stem

Spleen may be source of versatile stem cells

A year ago, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers discovered that the spleen might be a source of adult stem cells that could regenerate the insulin-producing islets of thepancreas. In a follow-up to that unexpected finding, members of thesame team now report that these potential adult stem cells produce aprotein previously believed to be present only during the embryonicdevelopmen...

Genes In The Interferon System Important In Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

Two genes with very strong associations withthe disease systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have been identified bya team of scientists headed by researchers at the Department of MedicalSciences at Uppsala University. The findings are being published todayon the Web page of the highly prestigious American Journal of HumanGenetics. "These findings are probably the first genetic pieces of ahug...

Priming embryonic stem cells to fulfill their promise

Bioengineering researchers at the Universityof California, San Diego have invented a process to help turn embryonicstem cells into the types of specialized cells being sought as possibletreatments for dozens of human diseases and health conditions. SangeetaBhatia and Shu Chien, UCSD bioengineering professors, and ChristopherJ. Flaim, a bioengineering graduate student, described the cell-cult...

Emory Study Tests Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Improve Circulation in Legs

Physicians at Emory University School ofMedicine are conducting a clinical trial using stem cells generatedwithin the bone marrow to grow new blood vessels that could improvecirculation in patients with blockages in the arteries of their legs --a condition called (PVD). Individuals with PVD...

Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists identify immune-system mutation

A team of Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologist Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., has identified the genetic mutation that keeps a mouse strain from developing white blood cells, or lymphocytes, called helper T cells. The report by Kappes and his colleagues appears in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. Kappes' laboratory first discovered the mice with this naturally occurring defect in...

Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds

Currently available lines of human embryonicstem cells have been contaminated with a non-human molecule thatcompromises their potential therapeutic use in human subjects,according to research by investigators at the University of California,San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and the Salk Institute in La Jolla,California.In a study published online January 23, 2005 in the journal NatureMed...

Newly-discovered class of genes determines ?and restricts ?stem cell fate

Research on adult stem cells found in the skin hints at a new class of genes, according to a study from investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. These genes ?dubbed pangenes ?can both govern a stem cell's fate and put a hold on future differentiation until the time is right. Understanding the molecular control of these genes has implications for therapies that involve t...

Transplantation Of Monkey Embryonic Stem Cells Reverses Parkinson Disease In Primates

The replenishment of missing neurons in thebrain as a treatment for Parkinson disease reached the stage of humantrials over 15 years ago, however the field is still in its infancy.Researchers from Kyoto University have now shown thatdopamine-producing neurons (DA neurons) generated from monkey embryonicstem cells and transplanted into areas of the brain where these neuronshave degenerated i...

NYU Study Reveals How Brain's Immune System Fights Viral Encephalitis

New York University biologists have uncovered how the innate immune system in mice's brains fights viral infection of neurons. The findings, published as the cover study in the latest issue of Virology, show that proteins in neurons fight the virus at multiple stages--by preventing the formation of viral RNA and proteins, and blocking the virus' release, which could infect other cells in the brai...

Fundamental Finding Yields Insight into Stem Cells, Cancer; Opens Door to Drug Discovery

Few things about growing older are asinevitable and obvious as “going gray,?yet scientists have been unableto explain the precise cause of this usually unwelcome transformation.In a report posted today on the Web site of the journal Science,researchers from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children’s HospitalBoston say they have found the cellular cause of graying hair whileinvestigating th...

Scientists rid stem cell culture of key animal cells

Tackling a pressing and controversial technical barrier in stem cell biology, scientists at the WiCell Research Institute and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have crafted a recipe that allows researchers to grow human embryonic stem cells in the absence of mouse-derived "feeder" cells, long thought to be a source of potential contamination for the therapeutically promising cells. The...

UCSD researchers maintain stem cells without contaminated animal feeder layers

The growth and maintenance of human embryonic stem cells in the absence of contaminated animal products has been demonstrated by University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine researchers in the Whittier Institute, La Jolla, California. Published in the April 2005 issue of the journal Stem Cells, the study shows that laboratory culture media enriched by a human protein calle...

Transport System Smuggles Medicines Into Brain

Parrots, long a favorite pet animal, are attractive to owners because of their vibrant colors. But those colors may mean more to parrots than what meets the eye. For more than a century, biochemists have known that parrots use an unusual set of pigments to produce their rainbow of plumage colors, but their biochemical identity has remained elusive. Now, an Arizona State University researc...

Placenta Is A Rich Source Of Blood Stem Cells

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute report a surprising finding about embryonic development: the blood system begins to form not only in the embryo itself, but also in the placenta, the organ that nurtures the baby in utero. Meticulous experiments in mice revealed that the placenta harbors a large supply of hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells...

Open microfluidic and nanofluidic systems

The labs of the future will be "labs-on-a-chip", i.e., integrated chemical and biochemical laboratories shrunk down to the size of a computer chip. An essential prerequisite for such labs are appropriate microcompartments for the confinement of very small amounts of liquids and chemical reagents. Directly accessible surface channels, which can be fabricated by available photolithographic methods,...

Studies reveal methods viruses use to sidestep immune system

A series of studies by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center sheds light on the mechanisms used by viruses to thwart a host's immune defenses and may aid in the development of more effective drugs to fight hepatitis C and West Nile viruses, as well as the flu and the common cold. In a study to appear in a March issue of the Journal of Virology and currently available online, UT So...

Alcohol's effects on gene expression in the central nervous system

Alcohol's primary target is the central nervous system (CNS), where it influences neurotransmission to produce intoxication. Scientists can now use microarray technology to study brain function gene by gene. Symposium proceedings published in the February issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research address the effects of alcohol on what is called "gene expression" in the CNS regions...

Jumping gene helps explain immune system's abilities

A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists hasfound the first clear evidence that the process behind the human immunesystem's remarkable ability to recognize and respond to a milliondifferent proteins might have originated from a family of genes whoseonly apparent function is to jump around in genetic material. essentially cut...

UCSD Discovery Shows How Embryonic Stem Cells Perform 'Quality Control' Inspections

A team led by Johns Hopkins scientists hasfound the first clear evidence that the process behind the human immunesystem's remarkable ability to recognize and respond to a milliondifferent proteins might have originated from a family of genes whoseonly apparent function is to jump around in genetic material. essentially cut...

Circles Of DNA Might Help Predict Success Of Stem Cell Transplantation

Measuring the quantity of a certain type of immune cell DNA in the blood could help physicians predict whether a bone marrow stem cell transplant will successfully restore a population of infection-fighting cells called T lymphocytes in a child. This research, by investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, is published in the journal Blood. This finding could help physicians p...

Novel ultrafast laser detection of cancer cells also may improve understanding of stem cells

To investigate tumors, pathologists currently rely on labor-intensive microscopic examination, using century-old cell-staining methods that can take days to complete and may give false readings. A lightning-fast laser technique, led by Sandia National Laboratories researcher Paul Gourley, has provided laboratory demonstrations of accurate, real-time, high-throughput identification of live...

PANTHER Protein Classification System Database 5.0

PANTHER, a protein classification system fromApplied Biosystems, got updated to version 5.0. Proteins are classifiedby family, molecular and biological function (GO ontology) and knownpathways. Its main use is probably microarray analysis - it incorporateautomated GO surrepresentation analysis with graphical output. Best ofall, its available f...

Tiny scaffolding allows stem cells to become working fat cells

Researchers here have used a new microscopic, three-dimensional scaffolding to coax mouse stem cells to transform themselves into fat cells, and then to function identical to how fat cells naturally do in the body. While other studies have previously grown fat cells, or adipocytes, in the laboratory, those cells never completely functioned in the same way they do in normal tissue. They fai...

White blood cell waste disposal system plays critical regulatory role

A new research study identifies a critical inhibitory step that is a key component of the feedback circuit regulating the balance between neutrophil production and destruction. The research, published in the March issue of Immunity, suggests that the process for disposal of dying neutrophils is actively linked to neutrophil production. A clear understanding of the processes that control neutrophi...

NJIT Presidential Award winner takes stem cell research another step

Treena Arinzeh, a young professor who last year won a Presidential Award, the nation's highest scientific honor, is bringing the promise of stem cell research one step closer to reality. Arinzeh, PhD, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at NJIT, is researching the use of stem cells to induce bone repair. Her research will help diabetics whose impaired bones will not properly heal...

UCSD team discovers specialized, rare heart stem cells in newborns

The first evidence of cardiac progenitor cells ?rare, specialized stem cells located in the newborn heart of rats, mice and humans ?has been shown by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine. The cells are capable of differentiation into fully mature heart tissue. Called isl1+ cells, these cardiac progenitor cells are stem cells that have been progr...

Applied Biosystems Introduces Advanced Gene Expression Service Provider Program

Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced the introduction of the Applied Biosystems Advanced Gene Expression Service Provider Program, a new program for service providers who are interested in accessing Applied Biosystems comprehensive solution for gene expression analysis, including the highly sensitive Expression Array System for whole genome analysis and...

NYU study reveals how brain's immune system fights viral encephalitis

New York University biologists have uncovered how the innate immune system in mice's brains fights viral infection of neurons. The findings, published as the cover study in the latest issue of Virology, show that proteins in neurons fight the virus at multiple stages--by preventing the formation of viral RNA and proteins, and blocking the virus' release, which could infect other cells in the brai...

UCLA launches $20 million stem cell institute to investigate HIV, cancer and neurological disorders

Experts in bioengineering, imaging, molecular genetics, immunology, ethics, hematology/oncology and cellular biology to collaborate on Proposition 71 research Drawing together experts from fields as diverse as engineering to molecular biology, UCLA officials announced March 16 the formation of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine to conduct embryonic and adult stem cell resear...

New online portal merges vast data on Gulf of Maine ecosystem

A new online portal consolidates decades of rich marine data, much of it available for the first time, enabling resource managers and scientific researchers to combine and analyze information in unprecedented ways, creating new insights into the Gulf of Maine's ecology. Launched today by the Gulf of Maine Area program of the Census of Marine Life, the Dynamic Atlas of the Gulf of Maine, on...

Researchers devise way to mass-produce embryonic stem cells

That's important because traditional laboratory methods used to grow these cells are costly and don't produce cells fast enough to respond to increasing demands for human embryonic stem cells, said Shang-Tian Yang, a professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at Ohio State University. Federal rules forbid the federal funding of research on human embryonic stem cell lines that aren'...

Chemists identify immune system mechanism for methamphetamine binges

Chemists at The Scripps Research Institute have found evidence in laboratory studies that the immune system may be able to recognize methamphetamine and boost tolerance to the drug through an unusual vaccine-like mechanism. Their finding, if confirmed in human studies, could help explain why chronic users go on long binges with the illicit drug, also known as speed. The study could lead to new tr...

Robot-based system developed at Carnegie Mellon detects life in Chile's Atacama desert

A unique rover-based life detection system developed by Carnegie Mellon University scientists has found signs of life in Chile's Atacama Desert, according to results being presented at the 36th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference March 14-18 in Houston. This marks the first time a rover-based automated technology has been used to identify life in this harsh region, which serves as a test bed f...

Stem Cell Research Shows Potential for Replacing Tissue Damaged in Heart Attacks

A Medical College of Wisconsin research team, led by John W. Lough, Ph.D., professor of cell biology, neurobiology and anatomy has found that embryonic stem cells (ES cells) in animals can be cultivated to form new tissue, which eventually may help doctors learn how to replace tissue damaged as a result of a heart attack. The potential for ES cells to replace damaged or diseased cells in...

Institute for Systems Biology Symposium Addresses Need for Better Computational Tools

The Institute for Systems Biology announced today at its 2005 international symposium on Computational Challenges in Systems Biology that ISB's Human Proteome Folding Project launched on IBM's World Community Grid in November 2004 has already predicted 50,000 protein structures. "This project showcases the enormous power of collaborations," stated Dr. Richard Bonneau, senior scientist at t...

Stem cells from brain transformed to produce insulin at Stanford

With careful coaxing, stem cells from the brain can form insulin-producing cells that mimic those missing in people with diabetes, according to a paper published in the April 26 issue of PLoS Medicine. Although the work is not yet ready for human patients, Seung Kim, MD, PhD, the lead author and assistant professor of developmental biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine, sai...

Single stem cells from bone heal a broken heart

Myocardial infarction results in irreversible damage to the heart that can cause congestive heart failure. The lasting damage results from the limited ability of the myocardium to regenerate and self-repair. Douglas Losordo and colleagues from Tufts University now document the existence of a previously unrecognized subset of human bone marrow–derived stem cells with therapeutic potency for myocar...

Scientists Propose Sweeping Changes to Naming of Bird Neurosystems to Acknowledge Their True Brainpower

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Mylan Technologies, Inc., for the first generic version of Alza Corporation's Duragesic Patch (Fentanyl Transdermal System) used to treat patients suffering from severe chronic pain that cannot be managed with alternative analgesics. When applied to the skin, this patch technology delivers fentanyl, an opioid pain medication that is s...

New insight into regulation of blood stem cells

Scientists have made a significant advance toward understanding the regulation of blood stem cells and the complex, lifelong process of blood cell formation. A research study published in the February issue of Developmental Cell expands on previous studies by using adult animals to examine the role of a key gene known to be required for blood cell formation. Information gained from this research...

UCSD-Salk Team Show Protein’s Gene-Silencing Role In Development of Nervous System

The first evidence that a group of proteins called phosphatases play a key role in the development of the nervous system, has been shown in fruit flies and mice by researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine, in collaboration with scientists at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, California. The phosphatases are required for maintenance of neural stem cells and for...