Regenerative medicine is constantly discovering new inroads to potential therapies utilizing adult stem cells for a variety of life threatening or debilitating conditions and diseases. Progress has accelerated in the past few years, fueled in part by President Obamas 2009 Executive Order 13505 that removed barriers in responsible research which has opened doors to examination of new ways of thinking. It has also aided in the emergence of research in the area of adipose (fat)-based stem cell therapy, which could prove to be a major breakthrough in regenerative medicine. Not only has early research at Johns Hopkins suggested the possibility of superior efficacy with Adipose-Derived Stem Cells, or ADSCs, in the treatment of glioblastoma (a severe form of brain cancer), but ADSCs are easily harvested, meaning that they could become a standard as the most reliable and abundant source of stem cells for research, cultures and therapeutic processes. Akin to institutions like Harvards Dana-Farber and University of Texas MD Anderson being recognized as two of the worlds leading cancer research centers, certain institutions have become established as pioneering experts in stem cell research. Johns Hopkins and Rutgers University sit amongst the leaders in this arena. This bodes very well for … Continue reading →

15 May 2013 Last updated at 14:02 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News Human cloning has been used to produce early embryos, marking a "significant step" for medicine, say US scientists. The cloned embryos were used as a source of stem cells, which can make new heart muscle, bone, brain tissue or any other type of cell in the body. The study, published in the journal Cell, used methods like those that produced Dolly the sheep in the UK. However, researchers say other sources of stem cells may be easier, cheaper and less controversial. Opponents say it is unethical to experiment on human embryos and have called for a ban. Stem cells are one of the great hopes for medicine. Being able to create new tissue might be able to heal the damage caused by a heart attack or repair a severed spinal cord. There are already trials taking place using stem cells taken from donated embryos to restore people's sight. However, these donated cells do not match the patient so they would be rejected by the body. Cloning bypasses this problem. The technique used - somatic cell nuclear transfer - has been well-known since Dolly … Continue reading →

Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD Stem cell science blasted across front pages worldwide when Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, won the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The UCSF professor and senior investigator at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes received the award for discovering how to transform ordinary adult skin cells into cells that, like embryonic stem cells, are pluripotent capable of becoming any cell in the human body. The news bringing UCSF's total of Nobel laureates to five brought fresh attention to something UCSF long ago sensed and seized: the promise of regeneration medicine for repairing or replacing damaged cells, tissues, and even whole organs. Gail Martin, PhD More than three decades ago, UCSF researcher Gail Martin, PhD, co-discovered embryonic stem cells in mice, coining the term. The cells were discovered separately and simultaneously by University of Cambridge investigators Martin Evans, PhD, and Matthew Kaufman, PhD. Embryonic stem cells brought hope to billions, giving scientists new avenues for understanding and treating some of the worlds most complex health conditions heart disease, diabetes, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, spinal cord injury, and many more. Despite the cells tremendous promise, political pressure to stop embryonic stem cell research began to brew. In a … Continue reading →

NEW YORK- After more than 15 years of failures by scientists around the world and one outright fraud, biologists have finally created human stem cells by the same technique that produced Dolly the cloned sheep in 1996: They transplanted genetic material from an adult cell into an egg whose own DNA had been removed. The result is a harvest of human embryonic stem cells, the seemingly magic cells capable of morphing into any of the 200-plus kinds that make up a person. The feat, reported on Wednesday in the journal Cell, could re-ignite the field of stem-cell medicine, which has been hobbled by technical challenges as well as ethical issues. Until now, the most natural sources of human stem cells have been human embryos, whose use in research poses ethical quandaries. The technique announced on Wednesday, by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center, uses unfertilized human eggs. Eliminating the need for human embryos could boost attempts to use stem cells and their progeny to replace cells damaged or destroyed in heart disease, Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries and other devastating conditions. But the achievement could also revive fears of reproductive … Continue reading →

Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., researches in the lab at the Oregon Health & Science University. For the first time, a team of scientists say they have successfully converted human skin cells into embryonic stem cells, a move that could help quiet the ethical debate surrounding stem cell research. Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University say they were able to implant the nucleus from a skin cell into a donated human egg cell with its nucleus removed, creating an embryo-like cell that has the genetic makeup of the patient who donated the skin cell. [RELATED: Scientists Can Turn Stem Cells Into Brain Cells] Since 2007, scientists have had successes with the procedure using monkeys and other mammals but not with human subjects. "Every species is a little different biologically," says Shoukrat Mitalipov, lead author of the study, which was published Wednesday in Cell. "We've been using a good model in primates, but we've now finally been able to optimize it in humans." The embryonic stem cells created by Mitalipov can be differentiated into many types of human cell, including nerve cells, liver cells and heart cells. Scientists have suggested that stem cells may one day be used to treat brain … Continue reading →