Alvaro Baez // Contributing Cartoonist In a recent scientific breakthrough, U.S. researchers have managed to create chimeric human-pig hybrids using human-induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The research team published its work in Cell journal, describing how the team inserted human stem cells into early-stage pig embryos and implanted the embryos in surrogate sows to develop. Scientists were astonished to find that they had generated human cells in the embryos. Scientists involved in the chimera experiment believe that further research can lead to lab-grown human organs a potential boon to patients awaiting organ transplants. However, because of ethical concerns, the embryos were terminated after 28 days. Stem cell research has long been a controversial subject in U.S. politics. Despite the existence of stringent guidelines, many politicians have openly opposed the use of stem cells taken from human embryos, which can divide indefinitely and are pluripotent, meaning they have the potential to divide into many different types of cells. This includes growth in critical organs like the heart or the liver. Just as a government operates on a system of checks and balances, the scientific community is kept under scrutiny by ethical norms that are largely influenced by an ever-changing political agenda. … Continue reading →

FINDINGS Adding just the right mixture of signaling molecules proteins involved in development to human stem cells can coax them to resemble somites, which are groups of cells that give rise to skeletal muscles, bones, and cartilage in developing embryos. The somites-in-a-dish then have the potential to generate these cell types in the lab, according to new research led by senior author April Pyle at theEli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA. Pluripotent stem cells, by definition, can become any type of cell in the body, but researchers have struggled to guide them to produce certain tissues, including muscle. In developing human embryos, muscle cells as well as the bone and cartilage of vertebrae and ribs, among other cell types arise from small clusters of cells called somites. Researchers have studied how somites develop in animals and identified the molecules that seem to be an important part of that process in animals. But when scientists have tried to use those molecules to coax human stem cells to generate somites, the protocols have been inefficient. The scientists isolated the minuscule developing human somites and measured expression levels of different genes both before and after … Continue reading →

PhilanthropistsEli and Edythe Broad have donated $1 million tosupport eight grants for early-stage stem cell research projects at three California universities including USC. The gift came at a Feb. 3 symposium marking the 10th anniversary of the stem cell research centers at USC, UCLA and the University of California, San Francisco,established with support from the Broads and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM). We love scientists because none of you are satisfied with the status quo. Eli Broad We love scientists because none of you are satisfied with the status quo, Eli Broad said at the symposium, hosted by UCLA. Among the groundbreaking discoveriesof stem cell researchers is a cure forinfants born without a functional immune system an inherited condition called Adenosine Deaminase Severe Combined Immunodeficiency, or Bubble Baby Disease. The traditional treatment is a bone marrow transplant from a matched donor, which carries significant risk of fatal immune rejection or other complications.Donald Kohns lab at UCLA engineered a better source of transplanted cells: the patients own stem cells, in which the disease-causing mutation has been corrected using gene editing. This cure already proved successful in clinical trials, and is now being commercialized with support and funding from CIRM. … Continue reading →

Research | Policy | Politics | People | Events | Funding | Awards | Trend watch | Coming up Stem-cell trial Japan is resuming pioneering clinical research using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. A team led by Masayo Takahashi at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe will make suspensions of iPS cells derived from retinal cells, and transplant them into people with age-related macular degeneration, an eye condition that can cause blindness. Takahashi started a similar study in 2014 the first to use iPS cells in humans but the cells prepared for the second patient were found to have genetic abnormalities and no other participants were recruited. On 1February, Japans health ministry approved a new five-patient study. This time the team will use banked iPS cells created from anonymous, healthy donor cells rather than from the participants themselves. Martian polar ice cap sculpted by wind A seasonal layer of carbon dioxide frost coats Marss northern polar ice cap in this image, which was released on 2February by the European Space Agency (ESA). Each winter, carbon dioxide precipitates out of the cold atmosphere and onto the ice cap. The image is a composite of pictures taken between 2004 and … Continue reading →

The origin of stem cells -- ScienceDaily Science Daily The protein WOX2 is responsible for enabling plants to develop organs throughout their lives. and more » See the original post here: The origin of stem cells -- ScienceDaily - Science Daily … Continue reading →

February 8, 2017 Blood stem cells from patients with Diamond-Blackfan anemia dont mature properly (right two columns). Credit: Doulatov et al., Science Translational Medicine (2017) Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital's Stem Cell Research Program were able, for the first time, to use patients' own cells to create cells similar to those in bone marrow, and then use them to identify potential treatments for a blood disorder. The work was published today by Science Translational Medicine. The team derived the so-called blood progenitor cells from two patients with Diamond Blackfan anemia (DBA), a rare, severe blood disorder in which the bone marrow cannot make enough oxygen-carrying red blood cells. The researchers first converted some of the patients' skin cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. They then got the iPS cells to make blood progenitor cells, which they loaded into a high-throughput drug screening system. Testing a library of 1,440 chemicals, the team found several that showed promise in a dish. One compound, SMER28, was able to get live mice and zebrafish to start churning out red blood cells. The study marks an important advance in the stem cell field. iPS cells, theoretically capable of making virtually any cell type, were … Continue reading →