Free Republic

A man who was paralyzed from the neck down after a surfing accident seven years ago is now able to stand and walk on his own, thanks in part to a potentially groundbreaking stem cell treatment. Chris Barr was the very first patient in a Mayo Clinic study that collected stem cells from his own stomach fat, expanded them in a laboratory to 100 million cells and then injected the cells into Barr's lumbar spine. Over five years after undergoing the therapy, Barr said he is continuing to gain more independence and get faster at walking. "I never dreamed I...

Human insulin-secreting beta cells under the microscope. (Millman Laboratory) A technique capable of converting human stem cells into insulin-producing cells could hold huge promise for future diabetic treatments, if results seen in a recent experiment with mice can be successfully replicated in humans. In a 2020 study, researchers figured out a new way to coax human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) into pancreatic beta cells that make insulin. When these insulin-producing cells were transplanted into mice induced to have an acute form of diabetes, their condition was rapidly cured. "These mice had very severe diabetes with blood sugar readings of more...

Round blobs known as brain organoids, are grown in a petri dish from stem cells German scientists developed 'optic cups' on the mini-brains which can see light The primitive eyes have retinas, lenses, corneas and nerve cells They're equivalent to the stage of eye formation in a 5-week-old fetus The science could lead to lab-grown retinas for people with vision loss

Does anyone know anything about this, my husband got a card in the mail and went to a presentation. They claim they can get the knee cushion re-grown with a 95% success rate that it works for the people getting the injections. I don't want to throw cold water on his hopes but this is all new to me and I don't know where to start looking. Any info appreciated.

Doctors say a stem cell transplant could be a "game changer" for many patients with multiple sclerosis. Results from an international trial show that it was able to stop the disease and improve symptoms. It involves wiping out a patient's immune system using cancer drugs and then rebooting it with a stem cell transplant. Just over 100 patients took part in the trial, in hospitals in Chicago, Sheffield, Uppsala in Sweden and Sao Paulo in Brazil. They all had relapsing remitting MS - where attacks or relapses are followed by periods of remission. The patients received either haematopoietic stem cell...

In this artwork, hair follicles grow radially out of spherical skin organoids, which contain concentric epidermal and dermal layers (central structure). Skin organoids self-assemble and spontaneously generate many of the progenitor cells observed during normal development, including cells expressing the protein GATA3 in the hair follicles and epidermis (red). Credit: Jiyoon Lee and Karl R. Koehler =========================================================================================================================== Indiana University School of Medicine researchers have cultured the first lab-grown skin tissue complete with hair follicles. This skin model, developed using stem cells from mice, more closely resembles natural hair than existing models and may prove useful for testing drugs, understanding hair...

Israeli 3D printer firm Nano Dimension has successfully lab-tested a 3D bioprinter for stem cells, paving the way for the potential printing of large tissues and organs, the company said on Wednesday. While 3D printers are used already to create stem cells for research, Nano Dimension said the trial, conducted with Israeli biotech firm Accellta Ltd, showed its adapted printer could make large volumes of high resolution cells quickly....

Date: March 9, 2016 Source: Cardiff University, Osaka University Summary: Scientists have demonstrated a method for generating several key types of eye tissue from human stem cells in a way that mirrors whole eye development. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Scientists have demonstrated a method for generating several key types of eye tissue from human stem cells in a way that mirrors whole eye development. When transplanted to an animal model of corneal blindness, these tissues are shown to repair the front of the eye and restore vision, which scientists say could pave the way for human clinical trials of anterior eye transplantation to...

It’s time for scientists and bioethicists to establish a Embryonic Stem Cell Truth and Reconciliation Commission.It all seems so long ago now. But from 2002 to 2008 they barnstormed, fibbed, exaggerated, hyped, and caricatured to get government funding so that they could play God with human embryos. It was a brutal battle in which truth came second. "People need a fairy tale," said Ronald D.G. McKay, a leading stem cell scientist, in 2004.The claims made for the near-miraculous potential of human embryonic stem cells were extraordinary. Celebrities and scientists spoke with the breathless enthusiasm normally associated with crystal medicine or ayurvedic...

A young cancer survivor sent President Barack Obama a moving letter thanking him for keeping a promise made during a 2007 campaign stop -- a promise the boy says saved his life. Gavin Nore, a teen from Fort Dodge, Iowa, told Obama in a letter shared by the White House Tuesday that he'd had the opportunity to meet the president during his first presidential campaign. At the time, Nore asked Obama whether he'd continue stem cell research during his presidency, to which the president responded he would. In February 2013, Nore was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. He was 14 years old. Nore...

A bill to further restrict abortion in Oklahoma and another to make embryonic stem cell research illegal both cleared a House committee on Wednesday, despite concerns from a doctor on the panel. While activists gathered at the Capitol for the annual anti-abortion Rose Day rally, the House Public Health Committee voted mostly along party lines to approve both bills. An exception was Rep. Doug Cox, a Grove Republican and an emergency room physician who opposed both measures. One bill would increase from 24 to 72 hours the amount of time a woman must wait before receiving an abortion after receiving...

... Across a series of blogs and far-right message boards, someone going by the moniker of “the Real Luigi Warren” (a.k.a. “Luigi ‘Anthrax’ Warren”) had operated a lurid rumor mill about Hatfill for more than a decade—promoting, in particular, hearsay about the years he lived and worked in southern Africa during the throes of apartheid. In 2010, after the aggressor surfaced in the comments section of theatlantic.com, Hatfill’s lawyers made their move. They sent a six-page letter to the man they assumed to be the real Luigi Warren, a stem-cell researcher at Harvard Medical School named, not incidentally, Luigi Warren....

After suffering a major stroke in late October, the health of Detroit Red Wings legend Gordie Howe seemed to be rapidly deteriorating. But lately there have been reports that his condition has been steadily improving to the point where he is now able to help with household chores, reports that were confirmed by his family on Friday. That is his when his family released a statement through the Red Wings organization thanking an experimental stem cell treatment for what they describe as a "miraculous" recovery. Here is the complete statement from the Howe family. "Following the press coverage of our...

A woman has developed a nose-like growth eight years after a stem cell treatment to cure her paralysis failed. At the Hospital de Egas Moniz in Lisbon, Portugal, the unnamed woman, a U.S. citizen, had tissue from her nose implanted in her spine. Doctors hoped the cells would develop into neural cells and help repair the nerve damage to the woman's spine. But the treatment failed. However, last year, eight years after the stem cell operation, the woman, then 28, complained of increasing pain in the area. Doctors discovered a three-centimetre-long growth, which was found to be mainly nasal tissue,...

The European Commission has dismissed a campaign to scrap funding for stem cell research and reproductive health services. The demand was made by the “One of Us” campaign, the second citizens’ initiative to reach the 1 million signatures required under the Lisbon treaty. The campaign, which has been backed by Popes Francis and Benedict, the current and former heads of the Catholic church, and backed by a number of religious organizations, sought to ban the use of EU funds for research, foreign aid programs and public health activities that are linked to the destruction of human embryos. …

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.

Jawanda Mast helps her daughter Rachel, 14, write thank you notes Rachel has Downs Syndrome. In the 14 years since her daughter, Rachel, was born with Down syndrome, Jawanda Mast has always been clear that she’d change the condition if she could. “I couldn’t love her more, but I would give almost anything to take away that extra chromosome,” the Olathe, Kansas, mom wrote on her blog. “While I may know she’s perfect, the world doesn’t.” But when Massachusetts scientists announced recently that they’ve found a way to silence the chromosome that causes trisomy 21, also known as Down...

A panel of scientists and legal experts appointed by the government has drawn up a recommendation that will form the basis of new guidelines for Japan's world-leading embryonic research. There is widespread support in Japan for research that has raised red flags in other countries. Scientists plan to introduce a human stem cell into the embryo of an animal – most likely a pig – to create what is termed a "chimeric embryo" that can be implanted into an animal's womb. That will then grow into a perfect human organ, a kidney or even a heart, as the host animal...

Ottawa scientists have discovered a trigger that turns muscle stem cells into brown fat, a form of good fat that could play a critical role in the fight against obesity. The findings from Dr. Michael Rudnicki's lab, based at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, were published today in the prestigious journal Cell Metabolism. "This discovery significantly advances our ability to harness this good fat in the battle against bad fat and all the associated health risks that come with being overweight and obese," says Dr. Rudnicki, a senior scientist and director for the Regenerative Medicine Program and Sprott Centre for...

Geron Corp confirmed it will discontinue development of an experimental drug to treat cancer that has spread to the brain from elsewhere in the body and also cut about 40 percent of its workforce, after patients failed to respond to the drug in a mid-stage study. The company said it will now focus on the development of another drug candidate, imetelstat, as a treatment for blood cancers and some types of solid tumors. The brain cancer drug, GRN1005 and imetelstat's development in blood cancers were the only hopes that Geron's shareholders had after the company warned investors in September that...