Here are the stem cell stories that caught our eye this week. Skin grafts fight diabetes and obesity. An interesting new gene therapy strategy for fighting type 1 diabetes and obesity surfaced this week. Scientists from the University of Chicago made genetically engineered skin grafts that secrete a peptide hormone called glucagon-liked peptide-1 (GLP-1). This … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: skin grafts fight diabetes, reprogramming the immune system, and Asterias expands spinal cord injury trial sites
Gene editing
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
Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: CRISPRing Human Embryos, brain stem cells slow aging & BrainStorm ALS trial joins CIRM Alpha Clinics
Here are the stem cell stories that caught our eye this week. Enjoy! Scientists claim first CRISPR editing of human embryos in the US. Here’s the big story this week. Scientists from Portland, Oregon claim they genetically modified human embryos using the CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing technology. While their results have yet to be published in … Continue reading Stem Cell Stories that Caught our Eye: CRISPRing Human Embryos, brain stem cells slow aging & BrainStorm ALS trial joins CIRM Alpha Clinics
Live streaming genes in living cells coming to a computer near you!
Christmas has come early to scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. They’ve developed a technology that allows you to watch how individual genes move and interact in living cells. You can think of it as Facebook’s live streaming meets the adventurous Ms. Frizzle and her Magic School Bus. Using a gene editing … Continue reading Live streaming genes in living cells coming to a computer near you!
Stem cell stories that caught our eye: glowing stem cells and new insights into Zika and SCID
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. Glowing stem cells help scientists understand how cells work. (Karen Ring) It’s easy to notice when something is going wrong. It’s a lot harder to … Continue reading Stem cell stories that caught our eye: glowing stem cells and new insights into Zika and SCID
Advancements in gene editing make blind rats see light
Gene editing is a rapidly advancing technology that scientists are using to manipulate the genomes of cells with precision and accuracy. Many of these experiments are being conducted on stem cells to genetic mutations in an attempt to find cures for various diseases like cancer, HIV and blindness. Speaking of blindness, researchers from the Salk Institute … Continue reading Advancements in gene editing make blind rats see light
Stem Cell Experts Discuss the Ethical Implications of Translating iPSCs to the Clinic
Part of The Stem Cellar blog series on 10 years of iPSCs. This year, scientists are celebrating the 10-year anniversary of Shinya Yamanaka’s Nobel Prize winning discovery of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). These are cells that are very similar biologically to embryonic stem cells and can develop into any cell in the body. iPSCs … Continue reading Stem Cell Experts Discuss the Ethical Implications of Translating iPSCs to the Clinic
Funding stem cell research targeting a rare and life-threatening disease in children
If you have never heard of cystinosis you should consider yourself fortunate. It’s a rare condition caused by an inherited genetic mutation. It hits early and it hits hard. Children with cystinosis are usually diagnosed before age 2 and are in end-stage kidney failure by the time they are 9. If that’s not bad enough … Continue reading Funding stem cell research targeting a rare and life-threatening disease in children
Here’s a new gene editing strategy to treat genetic blood disorders
If you’re taking a road trip across the country, you have a starting point and an ending point. How you go from point A to point B could be one of a million different routes, but the ultimate outcome is the same: reaching your final destination. Yesterday scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital published … Continue reading Here’s a new gene editing strategy to treat genetic blood disorders
The Spanish Inquisition and a tale of two stem cell agencies
Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition sketch: Photo courtesy Daily Mail UK It’s not often an article on stem cell research brings the old, but still much loved, British comedy series Monty Python into the discussion but a new study in the journal Cell Stem Cell does just that, comparing the impact of CIRM and the UK’s … Continue reading The Spanish Inquisition and a tale of two stem cell agencies
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