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.

House approves bill that would allow contraceptive donations to international groups barred from funding

The House on Thursday voted 241-178 to approve a fiscal year 2008 foreign aid spending bill that would allow the federal government to give contraceptives but not money to international groups barred from receiving U.S. aid because of their abortion policies, the Washington Post reports (Williamson, Washington Post, 6/22).

22 Jun 2007

60% of people with embryos in U.S. fertility clinics would consider donating them for stem cell research

About 60% of people who have embryos stored at U.S. fertility clinics would be very or somewhat likely to donate them for stem cell research, according to a survey published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science, Reuters reports (Dunham, Reuters, 6/20).

22 Jun 2007

Senate appropriations committee approves labor-HHS-education spending bill

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted 26-3 to approve a $152 billion fiscal year 2008 Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill after the addition of an amendment that would expand federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, CongressDaily reports (Cohn, CongressDaily, 6/22).

22 Jun 2007

Stem cells to repair damaged heart muscle

In the first trial of its kind in the world, 60 patients who have recently suffered a major heart attack will be injected with selected stem cells from their own bone marrow during routine coronary bypass surgery.

22 Jun 2007

Master regulator of the stem cell state

For more than 25 years, stem cells have been defined based on what they can become: more of themselves, as well as multiple different specialized cell types.

20 Jun 2007

Researchers develop artificial blood vessels from muscle-derived stem cells and a biodegradable polymer

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine investigators have engineered artificial blood vessels from muscle-derived stem cells (MDSCs) and a biodegradable polymer that exhibit extensive remodeling and remain free of blockages when grafted into rats.

19 Jun 2007

New target for therapies for retinopathy

A protein long thought to be one of the body's supporting players has quietly been taking a lead role in healthy eyesight, a discovery that could rapidly lead to treatments for babies born before their eyes are finished growing, University of Florida and Harvard Medical School researchers have found.

19 Jun 2007

Faster, less expensive technique for mutating large, non-gene stretches of DNA

Genes account for only 2.5 percent of DNA in the human genetic blueprint, yet diseases can result not only from mutant genes, but from mutations of other DNA that controls genes.

19 Jun 2007

Cancer stem cells similar to normal stem cells thwart anti-cancer agents

Current cancer therapies often succeed at initially eliminating the bulk of the disease, including all rapidly proliferating cells, but are eventually thwarted because they cannot eliminate a small reservoir of multiple-drug-resistant tumor cells, called cancer stem cells, which ultimately become the source of disease recurrence and eventual metastasis.

19 Jun 2007

50 million Europeans suffer from neurological diseases

About 50 million people in the EU suffer from neurological diseases such as epilepsy, migraines, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, strokes and dementia.

18 Jun 2007

Focus on motor neurone disease

Motor neurone disease (MND), also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, is a degenerative disease of unknown cause which causes patients to lose basic motor functions and has a devastating effect on them and their families.

17 Jun 2007

Researchers culture blood-forming stem cells from human fat tissue

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have successfully isolated and cultured human hematopoietic stem cells from fat, or adipose, tissue, suggesting that they have found another important source of cells for reconstituting the bone marrow of patients undergoing intensive radiation therapy for blood cancers.

17 Jun 2007

Bone marrow microenvironment can contribute to blood cell disorder

Disorders of blood cells may begin in the biological environment where the cells develop, not just with the cells themselves, according to a study from researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center (Peter Mac) in Melbourne, Australia.

17 Jun 2007

Interfacing silicon nanowires with mammalian cells

A research team at the University of California, Berkeley, has achieved a significant step toward one of the futuristic goals of nanomedicine and nanobiology-developing technology for "wiring" together individual cells.

14 Jun 2007

Injected neural stem cells reduce Parkinson's symptoms in primates

Primates with severe Parkinson's disease were able to walk, move, and eat better, and had diminished tremors after being injected with human neural stem cells, a research team from Yale, Harvard, the University of Colorado, and the Burnham Institute report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

14 Jun 2007

A single cancer stem cell is sufficient to initiate and maintain a malignant tumor

At the heart of most, if not all cancers, lie a handful of wayward stem cells that feed the ever growing tumor mass, but their scarcity make it difficult for scientists to study them. Now, times of plenty may lie ahead as a breast cancer cell line , established long ago , turned out to behave a lot like cancer stem cells.

14 Jun 2007

Study compares cord blood to bone marrow for transplants

Umbilical cord blood transplants may offer blood cancer patients better outcomes than bone marrow transplants, according to an analysis of outcome data performed at the Statistical Center, Center for Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.

14 Jun 2007

Researchers reprogram normal tissue cells into embryonic stem cells

Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.

8 Jun 2007

Funding to upgrade stem cell research facilities at UC San Diego

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Human Stem Cell Core Facility, which supports multiple research projects using stem cells to advance the understanding and ultimately the treatment of disease and injury, will receive a $2.8 million Shared Research Laboratory Grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM).

8 Jun 2007