Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

4 hours ago by Terry Devitt When blank slate stem cells are exposed to a soft as opposed to a hard surface on which to grow, they begin to transform themselves into neurons, the large, complex cells of the central nervous system. Absent any soluble factors to direct cell differentiation, surface matters, according to new research from the lab of University of Wisconsin-Madison chemist and biochemist Laura Kiessling. Credit: Kiessling Lab/UW-Madison Figuring out how blank slate stem cells decide which kind of cell they want to be when they grow upa muscle cell, a bone cell, a neuronhas been no small task for science. Human pluripotent stem cells, the undifferentiated cells that have the potential to become any of the 220 types of cells in the body, are influenced in the lab dish by the cocktail of chemical factors and proteins upon which they are grown and nurtured. Depending on the combination of factors used in a culture, the cells can be coaxed to become specific types of cells. Now, in a new study published today, Sept. 8, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of researchers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison has added a new … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 7-Sep-2014 Contact: Paddy Moore padmoore@ohri.ca 613-737-8899 x73687 Ottawa Hospital Research Institute Ottawa, Canada (September 7, 2014) As we age, stem cells throughout our bodies gradually lose their capacity to repair damage, even from normal wear and tear. Researchers from the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and University of Ottawa have discovered the reason why this decline occurs in our skeletal muscle. Their findings were published online today in the influential journal Nature Medicine. A team led by Dr. Michael Rudnicki, senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, found that as muscle stem cells age, their reduced function is a result of a progressive increase in the activation of a specific signalling pathway. Such pathways transmit information to a cell from the surrounding tissue. The particular culprit identified by Dr. Rudnicki and his team is called the JAK/STAT signalling pathway. "What's really exciting to our team is that when we used specific drugs to inhibit the JAK/STAT pathway, the muscle stem cells in old animals behaved the same as those found in young animals," said Dr. Michael Rudnicki, a world leader in muscle stem cell research. "These inhibitors increased … Continue reading →

12 hours ago by Bill Hathaway Separating the good stem cells from the bad. Credit: Matthew Chock, NYC The promise of embryonic stem cell research has been thwarted by an inability to answer a simple question: How do you know a good stem cell from a bad one? Yale researchers report in the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell that they have found a marker that predicts which batch of personalized stem cells will develop into a variety of tissue types and which will develop into unusable placental or tumor-like tissues. Scientists have been unable to capitalize on revolutionary findings in 2006 that adult cells could be made young again with the simple introduction of four factors. Hopes were raised that doctors would soon have access to unlimited supplies of a patient's own iPSCsinduced pluripotent stem cellsthat could be used to repair many types of tissue damage. However, efforts to direct these cells to therapeutic goals have proved difficult. Many attempts to use cells clinically have failed because they form tumors instead of the desired tissue. The team of Yale Stem Cell Center researchers led by senior author Andrew Xiao identified a variant histonea protein that helps … Continue reading →

Indian PM Narendra Modi visits stem cell research lab in Kyoto Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits the cutting edge stem cell research lab in Kyoto, on the second day of his official visit. By: MEA India File … Continue reading →

Ice bucket challenge don't agree with stem cell research but I'll donate to the charity of my choice via YouTube Capture. By: Robin Cuellar … Continue reading →

The promise of embryonic stem cell research has been thwarted by an inability to answer a simple question: How do you know a good stem cell from a bad one? Yale researchers report in the Sept. 4 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell that they have found a marker that predicts which batch of personalized stem cells will develop into a variety of tissue types and which will develop into unusable placental or tumor-like tissues. Scientists have been unable to capitalize on revolutionary findings in 2006 that adult cells could be made young again with the simple introduction of four factors. Hopes were raised that doctors would soon have access to unlimited supplies of a patients own iPSCs induced pluripotent stem cells that could be used to repair many types of tissue damage. However, efforts to direct these cells to therapeutic goals have proved difficult. Many attempts to use cells clinically have failed because they form tumors instead of the desired tissue. The team of Yale Stem Cell Center researchers led by senior author Andrew Xiao identified a variant histone a protein that helps package DNA which can predict the developmental path of iPSC cells in mice. An accompanying … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 4-Sep-2014 Contact: Abby Abazorius abbya@mit.edu 617-253-2709 Massachusetts Institute of Technology It is one of the highest-profile cases of scientific fraud in memory: In 2005, South Korean researcher Woo-Suk Hwang and colleagues made international news by claiming that they had produced embryonic stem cells from a cloned human embryo using nuclear transfer. But within a year, the work had been debunked, soon followed by findings of fraud. South Korea put a moratorium on stem-cell research funding. Some scientists abandoned or reduced their work in the field. But the case is not so simple: By 2007, other stem-cell researchers had found that the debunked research contained a few solid findings amid the false claims. While prior stem-cell findings remained intact, it took time to rebuild support for the field. Now a study by MIT scholars quantifies the fallout for scientists whose fields suffer high-profile retractions, with a twist: Even valid older research, when cited in a retracted study, loses credibility especially if the retracted paper involves malfeasance. The fallout from a retraction does not land solely on the scientists who are at fault, but on people in the field more broadly. As the new paper contends, "scientific misconduct and … Continue reading →

With recent revelations of misconduct involving its research on so-called STAP cells, stem cell researcher Haruko Obokata and her employer, Riken Institute, have come under intense scrutiny and criticism. Last week, the nations largest science research institute announced an action plan to avoid similar scandals from recurring. It remained vague on whether STAP cells really exist, as claimed by Obokata, despite the recent retractions of two STAP papers authored by a team of researchers led by her that claimed to have discovered a new kind of cell that could grow into any type of tissue in the body. Although the government-backed institute has a track record of producing Nobel Prize-winning researchers, it now faces massive pressure to clean up its act and regain the trust of officials and the public alike. When was Riken established and why? Riken was founded in 1917 in Toshima Ward, Tokyo, initially as a private research foundation, by industrialist and entrepreneur Eiichi Shibusawa. Shibusawa felt it was necessary for Japan to have an institution solely for science, when the world was moving away from mechanical industries. Shibusawa, sometimes called the father of Japanese capitalism, also established the First National Bank (the predecessor of todays Mizuho … Continue reading →

ALS/MND, Stem cell research and The Right to die! Not taking anything from the Ice Bucket Challage I just want to talk about the wider picture! If you wish to donate here: http://www.alsa.org/ http://www.uks... By: spicy110 … Continue reading →