Way back in 1987, about two decades before Shinya Yamanaka would go on to identify four proteins that can reprogram skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), Harold Weintraub’s lab identified the first “master control” protein, MyoD, which can directly convert a skin cell into a muscle cell. Though MyoD opened up new approaches … Continue reading A scalable, clinic-friendly recipe for converting skin cells to muscle cells
Massachusetts General Hospital
Taking Steps Toward Personalized Heart Transplants
Over five million Americans have heart failure (HF), a condition in which the heart muscles become too weak to pump an adequate amount of blood, oxygen and nutrients to the body’s other organs. People with heart failure suffer from shortness of breath, chronic weakness and a fifty percent chance of dying within the first five … Continue reading Taking Steps Toward Personalized Heart Transplants
Perfecting the use of stem cells as drug delivery mules shows promise in brain tumors
Stem cells loaded with cancer-killing herpes virus (red) attacking a brain tumor cell (green). Courtesy HSCIThe innate tendency of stem cells to seek out inflammation—combined with the fact that our bodies see tumors as inflammation—has led many teams to try to harness stem cells as delivery vehicles for cancer therapies. CIRM funds a team at … Continue reading Perfecting the use of stem cells as drug delivery mules shows promise in brain tumors
The Stem Cellar 