Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Scientists at the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine (ICBFM) based in Siberia have discovered that stem cells can restore blood flow in veins with clots. Facebook Pinterest WhatsApp "Quite a lot of pathologies regarding veins still remain unstudied." Source: Getty Images To help treat varicose veins, scientists need to accelerate the growth of blood vessels, which would be a crucial development for cardiac medicine. A heart attack is caused by damaged arteries, and an ischemic stroke also often results from vascular damage. "Quite a lot of pathologies regarding veins still remain unstudied," said Igor Mayborodin, a doctor of medical sciences at the stem cell laboratory at ICBFM. "Weve looked into blood flow restoration in situations when there are blood clots. Now were trying to use stem cells to stimulate the growth of veins and bypass the diseased area." The discovery by Siberian scientists will make it possible to successfully treat diseases of the veins and resulting complications, for example, varicosis, phlebothrombosis (the formation of a blood clot in the vein that leads to its blockage), and even some types of trophic ulcers and cerebral strokes. Researchers conducted a number of studies on rats, injecting them with stem cells … Continue reading →

Posted 28 June 2017 By Zachary Brennan With a new Texas law now in the books to allow companies to sell unproven stem cell treatments without US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, some experts wonder when FDA will step in to shut down companies and clinics exposing people to unapproved medical products. Similar to the Right to Try laws spreading across the US and attempting to undercut FDAs regulation of investigational products, the Texas law, which had been brewing in some form since 2012, applies to certain investigational stem cell treatments for patients with certain severe chronic diseases or terminal illnesses. And though the Texas law says that it applies to stem cell treatments currently under investigation in clinical trials, it also blocks the Texas Medical Board from revoking, failing to renew or suspending a physicians license based solely on the physicians recommendations to an eligible patient regarding access to or use of an investigational stem cell treatment. An investigation by Nature in 2012 uncovered unproven and costly stem cell treatments being sold in Texas. Leigh Turner, anassociate professorat the University of Minnesotas Center for Bioethics and School of Public Health and co-author of a paper in Cell on … Continue reading →

Emma Hodson Neurosurgeon Harry Bulstrode at the University of Cambridge, UK, is eager to research new treatments for glioblastoma, an aggressive yet common type of brain tumour. In May, he won a 200,000 (US$255,000) Cancer Research UK Pioneer Award to investigate whether the Zika virus, which has been linked to thousands of cases of microencephaly in newborns, offers a promising treatment pathway. What attracted you to glioblastomas? They are the most aggressive of primary brain tumours. Fewer than 5% of the 2,300 people diagnosed in England each year survive for 5 or more years. These tumours have rather unusual biology. They are mainly creatures of brain tissue; they don't usually spread throughout the body. All through my PhD programme, a recurring theme was the parallels between how glioma stem cells drive tumour development and how neural stem cells grow in fetuses. As a rule, adult brain cells don't display this rapid growth pattern. Glioblastoma tumours are the exception. My PhD work left one question unanswered how to specifically target these tumour-causing cells. How did you get the idea to test Zika as a possible brain-tumour treatment? As soon as published papers confirmed that Zika caused specific damage to the developing … Continue reading →

Researchers experiment with the Sam68 protein. Credit: McMaster University A team of researchers at McMaster University has identified a unique feature of cancer stem cells that can be exploited to kill the deadly cells thought to be the reason that cancer comes back after therapy. Understanding this feature will be useful for delivering more targeted cancer therapeutics to the right patients. The study, published today in the scientific journal Cell Chemical Biology, reveals that an existing set of drugs is effective in killing cancer stem cells and explains how this led the team to uncovering important details about how these cells are working in human tumors. "The drugs helped us to understand the biology," said Mick Bhatia, principal investigator of the study and scientific director of the McMaster Stem Cell and Cancer Research Institute. "We've worked backwards, employing a series of drugs used in the clinic to understand a new way that cancer stem cells can be killed." The researchers found that a particular protein, called Sam68, is an important actor in cancer stem cells, and that this protein allows existing drugs to work on cancer cells, causing them to die. Bhatia hopes that this information can be used to … Continue reading →

June 26, 2017 Important pieces of the puzzle to understand what drives diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are still missing today. One crucial obstacle for researchers is that it is impossible to examine a living brain cell in someone who is affected by the disease. With the help of a new method for cell conversion, researchers at Lund University in Sweden have found a way to produce diseased, aging brain cells on a large scale in a cell culture dish. After performing a biopsy on the patient, the skin cells are transformed into brain cells that effectively imitate the disease and the age of the patient. The fact that the cells can now be produced in large quantities enables researchers to carry out a series of experiments that were previously not possible. A few years ago, Malin Parmar's research team was one of the first in the world to convert human skin cells directly into brain cells without passing the stem cell state. The discovery shocked the researchers and was perceived as almost impossible. The team is now approaching a point where the discovery is about to bear fruit on a wide scale. By following a new method that … Continue reading →

Today, tracking the development of individual cells and spotting the associated factors under the microscope is nothing unusual. However, impairments like shadows or changes in the background complicate the interpretation of data. Now, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen have developed a software that corrects images to make hidden development steps visible. When stem cells develop into specialized cells, this happens in multiple steps. But which regulatory proteins are active during the decisive branching on the development path? Using so-called time-lapse microscopy, researchers can observe individual cells at very high time resolutions and, using fluorescent labelling, they can recognize precisely which of these proteins appear when in the cell. Once a stem cell has been identified, it can be closely observed over several days using cell-tracking software. Yet, this surveillance work often turns out to be difficult. The imaging data is frequently marred by irregular brightness and faded backgrounds in the time-lapse, explains Dr. Carsten Marr, heading the workgroup Quantitative Single Cell Dynamics at the Institute of Computational Biology (ICB) of the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen. This makes it difficult or impossible to detect proteins that are decisive when a cell opts for a … Continue reading →

June 23, 2017 Imagine being able to take cells from your skin, transform them into other types of cells, such as lung, brain, heart or muscle cells, and use those to cure your ailments, from diabetes to heart disease or macular degeneration. To realise this, however, challenges still remain, Professor Janet Rossant, a pioneer in the field, says. All across the world, scientists have begun clinical trials to try and do just that, by making use of the incredible power and versatility of stem cells, which are special cells that can make endless copies of themselves and transform into every other type of cell. While human embryos contain embryonic stem cells, which help them to develop, the use of those cells has been controversial. The scientists are using induced pluripotent stem cells instead, which are other cells that have been reprogrammed to behave like stem cells. "There are still significant challenges that we need to overcome, but in the long run we might even be able to create organs from stem cells taken from patients. That would enable rejection-free transplants," said Professor Janet Rossant, a pioneer in the field. The mouse that changed everything A speaker at the recent Commonwealth … Continue reading →

Eva Feldman has been at the forefront of the University of Michigans stem cell research for decades. Since receiving her M.D. and Ph.D. degrees from the University and, later, becoming director of research for the University Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Clinic and director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute, Feldman has conducted her research with one thing in mind: finding a cure for ALS. Though Feldman recently announced she will be stepping down from the latter position, her extensive research and numerous accomplishments as director of the Taubman Institute will not be forgotten by peers, mentees and most importantly her patients. Stem cell research, though controversial, has always been a noteworthy point of scientific and medical innovation and development at the University despite pushback from human rights groups and government action. Feldman herself has been conducting her research for years, starting first as a fellow at the University in 1987, then later joining as a faculty member, practicing clinical trials and speaking at events to stress the significance of stem cell research. She conducts research primarily on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease a neurodegenerative disease which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 5,000 … Continue reading →

June 21, 2017 The software BaSiC improves microscope images, e.g., the mosaic image of a mouse brain thin section (left without, right with BaSiC correction). BaSiC's image correction is also a valuable tool for stem cell researchers who want to detect the appearance of specific transcription factors early on. Credit: Tingying Peng / TUM/HMGU Today, tracking the development of individual cells and spotting the associated factors under the microscope is nothing unusual. However, impairments like shadows or changes in the background complicate the interpretation of data. Now, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum Mnchen have developed a software that corrects images to make hitherto hidden development steps visible. When stem cells develop into specialized cells, this happens in multiple steps. But which regulatory proteins are active during the decisive branching on the development path? Using so-called time-lapse microscopy, researchers can observe individual cells at very high time resolutions and, using fluorescent labelling, they can recognize precisely which of these proteins appear when in the cell. Once a stem cell has been identified, it can be closely observed over several days using cell-tracking software. Yet, this "surveillance work" often turns out to be difficult. "The … Continue reading →

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Compounds from grapes may kill colon cancer stem cells both in a petri dish and in mice, according to a team of researchers. The compounds resveratrol which are found in grape skins and seeds, could also eventually lead to treatments to help prevent colon cancer, said Jairam K.P. Vanamala, associate professor of food sciences, Penn State. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society. "The combination of resveratrol and grape seed extract is very effective at killing colon cancer cells," said Vanamala, who is also a faculty member at the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute. "And what we're learning is the combination of these compounds is not toxic to healthy cells." The researchers, who reported their findings in a recent issue of BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, suggest that the findings could pave the way for clinical testing of the compounds on human colon cancer, which is the second most common cancer in women and the third in men. If successful, the compounds could then be used in a pill to help prevent colon cancer and lessen the recurrence of the disease in colon cancer survivors. … Continue reading →