Zurich, Switzerland – Researchers at the University Zurich have mapped the first complete atlas of single cells that make up the human teeth. Their research shows that the composition of human dental pulp and periodontium vary greatly. Their findings open up new avenues for cell-based dental therapeutic approaches.
San Diego, CA, USA – Despite the prevalence of Alzheimer’s, there are still no treatments, in part because it has been challenging to study how the disease develops. Now, scientists at the Salk Institute have uncovered new insights into what goes awry during Alzheimer’s by growing neurons that resemble—more accurately than ever before—brain cells in older patients. And like patients themselves, the afflicted neurons appear to lose their cellular identity.
Lund, Sweden – People with type 2 diabetes tend to have poorer muscle function than others. Now a research team at Lund University in Sweden has discovered that in type 2 diabetes, a specific gene is of great importance for the ability of muscle stem cells to create new mature muscle cells. The findings are published in Nature Communications.
San Francisco, CA, USA – In their effort to understand the very earliest stages of life and how they can go wrong, scientists are confronted with ethical issues surrounding the use of human embryos. The use of animal embryos is also subject to restrictions rooted in ethical considerations. To overcome these limitations, scientists have been trying to recreate early embryos using stem cells.
Parkville, Australia – The research uncovered 30 new genes that program stem cells to make the dendritic cells that kick-start the immune response. By uncovering this process, the researchers hope they will be able to find new immunotherapy treatments for cancer, and plan to expand this technique in other areas such as discovering new drug targets in tumour initiation.
Melbourne, Australia – An international research team led by Monash University has uncovered a new technique that could speed up recovery from bone replacements by altering the shape and nucleus of individual stem cells.
Exeter, UK – The team of researchers discovered an unique regenerative property of cells in the early human embryo.
Tokyo, Japan – By transferring mouse aged hematopoietic stem cells to the environment of young mice, it was demonstrated that the pattern of stem cell gene expression was rejuvenated to that of young hematopoietic stem cells.
College Park, MD, USA – In a new paper published in Stem Cell Reports, Bhanu Telugu and co-inventor Chi-Hun Park of the University of Maryland (UMD) Department of Animal and Avian Sciences show for the first time that newly established stem cells from pigs, when injected into embryos, contributed to the development of only the organ of interest (the embryonic gut and liver), laying the groundwork for stem cell therapeutics and organ transplantation.
Fukuoka, Japan – In a new study published in the journal Nature, researchers in Japan report that activating just eight genes for producing gene-controlling proteins is enough to convert mouse stem cells directly into oocyte-like cells that mature and can even be fertilized like egg cells.
