Embryonic Stem Cells News and Research

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Epigenetic mark guides stem cells toward their destiny

Not all stem cells are completely blank slates. Some, known as adult stem cells, have already partially embraced their fates and are capable of becoming only cells of a particular type of tissue. So how do these tissue-specific stem cells restrict their fate?

19 Mar 2009

'Seeing' stem cells helps in fight against peripheral arterial disease

Interventional radiologists are fitting together the puzzle pieces of how to use stem cells to create new or more blood vessels to treat peripheral arterial disease (PAD) in those individuals with extensively narrowed or clogged arteries.

11 Mar 2009

Advances in stem cell research

Scientists at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston are on the forefront of stem cell research, developing novel therapies designed to generate heart cells, repair traumatic lung injuries, grow new bone and stanch the spread of cancer cells.

8 Mar 2009

Breakthrough method produces Parkinson's disease patient-specific stem cells free of harmful reprogramming genes

Whitehead Institute researchers have developed a novel method to remove potential cancer-causing genes during the reprogramming of skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients into an embryonic-stem-cell-like state.

8 Mar 2009

Virus-free embryonic-like stem cells made from skin of Parkinson's disease patients

Researchers reporting in the March 6th issue of the journal Cell , a Cell Press publication, have developed a new way to produce human embryonic-like stem cells that are free of the viruses used to insert the key ingredients.

5 Mar 2009

Breakthrough produces Parkinson's patient-specific stem cells free of harmful reprogramming genes

Deploying a method that removes potentially cancer-causing genes, Whitehead Institute researchers have "reprogrammed" human skin cells from Parkinson's disease patients into an embryonic-stem-cell-like state.

5 Mar 2009

New tissue engineering technique may help stem cells generate solid organs

Stem cells can thrive in segments of well-vascularized tissue temporarily removed from laboratory animals, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

2 Mar 2009

Protein complex shown to play pivotal role in stem cell development

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a protein complex important in controlling whether embryonic stem cells retain their ability to become any cell in the body - a quality called pluripotency - or instead embark on a pathway of maturation and specialization.

2 Mar 2009

Scientists make electrically active motor neurons from iPS cells

Stem cells scientists at UCLA showed for the first time that human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be differentiated into electrically active motor neurons, a discovery that may aid in studying and treating neurological disorders.

25 Feb 2009

Human stem cells provide a new model for Lou Gehrig's disease

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a devastating condition in which motor neuron degeneration causes progressive loss of movement and muscle tone, leading to death.

23 Feb 2009

Animal eggs no source for embryonic stem cells

Stem cell researchers in the U.S. say that eggs from cows, rabbits and other animals are not a good source for creating embryonic stem cells.

3 Feb 2009

New chemical keeps stem cells young

Scientists at the Universities of Bath and Leeds have discovered a chemical that stops stem cells from turning into other cell types, allowing researchers to use these cells to develop new medical treatments more easily.

3 Feb 2009

Discovery of new class of non-protein coding genes in mammals with key functions

A research team at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has uncovered a vast new class of previously unrecognized mammalian genes that do not encode proteins, but instead function as long RNA molecules.

2 Feb 2009

Large DNA stretches, not single genes, shut off as cells mature

Experiments at Johns Hopkins have found that the gradual maturing of embryonic cells into cells as varied as brain, liver and immune system cells is apparently due to the shut off of several genes at once rather than in individual smatterings as previous studies have implied.

19 Jan 2009

Stem cells could be used for personalized cancer treatment

Using cancer cells from an ovarian cancer patient and human embryonic stem cells, Israeli researchers have created a cancerous tumor in a mouse that mimics the way the tumor would develop in the patient's body.

15 Jan 2009

Researchers find molecular origin of blood stem cells

A research team led by Nancy Speck, PhD, Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, has identified the location and developmental timeline in which a majority of bone marrow stem cells form in the mouse embryo.

12 Jan 2009

Discovery of more efficient way to create induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells

A Boston University School of Medicine-led research team has discovered a more efficient way to create induced Pluripotent Stem (iPS) cells, derived from mouse fibroblasts, by using a single virus vector instead of multiple viruses in the reprogramming process.

7 Jan 2009