Johns Hopkins scientists have successfully grown large numbers of stem cells taken from adult pigs’ healthy heart tissue and used the cells to repair some of the tissue damage done to those organs by lab-induced heart attacks. Pigs’ hearts closely resemble those in humans, making them a useful model in such research.
Revisions to the stem cell act would improve framework conditions for German researchers. International stem cell research has yielded important new findings in recent years, especially in research on human embryonic stem cells. It has extended and enhanced our knowledge of the properties of stem cells, for example in connection with regenerative cell treatment or the investigation of genetic diseases.
A team of international researchers has transferred eye tissue from newborn to adult mice. It lets the blind adults detect light. The scientists say it challenges conventional wisdom on stem cells, because the successful cells had already stopped dividing before they were transferred.
Australian senators signalled in an intial vote on Tuesday that a ban on the use of cloned human embryos for stem cell research is likely to be overturned, the purpose of the bill is to legalise therapeutic cloning.
Scientists from King’s submitted a licence application yesterday (6 November) to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) to allow them to fuse human cells with animal eggs. If granted, the licence will boost research into some of the most debilitating and untreatable neurological diseases.
Doctors in the UK are to treat heart attack patients with stem cells taken from their own bone marrow in a pioneering attempt to prevent death and suffering.
A growth factor known to be important for the survival of many types of cells stimulates rapid extension of corticospinal motor neurons — critical brain cells that connect the cerebral cortex with the spinal cord and that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Berlex Oncology, a business unit of Berlex Laboratories, a U.S. affiliate of Schering AG, Germany (FSE: SCH; NYSE: SHR), today announced that a national clinical study is underway investigating a new approach to treating follicular B-cell lymphoma, a sub-type of non-Hodgkin?s lymphoma (NHL). NHL is the fifth most common form of cancer in the United States, with more than 56,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Follicular B-cell lymphoma is an indolent, or slow-growing, type of NHL that comprises approximately 30% of all diagnosed cases.
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) reported that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved NOXAFIL(R) (posaconazole) Oral Suspension for the treatment of oropharyngeal candidiasis (OPC), including infections refractory to itraconazole and/or fluconazole. OPC is a fungal infection of the mouth and throat caused by the yeast Candida. NOXAFIL is a novel triazole antifungal agent discovered and developed by Schering-Plough Research Institute.
A Singapore company has used stem cells to help victims of serious burns and other wounds grow fresh skin, its chief medical officer said in a report published Friday.