NIH approves 70 new human embryonic stem cell lines for use in federally funded research

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New human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines created in an Israeli medical center have just been approved by the acting NIH director, Francis Collins for use in federally funded research in the Unites States. While federal funding for the creation of new embryonic cell lines is banned, private funding is still legal, and use of these 70 new stem cell lines in research is not prohibited.

NCER does not support research in, and …

After 14 years, California’s stem cell agency finally gets a royalty cheque

BioEdge by Michael Cook | 4 Mar 2018

Fourteen years after Californians voted an overwhelming Yes! to stem cell research, including human embryonic stem cells, and created the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the agency has received its first royalty cheque. The amount? US$190,345.87.

Not even the staff of the controversial CIRM were inclined to boast about the return on investment for Californian tax-payers. Proposition 71, which voters approved in 2004, authorised a $3 …

In The News – Three Parent Embryos:

The US Institute of Medicine is currently requesting regulatory approval for 3-person IVF, so this issue is of immediate concern for Americans as well as for the Brits. Embryos will be created and destroyed during research and implementation of this technique, all in an effort to genetically engineer the prevention of a disease in those embryos who are then “allowed” to be born. This procedure opposes every ethical principle in medicine: Respect for Persons, Beneficence, …

Delivery of stem cells into heart muscle after heart attack may enhance cardiac repair and reverse injury

As seen in Science Daily October 19, 2014

Summary:
Delivering stem cell factor directly into damaged heart muscle after a heart attack may help repair and regenerate injured tissue. A novel SCF gene transfer delivery system induced the recruitment and expansion of adult c-Kit positive (cKit+) cardiac stem cells to injury sites that reversed heart attack damage in a pre-clinical model. In addition, the gene therapy improved cardiac function, decreased heart muscle cell death, increased …

Major Advance Using Ethical Stem Cells

As seen in NRL News October 2014

Cellular Dynamics International (CDI), a Madison, Wisconsin-based company, has been awarded a $1.2 million contract from the National Eye Institute to engineer stem cells acquired ethically for potential treatment of macular degeneration, one of the leading causes of blindness. This contract represents CDI’s first venture into making cells for therapeutic use.

The Eye Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, will send blood and tissue …

Lab-developed intestinal organoids form mature human tissue in mice

As seen in Science Daily October 19, 2014

Summary:
Researchers have successfully transplanted ‘organoids’ of functioning human intestinal tissue grown from pluripotent stem cells in a lab dish into mice — creating an unprecedented model for studying diseases of the intestine. Scientists said that, through additional translational research, the findings could eventually lead to bioengineering personalized human intestinal tissue to treat gastrointestinal diseases.

Reporting their results Oct. 19 online in Nature Medicine, scientists from Cincinnati …

Growing a blood vessel in a week

As seen in Science Daily – October 24, 2014

Summary:
The technology for creating new tissues from stem cells has taken a giant leap forward. Three tablespoons of blood are all that is needed to grow a brand new blood vessel in just seven days. This is shown in a new study from Sahlgrenska Acadedmy and Sahlgrenska University Hospital published in EBioMedicine.

Just three years ago, a patient at Sahlgrenska University Hospital received a blood …

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, …