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
Salk Institute
Stem Cell Round: Improving memory, building up “good” fat, nanomedicine
Stem Cell Photo of the Week In honor of brain awareness week, our featured stem cell photo is of the brain! Scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Stem Cell Institute identified a genetic switch that could potentially improve memory during aging and symptoms of PTSD. Shown in this picture are dentate gyrus cells … Continue reading Stem Cell Round: Improving memory, building up “good” fat, nanomedicine
Making beating heart cells from stem cells just got easier
Here’s a heartwarming story for the holidays. Scientists from the Salk Institute in La Jolla, California have figured out a simple, easy way to make beating heart cells from human stem cells that will aid research and therapy development for heart disease. Their study, which received funding support from CIRM, was published last week in … Continue reading Making beating heart cells from stem cells just got easier
Stem Cell Tools: Helping Scientists Understand Complex Diseases
Yesterday, we discussed a useful stem cell tool called the CIRM iPSC Repository, which will contain over 3000 human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines - from patients and healthy individuals - that contain a wealth of information about human diseases. Now that scientists have access to these lines, they need the proper tools to … Continue reading Stem Cell Tools: Helping Scientists Understand Complex Diseases
Stem Cell Stories That Caught our Eye: Insights into a healthy brain, targeting mutant cancers and commercializing cell therapies
Here's your weekly roundup of interesting stem cell stories! Partnership for a healthy brain. To differentiate or not to differentiate. That is the question the stem cells in our tissues and organs face. In the case of the brain, neural precursor cells can either remain in a stem cell state or they can differentiate into mature brain … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories That Caught our Eye: Insights into a healthy brain, targeting mutant cancers and commercializing cell therapies
Scientists fix heart disease mutation in human embryos using CRISPR
Last week the scientific community was buzzing with the news that US scientists had genetically modified human embryos using CRISPR gene editing technology. While the story broke before the research was published, many journalists and news outlets weighed in on the study’s findings and the ethical implications they raise. We covered this initial burst of … Continue reading Scientists fix heart disease mutation in human embryos using CRISPR
New stem cell technique gives brain support cells a starring role
Astrocytes are some of the most common cells in the brain and central nervous system but they often get overlooked because they play a supporting role to the more glamorous neurons (even though they outnumber them around 50 to 1). But a new way of growing those astrocytes outside the brain could help pave the … Continue reading New stem cell technique gives brain support cells a starring role
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: brains, brains and more brains!
This week we bring you three separate stories about the brain. Two are exciting new advances that use stem cells to understand the brain and the third is plain creepy. Bioengineering better brains. Lab grown mini-brains got an upgrade thanks to a study published this week in Nature Biotechnology. Mini-brains are tiny 3D organs that … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: brains, brains and more brains!
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: developing the nervous system, aging stem cells and identical twins not so identical
Here are the stem cell stories that caught our eye this week. Enjoy! New theory for how the nervous system develops. There’s a new theory on the block for how the nervous system is formed thanks to a study published yesterday by UCLA stem cell scientists in the journal Neuron. The theory centers around axons, thin … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: developing the nervous system, aging stem cells and identical twins not so identical
Stem Cell Stories That Caught Our Eye: Plasticity in the pancreas and two cool stem cell tools added to the research toolbox
There’s more plasticity in the pancreas than we thought. You’re taught a lot of things about the world when you’re young. As you get older, you realize that not everything you’re told holds true and it’s your own responsibility to determine fact from fiction. This evolution in understanding happens in science too. Scientists do research … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories That Caught Our Eye: Plasticity in the pancreas and two cool stem cell tools added to the research toolbox
The Stem Cellar 