Stem Cells News and Research

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Stem cells have the remarkable potential to develop into many different cell types in the body during early life and growth. In addition, in many tissues they serve as a sort of internal repair system, dividing essentially without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential either to remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell.

SARS-CoV-2 can infect heart cells in a lab dish, study shows

A new study shows that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus), can infect heart cells in a lab dish, indicating it may be possible for heart cells in COVID-19 patients to be directly infected by the virus.

30 Jun 2020

A biocompatible polymer can help heal broken bones

Healing broken bones could get easier with a device that provides both a scaffold for the bone to grow on and electrical stimulation to urge it forward, UConn engineers reported on June 27 in the Journal of Nano Energy.

30 Jun 2020

Researchers develop a promising treatment to prevent blindness

The team was co-led by May Griffith, a researcher at Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital Research Centre, which is affiliated with Université de Montréal and is part of the CIUSSS de l'Est-de-l'Île-de-Montréal.

30 Jun 2020

New method for analyzing intact tumor samples to be used for studying COVID-19

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have developed a new method for analyzing intact tumor samples in 3D on a molecular level.

29 Jun 2020

Biophysicists propose a simple way to observe heart tissue

Biophysicists from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology and their colleagues have proposed a simple way to observe the heart tissue.

29 Jun 2020

New model helps study human hippocampal neurons

Neuroscientists and stem cell researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a research model that allows studying human hippocampal neurons, the brain cells primarily affected by Alzheimer's disease pathology.

29 Jun 2020

Parkinson's disease breakthrough seen in mouse model

Researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine have found a way to create new neurons in a mouse model of Parkinson's disease. The severely debilitating and progressive neurodegenerative disease, as of now, has no cure, and this breakthrough could help hundreds of thousands of patients with the condition feel experts.

25 Jun 2020

Study provides novel insights into how fat cells reduce lipid metabolism with age

Knowledge of how human fat tissue is affected by age has long been defined by numerous mouse-based studies.

25 Jun 2020

New therapeutic approach for Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases

Xiang-Dong Fu, PhD, has never been more excited about something in his entire career. He has long studied the basic biology of RNA, a genetic cousin of DNA, and the proteins that bind it. But a single discovery has launched Fu into a completely new field: neuroscience.

25 Jun 2020

Whole genome sequencing can improve diagnosis and treatment of patients with rare diseases

A research programme pioneering the use of whole genome sequencing in the NHS has diagnosed hundreds of patients and discovered new genetic causes of disease.

24 Jun 2020

Novel treatment provides cardioprotection after heart attack in animal models

A novel treatment reduces heart damage after serious heart attacks in two animal models. Injections of two chemicals in a slow-release form significantly reduced the size of the dead heart tissue, known as the infarct, and improved the function of the left ventricle, as compared to untreated subjects.

23 Jun 2020

Novel vaccine platform against COVID-19 based on engineered human mesenchymal stem cells

In a recent groundbreaking bioRxiv paper, Chinese researchers describe a novel approach towards coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine design based on engineered human mesenchymal stem cells, with favorable and promising antibody response.

22 Jun 2020

Insight into merits and limitations of direct reprogramming strategies for cardiac regeneration

Direct reprogramming or Transdifferentiation is a way of inducing changes in the cell type from one lineage into another lineage, bypassing pluripotency.

22 Jun 2020

Researchers discover new and improved way to treat poor-prognosis blood cancer

Researchers at Children's Cancer Institute have discovered what could prove a new and improved way to treat the poor-prognosis blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia or AML.

21 Jun 2020

Cloning stem cells to develop treatments for Crohn's disease

For over a decade Wa Xian, research associate professor of biology and biochemistry at the University of Houston Stem Cell Center, has been perfecting technology for cloning stem cells. Now she is using it to take aim at pediatric Crohn's disease.

18 Jun 2020

Using stem cells to study the developmental effects of Neandertal DNA

Protocols that allow the transformation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines into organoids have changed the way scientists can study developmental processes and enable them to decipher the interplay between genes and tissue formation, particularly for organs where primary tissue is not available.

18 Jun 2020

Overcoming leukemia treatment resistance with nanoparticle drug delivery system

UConn associate professor of pharmaceutics Xiuling Lu, along with professor of chemistry Rajeswari M. Kasi, was part of a team that recently published a paper in Nature Cell Biology finding a commonly used chemotherapy drug may be repurposed as a treatment for resurgent or chemotherapy-resistant leukemia.

18 Jun 2020

Study identifies a previously unknown mechanism that contributes to intestinal cancer

A MedUni Vienna study group has identified a previously unknown mechanism involved in the development of intestinal cancer: The bacterial microbiome activates the so-called immune checkpoint Ido1 in Paneth cells, a special cell that is only found in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby preventing local intestinal inflammation.

18 Jun 2020

New test will help better manage patients with severe combined immunodeficiency

A new test developed at CHU Sainte-Justine in Montreal will enable better management of patients with severe combined immunodeficiency.

17 Jun 2020

Researchers create superior bone grafts using primitive stem cells

Although most broken bones can be mended with a firm cast and a generous measure of tender loving care, more complicated fractures require treatments like bone grafting.

16 Jun 2020