Stem Cells News and Research

RSS

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.

Research project aims to find new ways to identify and treat most aggressive brain cancers

A large European research collaboration is bringing new technology to bear to combat two of the most aggressive brain cancers.

21 Feb 2018

Researchers target abnormal epigenetic mechanisms involved in childhood cancers

Several childhood cancer cell types show features of immature neural cells, and there is evidence suggesting that these tumors may arise from neural crest stem cells that underwent abnormal changes during embryonic development.

20 Feb 2018

Tiny 'brains on chips' reveal mechanisms underlying brain's wrinkling process

Being born with a "tabula rasa" - a clean slate - in the case of the brain is something of a curse. Our brains are already wrinkled like walnuts by the time we are born. Babies born without these wrinkles - smooth brain syndrome - suffer from severe developmental deficiencies and their life expectancy is markedly reduced.

20 Feb 2018

Key protein involved in epigenetic regulation of gene expression guides skin cell renewal

Approximately once a month, our skin completely renews itself. If this highly coordinated process goes awry, it can lead to a variety of skin diseases, ranging from skin cancer to psoriasis.

19 Feb 2018

Lab-grown cerebellar cells may help explain how ASD develops at molecular level

Increasing evidence has linked autism spectrum disorder with dysfunction of the brain's cerebellum, but the details have been unclear. In a new study, researchers at Boston Children's Hospital used stem cell technology to create cerebellar cells known as Purkinje cells from patients with tuberous sclerosis complex, a genetic syndrome that often includes ASD-like features.

19 Feb 2018

Scientists develop fluorescent probe to identify cancer stem cells

Cells with stem-cell characteristics appear to be especially important in the formation and metastasis of tumors. Scientists have now developed a universal fluorescent probe for these “cancer stem cells”. As reported in the journal Angewandte Chemie, this dye also selectively kills off the cells.

19 Feb 2018

Stem cell vaccine helps protect mice against numerous cancers, finds study

Lab mice injected with inactivated induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) displayed a significant immune response against lung, breast, and skin cancers. The vaccine also prevented relapses in animals with removed tumors.

16 Feb 2018

Biomedical engineers grow living windpipe structures from self-assembled modules

Biomedical engineers at Case Western Reserve University are growing tracheas by coaxing cells to form three distinct tissue types after assembling them into a tube structure - without relying on scaffolding strategies currently being investigated by other groups.

15 Feb 2018

New NK cell-based immunotherapy effective against several types of leukemia

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have explored NK cell-based immunotherapy on patients with treatment-resistant leukemia. The study, which is published in the scientific journal Clinical Cancer Research, shows that the new therapy is effective against several types of leukemia.

15 Feb 2018

Scientists discover adult endothelial stem cells capable of generating fully functional blood vessels

The proper function of blood vessels is essential to life: blood vessels are responsible for transporting oxygen-rich red blood cells, nutrients, and immune cells throughout the body, to name just a few functions. Defects in blood vessels can correspondingly lead to a variety of life-threatening diseases.

15 Feb 2018

Scientists show connection between sugar chains and bone growth

Scientists at the University of York have shown that altering the structure of sugar chains on the surface of stem cells could help promote bone growth in the body.

14 Feb 2018

Mice study raises hope to successfully treat Alzheimer's disease

A team of researchers from the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute have found that gradually depleting an enzyme called BACE1 completely reverses the formation of amyloid plaques in the brains of mice with Alzheimer's disease, thereby improving the animals' cognitive function.

14 Feb 2018

Organ chip technology improves study of the intestine for personalized medicine

Researchers have developed an organ-on-a-chip device using donor-derived human intestinal cells that offers advantages over organoids and new possibilities for personalized medicine.

14 Feb 2018

Replenishing a protein could improve healing properties of stem cell therapy after heart attack

Researchers may have found a way to reduce ongoing heart damage that occurs long after a severe heart attack by improving the longevity of stem cells injected into the heart.

13 Feb 2018

Hints to aging lurk in fruit flies’ germline stem cells

Little hints of immortality are lurking in the stem cells of fruit flies. Stem cells that produce sperm use a genetic trick to stay perpetually young across generations, researchers at the University of Michigan Life Sciences Institute have discovered. Certain sections of the fruit fly genome get shorter with age. But remarkably, some reproductive cells can repair the shrinkage, the researchers report in the journal eLife.

13 Feb 2018

Chinese researchers report first clinical trial based on autologous lung stem cell transplantation

A research team from Tongji University in China have made a breakthrough in human lung regeneration technology. For the first time, researchers have regenerated patients' damaged lungs using autologous lung stem cell transplantation in a pilot clinical trial.

9 Feb 2018

Study provides valuable insights to prevalence of burnout in neurosurgery residents

When it comes to workplace stress, even doctors aren't immune to its effects. For doctors training to become neurosurgeons, burnout is common, and certain workplace stressors -- like unrewarding mentor relationships, difficult coworkers and not getting enough exposure to the operating room -- can lead to it, according to a new study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

9 Feb 2018