Patching up a Broken Heart with FSTL1

How do you mend a broken heart? It’s a subject that songwriters have pondered for generations, without success. But if you pose the same question to a heart doctor, they would give you a number of practical options that focus on the prevention or management of the physical symptoms you are dealing with. That’s because … Continue reading Patching up a Broken Heart with FSTL1

The Stem Cell Bank is open for business

When you go to a bank and withdraw money you know that the notes you get are all going to look the same and do the same job, namely allow you to buy things. But when you get stem cells for research that’s not necessarily the case. Stem cells bought from different laboratories don’t always … Continue reading The Stem Cell Bank is open for business

Stem cell stories that caught our eye: A groove for healing hearts, model for muscular dystrophy and the ice bucket worked

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. A tight groove could help heal a heart.  We have written several posts with the theme “It takes a village to raise a stem cell.” … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: A groove for healing hearts, model for muscular dystrophy and the ice bucket worked

Giving stem cells the right physical cues produced micro hearts, maybe a tool to avoid birth defects

Heart defects, one of the leading types of birth defects, often result from drugs mom is taking, but we have not had a good model of developing fetal hearts to test drugs for these side effects. Now, a team at the University of California, Berkeley and the Gladstone Institutes has created micro heart chambers in … Continue reading Giving stem cells the right physical cues produced micro hearts, maybe a tool to avoid birth defects

Hed: Stem cell stories that caught our eye: the why’s of heart failure, harnessing stem cells’ repair kits and growing organs

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. Stem cell model sheds light on heat failure. Pretty much everyone who has heart failure due to cardiomyopathy—where the heart muscle doesn’t work as effectively … Continue reading Hed: Stem cell stories that caught our eye: the why’s of heart failure, harnessing stem cells’ repair kits and growing organs

Stem cell stories that caught our eye: spina bifida, review of heart clinical trials, tracking cells and cell switches

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. Stem cells boost fetal surgery for spina bifida. Fetal surgery to correct the spinal defect that causes spina bifida has revolutionized treatment for the debilitating … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: spina bifida, review of heart clinical trials, tracking cells and cell switches

Pathway discovered that could yield therapies to prevent hearts turning to “bone”

In the Rolling Stones’ lyrics having a “Heart of Stone” protected you from heartbreak. But over a million Americans are developing hearts of bone and it could kill them. CIRM-funded researchers at the Gladstone Institutes think they have uncovered the path to this destructive hardening of the heart and that could lead to therapies to … Continue reading Pathway discovered that could yield therapies to prevent hearts turning to “bone”

Stem cell stories that caught our eye: new ways to reprogram, shifting attitudes on tissue donation, and hockey legend’s miracle questioned

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. Insulin-producing cells produced from skin. Starting with human skin cells a team at the University of Iowa has created iPS-type stem cells through genetic reprogramming … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: new ways to reprogram, shifting attitudes on tissue donation, and hockey legend’s miracle questioned

Stem cell stories that caught our eye: Heart self-repair, MS therapy and genetic screening

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. Uncovering mystery of heart self-repair. We have often written about work that tries to get the body’s self-healing mechanisms to do a better job. This … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: Heart self-repair, MS therapy and genetic screening

A Christmas miracle or untested therapy? Why even feel-good stem cell stories need to be checked for accuracy

We’ve written several pieces over the last couple of years about the trend for professional athletes to turn to untested and/or unproven stem cell therapies to help them bounce back from injuries. This week, however, came news of something a little more worrying. Ice hockey legend Gordie Howe was given stem cells to help him … Continue reading A Christmas miracle or untested therapy? Why even feel-good stem cell stories need to be checked for accuracy