http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Understanding exactly how stem cells form into specific organs and tissues is the holy grail of regenerative medicine. Now a UC Santa Barbara researcher has added to that body of knowledge by determining how stem cells produce different types of "daughter" cells in Drosophila (fruit flies). The findings appear today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. http://phys.org/news285868741.html Biology Mon, 22 Apr 2013 16:59:10 EST news285868741 For the first time, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have isolated adult stem cells from human intestinal tissue. http://phys.org/news284298727.html Biology Thu, 04 Apr 2013 12:52:15 EST news284298727 (AP)—California has transformed into a major player in stem cell research, but the taxpayer-funded institute responsible has "significant deficiencies" in how research dollars are distributed, experts said Thursday. http://phys.org/news274099166.html Biology Fri, 07 Dec 2012 11:20:04 EST news274099166 Researchers have successfully developed a stable population of neural crest cells derived from mice that can be grown in large quantities in the laboratory and that demonstrates the potential to develop into many different cell types needed throughout the body. This powerful new research tool for understanding stem cell biology and human development and disease is described in an article published in Stem Cells and Development. http://phys.org/news267284983.html Biology Wed, 19 Sep 2012 14:49:53 EST news267284983 In a finding that could be important to the use of all kinds of stem cells in treating disease, scientists have discovered the crucial role of a protein called Mof in preserving the 'stem-ness' of stem cells, and priming them to become specialized cells in mice. It plays a key role in the "epigenetics" of stem cells -- that is, helping stem cells read and use their DNA. http://phys.org/news264766401.html Biology Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:13:32 EST news264766401 The University of Michigan's first human embryonic stem cell line will be placed on the U.S. National Institutes of Health's registry, making the cells available for federally-funded research. It is the first of the stem cell lines derived at the University of Michigan to be placed on the registry. http://phys.org/news248447763.html Biology Tue, 14 Feb 2012 13:16:20 EST news248447763 A protein that controls how the deadly plant poison and bioweapon ricin kills has finally been identified by a team of Austrian researchers in a new study. With a combination of stem cell biology and modern screening methods, the team were able to get to the bottom of how the poison works. http://phys.org/news243597061.html Biology Tue, 20 Dec 2011 09:51:17 EST news243597061 Researchers at Boston University have made discoveries that provide the foundation towards novel approaches to control insects that transmit deadly diseases such as dengue fever and malaria through their study of the Wolbachia bacteria. Their findings have been published in the current issue of Science Express. http://phys.org/news238336183.html Biology Thu, 20 Oct 2011 14:00:04 EST news238336183 Researchers from the Haematopoietic Differentiation and Stem Cell Biology group at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), have described one of the mechanisms by which a cell (from the skin, for example) can be converted into another which is completely different (e.g., a neuron or hepatic cell). They have discovered that the cell transcription factor C/EBPα is a determinant factor in cell transdifferentiation. This differentiation mechanism can be applied to any of the cells of an organism. The scope of the study, published in the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could profoundly influence the development of cell therapies. In all tissues, stem cells specialise to produce very different cell types. http://phys.org/news236887062.html Biology Mon, 03 Oct 2011 18:57:57 EST news236887062 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) are the first to establish a direct link between a conserved stem cell factor and the cell cycle regulation in adult stem cells. As published online in the EMBO Journal, they demonstrated that the self-renewal of C. elegans germline stem cells requires repression of a cell cycle inhibitor, CKI-2, by a conserved RNA-binding protein, FBF. http://phys.org/news234172097.html Biology Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:48:36 EST news234172097 Like fine chefs, scientists are seemingly approaching a day when they will be able to make nearly any type of tissue from human embryonic stem cells. You need nerves or pancreas, bone or skin? With the right combination of growth factors, skill and patience, a laboratory tissue culture dish promises to yield therapeutic wonders. But within these batches of newly generated cells lurks a big potential problem: Any remaining embryonic stem cells - those that haven't differentiated into the desired tissue - can go on to become dangerous tumors called teratomas when transplanted into patients. http://phys.org/news232544864.html Biology Sun, 14 Aug 2011 13:00:06 EST news232544864 Adult stem cells and progenitor cells may not come with a clean genetic slate after all. That's because a new report in the FASEB Journal shows that adult stem or progenitor cells have their own unique "epigenetic signatures," which change once a cell differentiates. This is important because epigenetic changes do not affect the actual make up in a cell's DNA, but rather, how that DNA functions. Epigenetic changes have been shown to play a role in a wide range of diseases, including obesity, and have been shown to be heritable from mother to child. http://phys.org/news228654513.html Biology Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:08:48 EST news228654513 Remarkable progress in understanding how stem cell biology works has been reported by a team of leading scientists, directed by experts at UC Santa Barbara. Their research has been published in the journal Cell Stem Cell. http://phys.org/news211126966.html Biology Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:23:18 EST news211126966 Tissue regeneration a la salamanders and newts seems like it should be the stuff of science fiction. But it happens routinely. Why can't we mammals just re-grow a limb or churn out a few new heart muscle cells as needed? New research suggests there might be a very good reason: Restricting our cells' ability to pop in and out of the cell cycle at will -- a prerequisite for the cell division necessary to make new tissue -- reduces the chances that they'll run amok and form potentially deadly cancers. http://phys.org/news200224844.html Medicine & Health Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:00:41 EST news200224844 (AP) -- A few months ago, Dr. Thomas Einhorn was treating a patient with a broken ankle that wouldn't heal, even with multiple surgeries. So he sought help from the man's own body. http://phys.org/news199940872.html Medicine & Health Mon, 02 Aug 2010 04:08:39 EST news199940872 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have developed a technique they believe will help scientists overcome a major hurdle to the use of adult stem cells for treating muscular dystrophy and other muscle-wasting disorders that accompany aging or disease: They've found that growing muscle stem cells on a specially developed synthetic matrix that mimics the elasticity of real muscle allows them to maintain their self-renewing properties. http://phys.org/news198403107.html Biology Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:00:11 EST news198403107 Leading stem cell researchers from institutions around the world are issuing warnings about unproven stem cell therapies being marketed on the Internet and have launched a website to educate and protect patients seeking such treatments. Often conducted outside of the United States, most of these therapies have little or no benefit — and can be dangerous as well as costly. http://phys.org/news197206683.html Biology Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:38:16 EST news197206683 Clinics that offer to "bank" stem cells from the umbilical cords of newborns for use later in life when illness strikes are fraudsters, a top US scientist said here Saturday. http://phys.org/news185941041.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Feb 2010 02:50:01 EST news185941041 (PhysOrg.com) -- Even Superman needed to retire to a phone booth for a quick change. But now scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have succeeded in the ultimate switch: transforming mouse skin cells in a laboratory dish directly into functional nerve cells with the application of just three genes. The cells make the change without first becoming a pluripotent type of stem cell -- a step long thought to be required for cells to acquire new identities. http://phys.org/news183817862.html Biology Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:00:14 EST news183817862 MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that impact almost every aspect of biology. In recent years, they have been strongly implicated in stem cell biology, tissue and organism development, as well as human conditions ranging from mental disorders to cancer. http://phys.org/news182326809.html Biology Sun, 10 Jan 2010 13:00:16 EST news182326809 The most widely used human embryonic stem cell lines lack genetic diversity, a finding that raises social justice questions that must be addressed to ensure that all sectors of society benefit from stem cell advances, according to a University of Michigan research team. http://phys.org/news180206563.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:23:43 EST news180206563 (PhysOrg.com) -- University of Florida researchers have grown tumors in mice using cells from inflamed but noncancerous colon tissue taken from human patients, a finding that sheds new light on colon cancer and how it might be prevented. http://phys.org/news174579080.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 15:13:09 EST news174579080 Reporting online in the American Journal of Pathology, researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson have implicated the loss of a stromal protein called caveolin-1 as a major new prognostic factor in patients with breast cancer, predicting early disease recurrence, metastasis and breast cancer patient survival. http://phys.org/news160833169.html Medicine & Health Wed, 06 May 2009 12:54:10 EST news160833169 Even cells aren't immune to peer pressure. Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine have now shown that skin cells can be coaxed to behave like muscle cells -- and muscle cells like skin cells -- solely by altering who they hang out with: the relative levels of the ingredients inside the cell. http://phys.org/news160754538.html Biology Tue, 05 May 2009 15:02:52 EST news160754538