News & Commentaries

27 Apr 2021

Salk Scientists Reveal How Brain Cells in Alzheimer’s Go Awry, Lose their Identity

Stembook: Salk Scientists Reveal How Brain Cells in Alzheimer’s Go Awry, Lose their Identity
New technique models brain cells in older patients more accurately than ever before

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.

22 Apr 2021

Recreating the Earliest Stages of Life

Stembook: Recreating the Earliest Stages of Life

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.

16 Apr 2021

Researchers Unveil New 'Time Machine' Technique to Measure Cells

Stembook: Researchers Unveil New 'Time Machine' Technique to Measure Cells
Using a new single-cell technique, WEHI researchers have uncovered a way to understand the programming behind how stem cells make particular cell types.

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.

17 Dec 2020

Oh So Simple: Eight Genes Enough to Convert Mouse Stem Cells into Oocyte-Like Cells

Stembook: Oh So Simple: Eight Genes Enough to Convert Mouse Stem Cells into Oocyte-Like Cells
Surprisingly simple method could provide a new tool for producing specialized cytoplasm for reproductive medicine.

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.

17 Dec 2020

UMD Researchers Perform Crucial Proof-of-Concept Experiment, Paving the Way for Growing Human Organs for Therapeutics and Transplantation

Stembook: UMD Researchers Perform Crucial Proof-of-Concept Experiment, Paving the Way for Growing Human Organs for Therapeutics and Transplantation
Start-up company, Renovate Bioscience Inc., wins Invention of the Year and Inventor Pitch Award for this work at UMD

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.

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