Camrbidge, MA, USA – Researchers have developed a way to grow human heart tissue that can serve as a model for the upper chambers of the heart, known as the atria. The tissue, derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPCSs), beats, expresses genes, and responds to drugs in a manner similar to a real human atrium.
San Francisco, CA, USA – Currently, the only therapy for metabolic liver disease is an organ transplant. Tracy Grikscheit, MD, an attending physician and regenerative medicine scientist at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, hopes to change that reality. She has been awarded nearly $1.3 million by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to study stem cell therapy for liver failure.
Skokie, IL, USA – Douglas Melton, the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) and founding editor of StemBook, outlines in an open letter a new format for the ISSCR Annual Meeting 2019 offering new opportunities and expanded horizons.
New Brunswick, NJ, USA – Rutgers scientists have created a tiny, biodegradable scaffold to transplant stem cells and deliver drugs, which may help treat Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, aging brain degeneration, spinal cord injuries and traumatic brain injuries.
Durham, NC, USA – A study recently published in Stem Cells Translational Medicine (SCTM) describes a new cell therapy that shows promise in treating cirrhosis of the liver. The treatment, a combination of mesenchymal stem cells and induced bone marrow-derived macrophages, reduced fibrosis and promoted regeneration of cirrhosis-damaged liver in tests on mice.
Baltimore, MD, USA – Since Carnegie Institution’s Barbara McClintock received her Nobel Prize on her discovery of jumping genes in 1983, we have learned that almost half of our DNA is made up of jumping genes – called transposons. Given their ability of jumping around the genome in developing sperm and egg cells, their invasion triggers DNA damage and mutations.
Madison, WI, USA – In November 1998, the world was introduced to human embryonic stem cells, the blank slate cells that arise at the earliest stages of development and that go on to become any of the scores of cell types that make up a human. In a succinct paper published in the journal
Stanford, CA, USA – Researchers can design the perfect molecule to edit a gene, treat cancer or guide the development of a stem cell, but none of that will matter in the end if they can’t get their molecule into the human cells they want to manipulate. The solution to that problem, described in a study published October 31 in Science Advances, could be minuscule nanostraws, tiny glass-like protrusions that poke equally tiny holes in cell walls to deliver their cargo.
Ann Arbor, MI, USA – Skeletal stem cells are valuable because it’s thought they can heal many types of bone injury, but they’re difficult to find because researchers don’t know exactly what they look like or where they live. Researchers at the University of Michigan (U-M) have identified a type of skeletal stem cell in the “resting zone” of the epiphyseal growth plate, which is a special cartilaginous tissue and an important driver for bone growth.
Melbourne, VIC, Australia – Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) researchers have discovered how the growth of milk-producing mammary glands is triggered during puberty. Sleeping stem cells in the mammary gland are awoken by a protein dubbed FoxP1, according to the research that was published today in the journal Developmental Cell.
