June 4, 2013 CSIRO scientists have developed a test to identify unsafe stem cells. It is the first safety test specifically for human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) -- as published today in the international journal Stem Cells. The breakthrough is a significant step in improving the quality of iPS cells and identifying unwanted cells that can form tumours. The test also determines how stable iPS cells are when grown in the lab. "The test we have developed allows us to easily identify unsafe iPS cells. Ensuring the safety of these cell lines is paramount and we hope this test will become a routine screen as part of developing safe and effective iPS-based cell therapies." Dr Andrew Laslett and his team have spent the last five years working on the project. The research has focused on comparing different types of iPS cells with human embryonic stem cells. iPS cells are now the most commonly used pluripotent stem cell type for research. "The test we have developed allows us to easily identify unsafe iPS cells. Ensuring the safety of these cell lines is paramount and we hope this test will become a routine screen as part of developing safe and effective … Continue reading →

Many US centres prohibit research on embryonic stem cells. OHSU Photos The announcement last month of a long-awaited breakthrough in stem-cell research the creation of stem-cell lines from a cloned human embryo has revived interest in using embryonic stem cells to treat disease. But US regulations mean that many researchers will be watching those efforts from the sidelines. The US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which distributes the majority of federal funding for stem-cell research, prohibits research on cells taken from embryos created solely for research a category that includes the six stem-cell lines developed by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, a reproductive-biology specialist at the Oregon Health and Science University in Beaverton, and his colleagues1. The team used cloning techniques to combine a donor cell with an unfertilized egg whose nucleus had been removed, creating a self-regenerating stem-cell colony that is genetically matched to the cell donor. Mitalipovs cell lines are also off limits to researchers funded by the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), which was created in part to support stem-cell work that is restricted by the NIH. CIRM funds cannot be used for studies that pay women for their eggs or rely on cell lines produced using eggs from … Continue reading →

Public release date: 4-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Mary Beth O'Leary moleary@cell.com 617-397-2802 Cell Press New research provides critical insights into how normal breast precursor cells may be genetically vulnerable to develop into cancer. The research is published June 4th in the inaugural issue of Stem Cell Reports, an open-access journal from the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) published by Cell Press. Scientists discovered that a particular class of normal breast precursor cells have extremely short chromosome ends (known as telomeres). As a result, these cells would be expected to be prone to acquiring mutations that lead to cancer if they managed to stay alive. These findings suggest new indicators for identifying women at higher risk for breast cancer and provide insights into potential new strategies to detect, treat, and prevent the disease. Dr. David Gilley's laboratory at the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and Dr. Connie Eaves' laboratory at the BC Cancer Agency's Terry Fox Laboratory in Vancouver, Canada, collaborated to determine how telomeres are regulated in different types of normal breast cells. Their studies revealed that a subset of normal breast precursor cells, called luminal progenitors, have dangerously short telomeres and … Continue reading →

Public release date: 4-Jun-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ] Contact: Bryan Ghosh bghosh@plos.org 44-122-344-2837 Public Library of Science Researchers at the University of Cambridge have discovered that a single mutation in a leukemia-associated gene reduces the ability of blood stem cells to make more blood stem cells, but leaves their progeny daughter cells unaffected. Their findings have relevance to all cancers that are suspected to have a stem cell origin as they advance our understanding of how single stem cells are subverted to cause tumors. Published this week in PLOS Biology, the study by Professor Tony Green and his team at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research is the first to isolate highly purified single stem cells and study their individual responses to a mutation that can predispose individuals to a human malignancy. This mutation is in a gene called JAK2, which is present in most patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs)a group of bone marrow diseases that are characterized by the over-production of mature blood cells and by an increased risk of developing leukemia. Using a unique mathematical modeling approach, carried out in collaboration with Professor Ben Simons at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, in combination with experiments on … Continue reading →