A new discovery in stem cell research may mean big things for cancer patients in the future. After being the first to genetically map and identify a gene that regulates adult stem cells, the researchers investigated the gene’s protein product, Latexin, which can be used to ramp up the body’s stem cell count. The team’s findings are being published in Nature Genetics.
Members of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority discussed the broad principles for handling any research proposals into hybrid and chimera research. The HFEA has received two applications from scientific teams to carry out research using human cells and animal eggs to produce stem cells.
Researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) recently made significant strides toward settling a decades-old debate centering on the role played by stem cells in cancer development. According to the study’s findings, which appear in an upcoming issue of Nature Genetics and now available online, genes that are reversibly repressed in embryonic stem cells are over-represented among genes that are permanently silenced in cancers; this link lends support to the increasingly discussed theory that cancer is rooted in small populations of stem cells.
Scientists have discovered a new source of stems cells and have used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the laboratory. The first report showing the isolation of broad potential stem cells from the amniotic fluid that surrounds developing embryos was published today in Nature Biotechnology.
Scientists have discovered a new source of stems cells and have used them to create muscle, bone, fat, blood vessel, nerve and liver cells in the laboratory. The first report showing the isolation of broad potential stem cells from the amniotic fluid that surrounds developing embryos was published today in Nature Biotechnology.
Prof Michael King of the University of Rochester has invented a device that filters the blood for cancer and stem cells. When he captures cancer cells, he kills them. When he captures stem cells, he harvests them for later use in tissue engineering, bone marrow transplants, and other health applications. This is a non-controversial way of obtaining stem cells that can be differentiated into other, useful cells.
In the January 1 issue of G&D, Drs. Gustavo Leone and Michael Robinson (Ohio State University) and colleagues uncover a stem-cell specific role for the well-known tumor suppressor gene, Rb, in the developing mammalian embryo.
Stem cells grew, multiplied and differentiated into brain cells on a new three-dimensional scaffold of tiny protein fragments designed to be more like a living body than any other cell culture system.
It is widely hoped that neural stem cells will eventually be useful for replacing nerves damaged by degenerative diseases like Alzheimer disease and multiple sclerosis. But there may also be another use for such stem cells — delivering anti-cancer drugs to cancer cells.
Neurobiologists have discovered why the aging brain produces progressively fewer new nerve cells in its learning and memory center. The scientists said the finding, made in rodents, refutes current ideas on how long crucial “progenitor” stem cells persist in the aging brain.