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Researcher Darryl D'Lima of Scripps Clinic with his "bioprinter" adapted from an HP inkjet printer that can produce cartilage. California’s stem cell agency, the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, awarded him $3.1 million to research the use of embryonic stem cells and artificial embryonic stem cells to generate replacement cartilage. Stem cell researcher Jeanne Loring has collaborated with D’Lima on growing cartilage from stem cells. She described him as “unique” in the ability to incorporate many disciples of science and medicine. “He’s the only orthopedic surgeon I know who has the bandwidth to start thinking way outside the box,” said...

NEW YORK -- Scientists are reporting a stem cell breakthrough using a simple lab technique that may create reprogrammed cells after dipping them in acid for under 30 minutes. The technique turned ordinary cells from mice into stem cells, according to the surprising new study that hints at a possible new way to grow tissue for treating illnesses like diabetes and Parkinson's disease.

SURGEONS may soon be able to "draw" new bone, skin and muscle on to patients after scientists created a pen-like device that can apply human cells directly to car-crash victims and others with serious injuries. Australian scientists have made a "BioPen", which allows doctors to apply stem cells and growth factors on to damaged and diseased bones. The machine works in a similar way to a 3D printer, building up the materials required to heal a bone. Experts have said it could improve bone reconstruction surgery. The device was created at the University of Wollongong and St Vincent's Hospital in...

Scientists in Australia have grown the world's first kidney from stem cells – a tiny organ which could eventually help to reduce the wait for transplants. The breakthrough, published in the journal Nature Cell Biology, followed years of research and involved the transformation of human skin cells into an organoid – a functioning "mini-kidney" with a width of only a few millimetres.

Adult Stem Cells Imitate Human Brain, Are Hope for Neurological Disorders Charlotte Lozier Institute on September 3, 2013 in Science & Medicine - No comments By Nora SullivanA study published last week has shown that adult stem cells derived from ethical sources can be used to create living tissues that imitate the developing human brain.  In their findings, published in the science journal Nature, researchers asserted that, by using human stem cells derived from skin cells, they were able to assemble brain-like pieces of living tissue.  These stem cells could prove to be an invaluable resource for the study and...

Adult Stem Cell Research Has Defeated Embryonic Stem Cells for Funding Priorities by Mallory Quigley | LifeNews.com | 10/31/13 11:53 AMA new report released today by the Charlotte Lozier Institute (CLI) analyzes funding for stem cell research in California and Maryland to conclude that funding trends reflect the scientific community’s  view that the best hope for disease treatment and therapies lies with morally unproblematic, non-embryonic stem cells."For decades, stem cells obtained by destroying unique, living human beings were heralded for their potential ability to cure numerous diseases and conditions.  However, while funding for this morally objectionable research initially boomed, efficacious...

Throughout its long history, the Federal Food and Drug Administration has insisted that its mission is “protecting and promoting your health.” Take that your seriously. In area after area, the record suggests that the paternalist FDA fails you in its announced purpose. Far from protecting “your health,” the FDA prevents you from making the informed decisions to preserve and promote your own health. All too often, the FDA lacks both the judgment and technical expertise to decide which treatments ordinary people may choose to undergo and which they must turn aside. To take one example, the FDA’s critics have bemoaned...

The living tissue inside an animal has been regressed back into an embryonic state for the first time, Spanish researchers say. They believe it could lead to new ways of repairing the body, for example after a heart attack. However, the study published in the journal Nature, showed the technique led to tumours forming in mice. Stem cell experts said it was a "cool" study, but would need to be much more controlled before leading to therapies.

MADISON — Children who attend Catholic schools within the Madison diocese won’t be taking any more field trips to a renowned research center because it conducts research using embryonic stem cells. The Madison Catholic Diocese, which announced its decision in a letter Thursday, said the research at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery runs counter to Catholic teachings on the sanctity of human life, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Any plans to have students visit the center “should be halted immediately, and alternative, morally acceptable means of meeting the educational objectives should be utilized,” wrote Michael Lancaster, the superintendent of Catholic...

In a breakthrough one researcher calls 'mindboggling,' miniature brains are now being grown in labs for study.

Cross-section of miniature human brains termed cerebral organoids Miniature "human brains" have been grown in a lab in a feat scientists hope will transform the understanding of neurological disorders.The pea-sized structures reached the same level of development as in a nine-week-old foetus, but are incapable of thought.The study, published in the journal Nature, has already been used to gain insight into rare diseases.Neuroscientists have described the findings as astounding and fascinating. The human brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe. Scientists at Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences have now reproduced some...

'Mini-brains' help researchers to study neurological diseases in living human tissue. With the right mix of nutrients and a little bit of coaxing, human stem cells derived from skin can assemble spontaneously into brain-like chunks of tissue. Researchers provide the first description and application of these ‘mini-brains’ today in Nature1. “It’s a seminal study to making a brain in a dish,” says Clive Svendsen, a neurobiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who was not involved in the study. “That’s phenomenal.” A fully formed artificial brain might still be years away, he notes, but the pea-sized neural clumps developed...

In a technical tour de force, Japanese researchers created eggs and sperm in the laboratory. Now, scientists have to determine how to use those cells safely — and ethically. Since last October, molecular biologist Katsuhiko Hayashi has received around a dozen e-mails from couples, most of them middle-aged, who are desperate for one thing: a baby. One menopausal woman from England offered to come to his laboratory at Kyoto University in Japan in the hope that he could help her to conceive a child. “That is my only wish,” she wrote. The requests started trickling in after Hayashi published the...

Scientists are reporting a significant milestone for cancer research after charting 21 major mutations behind the vast majority of tumours. The disruptive changes to the genetic code, reported in Nature, accounted for 97% of the 30 most common cancers. Finding out what causes the mutations could lead to new treatments. Some causes, such as smoking are known, but more than half are still a mystery. Cancer Research UK said it was a fascinating and important study. A tumour starts when one of the building blocks of bodies, a cell, goes wrong. Over the course of a lifetime cells pick up...

A decade ago, gene expression seemed so straightforward: genes were either switched on or off. Not both. Then in 2006, a blockbuster finding reported that developmentally regulated genes in mouse embryonic stem cells can have marks associated with both active and repressed genes, and that such genes, which were referred to as "bivalently marked genes", can be committed to one way or another during development and differentiation. This paradoxical state—akin to figuring out how to navigate a red and green traffic signal—has since undergone scrutiny by labs worldwide. What has been postulated is that the control regions (or promoters) of...

Francois Lenoir/Reuters Meet the new meat. Tiny pieces of muscle tissue grown in the lab will make up the patty of the first test-tube burger to be unveiled in London on Monday. If you take some scientists' word for it, the biggest agricultural revolution since the domestication of livestock is starting on Monday—in an arts center in London. At a carefully orchestrated media event, Dutch stem cell researcher Mark Post is planning to present the world's first test-tube hamburger. Its patty is made from meat that Post has laboriously grown from bovine stem cells in his lab at an estimated...

Could harvesting stem cells for therapy one day be as simple as asking patients for a urine sample? Researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine and colleagues have identified stem cells in urine that can be directed to become multiple cell types. "These cells can be obtained through a simple, non-invasive low-cost approach that avoids surgical procedures," said Yuanyuan Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of regenerative medicine and senior researcher on the project. Reporting online in the journal Stem Cells, the team successfully directed stem cells from urine to become bladder-type cells, such as smooth muscle...

Scientists have grown rudimentary teeth out of the most unlikely of sources, human urine. The results, published in Cell Regeneration Journal, showed that urine could be used as a source of stem cells that in turn could be grown into tiny tooth-like structures. The team from China hopes the technique could be developed into a way of replacing lost teeth. Other stem cell researchers caution that that goal faces many challenges. Teams of researchers around the world are looking for ways of growing new teeth to replace those lost with age and poor dental hygiene. Stem cells - the master...

A multinational team of scientists led by Prof Benjamin Blencowe from the University of Toronto has identified proteins that play a key role in controlling pluripotency, which may mean a potential breakthrough in producing the so-called induced pluripotent stem cells.Colonies of the induced pluripotent stem cells (Boston University Center for Regenerative Medicine) Induced pluripotent stem cells can be of great value for medical research because they can flexibly develop into many different types of cells. However, producing these cells is challenging because the proteins that control their generation are largely unknown.The team discovered the proteins using the splicing code developed...

A significant percentage of America’s 45.6 million dog owners and 38.2 million cat owners have first-hand familiarity with state-of-the-art medical facilities for pets that rival the most sophisticated human hospitals: animal emergency centers where veterinary specialists — including neurologists, orthopedists, oncologists, and criticalists — prolong the lives of pets whose owners can afford the service. The mainstream media rarely misses a chance to point out that animal medical care in the United States is almost on par with the best in human health care. But the reality is that the level of animal medical innovation has actually surpassed that of...