Miniature Brains Grown From Skin Cells ‘Provide Autism Insights’

Medical News Today  17 July 2015  by Markus MacGill

Scientists have converted skin cells from patients with autism into stem cells and grown them into tiny brains in a dish, revealing unexpected mechanisms of the disease, according to a report in the journal Cell.

The researchers say this method allows them to overcome the difficulties of understanding diseases like autism …

Getting Into the Groove Helps Stem Cells Switch Into Heart Muscle Cells

Colin Smith  Imperial London College  18 August 2015

Scientists have shown that they can drive cardiac stem cells to become heart muscle cells using a silicon chip etched with grooves.

The team from Imperial College London have developed a silicon chip with tiny grooves, which are 0.01 millimetres wide and only 0.0003 millimetres deep. They showed that the grooves stimulated a biochemical response in the cardiac stem cells that helps switch them into cardiomyocytes, which …

Stem Cells, Fecal Transplants Show Promise for Crohn’s Disease

US News & World Report April 10, 2015

Two experimental therapies might help manage the inflammatory bowel disorder Crohn’s disease, if this early research pans out.

In one study, researchers found that a fecal transplant — stool samples taken from a healthy donor — seemed to send Crohn’s symptoms into remission in seven of nine children treated.

In another, a separate research team showed that stem cells can have lasting benefits for a serious Crohn’s …

NCER Position Statement on Use of Fetal Tissue in Research

August 6, 2015

The Center for Medical Progress videos showing Planned Parenthood harvesting and allegedly selling organs and body parts from aborted human beings prompts NCER to restate our principles about the unethical nature of fetal tissue research.  The following are some of the key principles contained in NCER’s longstanding Position Paper on Aborted Fetal Tissue.

• Human embryos and fetuses are human beings in their earliest stages of development.

• Every human being has a right

…

Supercharging Stem Cells to Create New Therapies

As seen in Science Daily:July 3, 2015
Source:University of Adelaide

Summary:
A new method for culturing stem cells has been developed, which sees the highly therapeutic cells grow faster and stronger. Stem cell therapy is showing promising signs for transplant patients, and the IL-17 treated stem cells should be even more effective at preventing and treating inflammation in transplant recipients — particularly controlling rejection in transplant patients.

Researchers at the University of Adelaide have discovered …

Gene-Sequence Swap Using CRISPR to Cure Hemophilia

As seen in Science Daily – July 23, 2015
Source: Institute for Basic Science

Summary:
For the first time, chromosomal defects responsible for hemophilia have been corrected in patient-specific iPSCs using CRISPR-Cas9 nucleases. Hemophilia A occurs in about 1 in 5,000 male births and almost half of severe cases are caused by identified “chromosomal inversions.” In a chromosomal inversion, the order of the base pairs on the chromosome are reversed so the gene doesn’t express …