The first human embryonic stem cell treatment approved by the FDA for human testing has been shown to restore limb function in rats with neck spinal cord injuries — a finding that could expand the clinical trial to include people with cervical damage. In January, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration gave Geron Corp. of Menlo Park, Calif., permission to test the UC Irvine treatment in indi...

The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. Although genetically identical to the mature body cells from which they are derived, induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are notably speci...

The loss of a gene through deletion of genetic material on chromosome 15 is associated with significant abnormalities in learning and behavior, said a consortium of researchers led by Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears online today in the journal Nature Genetics. "This research goes about 95 percent of the way to pinning these problems in a specific group of individuals to th...

Human embryonic stem cells derived from excess IVF embryos may help scientists unlock the mysteries of infertility for other couples struggling to conceive, according to new research from the Stanford University School of Medicine. Researchers at the school have devised a way to efficiently coax the cells to become human germ cells — the precursors of egg and sperm cells — in the labor...

Several cell-based therapy approaches could provide new treatments for patients with Alport syndrome, reports an upcoming paper in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (JASN). "Our study opens up many considerations of how new therapies related to the use of stem cells can be devised for our kidney patients with chronic disease," comments Raghu Kalluri, MD, PhD (Harvard Medi...

Damaged knee joints might one day be repaired with cartilage grown from stem cells in a laboratory, based on research by Professor Kyriacos Athanasiou, chair of the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering and his colleagues. Using adult stem cells from bone marrow and skin as well as human embryonic stem cells, Athanasiou and his group have already grown cartilage tissue in the lab. Now they...

Adult stem cells tested for defects before being implanted in the injured spinal cords of mice helped the animals recover with no cancerous side effects, according to new research. In recent years, scientists found that some experimental stem cell therapies can cause cancerous tumors. Pre-screened cells could result in potentially life- saving treatments without such side effects. These new findin...

Microscopic magnetic particles have been used to bring stem cells to sites of cardiovascular injury in a new method designed to increase the capacity of cells to repair damaged tissue, UCL scientists have announced. The cross disciplinary research, published in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions, demonstrates a technique where endothelial progenitor cel...

Researchers have developed a new method for identifying retinal precursor cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (those from embryonic tissue) and induced pluripotent stem cells (those from adult skin cells). These precursor cells represent the earliest stages of retinal development. The new method results in a greater yield of retinal cells from stem cells and could be used to better under...

Applying a small mechanical force to embryonic stem cells could be a new way of coaxing them into a specific direction of differentiation, researchers at the University of Illinois report. Applications for force-directed cell differentiation include therapeutic cloning and regenerative medicine. "Our results suggest that small forces may indeed play critical roles in inducing strong biologica...