Privacy Policy
Signals Blog

Contributors

Categories

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...

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...

What’s in a label?

Replacing dead or dying cells with new, healthy ones is the holy grail of regenerative medicine. Even sustaining damaged cells with toxin-mopping, growth-factor-spewing stem-cell-derived support cells would be a tremendous feat. But while clinical trials have hinted...

Vascularization: A tissue engineering roadblock

There are currently over 100,000 people in the United States on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Between January and March of 2010, fewer than 7,000 patients received transplants. Imagine, as an alternative to donated live tissue, a tissue-engineered...