Storrs, CT, USA – A new technology discovered by a team including UConn School of Dental Medicine researchers records cellular communication in real time – providing a closer look into the dynamics of cell secretion and a greater understanding of how cells repair tissue.
Tallahassee, FL, USA – A pioneering new study led by Florida State University (FSU) biologists could fundamentally change our understanding of how embryonic stem cells differentiate into specific cell types. The research, published today in the journal Stem Cell Reports, calls into question decades of scientific consensus about the behavior of embryonic stem cells as they transition to endoderm, a class of cell in animal embryos that gives rise to the digestive and respiratory systems.
Singapore, Singapore – How dormant neural stem cells in fruit flies are activated and generate new neurons is described in a new research study by Duke-NUS Medical School. The findings could potentially help people with brain injury or neuronal loss, if similar mechanisms apply in humans. Publishing in PLOS Biology, the research team, led by Associate Professor Wang Hongyan, Deputy Director of Duke-NUS’ Neuroscience and Behavioural Disorders Programme and lead author of the study, described the process and molecules involved in reactivating fruit flies’ (also known by their scientific name, Drosophila) dormant neural stem cells, which can activate and generate new neurons.
Daegu, Korea – A research team from Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST) succeeded in developing stem cell delivery of scaffold microrobot that can precisely deliver cells to a target body tissue. This research achievement is expected to enhance the treatment safety and efficiency of degenerative neural disorders as it can precisely transplant the exact amount of stem cell-based treatment cells to human body tissues and organs.
Chicago, IL, USA – Engineered tissues and organs have been grown with various degrees of success in labs for many years. Many of them have used a scaffolding approach where cells are seeded onto biodegradable supportive structures that provide the underlying architecture of the organ or tissue desired.
Beer-Sheva, Israel – Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles have, for the first time, duplicated a patient's blood-brain barrier (BBB), creating a human BBB chip with stem cells, which can be used to develop personalized medicine and new techniques to research brain disorders.
Washington, DC, USA – What if doctors had a remote control that they could use to steer a patient’s own cells to a wound to speed up the healing process? Although such a device is still far from reality, researchers reporting in the ACS journal Nano Letters have taken an important first step: They used near-infrared light and an injected DNA nanodevice to guide stem cells to an injury, which helped muscle tissue regrow in mice.
Copenhagen, Denmark – New sensational study conducted at the University of Copenhagen disproves traditional knowledge of stem cell development. The study reveals that the destiny of intestinal cells is not predetermined, but instead determined by the cells' surroundings. The new knowledge may make it easier to manipulate stem cells for stem cell therapy. The results have just been published in Nature.
Kobe, Japan – Our hair, skin and eyes are colored by a pigment called melanin, which is produced by pigment cells called melanocytes. Scientists have used stem cell technology to successfully create melanocyte precursor cells. These cells can be used in research on melanoma and other pigment cell-related illnesses. The findings were published on March 6 in the online edition of Pigment Cell & Melanoma Research.
Amsterdam, NL – StemJournal, a new open access, peer-reviewed journal published by IOS Press, announces publication of its inaugural article, "Combining Stem Cells and Biomaterial Scaffolds for Constructing Tissues and Cell Delivery" by Stephanie M. Willerth, PhD, and Shelly E. Sakiyama-Elbert, PhD. This timely overview of the available biomaterials for directing stem cell differentiation as a means of producing replacements for diseased or damaged tissues is a comprehensive update of the classic review published in StemBook in 2008.
