If you are born with Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID), your childhood is anything but normal. You don’t get to play with other kids, or be held by your parents. You can’t even breathe the same air. And, without treatment, you probably won’t live past your first year. This is the reality of SCID, also called … Continue reading Gene Therapy Beats Half-Matched Stem Cell Transplant in Side-by-Side Comparison to Treat ‘Bubble Baby’ Disease
Month: April 2015
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: Hair stem cells, amniotic fluid cells for repair and fixing kids’ faulty genes
Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. With hair, lose a few to grow more. A team at the University of Southern California has shown that if you pull out a couple … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: Hair stem cells, amniotic fluid cells for repair and fixing kids’ faulty genes
Stem Cell Scientists Reconstruct Disease in a Dish; Gain Insight into Deadly Form of Bone Cancer
The life of someone with Li-Fraumeni Syndrome (LFS) is not a pleasant one. A rare genetic disorder that usually runs in families, this syndrome is characterized by heightened risk of developing cancer—multiple types of cancer—at a very young age. People with LFS, as the syndrome is often called, are especially susceptible to osteosarcoma, a form … Continue reading Stem Cell Scientists Reconstruct Disease in a Dish; Gain Insight into Deadly Form of Bone Cancer
Cancer Cells Mimic Blood Vessels to Colonize the Body’s Farthest Reaches
Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have just uncovered the latest dirty trick in the cancer playbook—one that spurs the cancer cells to spread throughout the body and evade treatment. But importantly, they believe they may have found a way to counter it. Reporting today in the journal Nature, Cold Spring Harbor researchers describe how … Continue reading Cancer Cells Mimic Blood Vessels to Colonize the Body’s Farthest Reaches
Building a Better Needle: CIRM-Funded Invention Gets Cells Into Brain More Safely, Efficiently
If NASA’s billion dollar Mars rovers deployed a bunch of dollar store party balloons to cushion the moment of impact, the mission would fail miserably. Likewise, the many years and millions of dollars spent on developing a stem cell-based therapy could be all for naught if the delivery of those precious cells into patients used … Continue reading Building a Better Needle: CIRM-Funded Invention Gets Cells Into Brain More Safely, Efficiently
Mutation Morphs Mitochondria in Models of Parkinson’s Disease, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
There is no singular cause of Parkinson’s disease, but many—making this disease so difficult to understand and, as a result, treat. But now, researchers at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have tracked down precisely how a genetic change, or mutation, can lead to a common form of the disease. The results, published last … Continue reading Mutation Morphs Mitochondria in Models of Parkinson’s Disease, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
Stem cell stories that caught our eye; converting bad fat to good, Parkinson’s and X-linked disease
Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week. Some are groundbreaking science, others are of personal interest to us, and still others are just fun. Which fat for you, white, brown or beige. Those who read up on those pesky fat cells that accumulate in our bodies probably have heard … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye; converting bad fat to good, Parkinson’s and X-linked disease
The Stem Cellar 