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Researchers Reconstruct Early Stages of Embryo Development

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have managed to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing that a critical mass of cells – not too few, but not too many – is needed for the cells to being self-organising into the correct structure for an embryo to form.

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New Law in France Loosens Restrictions on Human Embryo

The French National Assembly yesterday approved a new law that aims to ease regulation of research involving human embryos and embryonic stem cells. Although French researchers say that the shift will bring little immediate change to their day-to-day work, they hope that the new law will bring more academic freedom and collaboration.

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Moving Forward In Stem Cell Research By Rewinding Development

Scientists at the Danish Stem Cell Center, DanStem, at the University of Copenhagen have discovered that they can make embryonic stem cells regress to a stage of development where they are able to make placenta cells as well as the other fetal cells. This significant discovery, published in the journal Cell Reports today, has the potential to shed new light on placenta related disorders that can lead to problematic pregnancies and miscarriages.

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Scientists Clone Human Embryos To Make Stem Cells

Scientists say they have, for the first time, cloned human embryos capable of producing embryonic stem cells. The accomplishment is a long-sought step toward harnessing the potential power of embryonic stem cells to treat many human diseases. But the work also raises a host of ethical concerns.

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Court lifts cloud over embryonic stem cells

embryonic stem cellsThe US Supreme Court’s decision last week to throw out a lawsuit that would have blocked federal funding of all research on human embryonic stem cells cleared the gloom that has hung over the field for more than three years. Yet the biggest boost from the decision might go not to work on embryonic stem (ES) cells, but to studies of their upstart cousins, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are created by ‘reprogramming’ adult cells into a stem-cell-like state.

At first glance, iPS-cell research needs no help. Researchers flocked to the field soon after a recipe for deriving the cells from adult mouse cells was announced in 2006, partly because this offered a way to skirt the thorny ethical issues raised by extracting cells from human embryos. But the real allure of iPS cells was the promise of genetically matched tissues. Adult cells taken from a patient could be used to create stem cells that would, in turn, generate perfectly matched specialized tissues — replacement neurons, say — for cell therapy. Although the number of published papers from iPS-cell research has not yet caught up with that of ES-cell work (see ‘Inducing a juggernaut’), US funding for each approach is now roughly matched at about US$120 million a year. Read full article.

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Scientists Relieved As Supreme Court Passes Over Case Against Embryonic Stem Cell Research

In light of yesterday’s refusal by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case that could have prohibited further government funding of embryonic stem cell research on ethical grounds, a sigh of relief was expressed by many leaders in the field.

Doug Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute , said, “We couldn’t be happier that this frivolous, but at the same time potentially devastating distraction is behind us, and we can once again focus all our attention on advancing all forms of stem cell science, including research using embryonic stem cells – which are the gold standard against which we measure other types.”

Robert Lanza, chief science officer for Advanced Cell Technology: “We’re obviously delighted with the Supreme Court’s decision,” he told me in an email. “However, it’s a shame it took this long to put this lawsuit to rest, not to mention the potentially life-saving research it held up or slowed in the process.”

Advanced Cell had a pretty good year from a scientific perspective.

The California-based company’s clinical trials for the treatment of Stargardt Disease with embryonic stem (ES) cells have proceeded without any safety issues. Plans to derive blood platelets from reprogrammed, or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells), have also been submitted to the FDA for approval. Read full article.

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Breakthrough in the Understanding of Embryonic Stem Cells

ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2012) — A significant breakthrough in the understanding of embryonic stem cells has been made by scientists from the Smurfit Institute of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin. The Trinity research group led by Dr Adrian Bracken and funded by Science Foundation Ireland, has just published their findings in the journal, Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

The new research describes the process whereby genes that are ‘on’ in embryonic stem cells are switched ‘off’. This process is essential in order to convert embryonic stem cells into different cell types such as neurons, blood or heart cells and therefore represents an important breakthrough in the area of regenerative medicine.

The research encompasses both embryonic stem cell research and epigenetics. Embryonic stem cell research is focused on a particular type of cell that is capable of generating the various tissues in the body; for example, muscle, heart or brain. It is particularly relevant due to its potential for regenerating diseased tissues and organs and for the treatment of a variety of conditions including Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and spinal cord injury. Read full article.