep it in a healthy range by making precise amounts of insulin, according to Harvard scientists led by Douglas Melton, who published their work today in the journal Cell. The process begins with human stem cells, which have the ability to become any type of tissue or organ. The technique is an important step toward understanding and treating diabetes, a condition in which the pancreass beta cells are insufficient or dead. Diabetes affects 347 million people worldwide, and its chronic high blood sugar levels can injure hearts, eyes, kidneys, the nervous system and other tissues. This is part of the holy grail of regenerative medicine or tissue engineering, trying to make an unlimited source of cells or tissues or organs that you can use in a patient to correct a disease, said Albert Hwa, director of discovery science at JDRF, a New York-based diabetes advocacy … Continue reading →

Posted on behalf of David Cyranoski and Soo Bin Park Fictionalized film follows fabricated findings Stem-cell fraudster faces down the journalist who debunks him in the film sweeping Korean cinemas. Wannabe Fun A movie based on the Woo Suk Hwang cloning scandal drew more than 100,000 viewers on its opening day (2 October)and has been topping box office sales in South Korea since then. With some of the countrys biggest stars, it has made a blockbuster out of a dismal episode in South Korean stem-cell research and revealed the enduring tension surrounding it. The movie, Whistleblower, shines a sympathetic light on Woo Suk Hwang, the professor who in 2004 and 2005 claimed to have created stem-cell lines from cloned human embryos. The achievement would have provided a means to make cells genetically identical to a patients own, and able to form almost any type of cell in the body. But hopes were shattered when Hwangs claims turned out to be based on fraudulent data and unethical procurement of eggs.The whistleblower who revealed the fraud says the new movie strays far from reality. This topic is sensitive, so I was hesitant when I got the first offer, said director Yim Soon-rye … Continue reading →

When his infant son Sam was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes two decades ago, Doug Melton made himself a promise: He would cure it. When his daughter Emma was diagnosed with the same autoimmune disease at 14, he redoubled his efforts. Finally he can see the finish line. In a paper published Thursday in the journal Cell, Melton announces that he has created a virtually unlimited supply of the cells that are missing in people with type 1 diabetes. By replacing these cellsand then protecting them from attack by the body's immune systemMelton, now a professor and stem cell researcher at Harvard, says someday he'll have his cure. "I think we've shown the problem can be solved," he said. In type 1 diabetes, which usually starts in childhood and affects as many as three million Americans, the person's immune system attacks and destroys beta cells in the pancreas. Melton used stem cellswhich can turn into a wide variety of other cell typesto manufacture a new supply of these beta cells, which provide exquisitely fine-tuned responses to sugar levels in the blood. When you eat, beta cells increase levels of insulin in your blood to process the extra sugar; when you're … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 9-Oct-2014 Contact: Mark Wheeler mwheeler@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2265 University of California - Los Angeles @uclanewsroom People with autism spectrum disorder often experience a period of accelerated brain growth after birth. No one knows why, or whether the change is linked to any specific behavioral changes. A new study by UCLA researchers demonstrates how, in pregnant mice, inflammation, a first line defense of the immune system, can trigger an excessive division of neural stem cells that can cause "overgrowth" in the offspring's brain. The paper appears Oct. 9 in the online edition of the journal Stem Cell Reports. "We have now shown that one way maternal inflammation could result in larger brains and, ultimately, autistic behavior, is through the activation of the neural stem cells that reside in the brain of all developing and adult mammals," said Dr. Harley Kornblum, the paper's senior author and a director of the Neural Stem Cell Research Center at UCLA's Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In the study, the researchers mimicked environmental factors that could activate the immune system such as an infection or an autoimmune disorder by injecting a pregnant mouse with a very low dose of lipopolysaccharide, a toxin found … Continue reading →

October 8, 2014 Image Caption: New genetic barcoding technology allows scientists to identify differences in origin between individual blood cells. Credit: Camargo Lab Provided by Joseph Caputo, Harvard University New technology that tracks the origin of blood cells challenges scientific dogma A 7-year-project to develop a barcoding and tracking system for tissue stem cells has revealed previously unrecognized features of normal blood production: New data from Harvard Stem Cell Institute scientists at Boston Childrens Hospital suggests, surprisingly, that the billions of blood cells that we produce each day are made not by blood stem cells, but rather their less pluripotent descendants, called progenitor cells. The researchers hypothesize that blood comes from stable populations of different long-lived progenitor cells that are responsible for giving rise to specific blood cell types, while blood stem cells likely act as essential reserves. The work, supported by a National Institutes of Health Directors New Innovator Award and published in Nature, suggests that progenitor cells could potentially be just as valuable as blood stem cells for blood regeneration therapies. This new research challenges what textbooks have long read: That blood stem cells maintain the day-to-day renewal of blood, a conclusion drawn from their importance in re-establishing … Continue reading →