Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

A new Pew poll found that Americans view abortion as a moral issue, even compared to other scientific and medical procedures that involve the use of fertilized human eggs. In the poll, 49 percent of Americans thought abortion was morally wrong, while 15 percent thought it was morally acceptable. 23 percent of Americans thought it wasn't a moral issue at all. But compare that to the other issues Pew queried: Like abortion, embryonic stem cell research terminates the embryo. But only 22 percent of Americans think embryonic stem cell research is morally wrong a plurality aren't convinced it's even a moral issue at all. While there's a correlation in Pew's results between those who oppose abortion on moral grounds and those who oppose embryonic research, that gap could speak to the stark differences in how the two issues are discussed and legislated. Both are opposed by, say, Lifenews, an anti-abortion site that put Pew's poll on their homepage today. Here's how they approached the findings, with some frustration about the inconsistency: A new Pew research poll finds Americans say abortion is morally wrong by a 3-1 margin. However, Americas are still divided on the issue of embryonic stem cell research … Continue reading →

Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions. 1 hour ago Normally quiescent Bmi1-positive intestinal stem cells (ISCs) (left) undergo increased division in the event of drug-induced cell death (right). Blue staining indicates successful lineage tracing of new cells arising from ISC proliferation and maturation. Credit: 2013 Elsevier Stem cells play a critical role in replacing various cells within the intestine, but can also become drivers for colorectal cancer. The composition of these stem cell reservoirs has been debated. New research from Dmitry Bulavin of the A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology has now clarified the organization of this tissue, yielding insights that should steer future cancer research. Bulavin and co-workers had previously identified a population of '+4' cellsdenoting their position within the intestinal epitheliumthat appeared to contain intestinal stem cells (ISCs)2. They determined that activation of certain oncogenes rapidly kills these cells via a mechanism called apoptosis, a critical safeguard against cancerous growth. Accordingly, mice with a genetic mutation that increased the apoptotic response of these cells were also protected against intestinal tumors. However, subsequent findings from another team … Continue reading →

Stem Cell Research Anomaly Results in Talking Moovie Bumper Stickers http://youtu.be/fgRPi2OejO8 Francois leaves Cary with his bus while working at the Farm on S. Abel Street in Milpitas. Mr. Green and Cary come to terms vis a... By: Cary Silberman … Continue reading →

IRVINE, CA--(Marketwired - Aug 12, 2013) - Six grants totaling $1,295,377 were issued to cystinosis researchers investigating better treatments and a cure for the disease by the Cystinosis Research Foundation in its first round of proposals in 2013. Included is funding for additional research on stem cell and gene therapy, which holds the greatest promise to cure the rare, deadly metabolic and genetic disease.Cystinosis afflicts about 500 children and young adults in the United States and 2,000 worldwide. "A cure is within sight.These new studies will accelerate the research process and will provide the critical data we need to realize our goal of finding a cure for cystinosis.CRF funded research has led to new research discoveries and treatments for cystinosis and as an unexpected, positive result, helped other more prevalent diseases such as Parkinson's and Huntington's disease.We believe that there will be an autologous stem cell trial for patients with cystinosis within three to four years.We are committed to continue to fund research until we find the cure," said Nancy Stack, CRF Trustee and President. The CRF's spring grants were awarded to research programs at hospitals and universities in the United States and Canada.In the last 11 years the CRF … Continue reading →

Public release date: 12-Aug-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Rachel Steinhardt rsteinhardt@licr.org 212-450-1582 Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research August 12, 2013, New York, NY Loss of a gene required for stem cells in the brain to turn into neurons may underlie the most severe forms of neuroblastoma, a deadly childhood cancer of the nervous system, according to a Ludwig Cancer Research study. Published in Developmental Cell today, the findings also provide clues about how to improve the treatment of this often-incurable tumor. Neuroblastoma can appear in nervous tissue in the abdomen, chest and spine, among other regions of the body, and can spawn body-wracking metastasis. The most severe tumors respond poorly to treatment, and the disease accounts for 15 percent of cancer deaths in children. Johan Holmberg, PhD, at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research Stockholm took a close look at the role of the CHD5 tumor suppressor during normal nervous system development. Previous studies had shown that the gene CHD5 is often inactivated in the most severe forms of neuroblastoma, but little was known about its function in healthy tissue or how it operates. The study, which was conducted in close collaboration with colleagues at Trinity College, … Continue reading →

Stem cell technology can be used to mass-produce cancer-killing immune cells designed to target different kinds of tumour, scientists have shown. The research opens up the prospect of immunotherapy treatments helping many more cancer patients in the future. In theory cancer can be tackled by elements of the body's own immune defences, especially white blood cells called T-cells. But in practice, T-cells that target and kill cancer cells while ignoring healthy cells are very rare, and progress towards immune-based cancer treatments has been limited. The new approach provides a way to reprogramme T-cells and create large numbers of them "off the shelf" primed to attack specific cancers. A small number of healthy human T-cells were first reprogrammed into malleable stem cells with embryonic properties, US scientists reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology. These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPScs) were then engineered to produce a tumour-specific receptor molecule on their surfaces. Finally, the stem cells were coaxed to re-acquire their original T-cell properties while expanding to large numbers. Each of the T-cells now had the all-important receptor that allowed it to target a particular cancer "antigen" or protein, in this case lymphoma. Injected into mice with a human form of lymphoma, … Continue reading →

Today's Dental News: Stem Cell Research Turns to Gingivae On this week's Wednesday Watch, learn about a new study about tissue regeneration that will be of interest to dentists, and hear about a chocolate study that... By: TheWednesdayWatch … Continue reading →

Sir Chris Evans Interview at Nerve 2013 Rob Symes of Campbell Black Interviewing Sir Chris Evans about his work in stem cell research at Nerve 2013. If you'd like similar video for your website, or... By: LapseFilm … Continue reading →

NEWARK, Calif., Aug. 7, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- StemCells, Inc. (STEM), a leading stem cell company developing and commercializing novel cell-based therapeutics and tools for use in stem cell-based research and drug discovery, today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2013, and provided a business update. "The data emerging from our clinical trials, including the two-year Pelizeaus-Merzbacher disease (PMD) data announced last week, continue to build our confidence that we are on the right track," said Martin McGlynn, President and CEO of StemCells, Inc. "Our operational priority right now is to accelerate patient enrollment, complete the ongoing Phase I/II trials and quickly initiate Phase II proof-of-concept trials. To that end, we took a number of important steps in the second quarter. First, we obtained authorization from Health Canada to expand our spinal cord injury trial into Canada and we are working diligently to initiate sites in the coming months. Second, we added the Byers Eye Institute at Stanford as a site in our dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD) trial, and are working to add others. Third, we brought Eliseo Salinas, MD, on board as Executive Vice President and Head of Research and Development, as well as … Continue reading →

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/5flxzm/opportunities_in) has announced the addition of the "Opportunities in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Products" report to their offering. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) are stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of a blastocyst, which is a stage reached four to five days post-fertilization. Human embryonic stem cells are the most pluripotent of all stem cell types and can develop into over 200 different cell types of the human body. Human embryonic stem cells were first derived from mouse embryos in 1981 by Martin Evans and Matthew Kaufman, and independently by Gail R. Martin. In 1995, the first successful culturing of embryonic stem cells from non-human primates occurred at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Another breakthrough followed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in November 1998 when a group led by Dr. James Thomson developed a technique to isolate and grow hESCs derived from human blastocysts. Federal funds to support hESC research became available on August 9, 2001, when President Bush announced his decision regarding federal funding for hESC research. Because of their plasticity and unlimited capacity for self-renewal, hESCs have been proposed for use in wide range of applications, including toxicology testing, tissue engineering, cellular … Continue reading →