Stem Cells CellNEWS

Age-related macular degeneration (AMRD) could be treated by transplanting photoreceptors produced by the directed differentiation of stem cells. ARMD is a common eye problem caused by the loss of cones. Professor Gilbert Bernier’s team at the University of Montreal, has developed a highly effective in vitro technique for producing light sensitive retina cells from human embryonic stem cells.

An international team of scientists led from Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet has for the first time mapped all the genes that are activated in the first few days of a fertilised human egg.

Scientists at The Ohio State University have developed a nearly complete human brain in a dish that equals the brain maturity of a 5-week-old foetus. The brain organoid, engineered from adult human skin cells, is the most complete human brain model yet developed.

Two labs in China have independently succeeded in transforming skin cells into neurons using only a cocktail of chemicals, with one group using human cells from healthy individuals and Alzheimer's patients, and the other group using cells from mice. 

For some years, it has been possible to re-programme differentiated cells into pluripotent ones, but not into totipotent cells. Now, the team of Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla has studied the characteristics of totipotent cells of the embryo and found factors capable of inducing a totipotent-like state.

New research from Uppsala University shows promising progress in the use of stem cells for treatment of spinal cord injury. 

One of developmental biology’s most perplexing questions concerns what signals transform masses of undifferentiated cells into tremendously complex organisms, a process called ontogeny. New research by University at Buffalo scientists provides evidence that it all begins with a single “master” growth factor receptor that regulates the entire genome.

Scientists at the Salk Institute have discovered a novel type of pluripotent stem cell – cells capable of developing into any type of tissue – whose identity is tied to their location in a developing embryo. This contrasts with stem cells traditionally used in scientific study, which are characterized by their time-related stage of development.

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen have identified one mechanism that explains how some stem cells choose to become a given cell type: the cells combine specific sets of proteins at precise positions along the DNA. 

In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos.

Understanding the molecular signals that guide early cells in the embryo to develop into different types of organs provides insight into how tissues regenerate and repair themselves. By knowing the principles that underlie the intricate steps in this transformation, researchers will be able to make new cells at will for transplantation and tissue repair in such situations as liver or heart disease.

Some modern animals look just like their long-extinct ancestors. Have these "living fossils" really not changed in millions of years?

Genetically engineered fibres of the protein spidroin, which is the construction material for spider webs, has proven to be a perfect substrate for cultivating heart tissue cells.

Cells of the intestine, liver and pancreas are notoriously difficult to produce from stem cells. Researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have now discovered why.

A team of Whitehead Institute scientists has discovered that during division, stem cells distinguish between old and young mitochondria and allocate them disproportionately between daughter cells. As a result, the daughter cell destined to remain a stem cell receives predominantly young mitochondria, while the cell meant to differentiate into another cell type carries with it a higher compliment of the aged organelles.

A pocket-sized device that can rapidly determine the sequence of an organism's DNA has shown its potential in disease detection, according to a study published in the open access, open data journal GigaScience.