Tonsil stem cells could someday help repair liver damage without surgery

As seen in Science Daily September 24, 2014

The liver provides critical functions, such as ridding the body of toxins. Its failure can be deadly, and there are few options for fixing it. But scientists now report in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces a way to potentially inject stem cells from tonsils, a body part we don’t need, to repair damaged livers — all without surgery.

Byeongmoon Jeong and colleagues point out that …

Simple method turns human skin cells into immune strengthening white blood cells

As seen in Science Daily September 11, 2014

For the first time, scientists have turned human skin cells into transplantable white blood cells, soldiers of the immune system that fight infections and invaders. The work, done at the Salk Institute, could let researchers create therapies that introduce into the body new white blood cells capable of attacking diseased or cancerous cells or augmenting immune responses against other disorders.

The work, as detailed in the journal …

New molecule allows for up to 10-fold increase in stem cell transplants

As seen in Science Daily September 18, 2014

Investigators from the Institute for Research in Immunology and Cancer (IRIC) at the Université de Montréal have just published, in the journal Science, the announcement of the discovery of a new molecule, the first of its kind, which allows for the multiplication of stem cells in a unit of cord blood. Umbilical cord stem cells are used for transplants aimed at curing a number of blood-related diseases, …