Stem Cell News Blog

Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) have been awarded $2.9 million in grants from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to support research into stem cell discoveries that lay the foundation for future therapies. The Basic Biology Awards received formal approval Thursday from the Independent Citizens Oversight Committee (ICOC), the 29-member governing board of the institute.

Researchers at INSERM (France) have engineered a chimeric protein that increases cell survival, migration and proliferation to improve stem cell engraftment. The results, which appear in the September 2009 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine, show that TAT-Tpr-Met, a cell permeable form of the hepatocyte growth factor receptor can increase the number of hepatic stem cells integrated into the liver of the mouse.

A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health has successfully grown multiple types of retina cells from two types of stem cells suggesting a future in which damaged retinas could be repaired by cells grown from the patient’s own skin.

Victorian stem cell scientists from Monash University have modified a human embryonic stem cell (hESC) line to glow red when the stem cells become red blood cells. The modified hESC line, ErythRED, represents a major step forward to the eventual aim of generating mature, fully functional red blood cells from human embryonic stem cells.

There is no known cure for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. But new hope, in the form of stem cells created from the patient’s own bone marrow, can be found – and literally seen – in laboratories at Tel Aviv University. Dr. Yoram Cohen of TAU’s School of Chemistry has recently proven the viability of these innovative stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, using in-vivo MRI. Dr.

Bio-Matrix Scientific Group, Inc. (OTCBB: BMSN) announced its majority owned subsidiary, Entest BioMedical unit (OTCBB: ENTB), has filed a patent application for the use of adipose derived stem cells in the treatment of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). BMSN is excited with the progress achieved by Entest BioMedical, Inc. (OTCBB: ENTB) in identifying diseases it believes will be treatable through Stem Cell Therapy.

Physicians at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Interdisciplinary Stem Cell Institute have successfully completed the first safety phase of a novel trial using stem cell injections into the heart muscle for patients who have had a prior heart attack. With this milestone, the study’s independent Data Safety Monitoring Board has given approval for the UM team to begin the next phase of their study.

Expert Roger Blumenthal’s advice on whether stem cells are a credible treatment for the condition.

A bounty of trials are exploring the healing potential of injecting stem cells into ailing hearts.

A new method using nanomagnets which enables cells to be targeted to sites of injury in the body is published today by University College London researchers in The Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Cardiovascular Interventions.