One of the Holy Grails of stem cell research is growing body parts to replace those damaged by disease or injury. Enormous strides have been made in a key first step: mastering recipes for maturing stem cells into various specialized cell types. But a lawn of, say, liver cells in a petri dish is not … Continue reading 3D Printing Cells with DNA Velcro
Research News
Going back to figure out how the embryo makes muscles led team to way to mass produce muscle fibers
Sometimes in science what seems like the simpler task turns out to be the hardest. We have written extensively about research teams building mini-organs in lab dishes turning stem cells into multiple layers of tissues organized and functioning, at least in part, like the kidney, liver or stomach they mimic. Given these successes and the … Continue reading Going back to figure out how the embryo makes muscles led team to way to mass produce muscle fibers
Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
Two California teams discovered genetic machinery that cancer stem cells in high-grade brain cancers use to evade therapy. One CIRM-funded team at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles pinpointed a family of genes that turn off other genes that chemotherapy targets —effectively hiding them from the chemo. The other team at the University of California, San Diego … Continue reading Two studies show genes and their switches critical to brain cancer’s resistance to therapy
New tech tool speeds up stem cell research
It’s hard to do a good job if you don’t have the right tools. Now researchers have access to a great new tool that could really help them accelerate their work, a tool its developers say “will revolutionize the way cell biologists develop” stem cell models to test in the lab. The device is called … Continue reading New tech tool speeds up stem cell research
Old brains in mice given a trait of young brains with embryonic nerve transplant
As we age our brains become less adept at making new nerve connections or repairing broken ones. A CIRM-funded team at the University of California, Irvine, restored this youthful ability, called nerve plasticity, to adult mice by transplanting embryonic nerve cells. Specifically, they worked with mice that had a form of blurred vision known as … Continue reading Old brains in mice given a trait of young brains with embryonic nerve transplant
A hopeful sight: therapy for vision loss cleared for clinical trial
Rosalinda Barrero says people often thought she was rude, or a snob, because of the way she behaved, pretending not to see them or ignoring them on the street. The truth is Rosalinda has retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a nasty disease, one that often attacks early in life and slowly destroys a person’s vision. Rosalinda’s eyes … Continue reading A hopeful sight: therapy for vision loss cleared for clinical trial
Scientists Sink their Teeth into Stem Cell Evolution
Sometimes, answers to biology’s most important questions can be found in the most unexpected of places. As reported in the most recent issue of the journal Cell Reports, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of Helsinki describe how studying fossilized rodent teeth has helped them inch closer to grasping … Continue reading Scientists Sink their Teeth into Stem Cell Evolution
Brain’s Own Activity Can Fuel Growth of Deadly Brain Tumors, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
Not all brain tumors are created equal—some are far more deadly than others. Among the most deadly is a type of tumor called high-grade glioma or HGG. Most distressingly, HGG’s are the leading cause of brain tumor death in both children and adults. And despite extraordinary progress in cancer research as a whole, survival rates … Continue reading Brain’s Own Activity Can Fuel Growth of Deadly Brain Tumors, CIRM-Funded Study Finds
Molecular Trick Diminishes Appearance of Scars, Stanford Study Finds
Every scar tells a story, but that story may soon be coming to a close, as new research from Stanford University reveals clues to why scars form—and offers clues on how scarring could become a thing of the past. Reported last week in the journal Science, the research team pinpointed the type of skin cell … Continue reading Molecular Trick Diminishes Appearance of Scars, Stanford Study Finds
CIRM-Funded Scientists Build a Better Neuron; Gain New Insight into Motor Neuron Disease
Each individual muscle in our body—no matter how large or how small—is controlled by several types of motor neurons. Damage to one or more types of these neurons can give rise to some of the most devastating motor neuron diseases, many of which have no cure. But now, stem cell scientists at UCLA have manufactured … Continue reading CIRM-Funded Scientists Build a Better Neuron; Gain New Insight into Motor Neuron Disease
The Stem Cellar 