Biotechnology News
— By Charlie Feigenoff
Fat may carry negative connotations in today's world, but the stem cells found in fat tissue may prove valuable for their potential to heal wounds.
As Shayn Peirce-Cottler, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Virginia, describes them, they are hard-working and tough. Although these adult stem cells lack the infinite plasticity of embryonic stem cells, they can be used for therapeutic purposes without raising the ethical issues that have made stem cell research so controversial. And, as Peirce-Cottler has found in the course of a series of collaborations with Dr. Adam Katz, an associate professor of plastic surgery, their healing powers are considerable.
Read more: U.Va. Researchers Unlocking the Healing Promise of Stem Cells Derived from Fat
Molecules that replace, sustain pluripotency factors make "non-permissive" mouse strains yield stable embryonic stem cells
by Monya Baker
Embryos from nonobese diabetic mice don't yield stable embryonic stem cells, which make the mice unsuitable for several sorts of experiments. New research reveals not only how to generate these stem cells but also how to toggle between different states of pluripotency.
Read more: New types of embryonic stem cells generated by stabilizing pluripotency
by Monya Baker
Two transcription factors and a chromatin remodeller help make mouse cardiomyocytes
Ever since researchers turned cultured cells into muscle, scientists have been searching for ways to do something similar to make heart cells.1 That's because, at least in the developed world, heart disease kills more people than anything else — in part because adult hearts are not able to replace damaged cells. Now, Jun Takeuchi and Benoit Bruneau at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco have found that adding cardiac-specific genes to developing mouse embryos can make even some extra-embryonic parts become beating cardiomyocytes2.
by Mariano Loza Coll
The endometrium can differentiate between embryos generated by various technologies
Animal cloning could be a boon for the biotechnology and agricultural industries if only more livestock survived. Even though the percent of pregnancies initiated for cloned cow embryos is similar to that seen using other assisted fertilization techniques, only 7% of these embryos survive to be 150-day-old calves. The rest perish throughout pregnancy or soon after birth due to placental malformations. Two research groups have now demonstrated that the cow uterus reacts differently to embryos generated by cloning and by in vitro fertilization.
Stem-cell research represents a patchwork of patchworks. Understanding this can help the research community to manage it effectively
The field of human stem cell research is buffeted by the forces of hope and controversy, and the interplay between them has contributed to a highly varied environment for conducting stem cell research. International and regional policies covering this work are complex and in flux. The resulting situations both between and within jurisdictions can be termed a 'patchwork of patchworks'.
Read more: International stem cell environments: a world of difference