Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Using Droplet Digital PCR to Study Stem Cell Genomes at Stanford University For more info, visit http://www.bio-rad.com/yt6/QX200-DropletDigitalPCR. Since its introduction two years ago, Droplet Digital PCR (ddPCR) technology has tr... By: BioRadLifeScience … Continue reading →

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 30-Jan-2014 Contact: Tom Vasich tmvasich@uci.edu 949-824-6455 University of California - Irvine Irvine, Calif., Jan. 30, 2014 Two UC Irvine research teams will receive $1.54 million to further studies on the fundamental structure and function of stem cells. Their work will aid efforts to treat and cure a range of ailments, from cancer to neurological diseases and injuries. The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine awarded the two grants today to Lisa Flanagan and Peter Donovan of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center as part of its basic biology awards program. CIRM's governing board gave 27 such grants worth $27 million to 11 institutions statewide. The funded projects are considered critical to the institute's mission of investigating the underlying mechanisms of stem cell biology, cellular plasticity and cellular differentiation in order to create a foundation for future translational and clinical advances. Today's grants bring total CIRM funding at UC Irvine to $98.8 million. "Innovative basic research like this paves the way to better designs for the use of stem cells," said Sidney Golub, director of the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center. "Even more importantly, it can open up entirely new approaches based on … Continue reading →

CNN NEW YORK (CNN) We run too hard, we fall down, were sick all of this puts stress on the cells in our bodies. But in whats being called a breakthrough in regenerative medicine, researchers have found a way to make stem cells by purposely putting mature cells under stress. Two new studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature describe a method of taking mature cells from mice and turning them into embryonic-like stem cells, which can be coaxed into becoming any other kind of cell possible. One method effectively boils down to this: Put the cells in an acidic environment. I think the process weve described mimics Mother Nature, said Dr. Charles Vacanti, director of the laboratory for Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine at Brigham & Womens Hospital in Boston and senior author on one of the studies. Its a natural process that cells normally respond to. Both studies represent a new step in the thriving science of stem cell research, which seeks to develop therapies to repair bodily damage and cure disease by being able to insert cells that can grow into whatever tissues or organs are needed. If you take an organ thats functioning at 10% of … Continue reading →

TWO NEW studies offer extraordinary hope that we may be closer to the day when people can use their own cells to treat significant medical conditions, without using controversial stem cell methods that involve harvesting human embryos. Stem cell research has provided a glimpse of a future in which doctors can reverse the effects of certain ailments and decrease people's suffering. But the topic also carries with it a passionate ethical debate. This new, faster method if proved successful could push us past much of that controversy. Researchers in Japan published studies in the journal Nature this week that described how they "reprogrammed" blood cells taken from mice by soaking them in an acidic solution. The scientists found that when the cells which they called stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency were injected back into mice, they multiplied and grew into heart, bone, brain and other organs. Medical researchers have worked for years to use pluripotent stem cells to treat diseased organs, severed spinal cords and other conditions like diabetes, blindness and muscular dystrophy. While not all stem cell research has involved human embryos, that method is commonly known by the public and makes many people uncomfortable. Some religious groups have pushed … Continue reading →

Stem-cell Research on International Space Station Could Lead to New Cancer Therapies Stem-cell research scheduled to take place aboard the International Space Station could lead to new cancer therapies, says Roland Kaunas, associate professor... By: tamubiomedical … Continue reading →

Stem Cells and the Transformative Power of Hope: Bernard Siegel at TEDxDelrayBeach Bernie was a courtroom attorney, and a cancer and Hurricane Andrew survivor. For fun, he owned a minor league basketball team and became commissioner of a pr... By: TEDxTalks … Continue reading →

GWEN IFILL: Today's news of a breakthrough in stem cell research captured the attention of scientists around the world. For years, researchers have been investigating how to get adult stem cells to behave more like embryonic ones, which would allow them to be developed into almost any organ or tissue. The findings announced today involve a simple treatment, immersing adult mouse cells in a mild acid bath. As seen here, mouse embryos were grown with beating heart cells derived from this process. Dr. Charles Vacanti was one of the lead researchers from the team at Brigham and Women's Hospital. And he joins me now. Dr. Vacanti, this is kind of amazing. Are you explaining -- are you telling us you're making stem cells, instead of finding them? DR. CHARLES VACANTI, Brigham & Women's Hospital: That is correct. And we believe we're doing exactly what's being done in the body when you normally have an injury. GWEN IFILL: So how did you come about this? CHARLES VACANTI: It's been a long process. I started working with this with my brother Martin about 15 years ago, first looking for a better cell to use in tissue engineering. And in 2001, we described … Continue reading →

In a step that has implications for stem cell research, human biology and the treatment of disease, researchers in Japan and at Harvard University have managed to turn adult cells back into flexible stem cells without changing their DNA. The researchers discovered that they could put cells in various challenging circumstances ?? including in acidic solutions and under physical pressure ?? and turn mature blood cells into cells that were capable of turning into virtually any cell in the body. The research, published today in the journal Nature, was in mice. If it can be repeated in people, it has the potential to transform research using stem cells to treat disease, and it may lead to a new understanding of how the body heals from injury, said Charles Vacanti, the Harvard Medical School stem cell and tissue engineering biologist who led the research. Biology textbooks say that once a cell matures to serve a specific role, like, say a red blood cell, it can never go back into a less mature state. Vacanti and his colleagues say their new research upends that dogma. "This study demonstrates that any mature cell when placed in the right environment can go back, become … Continue reading →

January 28, 2014 Brett Smith for redOrbit.com Your Universe Online While a Chinese cream may not have cured George Costanzas baldness in a classic Seinfeld episode, stem cell research from scientists at the University of Pennsylvania has shown the potential for regenerating hair follicles which could lead to relief for hair-challenged men everywhere. According to a new report published in the journal Nature Communications, the Pennsylvania researchers have developed a groundbreaking method for converting adult cells into epithelial stem cells (EpSCs). Similar previous efforts have failed to generate an adequate number of hair-follicle-generating stem cells. In the study, epithelial stem cells were inserted into immunocompromised mice. The stem cells regenerated the various cell types for human skin and hair follicles, and provided structurally identifiable hair shafts, raising the possibility of hair regeneration in humans. The study team began with human skin cells referred to as dermal fibroblasts. By incorporating three genes, they modified those cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which have the capacity to differentiate into any cell types in the human body. Next, they modified the iPS cells into epithelial stem cells, commonly located at the base of hair follicles. Starting with procedures other research groups had … Continue reading →

A team of Boston and Japanese researchers stunned the scientific world Wednesday by revealing a remarkably simple and unexpected way to create stem cells able to give rise to any tissue in the body. To transform mature cells into powerful stem cells that are a biological blank slate, the team simply bathed them in an acid bath for half an hour. The technique appears to be far easier and faster than current methods for creating these cells, which scientists are racing to develop into therapies for a range of diseases. The result is shocking, astounding, revolutionary, and weird, said scientists not accustomed to using such exuberant words to describe new research findings. The finding has been officially reported only in mice, but human studies are underway. Researchers at Brigham and Womens Hospital said that over the weekend they made what appears to be a human version of the stem cells, although further study and confirmation of that preliminary result is needed. Its just a wonderful result; its almost like alchemy, said Douglas Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, who was not involved in the research published Wednesday in the journal Nature. It says one has found a way … Continue reading →