- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: Biotechnology
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.
- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: Biotechnology
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.
- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: Biotechnology
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
- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: Cell & Molecular
by Monya Baker
A single added gene prompts liver progenitor cells to make insulin and reverse diabetes
With the introduction of a single gene, cells in the liver can take on the function of pancreatic cells and go on to reverse symptoms of diabetes in a mouse model of the disease. Researchers led by Lawrence Chan at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, had already shown that they could, in effect, cure diabetes in mice by infecting their livers with a virus containing the gene for neurogenin (Ngn3), a transcription factor that is expressed as cells begin differentiating into insulin-producing beta-cells, the type of cells lost in juvenile diabetes. Although the researchers knew that this process worked, they did not know why, so they began trying to figure out which cells in the liver began producing insulin.
Read more: A sort of beta-cell magic: transdetermination seems easier than transdifferentiation
- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: Anatomy & Physiology
by Monya Baker
Three recent papers and questions for clinical translation
It's not easy to assess the quality of science from press releases, three of which caught my eye this month. All of them described the use of stem cells for neurodegenerative applications. All of them looked interesting, but I wanted to be particularly careful because of their potential for translation to human patients as well as their company connections. I asked Phil Schwartz, a neural stem cell expert at Children's Hospital of Orange County, California, to help me understand the gaps between study and therapy, and then I asked authors from each paper to respond. The papers were published in Biomaterials1, The Journal of Comparative Neurology2 and Cell Transplantation3.
Read more: Stem cells and neurodegenerative disease: cool science and scepticism
- Details
- Parent Category: Biology
- Category: News
by Bryn Nelson
Some think the US should adopt a UK regulatory structure for embryo research
Officials at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be kept busy for the next four months as they craft new guidelines specifying which embryonic stem (ES) cell research will now qualify for federal funding. But that hasn't stopped the first rumblings of a fight over what the country's regulatory framework might eventually look like.