Stem Cell Clinic

Scientists Have Created the First Artificial Embryo Without Using an … – Gizmodo

By Embryonic Stem Cells

An artificial mouse embryo after 48 hours (right) and 96 hours (left). Image: University of Cambridge

Using stem cells in grown-on 3D scaffolding in a laboratory petri dish, scientists have for the first time created an embryo made entirely from stem cells.

The artificial mouse embryo, detailed this month in the journal Science, is a major step toward creating synthetic embryos that closely resemble natural ones. It could shed light on early development and help improve fertility treatment procedures.

Cambridge biologist Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz, whose work focuses on the development of cell lineages, has long sought the development of an artificial embryo. But without using an egg in some way, scientists have had difficulty getting cells to communicate with each other early in development. Scientists managed to clone Dolly the sheep, for example, without requiring a rams sperm, but they still required an egg cell to fuse the cloned adult DNA with.

The Cambridge team got around this issue by taking embryonic stem cells (cells found in embryos that can mature into any type of body tissue) and growing them alongside trophoblast stem cells (the cells that produce the placenta). After growing the two types of cells separately, they combined them in a gel matrix. The two types of cells began to mix and develop together. After four days, the embryos began to resemble normal mouse embryos.

The goal is not necessarily to create a real mouse from these cellsand the science is still a ways from that anyway. Additional types of cells will likely needed to be added to the mix in order for the embryos to actually start developing organs. Even then, the cells may not develop past the very early stages shown in the Science paper.

But being able to study the way the cells develop in the very early days of an embryos life could shed important light into early development. The Cambridge researchers, for example, engineered different cell types to glow different colors so that they might track how they behave as the embryo develops. The work provided insight into how those two types of cells work together to form the blue print for the mouse body.

Heres a video of Zernicka-Goetz explaining the work:

[Science]

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Scientists Have Created the First Artificial Embryo Without Using an ... - Gizmodo

Artificial Mouse ‘Embryo’ Created from Stem Cells for First Time – Laboratory Equipment

By Embryonic Stem Cells

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have managed to create a structure resembling a mouse embryo in culture, using two types of stem cells - the body's 'master cells' - and a 3-D scaffold on which they can grow.

Understanding the very early stages of embryo development is of interest because this knowledge may help explain why more than two out of three human pregnancies fail at this time.

Once a mammalian egg has been fertilized by a sperm, it divides multiple times to generate a small, free-floating ball of stem cells. The particular stem cells that will eventually make the future body, the embryonic stem cells (ESCs) cluster together inside the embryo towards one end: this stage of development is known as the blastocyst. The other two types of stem cell in the blastocyst are the extra-embryonic trophoblast stem cells (TSCs), which will form the placenta; and primitive endoderm stem cells that will form the so-called yolk sac, ensuring that the fetus's organs develop properly and providing essential nutrients.

Previous attempts to grow embryo-like structures using only ESCs have had limited success. This is because early embryo development requires the different types of cell to coordinate closely with each other.

However, in a study published last week in the journal Science, Cambridge researchers describe how, using a combination of genetically-modified mouse ESCs and TSCs, together with a 3-D scaffold known as an extracellular matrix, they were able to grow a structure capable of assembling itself and whose development and architecture very closely resembled the natural embryo.

"Both the embryonic and extra-embryonic cells start to talk to each other and become organised into a structure that looks like and behaves like an embryo," explains Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, who led the research. "It has anatomically correct regions that develop in the right place and at the right time."

Zernicka-Goetz and colleagues found a remarkable degree of communication between the two types of stem cell: in a sense, the cells are telling each other where in the embryo to place themselves.

"We knew that interactions between the different types of stem cell are important for development, but the striking thing that our new work illustrates is that this is a real partnership - these cells truly guide each other," she says. "Without this partnership, the correct development of shape and form and the timely activity of key biological mechanisms doesn't take place properly."

Comparing their artificial 'embryo' to a normally-developing embryo, the team was able to show that its development followed the same pattern of development. The stem cells organise themselves, with ESCs at one end and TSCs at the other. A cavity opens then up within each cluster before joining together, eventually to become the large, so-called pro-amniotic cavity in which the embryo will develop.

While this artificial embryo closely resembles the real thing, it is unlikely that it would develop further into a healthy fetus, say the researchers. To do so, it would likely need the third form of stem cell, which would allow the development of the yolk sac, which provides nourishment for the embryo and within which a network of blood vessel develops. In addition, the system has not been optimized for the correct development of the placenta.

Zernicka-Goetz recently developed a technique that allows blastocysts to develop in vitro beyond the implantation stage, enabling researchers to analyze for the first time key stages of human embryo development up to 13 days after fertilization. She believes that this latest development could help them overcome one of the main barriers to human embryo research: a shortage of embryos. Currently, embryos are developed from eggs donated through IVF clinics.

"We think that it will be possible to mimic a lot of the developmental events occurring before 14 days using human embryonic and extra-embryonic stem cells using a similar approach to our technique using mouse stem cells," she says. "We are very optimistic that this will allow us to study key events of this critical stage of human development without actually having to work on embryos. Knowing how development normally occurs will allow us to understand why it so often goes wrong."

The research was largely funded by the Wellcome Trust and the European Research Council.

"This is an elegant study creating a mouse embryo in culture that gives us a glimpse into the very earliest stages of mammalian development. Professor Zernicka-Goetz's work really shows the importance of basic research in helping us to solve difficult problems for which we don't have enough evidence for yet. In theory, similar approaches could one day be used to explore early human development, shedding light on the role of the maternal environment in birth defects and health," said Andrew Chisholm, head of Cellular and Developmental Science at Wellcome.

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Artificial Mouse 'Embryo' Created from Stem Cells for First Time - Laboratory Equipment

Role of Stem Cell Reprogramming Factor Uncovered – Technology Networks

By Embryonic Stem Cells

A little over 10 years ago, the first reprogramming of adult cells into undifferentiated stem cells was achieved. These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have the ability to become almost any cell type and can divide indefinitely, so share many features with embryonic stem cells. Such characteristics enable iPSCs to be used in several applications of regenerative medicine, particularly because they can be derived from an individuals own cells so tissue rejection problems are not encountered. They can also be programmed to develop into rare or inaccessible cell types, used to screen novel drugs, and studied to understand the cellular basis of disease or reprogramming.

However, while the genetic factors responsible for reprogramming are well known, the mechanisms underlying the responses to induced gene expression changes are not as clear.

Now, research led by the University of Tsukuba has solved the mystery surrounding one of the reprogramming factors, KLF4.

KLF4 together with other reprogramming transcription factors is used in the lab to force the expression of genes in somatic cells (adult non-germline cells) in the development of iPSCs. Somatic cells generate their energy in an oxygen-fueled process called oxidative phosphorylation, which takes place in the mitochondria, also known as cellular powerhouses.

In contrast, stem cells have small mitochondria and use glycolysis as an alternative biochemical pathway to generate energy. This series of reactions can be anaerobic, so more suited to their typically low-oxygen environment, but also provides the supply of metabolic intermediates necessary for rapid growth and division.

University of Tsukuba researchers developed a gene transfer system that allowed iPSC reprogramming to only occur in the presence of KLF4, thus focusing exclusively on its role in the process. They then used genome-wide analysis to search for genes switched on by KLF4 at a late stage of reprogramming.

"We found that the Tcl1 gene was upregulated by KLF4 binding to its enhancer and promoter regions," study co-first author Ken Nishimura says. "KLF4 also caused the binding of another reprogramming factor, OCT4, to the Tcl1 promoter."

The team discovered that the TCL1 protein played a key role in increasing glycolysis by activating a different metabolic pathway that is important for the self-renewal of stem cells.

"We also showed that TCL1 inhibits a mitochondrial enzyme required for in oxidative phosphorylation, leading to a reduction in oxygen consumption of the cells", co-first author Shiho Aizawa explains. "This was matched by increased glucose uptake for glycolysis, revealing that TCL1 promotes the metabolic switch in energy generation necessary for cells to acquire pluripotency."

Reference:

Nishimura, K., Aizawa, S., Nugroho, F. L., Shiomitsu, E., Tran, Y. T., Bui, P. L., . . . Hisatake, K. (2017). A Role for KLF4 in Promoting the Metabolic Shift via TCL1 during Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Generation. Stem Cell Reports. doi:10.1016/j.stemcr.2017.01.026

This article has been republished frommaterialsprovided byUniversity of Tsukuba. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Role of Stem Cell Reprogramming Factor Uncovered - Technology Networks

New Medical Procedure Promises Hope for Sickle Cell Patients – Face2Face Africa

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In the United States, about 90,000 people, mostly blacks, suffer from the sickle cell disease, and worldwide, an estimated 275,000 babies are born with it each year. Photo credit: the Guardian

A new groundbreaking medical procedure by a team of researchers at Necker Childrens Hospitalin France promises hope for sickle cell disease patients.

Using pioneering treatment, scientists at Necker Childrens Hospital in Paris have succeeded in reversing the disease in a French teenager, reports BBC.

According to the doctors, they were successfully able to alter the genetic instructions in the bone marrow of the teenager to get it to produce healthy red blood cells.

Doctors removed his bone marrow, which manufactures blood. They then genetically altered it in a lab to compensate for the defect in his DNA that caused the disease.

The teenager now 15 underwent the procedure at the hospital in 2014, and scientists say the results so far have been very encouraging with about half of his red blood cells having normal haemoglobin.

Results published by the researchers in the New England Journal of Medicine show the teenager has been making normal blood in the months following the procedure.

Professor Philippe Leboulch, one of the lead scientists on the groundbreaking medical procedure, said that while it is too early to call the procedure a cure for sickle cell disease, it does provide a necessary respite for the teenager.

So far the patient has no sign of the disease, no pain, no hospitalization. He no longer requires a transfusion so we are quite pleased with that.

But of course we need to perform the same therapy in many patients to feel confident that it is robust enough to propose it as a mainstream therapy.

Before the treatment, the teen had to visit the hospital every month to have a transfusion to dilute his defective blood. He also suffered significant internal damage that caused his spleen to be removed and his hips to be replaced.

Dr. Deborah Gill, gene researcher at the University of Oxford, believes the results are a huge step forward and opens new frontiers in treatment for sickle cell sufferers.

Ive worked in gene therapy for a long time and we make small steps and know theres years more work.

But here you have someone who has received gene therapy and has complete clinical remission thats a huge step forward, Dr. Gill said.

Another reported setback is the fact that the expensive procedure can only be carried out in cutting-edge hospitals and laboratories far away from the countries in sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of sickle cell sufferers live with Keith Wailooadding in the New England Journal of Medicine that vexing questions of race and stigma have shadowed the history of the medical treatment of the disease.

Sickle cell disease mainly affects people with African, Caribbean, or Middle Eastern ancestry. In the United States, mostly African Americans are affected, and worldwide, about 275,000 babies are born with it each year.

Illustration showing the difference between normal and sickled red blood cell formations. Photo credit: General Health

In sickle cell sufferers, normally round red blood cells, which carry oxygen around the body, are defective and shaped like a sickle. Those cells can sometimes lock together, clogging tiny blood vessels and causing bouts of extreme pain, organ damage, and even death.

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New Medical Procedure Promises Hope for Sickle Cell Patients - Face2Face Africa

University of Miami’s Miami project successfully completes SCI clinical trial – Medical Xpress

By Uncategorized

March 8, 2017 University of Miami's Miami Project to Cure Paralysis surgical team preparing for a Schwann cell transplantation. Credit: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine / Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, today announced the publication of its first Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Phase I clinical trial involving human nerve cells used to repair the damaged spinal cord, in the February issue of the Journal of Neurotrauma. The cells, known as Schwann cells, are essential for the repair of nerve damage, and long thought to be able to increase recovery after spinal cord injury. The trial, performed at University of Miami / Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, is the first in a series designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of transplanting autologous human Schwann cells to treat individuals with spinal cord injuries.

The trial enrolled subjects with the least chance of natural recovery in order to firstly establish the safety of the cell transplant procedure; specifically, it targeted people with new SCI, less than 30 days after injury, having sustained a trauma-induced lesion between thoracic levels T3-T11 and who were neurologically complete. This was a dose escalation treatment trial testing 3 different doses: 5 million, 10 million, and 15 million Schwann cells. There were a total of 39 people screened for eligibility, 9 were enrolled, and 6 participants were transplanted. The first two participants received the 5 million cell dose, the second two received the 10 million cell dose, and the final two received the 15 million cell dose. Because the Schwann cells, which reside in peripheral nerves, are obtained from a nerve biopsy from each participant, there is reduced concern of immune rejection and immunosuppressant medication is not required. Demonstrating the feasibility of a program involving an autologous cell therapy is critical, given the reduced risk associated with autologous versus allogeneic "off-the-shelf" cell products. Once the cells are removed from the participant, they have to be handled in accordance with current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP). Because the cells are eventually injected into the spinal cord, this process is required to ensure that the cells are prepared consistently and without contaminants. Each participant was followed intensively for one year after receiving the transplantation surgery, and their neurologic status, medical status, pain symptoms, and muscle spasticity were evaluated. All participants will continue to be monitored for a total of five years after the transplantation.

Subjects enrolled came from both South Florida, the Caribbean, and Latin America reflecting the importance of Miami as a hub for medical advances in these regions. The enrolled subjects did not experience any severe complications as a result of the therapy or the surgery and one subject recovered sufficient neurological function to be classified as incomplete, whereas upon trial entry, he had complete injury. The clinical trial used advanced cell culture methods, expert surgery, and a strong complement of evaluation techniques to study the impact of the cell transplantation. Importantly, the trial successfully determined safety and feasibility for performing a peripheral nerve harvest within 5-30 days of injury followed by an intra-spinal transplantation of autologous cells within 4-7 weeks of injury, even in individuals having sustained severe spinal injury.

This first trial, using cells grown from the subject's own nerves is an important validation of decades of prior work and animal studies. Scientific reviewers commented that "This is a very carefully executed study and the authors are leading the field as the first non-commercial, i.e. purely academic group, in North America to develop a cell preparation for SCI transplantation and to execute on a cell transplantation trial in humans". It is a key milestone for The Miami Project's integrated program that studies spinal cord injury from multiple perspectives. Having now established the safety of Schwann cell transplantation in this initial group of subjects, it will be possible to combine other exciting therapies to amplify neurological recovery.

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Explore further: Regenerating nerve tissue in spinal cord injuries

More information: Kimberly D Anderson et al, Safety of Autologous Human Schwann Cell Transplantation in Subacute Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury, Journal of Neurotrauma (2017). DOI: 10.1089/neu.2016.4895

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University of Miami's Miami project successfully completes SCI clinical trial - Medical Xpress

US Market Report for Orthopedic Cell Therapy 2017 – MedCore – PR Newswire (press release)

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LONDON, March 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Description

Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4759855/

General Report Contents - Market Analyses include: Unit Sales, ASPs, Market Value & Growth Trends - Market Drivers & Limiters for each chapter segment - Competitive Analysis for each chapter segment - Section on recent mergers & acquisitions

There has been much greater interest in bone marrow concentration for use in spinal fusions compared to platelet-rich plasma. The platelet-rich plasma market, on the other hand, is expanding into soft tissue indications. While bone graft substitutes can be soaked in PRP or bone marrow concentrate as an application, the most rapidly growing application, especially for platelet-rich plasma, is for injectables. Such products are directly injected into the site, for example, in a ligament repair or wound operation. Competition over price is the reason the market values for these segments are not growing as quickly as might be expected. Arthrex significantly brought down the ASP for the market when they introduced their ACP platelet concentration system, but prices have now largely stabilized in the PRP segment. Test-tube-based products allow for concentration of smaller volumes; these systems reduce ASP further as customers can shift away from higher ASP disposable bucket products.

Abstract The scope of the orthopedic cell therapy market in this report covers platelet-rich plasma and concentrated bone marrow aspirate. The platelet and bone marrow concentration market consists of centrifuge equipment that separates and concentrates platelets and cells based on their various densities. The majority of companies participating in this market provide the centrifuges on loan and sell only the disposable components, such as the spin buckets. Typically, one bucket is required per procedure.

Scope: 2013-2023 Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/4759855/

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For more information: Sarah Smith Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com Email: query@reportbuyer.com Tel: +44 208 816 85 48 Website: http://www.reportbuyer.com

To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/us-market-report-for-orthopedic-cell-therapy-2017---medcore-300419889.html

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US Market Report for Orthopedic Cell Therapy 2017 - MedCore - PR Newswire (press release)

Researchers Study Cure for Type 1 Diabetes in Stem Cell Transplantations – Business Wire (press release)

By Stell Cell Research

DUARTE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Some type 1 diabetes (T1D) patients can be cured from the disease, at least for a number of years, with a stem cell transplant those were the results of a clinical trial monitored by City of Hopes Bart Roep, Ph.D., the Chan Soon-Shiong Shapiro Distinguished Chair in Diabetes and professor/founding chair, Department of Diabetes Immunology. The results were published recently in the journal, Frontiers in Immunology.

This means we can cure type 1 diabetes, be it with a risky therapy although one that is also very successful in cancer, and one for which City of Hope is a world-renowned expert, with more than 13,000 patients having received similar treatment for blood cancers, said Roep, director of The Wanek Family Project for Type 1 Diabetes, which aims to find a cure for T1D in six years. We now understand stem cell transplants can succeed in treating diabetes for some, but not in others, and we can predict either outcome before the therapy is administered by reading the immune signature of the patient with a novel nanotechnology that I developed.

An international team of researchers, including Roep, conducted the trial in Brazil. It showed that autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT), which uses a persons own stem cells, increases C-peptide levels that show how much insulin is being made by the pancreas and induces insulin independence in patients with T1D. This is possible because the transplanted stem cells are able to balance the immune system. The study also aimed to understand why some patients saw long-term clinical benefit from the transplantation while others did not.

Twenty-one T1D patients who received AHSCT were monitored and assessed every six months. Most patients became insulin free for an average of 3.5 years after transplantation, and C-peptide levels remained higher than initial values for at least four years post-AHSCT, indicating temporary immunological balance and preservation of insulin-secreting beta cells.

One patient is free of insulin for more than eight years now, without any major side effects, Roep said. But he also points out that some participants had little to no benefit. However, we discovered the immune signature predicting these outcomes either favorable or not which is the first step toward personalized medicine in type 1 diabetes. We have a foot in the door.

Because stem cell transplants involve severe immunosuppression prior to transplantation, the procedure is risky and will unlikely become the first line of defense for T1D, Roep added. However, the lessons learned from this and other trials will inform new paths for potential treatments.

The trials findings will aid in the development of new strategies of AHSCT that could lead to even better outcomes for more patients, and will guide future research protocols on immunotherapies for T1D.

This study paves the way for personalized therapy in type 1 diabetes, Roep said. Understanding why it sometimes fails will allow us to design new treatment strategies for those less fortunate patients. Also, it is the first definitive proof that T1D can be cured.

The work described in the Frontiers in Immunology paper was also supported by the So Paulo Research Foundation. The paper is titled Immunological Balance is Associated with Clinical Outcome after Autologous Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation in Type 1 Diabetes.

About City of Hope

City of Hope is an independent research and treatment center for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases. Designated as one of only 47 comprehensive cancer centers, the highest recognition bestowed by the National Cancer Institute, City of Hope is also a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, with research and treatment protocols that advance care throughout the world. City of Hope is located in Duarte, California, just northeast of Los Angeles, with communityclinics throughout Southern California. It is ranked as one of "Americas Best Hospitals" in cancer by U.S. News & World Report. Founded in 1913, City of Hope is a pioneer in the fields of bonemarrowtransplantation, diabetes and numerous breakthrough cancer drugs based on technology developed at the institution. For more information about City of Hope, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.

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Researchers Study Cure for Type 1 Diabetes in Stem Cell Transplantations - Business Wire (press release)

New Method Rescues Donor Organs to Save Lives – Laboratory Equipment

By Stem Cell Medical Center

A multidisciplinary team led by Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, Mikati Foundation Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Medical Sciences at Columbia Engineering, and Matt Bacchetta, associate professor of surgery at Columbia University Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian has--for the first time--maintained a fully functional lung outside the body for several days. In a study published today on Nature Biomedical Engineering's website, the researchers describe the cross-circulation platform that maintained the viability and function of the donor lung and the stability of the recipient over 36 to 56 hours. They used the advanced support system to fully recover the functionality of lungs injured by ischemia (restricted blood supply), and made them suitable for transplant.

The team was inspired by the critical need to expand the pool of donor lungs. Transplantation remains the only definitive treatment for patients with end-stage lung disease, but the number of donor lungs is much smaller than the number of patients in need, and many patients die while on the wait list. In addition, lungs quickly lose their function outside the body and during transport: four out of five lungs evaluated at transplant centers are rejected. If these lungs could be kept viable outside the body long enough, it would be possible to improve their function and use them for transplantation.

Over the past five years, Vunjak-Novakovic has been collaborating with Bacchetta and Hans Snoeck, professor of medicine, to investigate how to improve low-quality donor lungs and possibly bioengineer lungs for transplantation. Rather than attempting to build new lungs, they developed strategies to rescue damaged donor lungs. One approach was to use a stem cell therapy of the lung to replace defective cells with new therapeutic cells derived from the transplant recipient. While this technique was applicable to low-quality lungs that are rejected for transplantation, there was a problem: the support of the lung outside the body was too short for the therapeutic cells to start improving lung function.

As often happens, unmet clinical needs inspire new ideas and drive the development of new technologies. The Columbia team realized that "cross circulation"--an abandoned surgical procedure used in the 1960s to exchange blood flow between two patients--could enable long-term support of living organs outside the body by providing critical systemic and metabolic factors that are missing from all current technologies. The team embraced this idea and devised an entirely new approach to support lungs outside the body long enough to enable therapeutic interventions needed to recover their health and normal function.

"This is the most complex study we have ever done, and the one with the highest potential for clinical translation," Vunjak-Novakovic said. "The lung is a masterpiece of 'engineering by nature,' with its more than 40 cell types, and a gas exchange surface area of 100 square meters - half a tennis court. It is amazing that such an intricate organ can be maintained outside the body and even recovered following injury."

"Our team worked hard to innovate a suite of imaging and targeted delivery technologies and ultimately completed this challenging, paradigm-shifting study in less than a year. This was only possible because of our uniquely talented team of bioengineers and surgeons, and the highly collaborative environment at Columbia that fosters innovation," Vunjak-Novakovic said.

The team's breakthrough was realizing that cross-circulation could be re-configured to help recover damaged donor organs. The study's lead authors, Ph.D. candidate John O'Neill and postdoctoral research fellow Brandon Guenthart, looked at clinical studies from the 1960s that used cross-circulation of blood between a healthy individual and a patient suffering from a critical but potentially reversible illness. Working in Vunjak-Novakovic's Laboratory for Stem Cells and Tissue Engineering, they developed a radically new technology to support fully functional lung outside the body for several days.

"Our cross-circulation platform will likely allow us to extend the duration of support to a week or longer if needed, potentially enabling the recovery of severely damaged organs," observed O'Neill. "Beyond prolonging support time, we also demonstrated several therapeutic interventions that vastly improve and accelerate recovery."

As the team was developing their cross-circulation platform, they overcame many challenges to keep the lungs viable outside the body much longer than any platform had before. To prevent the outer surface of the lung from drying out and to provide normal body temperature, they designed a humidification system with ambient temperature control and a re-circulating warm water organ basin to provide normal body temperature to mimic the chest cavity.

Then they needed to tackle the perfusion circuit. To allow for adequate blood flow into and out of the lungs during cross-circulation, they developed new components and techniques and used a donor vessel as a "bio-bridge." They engineered a dynamic system capable of height and hydrostatic pressure adjustments and feedback-regulated pressure-controlled flow. They also developed image-guided techniques for the controlled delivery of drugs and cells in precisely targeted regions of the lung without the need for repeated lung biopsies.

"As our work progressed, we continued to innovate out of necessity and refine and streamline our cross-circulation setup and procedure," said Guenthart.

The researchers say their new platform could be readily extended to recover other organs that are in high demand for transplant or in need of repair, including livers and kidneys, and they have already begun studies in these directions.

"Cross-circulation has proven to be a valuable tool for investigation and has fostered interdisciplinary collaborations," Bacchetta said. "Our study is giving researchers new opportunities to investigate donor-recipient immunologic interactions, therapeutic cell delivery, stem cell differentiation, acute lung injury, and the development of new pulmonary theranostics."

Vunjak-Novakovic added, "Our goal was to develop a platform that harnesses the full potential of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine toward organ rescue. We hope that our unique technology will benefit the many patients in need and help them live fuller and happier lives."

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New Method Rescues Donor Organs to Save Lives - Laboratory Equipment

Artificial mouse embryo created out of stem cells – BioNews

By Embryonic Stem Cells

Stem cells from an adult mouse have been used to grow a structure resembling a mouse embryo in vitro for the first time.

The ability to study the early stages of embryo development outside the womb may one day help explain why a significant number of human pregnancies fail. This breakthrough in developmental research originated from the same team at University of Cambridge which recently developed a technique that allows human embryos to develop in the lab up to the legal limit of 14 days in the UK.

'We are very optimistic that this will allow us to study key events of this critical stage of human development without actually having to work on (IVF) embryos,'said lead researcher Professor Magdalena Zernicka-Goetzof the University of Cambridge.

The development of a fertilised egg into a fetus is a complex and poorly understood process of self-assembly and intricate cell-to-cell interaction. In a few days a small ball of undifferentiated cells develops into a blastocyst consisting of three different types of embryonic stem cell. Previous attempts to grow embryos using only one kind of stem cell proved unsuccessful because the cells would not assemble into their correct positions.

The researchers placed both placental andembryonic stem cellsinto a three-dimensional scaffold and discovered that within 96 hoursthe cells had begun to communicate, forming two distinct clusters of cells at each end and a cavity in the middle.

'We knew that interactions between the different types of stem cell are important for development, but the striking thing that our new work illustrates is that this is a real partnership these cells truly guide each other,' said Professor Zernicka-Goetz.

The scientists' goal was not to grow mice outside of the womb, but to open a new window on embryonic development just prior to implantation the so-called 'black box' of embryonic development,later than human embryos can be studiedin vitrobut earlier than ultrasound imaging can be used to view the embryo in the womb. About two-thirds of pregnancies are thought to fail during this stage, but because it is so difficult to study, the reasons are poorly understood.

Professor Robin Lovell-Badge of The Crick Institute, who was not involved in the research,lauded the findings as 'permitting study of events that normally take place within the uterus and are therefore difficult to observe, but in this case with an essentially unlimited supply of starting material'.

If used in human embryology, this methodology could make scientists less dependent on fertilised eggs;using artificial embryos could speed up research and potentially sidestep some ethical concerns.

Some critics fear that the technique could be used irresponsibly however. Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert,told the Telegraph: 'What concerns me about the possibility of artificial embryos is that this may become a route to creating GM or even cloned babies.'

The research was published in the journal Science.

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Artificial mouse embryo created out of stem cells - BioNews

Scottish universities link to develop stem cell therapies – PharmaTimes

By Uncategorized

Researchers at the Universities of Dundee and Edinburgh in Scotland are looking to work with the pharmaceutical industry to improve understanding of the biological processes that could form the basis of new therapies to support tissue regeneration or repair.

The National Phenotypic Screening Centre (NPSC) at the University of Dundee and the Medical Research Council (MRC) Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CRM) at the University of Edinburgh have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to work more closely together on translating novel biological discoveries into new stem cell therapies that could address a wide range of conditions.

The UK Regenerative Medicine Platform-funded Engineering and exploiting the stem cell niche Hub, led by the CRM, is dedicated to increase understanding of the biology of stem cell niches and to exploiting this knowledge therapeutically to improve organ regeneration through endogenous repair and cell transplantation.

Finding new drugs which can activate endogenous regenerative pathways requires the development of cell-based assays able to reproduce the complex behaviour of the cells and tissues in patients; the NPSC specialises in developing such assays so they can be systematically screened using large libraries of drug-like molecules to uncover agents that can alter cell and tissue behaviour.

The alliance between the two centres will allow novel biological discoveries from CRM to benefit from the expertise and industrial drug screening infrastructure provided by the NPSC, which, it is hoped, will lead to new therapies.

Stem cell medicine is coming of age. This is a great opportunity for Scottish Universities to partner with industry to ensure we can translate excellent science to new therapies that can help patients with chronic disease, noted Professor Stuart Forbes, Director of the Centre for Regenerative Medicine and co-director of the Niche Hub.

Read more:
Scottish universities link to develop stem cell therapies - PharmaTimes

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