Researchers suggest a possible cell-based therapy to stimulate lung development in fragile premature infants who suffer from a rare condition called Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia (BPD), which in the most severe cases can lead to lifelong breathing problems and even death.
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.
Babies born prematurely often face intense medical challenges, including intestines that are underdeveloped or diseased. While an intestine transplant can benefit some patients, many babies are simply too small to endure this procedure.
Los Angeles, CA, USA – Scientists can't make a living copy of your brain outside your body. That's the stuff of science fiction. But in a new study, they recreated a critical brain component, the blood-brain barrier, that functioned as it would in the individual who provided the cells to make it. Their achievement — detailed in a study published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell — provides a new way to make discoveries about brain disorders and, potentially, predict which drugs will work best for an individual patient.
Plymouth, UK – Our brains are notoriously bad at regenerating cells that have been lost through injury or disease.
Research led by scientists at Harvard and the Broad Institute has optimized the process of making human brain ‘organoids’ – miniature 3D organ models – so they consistently follow growth patterns observed in the developing human brain.
Researchers can use this reproducible experimental system to test drugs for neuropsychiatric diseases like autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia directly in human tissues.
