Changes in metabolites can regulate earliest stages of development
November 16, 2015 | Categories: Research |Changes in cellular metabolites have been shown to regulate embryonic stem cell development at the earliest stages of life. Metabolites are simple compounds generated during life-sustaining chemical activities in cells. The recent findings, discovered by members of the Ruohola-Baker Lab, should improve scientists’ ability to use embryonic stem cells to grow new tissues and organs to replace […] Read More
Mini-kidney organoids re-create disease in lab dishes
October 23, 2015 | Categories: Research |Stem-cell biology and gene editing advances offer hope for kidney regeneration, drug discovery Mini-kidney organoids that re-create human kidney disease have now been grown in laboratory petri dishes. The achievement, believed to be the first of its kind, resulted from combining stem cell biology with leading-edge gene-editing techniques. The journal Nature Communications reports the findings […] Read More
Struggling to save black rhinos, scientists are crowdfunding to preserve their DNA
July 13, 2015 | Categories: Research |Ntombi is a six-year-old black rhino from South Africa, one of around 5,000 black rhinos left in the wild. She’s also the starting point for what a team of scientists hope to be a “bio-bank” of genetic information that could be used to save the species. ISCRM’s Interim Director, Chuck Murry, is a member of the team. Ntombi would […] Read More
Molecular switch matures heart cells derived from stem cells
May 12, 2015 | Categories: Research |Discovery may prove a major advance in the development of stem cell treatments for heart disease A molecular switch that seems to be essential for embryonic heart cells to grow into more mature, adult-like heart cells has been discovered. The discovery should help scientist better understand how human hearts mature. Of particular interest to stem […] Read More
Dying cells can protect their stem cells from destruction
May 11, 2015 | Categories: Research |An SOS signal from dying daughter cells allows their mother stem cells to protect themselves from radiation and chemotherapy damage Cells dying as the result of radiation exposure or chemotherapy can send a warning to nearby stem cells. The chemical signal allows the stem cells to escape the same fate, University of Washington researchers report […] Read More
Injection of marrow stem cells into the heart is proven ineffective
April 21, 2015 | Categories: Research |Marrow stem cells were injected into failing hearts of 6 patients awaiting transplantation A small study by University of Washington researchers has found no sign that bone-marrow stem-cell injections stimulated repair in the damaged hearts of patients awaiting transplantation. The results were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Cardiology. Dr. April Stempien-Otero, UW associate professor of […] Read More
The Trials of Stem Cell Therapy
September 15, 2014 | Categories: Research |Stem cells broke into the public consciousness in the early 1990s, alluring for their potential to help the body beat back diseases of degeneration Alzheimer’s, and to grow new parts to treat conditions like spinal cord injuries. Progress has been slow. The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, an early supporter of stem cell research, […] Read More
U.S. health research funding critical, NIH head tells UW meet
August 12, 2014 | Categories: Research |In a whirlwind tour through UW Medicine’s research laboratories in South Lake Union, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), swung easily through a show-and-tell that ranged from a dish full of lab-created beating human heart cells to a gene-deletion step in deciphering how immune systems respond to scary viruses such as […] Read More
The Heart of Stem Cell Research
August 4, 2014 | Categories: Research |ISCRM’s Drs. Chuck Murry, Michael Laflamme and April Stempien-Otero discuss stem cells and heart regeneration in the latest podcast at UW Medicine Pulse. Listen to the episode here. Read More
Scientists regenerate heart muscle in primates
April 30, 2014 | Categories: Research |Findings bring stem cell therapy for damaged hearts closer to clinical trials In a major advance, researchers at the University of Washington have successfully restored damaged heart muscle of monkeys using heart cells created from human embryonic stem cells. The results of the experiment appear in the April 30 advanced online edition of the journal Nature. The findings […] Read More