News & Commentaries

Cambridgeshire, UK — A new approach has enabled researchers to create Expanded Potential Stem Cells (EPSCs) of both pig and human cells. These stem cells have the features of the very first cells in the developing embryo, and can develop into any type of cell. The research from LKS Faculty of Medicine of The University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and the Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut in Germany offers incredible potential for studying human development and regenerative medicine.

In mice whose sense of smell has been disabled, a squirt of stem cells into the nose can restore olfaction, researchers report today (May 30) in Stem Cell Reports. The introduced “globose basal cells,” which are precursors to smell-sensing neurons, engrafted in the nose, matured into nerve cells, and sent axons to the mice’s olfactory bulbs in the brain.

Scientists from The University of Queensland’s Diamantina Institute have revealed the difference between a stem cell and other blood vessel cells using gene-sequencing technology.

Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg — Until now, researchers have assumed that the growth of solid tumors originates from cancer stem cells characterized by specific surface markers, which develop in a fixed, hierarchical order. Accordingly, such cancer stem cells are responsible for tumor progression and produce specific types of more differentiated cancer cells whose fates are predetermined. In a joint interdisciplinary project led by the Luxembourg Institute of Health (LIH), researchers now show that cancer cells of glioblastomas - conspicuously aggressive solid brain tumors - manifest developmental plasticity and their phenotypic characteristics are less constrained than believed. Cancer stem cells, including their progeny, are able to adapt to environmental conditions and undergo reversible transformations into various cell types, thereby altering their surface structures. The results imply that novel therapeutic approaches, which target specific surface structures of cancer stem cells, will be of limited utility. The research team has published its findings in Nature Communications in April 2019.