#direct reprogramming

Stem cell & regenerative medicine news: cool pubs, people, ARM, & more

How does one keep up with all the regenerative medicine and stem cell happenings?

There is always something happening in the stem cell and regenerative medicine field ranging from science to policy matters. This post is an update on some recent stem cell happenings that I see as notable or interesting.

New Pubs

Direct Reprogramming to neurons has big regenerative medicine potential, Tanabe,…

Transdifferentiating Skin Cells into Heart Muscle and Neural Stem Cells With Nothing But Chemicals

A research effort led by Dr. Sheng Ding from the Gladstone Institute and scientists from the Roddenberry Center for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine has successfully transformed skin cells into heart cells and brain cells using little more than a cocktail of chemicals. Previous work that sought to transdifferentiate mature, adult cells into another cell type used gene vectors (such as viruses) that…

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Weekend reads: sperm, stem cells, chimeras, STAP, DNA Apps

Here are some cool science reads to enjoy this weekend.

Lab-grown sperm made from stem cells can’t swim, but are able to fertilize eggs, reports Eric Boodman over at STAT.

Mouse-human neural crest chimeras: Not only a matter of black and white. Clever title.

Antonio Regalado writes about a DNA App Store coming soon to a smartphone near you.

Jacob Corn has a new piece at the Washington Post…

Adult Directly Reprogrammed With Proteins into Cardiac Progenitor Cells Heal Heart After a Heart Attack and Make New Heart Muscle

Jianjun Wang from Wayne State School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan and Xi-Yong Yu from Guangzhou Medical University and a host of graduate students and postdoctoral research fellows in their two laboratories have teamed up to make human cardiac progenitor cells (CPCs) from human skin fibroblasts through direct reprogramming. Direct reprogramming does not go through a pluripotent intermediate,…

Yosef Buganim and his colleagues from Hebrew University of Jerusalem have successfully reprogrammed skin fibroblasts in placenta-generating cells. The placenta is a marvelously complex, but it is also a vital organ for the unborn baby. It supplies oxygen and nutrients to the growing baby and removes waste products from the baby’s blood. The placenta firmly attaches to the wall of the uterus and…

Chemical-Only Cell Reprogramming Cocktails Direct Converts Skin Cells into Neurons

Two Chinese laboratories have independently transformed skin cells into neurons using only a cocktail of chemicals. One laboratory used skins cells from Alzheimer’s patients and the other used healthy laboratory mice, and therefore, the protocols developed by each laboratory differ. However, the success of these protocols suggests that it might be economically possible to use neurons made a…

Converting Immune Cell into Another Type of Immune Cell

What does it take to directly convert an antibody-producing B cell into a scavenging macrophage? The answer: one gene, according to a report in the July 30th issue of Stem Cell Reports. This directly reprogramming is transformation is possible because a transcription factor called C/EBPa can short-circuit the cells so that they re-express genes reserved for embryonic development. Over the past 65…