Category Archives: Stem Cell Research

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Transplants / Organ Donations Also Included In: Stem Cell Research;Dermatology Article Date: 20 Apr 2012 - 3:00 PDT email to a friend printer friendly opinions Current Article Ratings: 1 (1 votes) 4 (1 votes) Takashi Tsuji, a Professor in the Research Institute for Science and Technology, Tokyo University of Science, and Director of Organ Technologies Inc, led the team, who report their findings in an open access paper published in Nature Communications on 17 April. The study is significant on two counts: first it used adult stem cells and not embryonic stem cells, and second, the bioengineered follicles were fully functional and integrated into surrounding tissue, something that has not been managed before. Not only does the study raise hopes of a cure for baldness, the researchers say it also represents a significant advance toward the next generation of "organ replacement regenerative therapies" that will enable the replacement of organs damaged by disease, injury or aging. The researchers bioengineered hair follicle germ cells, the cells that mature into cells that grow hair, from two other types of cell: adult epithelial stem cells and dermal papilla cells. They implanted the bioengineered cells into the skin … Continue reading →

Friday, 20 April 2012 00:00 It is that time of year again. The temperatures are warm, the flowers are blooming, the grass is green and Hadassahs 6th Annual Walkathon for Stem Cell Research is here. Come out, experience springtime, get some exercise and make a difference, all at the same time. Hadassahs Walkathon for Stem Cell Research is on Sunday, May 6 at Temple Israel on Old Mill Road (rain or shine). Registration will begin at 9:45 a.m. and the walk will officially start at 10 a.m. You can help bring awareness to this important cause by participating in this community event. All ages are welcome as we walk two miles, to show our support for stem cell research. Runners are welcome to run the extended four or six-mile course as well. There will be snacks, t-shirts and fun for all. Not only are we encouraging families to participate, we are encouraging students of all ages to get involved by helping to organize, publicize, and raise funds for the event and of course, by walking for stem cell research. Join us and play a role in turning research into cures worldwide. We are making strides to stamp out many dreaded … Continue reading →

In light of ongoing disputes over the Universitys embryonic stem cell research efforts, the state House Appropriations Subcommittee on Higher Education passed a budget recommendation Friday seeking to strip the University of some of its funding from the state. The recommendation comes more than two weeks after University President Mary Sue Colemans critical remarks to the committee about its budget formulation, and stems from a disagreement over the type of information the University should report to the legislators. Republican members of the committee insist that the University must provide specific data on the research, while University officials have resisted those efforts. This year, instead of supplying the data points the committee requested, the University compiled what Cynthia Wilbanks, the Universitys vice president for government relations, called a packet of press releases and scientific journal articles on the Universitys embryonic stem cell research. University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said the University sent the package to legislators to provide them with a more in depth look at the research going on at the University. It gave the legislature a deeper, broader, richer understanding of the stem cell research than a simple list of five or six numbers, Fitzgerald said. Wilbanks added that one … Continue reading →

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/f51594d7/mesenchymal_stem_c) has announced the addition of the "Mesenchymal Stem Cells, Advances & Applications (Updated & Expanded Version, 2012)" report to their offering. Analysis of global grant activity, scientific publication rates, and patent applications reveal that research activity involving mesenchymal stem cells increased 58% year-over-year from 2008 to 2009, and 112% from 2009 to 2010. Of most interest is that this rate of growth accelerated in 2011, making mesenchymal stem cells the fastest growing area of stem cell research. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into a variety of cell types, including osteoblasts, chondrocytes, myocytes, adipocytes, beta-pancreatic islets cells, and potentially, neuronal cells. MSCs are of intense therapeutic interest because they represent a population of cells with the potential to treat a wide range of acute and degenerative diseases. MSCs are advantageous over other stem cells types for several reasons. First, they avoid the ethical issues that surround embryonic stem cell research. Second, repeated studies have found that human MSCs are immuno-privileged, and therefore, represent an advantageous cell type for allogenic transplantation, reducing the risks of rejection and complications of transplantation. Recently, there have also been significant advances in the use of autologous … Continue reading →

California's $3 billion stem cell agency, now more than 7 years old, has joined research partnerships with science and health agencies in eight foreign countries, the San Francisco institute announced. The agreements call for collaboration in efforts aimed at speeding stem cell research from the laboratory to the hospital, where researchers hope that basic human cells will be programmed to treat scores of human degenerative diseases. Research partnerships between American and foreign stem cell scientists are encouraged, but the California institute's funds would only be spent within the state, institute officials said. Alan Trounson, president of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, signed agreements with stem cell funding agencies in Brazil and Argentina last week, he said Thursday. "Both Brazil and Argentina have strong and robust stem cell research communities in basic science and transitional clinical science, which should create exciting synergies with many scientists in California," Trounson said in a statement. He has signed similar pacts with stem cell agencies in Canada, Britain, France, Spain, Australia, Japan, China and Indiana. The California institute was created in 2004 after Proposition 71, a $3 billion bond issue, was approved by California voters at a time when use of federal funds was … Continue reading →

Left, Michigan State University's Beaumont Tower; Right, the Michigan Union on the campus of the University of Michigan. / Courtesy MSU & JARRAD HENDERSON/Detroit Free Press (Detroit Free Press)- Republican members of the Michigan House higher education committee flexed their muscles Friday, passing a budget recommendation that would strip state aid from Michigan's two most prominent universities over disagreements on stem cell research and mandatory student health insurance. The Republicans have been feuding with both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in the past year over the two social issues and has threatened to pull state aid over it. But neither MSU or U-M blinked at the move. "We believe there are elements in this proposal that are intended to be punitive in nature and that it would force us to raise tuition more than anticipated," said Heather Swain, MSU's vice president for university relations. This budget recommendation, which would still have to be passed by the full committee, the full House, the Senate and eventually signed by the governor, would make good on the previous threats. At risk is U-M's and MSU's share of nearly $40 million in performance funding, which, under the House plan, would be … Continue reading →

Republican members of the Michigan House higher education committee flexed their muscles Friday, passing a budget recommendation that would strip state aid from Michigans two most prominent universities over disagreements on stem cell research and mandatory student health insurance. The Republicans have been feuding with both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University in the past year over the two social issues and has threatened to pull state aid over it. But neither MSU or U-M blinked at the move. We believe there are elements in this proposal that are intended to be punitive in nature and that it would force us to raise tuition more than anticipated, said Heather Swain, MSUs vice president for university relations. This budget recommendation, which would still have to be passed by the full committee, the full House, the Senate and eventually signed by the governor, would make good on the previous threats. At risk is U-Ms and MSUs share of nearly $40 million in performance funding, which, under the House plan, would be doled out to those universities meeting a number of criteria. We are, of course, disappointed that the House higher-education budget proposal restricts funding for U-M over the way the … Continue reading →

University of Michigan officials may be picking the wrong fight with state legislators over the release of stem-cell research statistics. Members of the House Higher Education subcommittee are threatening to reduce state funding to the university if it doesnt turn over the information. The subcommittees requirement is petty; its threat is even moreso. Michigan voters saw the issue clearly enough in 2008, when Proposal 2 permitted donation of embryos produced in fertility clinics that would otherwise be discarded. It allowed government funding for research and continued a ban on cloning. The requirement that universities provide statistics was added to the state budget last fall. It demands that they provide the number of human embryos and stem-cell lines received in the 2011-2012 fiscal year, the number of embryos used for research and those held in storage, the number of lines created and the number of ongoing research projects. Only U-M is conducting such research in this fiscal year. The university has responded with a stack of papers and a cover sheet, but not the numbers. Its not clear why the legislators inserted the requirement. However, Republican lawmakers proposed guidelines for embryonic stem-cell research after voter approval of Proposal 2. They would … Continue reading →

The Catholic Church has never had a particularly easy relationship with science. After all, this is the institution that sentenced Galileo Galilei as a heretic for his theories on the universe during the Roman Inquisition. Two thousand years later, the church forgave Galileo and called the whole misunderstanding a tragic mutual incomprehension but it remains safe to say the Vatican doesnt have a great track record when it comes to empirical open-mindedness. So onlookers were surprised when the Vatican announced it would be hosting a global conference on the highly controversial issue of stem-cell research in Rome over four days in late April. The church held a similar conference in 2010 and 2011, which focused on its recommendation that stem-cell research should be limited to adult cells that can be harvested from live donors, not embryonic cells that destroy the source. But this years conference schedule featured some of the worlds foremost experts in embryonic research as keynote speakersleading some scientists to think that the Vatican might actually be looking for enlightenment on the topic. That was not exactly case. Instead, the Vatican seems to have hoped that by including embryonic researchers in the program, it would appear that these … Continue reading →

Featured Article Academic Journal Main Category: Muscular Dystrophy / ALS Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;Stem Cell Research Article Date: 29 Mar 2012 - 4:00 PDT email to a friend printer friendly opinions Current Article Ratings: 5 (2 votes) 5 (1 votes) An international team led by the UK's University of Edinburgh and King's College London, and Columbia University in New York, has for the first time made living human motor neurones that feature key properties of MND/ALS. They made the diseased nerve cells using stem cells derived from adult skin. Having such a laboratory model of a disease to hand vastly improves the speed with which potential new drugs can be screened, and helps expand understanding of the disease. Programme leader Dr Siddharthan Chandran, Professor of Neurology at the University of Edinburgh, and colleagues, write about this key milestone in the 26 March online, ahead of print, issue of PNAS. Chandran said in a statement: "Using patient stem cells to model MND in a dish offers untold possibilities for how we study the cause of this terrible disease as well as accelerating drug discovery by providing a cost effective way to test many thousands of potential treatments." See the … Continue reading →