New Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Orthopedic Surgery with Patients Own Stem Cells

CBS News Video Feature (March, 2008)

----Regenerated Body Parts: 

Insulin-Secreting Cells Produced by Stem Cells

Reuters (Feb. 21, 2008) —Definitive evidence, published in Nature, that human embryonic stem cells can produce insulin in response to glucose

Grow Your Own Replacement Parts

Human Stem Cells Fix Stroke-Afflicted Rats 

Creating a New Heart in the Lab

Scientists Bypass Need for Embryo to Get Stem Cells

New York Times (Nov. 21, 2007) —Two teams of scientists report that they have turned human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic stem cells - a feat that could quell the ethical debates and lead to easy to produce personalized stem cell lines. 

'Bionic' Nerve To Bring Damaged Limbs And Organs Back To Life

ScienceDaily (Oct. 18, 2007) — University of Manchester researchers have transformed fat tissue stem cells into nerve cells - and now plan to develop an artificial nerve that will bring damaged limbs and organs back to life.

‘The InkJet Approach to building life’

Boston Globe (October 15, 2007) If you print over and over on a single piece of paper, the ink layers will eventually build up a three-dimensional structure. What if, scientists are asking, you use that same inkjet technology to print layers of cells on a tissue matrix? Can you eventually build up a living structure like a heart or a kidney?

New Stem Cells by Reprogramming

18-Oct-2007 Researchers are discovering new ways to help 'de-program' specialised cells so that they can be re-programmed to form a range of different types of tissue, an international meeting of stem cell biologists was told.

California Takes Lead in Stem Cell Research, Scientist Recruitment

October 8, 2007 - Since California passed a $3 billion bond measure for stem cell research, recruitment of top scientists has outpaced every other state. The new funding has sparked the building of state-of-the-art facilities and a push for stem cell innovations.

June 26, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

The first U.S. study to transplant a potent form of purified adult stem cells into the heart muscle of patients with severe angina provided evidence that the procedure is safe and produced a reduction in angina pain as well as improved functioning in patients' daily lives, reports Northwestern University. The procedure was an effort to spur regrowth of small blood vessels that constitute the microcirculation of the heart muscle.

June 25, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

It is feasible to use a patient's own cord blood stem cells to neutralize the body's autoimmune attack on the pancreas and help restore the organ's ability to make insulin, researchers have discovered. The finding from a small pilot study is a step toward better treatments for diabetes.

Sunday, June 24, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss. Stem cell migration into the damaged area of the inner ear improved hearing of high frequency sound (40 kHz) by 23% compared to natural recovery in untreated animals.

Sunday, June 24, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

In the first trial of its kind in the world, 60 patients who have recently suffered a major heart attack will be injected with selected stem cells from their own bone marrow during routine coronary bypass surgery.

Thursday, June 21, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

A current hope is that cardiac stem cells could one day be manipulated to rebuild cardiac tissue damaged by heart disease. Scientists are now addressing a fundamental question in the cardiac stem cell field, "What are the molecular pathways required for expansion and development of cardiac stem cells?"

Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

In a survey of more than 1,000 infertility patients with frozen embryos, 60 percent of patients report that they are likely to donate their embryos to stem cell research, a level of donation that could result in roughly 2,000 to 3,000 new embryonic stem cell lines.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have found a practical way to increase stem cells in blood, suggesting a possible treatment to help patients recover from chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for cancer, regaining immune function more quickly. The discovery marks the first time stem-cell production has been induced by a small-molecule drug.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Scientists have identified 1,155 genes under the control of a gene called Oct4 considered to be the master regulator of the stem cell state. For more than 25 years, stem cells have been defined based on what they can become: more of themselves, as well as multiple different specialized cell types. But as genetic techniques have become increasingly powerful, many scientists have sought a more molecular definition of stem cells, based on the genes they express.

When blood-forming stem cells misbehave, causing pre-cancerous conditions that can sometimes even progress to leukemia, the problem might not always lie with them. Rather, two recent articles reveal that a bad environment might be to blame.

Monday, June 18, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Disorders of blood cells may begin in the biological environment where the cells develop, not just with the cells themselves, according to a new study.

Monday, June 18, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have identified a protein that is part of the body's natural defenses in oxygen-deprived conditions, a finding that could rapidly lead to treatments for babies born before their eyes are finished growing.

Sunday, June 17, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Artificial blood vessels have been engineered from muscle-derived stem cells and a biodegradable polymer that exhibit extensive remodeling and remain free of blockages when grafted into rats. This development has potentially significant implications for the treatment of heart and kidney diseases, where there is a critical need for new sources of blood vessels for vascular grafts.

Saturday, June 16, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Current cancer therapies often are thwarted because they cannot eliminate a small reservoir of multiple-drug-resistant tumor cells. Researchers suggest that for chemotherapy to be truly effective in treating lung cancers, for example, it must be able to target a small subset of cancer stem cells, which they have shown share the same protective mechanisms as normal lung stem cells.

Thursday, June 14, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have successfully isolated and cultured human hematopoietic stem cells from fat, or adipose, tissue. Since it has been shown in some cases that tumor cells contaminating bone marrow grafts are the source of recurrent malignancies after autologous transplantation, this may be another important source of cells for reconstituting the bone marrow of patients undergoing intensive radiation therapy for blood cancers.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Primates with severe Parkinson's disease were able to walk, move, and eat better, and had diminished tremors after being injected with human neural stem cells.

Monday, June 11, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

At the heart of most, if not all cancers, lie a handful of wayward stem cells that feed the ever growing tumor mass, but their scarcity make it difficult for scientists to study them. Now, times of plenty may lie ahead as a breast cancer cell line -- established long ago -- turned out to behave a lot like cancer stem cells.

Saturday, June 09, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers examine moral questions and the scientific feasibility of deriving Human embryonic stem cells lines in ways that avoid destroying living human embryos.

Thursday, June 07, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have found that deleting a gene important in embryo development leads to premature aging and loss of stem cell reservoirs in adult mice. This gene, ATR, is essential for the body's response to damaged DNA, and mutations in proteins in the DNA damage response underlie certain types of cancer and other disorders in humans.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

As stem cells in the blood grow older, genetic mutations accumulate that could be at the root of blood diseases that strike people as they age, according to work done in mice by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

A groundbreaking surgical therapy capable of stabilising and restoring vision in the vast majority of patients who currently suffer blindness through Age-Related Macular Degeneration is to be taken to clinical trial by scientists.

Tuesday, June 05, 2007, 9:00:00 PM

Researchers have identified the cancer stem cells that propagate tumors in colon and rectal cancer, a discovery that could lead to improved treatment of this deadly cancer.