Archive for the ‘Research’ Category
Trending topics in hematology: summary of the 2010 American Society of Hematology conference
Stem cells were high on the list of hot topics at this year’s American Society of Hematology conference in Orlando, Florida, particularly regarding the uses and effects of stem cells in the treatment of disease. The Ham-Wasserman lecture, named for two past ASH presidents, was presented by Tsvee Lapidot, from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel. His lecture…Read more
Chemically induced pluripotent stem cells
Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are generally created by the expression of a small number of key genes to reprogram adult cells into an undifferentiated, pluripotent state. Because some of the transcription factors used for reprogramming are oncogenes, as well as concerns about mutagenesis due to genomic integration, scientists have been searching for improved methods…Read more
What’s next for stem cell biology: Royal Society Meeting October 2010
My last post was mostly centred on the lack of openness displayed by a growing number of scientists, but failed to comment on the wonderful array of findings that were presented by world leaders in stem cell biology. The Royal Society Meeting that took place in October was definitely designed “for scientists” and the juggernauts came out…Read more
Can stem cells end the need for blood donors?
In a previous post, Chris Kamel recently reviewed the Nature article about direct creation of blood progenitors from skin fibroblasts as discovered by Mick Bhatia’s research group. The fascinating thing about this article is the potential for enabling autologous cell treatments with a reduced risk of iPS-cell-induced cancer. Certainly, no one can deny that creating a…Read more
Skip the iPS middle man: Direct conversion of skin fibroblasts to blood progenitors
Though methods to convert adult cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells continue to improve, transition from the lab bench to the clinic can be a trickier proposition. Due to imperfect efficiency, each manipulation — conversion of adult cell to iPS cell to cell lineage of choice — decreases the yield of the cells of…Read more
Making livers in the lab
In 2009, surgeons transplanted 2,155 organs – nearly a quarter of which were livers - from live or deceased donors into grateful recipients. Sadly, another 3,796 Canadians remained on the transplant wait list, and 249 died while waiting, according to the Canadian Organ Replacement Register. To help mitigate the organ donor shortage, scientists are looking for ways…Read more
The tell-tale heart: Firefly genes for stem cell tracking
As mentioned in a previous post, in order to fully understand what’s happening when stem cells are used for in clinical or in vivo research, we need some way to track them, preferably in a non-invasive manner. This can be done with either reporter genes or some sort of traceable label, and would allow researchers…Read more
RNA-induction: A new method for iPS cell production
The reprogramming of differentiated adult cells into induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells is accomplished by the expression of a small number of key genes. This is typically done by introducing DNA either by transfection or with viral vectors. Current methods, unfortunately, are not very efficient and run the risk of mutagenesis as a result of…Read more
Stem cells and high throughput screening
High-throughput screening, in which many cell culture conditions can be tested using a combination of robotics, control software, and/or highly sensitive detection, allows researchers to explore new ideas quickly; thousands of combinations can be efficiently tested for toxicity, cell viability, proliferation or differentiation. Recently, high throughput screening was used to search a library of over…Read more
