Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States and is estimated to be responsible for 31% of all deaths globally. This disease encompasses a wide variety of conditions that all effect how well your heart is able to pump blood to the rest of your body. … Continue reading Sequencing data helps us understand the genes involved in heart cell development
iPS Cells
The Five Types of Stem Cells
When I give an “Intro to Stem Cells” presentation to, say, high school students or to a local Rotary Club, I begin by explaining that there are three main types of stem cells: (1) embryonic stem cells (ESCs) (2) adult stem cells and (3) induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Well, like most things in science, … Continue reading The Five Types of Stem Cells
Adding the missing piece: “mini-brain” method now includes important cell type
Although studying brain cells as a single layer in petri dishes has led to countless ground-breaking discoveries in neurobiology, it’s pretty intuitive that a two-dimensional “lawn” of cells doesn’t fully represent what’s happening in our complex, three-dimensional brain. In the past few years, researchers have really upped their game with the development of brain organoids, … Continue reading Adding the missing piece: “mini-brain” method now includes important cell type
Research Targeting Prostate Cancer Gets Almost $4 Million Support from CIRM
A program hoping to supercharge a patient’s own immune system cells to attack and kill a treatment resistant form of prostate cancer was today awarded $3.99 million by the governing Board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) In the U.S., prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in men. … Continue reading Research Targeting Prostate Cancer Gets Almost $4 Million Support from CIRM
Headline: Stem Cell Roundup: Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week.
In search of a miracle One of the toughest parts of my job is getting daily calls and emails from people desperate for a stem cell treatment or cure for themselves or a loved one and having to tell them that I don’t know of any. You can hear in their voice, read it in … Continue reading Headline: Stem Cell Roundup: Here are some stem cell stories that caught our eye this past week.
For the first time, scientists entirely reprogram human skin cells to iPSCs using CRISPR
Back in 2012, Shinya Yamanaka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his group’s identification of “Yamanaka Factors,” a group of genes that are capable of turning ordinary skin cells into induced pluripotentent stem cells (iPSCs) which have the ability to become any type of cell within the body. Discovery of iPSCs … Continue reading For the first time, scientists entirely reprogram human skin cells to iPSCs using CRISPR
Friday Stem Cell Roundup: Making Nerves from Blood; New Clues to Treating Parkinson’s
Stanford lab develops method to make nerve cells from blood. Back in 2010, Stanford Professor Marius Wernig and his team devised a method to directly convert skin cells into neurons, a nerve cell. This so-called transdifferentiation technique leapfrogs over the need to first reprogram the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. This breakthrough provided … Continue reading Friday Stem Cell Roundup: Making Nerves from Blood; New Clues to Treating Parkinson’s
Coming up with a stem cell FIX for a life-threatening blood disorder
A promising new treatment option for hemophiliacs is in the works at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences. Patients with Hemophilia B experience uncontrolled, and sometimes life threatening, bleeding due to loss or improper function of Factor IX (FIX), a protein involved in blood clotting. There is no cure for the disease and patients rely … Continue reading Coming up with a stem cell FIX for a life-threatening blood disorder
Stem Cell Roundup: The brain & obesity; iPSCs & sex chromosomes; modeling mental illness
Stem Cell Image of the Week: Obesity-in-a-dish reveals mutations and abnormal function in nerve cells Our stem cell image of the week looks like the work of a pre-historic cave dweller who got their hands on some DayGlo paint. But, in fact, it’s a fluorescence microscopy image of stem cell-derived brain cells from the lab … Continue reading Stem Cell Roundup: The brain & obesity; iPSCs & sex chromosomes; modeling mental illness
Building a better brain organoid
One of the reasons why it’s so hard to develop treatments for problems in the brain – things like Alzheimer’s, autism and schizophrenia - is that you can’t do an autopsy of a living brain to see what’s going wrong. People tend to object. To get around that, scientists have used stem cells to create … Continue reading Building a better brain organoid
The Stem Cellar 