Embryonic Stem Cell News and Research

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ISSCR releases updated guidelines for stem cell research, development of new therapies

The International Society for Stem Cell Research, the world's largest professional organization of stem cell scientists, today released newly updated guidelines for stem cell research and the development of new clinical therapies.

13 May 2016

Researchers safely transplant stem cells from patient's skin to the eye to restore vision

Researchers have safely transplanted stem cells derived from a patient's skin to the back of the eye in an effort to restore vision. The research is being presented at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology this week in Seattle, Wash.

4 May 2016

Bioengineers develop synthetic bed to nurture colonies of human embryonic stem cells

The most productive way scientists have devised to nurture colonies of human embryonic stem cells is to do so atop a bed of mouse cells. That may be fine for lab research, but it poses an unacceptable contamination risk for stem cells intended for transplant into human patients. In a new study, Brown University bioengineers have developed a synthetic bed that works about as well as the mouse cells, called fibroblasts, without any possibility of contamination.

3 May 2016

New article reviews ability of different stem cells to help restore function after spinal cord injuries

Stem cell therapy is a rapidly evolving and promising treatment for spinal-cord injuries. According to a new literature review, published in the April issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, different types of stem cells vary in their ability to help restore function, and an ideal treatment protocol remains unclear pending further clinical research.

30 Apr 2016

New study explores mechanisms that control size, shape of tubular organ systems

A new study from the group of Holger Gerhardt in collaboration with Katie Bentley's Lab addresses a long standing question in the wider field of developmental biology and tissue patterning in general, and in the vascular biology field in particular: 'What are the fundamental mechanisms controlling size and shape of tubular organ systems'.

21 Apr 2016

CIRM approves $6.3 million grant to support research on novel stem cell-based therapy for ALS

The Independent Citizens Oversight Committee of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine approved yesterday a $6.3 million grant to a research team from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and University of California, Davis to pursue a novel human embryonic stem cell-based therapy to rescue and restore neurons devastated by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or ALS.

18 Mar 2016

New study could help explain critical shortcomings in stem cell-driven therapies for heart disease

With every heart attack, billions of cardiomyocytes, the contracting heart muscle cells that make the heart pump time after time over a lifetime, are lost which can lead to heart failure or injury. Stem cell-based replacement strategies could open new and much needed therapeutic avenues.

17 Feb 2016

Researchers discover factor that controls embryonic stem cell development

After a gestation period of around ten months, fawns are born in early summer - when the weather is warm and food is plentiful for the mother. Six months would actually be enough for the embryo's development, but then offspring from mating in the later portion of summer would be born in winter.

17 Feb 2016

Discovery may lead to potential new therapeutic approach to eradicate blood cancers

An international team of scientists, headed by researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine and UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, report that decreases in a specific group of proteins trigger changes in the cancer microenvironment that accelerate growth and development of therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs).

1 Dec 2015

Research paves way for clinical trials of cell therapies to treat Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury

Stem cells that have been specifically developed for use as clinical therapies are fit for use in patients, an independent study of their genetic make-up suggests.

26 Nov 2015

Changes in cellular metabolites regulate earliest stages of embryonic stem cell development

Changes in cellular metabolites have been shown to regulate embryonic stem cell development at the earliest stages of life. Metabolites are simple compounds generated during life-sustaining chemical activities in cells.

17 Nov 2015

Researchers identify factors that spark formation of pluripotent cells

Researchers at EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute and the Wellcome Trust- Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute at the University of Cambridge have identified factors that spark the formation of pluripotent cells.

10 Nov 2015

Public policy needed to reduce stem cell tourism, say experts

The continued marketing and use of experimental stem cell-based interventions inside and outside the United States is problematic and unsustainable, according to a new paper by science policy and bioethics experts at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and Wake Forest University.

10 Nov 2015

UCSF study reveals molecular timing mechanism of stem cells

UC San Francisco researchers have for the first time developed a method to precisely control embryonic stem cell differentiation with beams of light, enabling them to be transformed into neurons in response to a precise external cue.

27 Aug 2015

Elsevier launches open access journal Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announces the launch of open access journal Reproductive Biomedicine & Society Online.

20 Aug 2015

LMU researchers reveal role of mutations in development of Ewing's sarcoma

Researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich have elucidated at the molecular level how an otherwise innocuous inherited mutation that is quite common in European populations interacts with a spontaneous somatic mutation to promote the development of Ewing's sarcoma.

28 Jul 2015

Research breakthrough opens door to a world of regenerative medicine for treating mitochondrial disease

A study led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., and Hong Ma, M.D., Ph.D., at the Center for Embryonic Cell and Gene Therapy at Oregon Health & Science University and the Oregon National Primate Research Center has revealed the first critical step in developing novel gene and stem cell therapy treatments for patients with mitochondrial disease.

16 Jul 2015

Researchers explore the science of exosomes in heart repair

A little more than a decade ago, researchers discovered that all cells secrete tiny communications modules jammed with an entire work crew of messages for other cells. Today, a team of researchers, led by stem cell researcher Raj Kishore, PhD, Director of the Stem Cell Therapy Program at the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University School of Medicine, is harnessing the communications vesicles excreted by stem cells and using them to induce the damaged heart to repair itself.

19 Jun 2015

Stem cell transplant restores sensory functions in injured spinal cord

New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of stem cells for treatment of spinal cord injury. The results, which are published in the scientific journal Scientific Reports, show that human stem cells that are transplanted to the injured spinal cord contribute to restoration of some sensory functions.

10 Jun 2015

Process of aging could be delayed in human cell lines

Can the process of aging be delayed or even reversed? Research led by specially appointed Professor Jun-Ichi Hayashi from the University of Tsukuba in Japan has shown that, in human cell lines at least, it can. They also found that the regulation of two genes involved with the production of glycine, the smallest and simplest amino acid, is partly responsible for some of the characteristics of aging.

1 Jun 2015