Accelerating Cell Production

New Stem Cell Method Produces Millions of Human Brain and Muscle Cells in Days

NEUROSCIENCE NEWSMARCH 24, 2017

Summary: Researchers have developed a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells from stem cells.

Source: University of Cambridge.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have created a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells – allowing millions of functional cells to be generated in just a few days. The results published today in Stem Cell Reports open the door to producing a diversity of new cell types that could not be made before in order to study disease.

Human pluripotent stem cells are ‘master cells’ that have the ability to develop into almost any type of tissue, including brain cells. They hold huge potential for studying human development and the impact of diseases, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, and heart disease./.../

OPTi-OX has applications in various projects, including the possibility to generate new cell types which may be uncovered by the Human Cell Atlas. The ability to produce human cells so quickly means the new method will facilitate more research. NeuroscienceNews.com image is adapted from the Sanger Institute video.

A stem-cell repair system

A stem-cell repair system that can regenerate any kind of human tissue

...including disease and aging; human trials next year

April 6, 2016

A stem cell therapy system capable of regenerating any human tissue damaged by injury, disease, or aging could be available within a few years, say University of New South Wales (UNSW Australia) researchers.

Their new repair system*, similar to the method used by salamanders to regenerate limbs, could be used to repair everything from spinal discs to bone fractures, and could transform current treatment approaches to regenerative medicine.

The… read more

Topics: Biotech

Stem cells

‘Fountain of youth’ technique rejuvenates aging stem cells

Study moves scientists one step closer to creating youthful heart patches from old cells

November 29, 2012

An aged stem cell before growth factors were added (credit: Faculty of Medicine/University of Toronto)

A new method of growing cardiac tissue is teaching old stem cells new tricks.

The discovery, which transforms aged stem cells into cells that function like much younger ones, may one day enable scientists to grow cardiac patches for damaged or diseased hearts from a patient’s own stem cells — no matter what age the patient — while avoiding the threat of rejection.

Stem cell therapies involving donated bone marrow stem cells run the risk of patient rejection in a portion of the population, says Milica Radisic, Canada Research Chair in Functional Cardiovascular Tissue Engineering at theInstitute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering(IBBME) and Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto./.../

Stem-cell therapy

Stem-cell therapy takes off in Texas

A boom in unproven procedures is worrying scientists.

• David Cyranoski

29 February 2012 Updated: 

1. 01 March 2012

Celltex hosts the largest stem-cell bank in the United States.

TYLER RUDICK

Article tools

th Texas pouring millions of dollars into developing adult stem-cell treatments, doctors there are already injecting paying customers with unproven preparations, supplied by an ambitious new company.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not approved any such stem-cell treatment for routine clinical use, although it does sanction them for patients enrolled in registered clinical trials. Some advocates of the treatments argue, however, that preparations based on a patient's own cells should not be classed as drugs, and should not therefore fall under the FDA's jurisdiction.

Hot Line Actually Only Lukewarm

By Peggy Peck, Executive Editor, MedPage TodayPublished: August 29, 2010

STOCKHOLM -- Intracoronary bone marrow cell transplantation extended survival in patients with chronic heart failure due to ischemic cardiomyopathy -- that was the good news. The bad news was that the finding was not "new" at all -- it had already been published.

Late today the European Society of Cardiology said it would sanction the researcher who reported the stem cell study by barring him from presenting research at ESC congresses for two years.

The ESC guidelines for Hot Line trials specifically state that the information submitted should be new, unpublished data. Yet, the STAR trial was accepted for presentation as a Hot Line trial at the ESC annual meeting here./.../