stem cell researchers

(University of California - Berkeley) When UC Berkeley bioengineers tweaked how adult stem cells reacted to biochemical signals regulating cell division, they gave muscle in old mice a shot of youthful vigor.

The research sets the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions, including muscle atrophy and Alzheimer's disease.

A new study provides evidence that methods using human bone marrow-derived stem cells to deliver gene therapy to cure diseases of the blood, bone marrow and certain types of cancer do not cause the development of tumors or leukemia.

Researchers have successfully identified over 5,000 proteins that are present in embryonic stem cells, tripling the size of previous results and in the process creating the largest quantified protein map to date.

Stem cells hold great potential in biology and medicine, but a host of questions lingers about how they operate and convert into other cells.

Solving a long-standing biological mystery, stem cell researchers have discovered that blood stem cells, the cells that later differentiate into all the cells in the blood supply, originate and are nurtured in the placenta.

A gene that "wakes up" the blood system's stem cells in times of stress also plays an important role in protecting against infection, said researchers in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

Researchers note that it makes sense that a serious infection with a pathogen or disease-causing organism could require that stem cells rally to generate new blood cells to fight against the invading organisms.