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Latest issue, Supplements / 17 April 2013 / Katharina Drews, James Adjaye, Annette Meeson, George E. Plopper
This free to view Stem Cells in-depth focus is supported by BD Biosciences, CellGenix, Cellular Dynamics, Charles River and Life Technologies:
- The promise held by induced pluripotent stem cells for research and regenerative medicine
(Katharina Drews, Molecular Embryology and Aging Group, Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics / James Adjaye, Molecular Embryology and Aging Group, Department of Vertebrate Genomics, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics & Institute for Stem Cell Research and Regenerative Medicine, Heinrich Heine University)
Human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) have had an unprecedented impact on biomedical research, disease modelling, toxicology studies and drug development. In addition to circumventing ethical and moral disputes associated with the use of blastocyst-derived embryonic stem cells (ESCs), iPSCs provide new perspectives for personalised medicine in the future. In this review, we highlight mechanisms underlying the induction of pluripotency in somatic cells and discuss potential applications in the field of regenerative medicine.
- Workshop preview – Cell based assays for screening
Recent years have witnessed an expansion in the disciplines encompassing drug discovery outside the pharmaceutical industry. This is most notable with a significant number of universities worldwide that now host infrastructure such as compound libraries and automated screening centres. An archetypal small molecule drug discovery project will aim to identify chemical starting points that modify the functions of genes, cells or biochemical pathways. In some but not all instances, these functions may be linked to disease processes, and an opportunity will exist to further develop the chemical starting points into novel therapeutic agents. In small molecule drug discovery, the ultimate aim is to identify new therapeutics, an activity that for reasons of high risk and cost has historically been conducted within the commercial sectors.
- Cardiac stem cells
(Annette Meeson, Institute of Genetic Medicine, Newcastle University)
For many patients with heart failure, treatment options include optimised medical management, surgical intervention, the use of devices such as pacemakers, ventricular assist devices (VADS) or total artificial hearts (TAH) or if available, a heart transplant. These approaches are not without their limitations and not all are suitable for all cardiac patients. Pharmacological management carries with it the risk of drug-related side-effects. The use of devices such as pacemakers, TAH and VADS may come with increased risks of infection, bleeding and device failure. Heart transplantation is a highly invasive procedure carrying the added risk of transplant organ rejection and the side-effects of long term immunosuppression, and remains a limited treatment option due to the shortage of suitable donor organs.
- Stem Cells Roundtable
(Moderator: George E. Plopper, Professor, Department of Biology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
- Show preview – ISSCR 11th Annual Meeting
The ISSCR 11th Annual Meeting will be held on 12 – 15 June 2013 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC), Boston, MA, USA, hosting stem cell professionals from around the globe. (more…)
Issue 3 2012, Supplements / 5 July 2012 / Michaela E. Sharpe, Mathurin Baquié, Igor Charvet, Luc Stoppini, Karl-Heinz Krause
This free to view Stem Cells in-depth focus is sponsored by Cellular Dynamics, Mirus and BD Biosciences:
- STEM CELL THERAPIES:
Assuring Safety
(Michaela E. Sharpe, formerly Drug Safety Research and Development Portfolio Support, Pfizer)
- ROLE OF PLURIPOTENT STEM CELLS IN NEUROTOXICOLOGY TESTING:
Impacts and applied innovations
(Mathurin Baquié, Igor Charvet, Luc Stoppini and Karl-Heinz Krause – University of Geneva)
(more…)
Whitepapers / 25 October 2011 / STEMCELL Technologies
To decrease the cost and time invested in drug development, efforts must be made to improve the chances of a compound successfully completing clinical trials. Validated CFU-GM assays have successfully predicted MTDs in humans and have the bridged the gap between in vitro screening technologies and in vivo studies. Using (more…)
Issue 5 2011 / 19 October 2011 / Ivana Barbaric and Peter W. Andrews, Centre for Stem Cell Biology, University of Sheffield
The Canadian physician William Osler said: “The person who takes medicine must recover twice, once from the disease and once from the medicine.” Indeed, all medicines have side effects – some of which may complicate a patient’s treatment, or in extreme cases may even be fatal. Of concern is the fact that side effects of drugs are often difficult or impossible to predict from preclinical studies, and infamous cases of drugs causing permanent injury or even death of patients in clinical trials illustrate the severity of this problem.
Late stage attrition of drugs is costly for pharmaceutical companies, contributing to the rise of drug prices and delays of drug delivery to market. Better prediction of compound efficacy and safety at early stages of drug development relies on improvement of the models used for pre-clinical testing. The availability of human embryonic stem (hES) cells and, more recently, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells may transform the landscape of drug discovery. Here we provide an overview of human pluripotent stem cell features that make them amenable to predictive toxicology and discuss how chemical screens that aim to find drugs that modulate stem cell fates may provide a paradigm for using stem cells in drug discovery. (more…)
Issue 2 2011 / 19 April 2011 / Janet L. Paluh, Associate Professor Nanobioscience, College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, University at Albany SUNY and Guohao Dai and Douglas B. Chrisey, Biomedical Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
There is no other biomedical frontier that offers the stunning potential of human pluripotent stem cells and their progenitors in therapeutic applications to ease human suffering or in their ability to provide insights into development and diseases. Cell plasticity for reprogramming has revealed new opportunities in cell-based therapies and informed on lineage specification. What precisely defines each stem cell type or its transit amplifying progenitors that will lead to differentiated adult tissues is still being determined. Challenges remain in cell expansion, directed differentiation and environmental regulation of pluri- and multi-potent cells that avoid unwanted outcomes in transplantation therapies. Traditional culturing methods are giving way to a revolution in tissue engineering and biofabrication. The key to success is a multidisciplinary partnership of biologists, engineers, material scientists and clinicians. This strategy brings together cutting edge technologies and diverse expertise to bridge nano- to micro- to macroscale communication networks. Here, we discuss prominent technologies being applied to engineer the stem cell and tissue niche in vitro for the construction of 3D tissue architectures with integrated vascular networks. (more…)
Industry news, News / 30 March 2011 / UK National Stem Cell Network (UKNSCN)
Speaking at the UK National Stem Cell Network annual science meeting later today (30 March), Professor Miguel Forte will describe research into a new cell therapy for chronic inflammatory conditions such as Crohn’s disease. Patient’s own blood cells are used to produce a type of cell – Type 1 T regulatory lymphocyte – that can reduce the extent of the disease.
(more…)
Issue 2 2010 / 9 May 2010 / Paul D. Andrews, Drug Discovery Unit, College of Life Sciences, University of Dundee
They are only four years old and are getting everyone very excited; they were Science Magazine’s ‘Breakthrough of the Year 2008’ and Nature’s ‘Method of the Year 2009.’ Their discoverer, Shinya Yamanaka, shared the Lasker Award last year and is no doubt touted for a future Nobel Prize. ‘They’ are induced pluripotent stem cells (or iPS for short). The discovery was that somatic cells from the adult body, whether from a hair, skin biopsy, cord-blood or even adipose tissue, can quite readily be changed back into pluripotent stem cells – ostensibly the state they were in shortly after conception – in the process, erasing the epigenetic modifications that make a brain cell different from, say, a liver cell. (more…)
Industry Focus 2010, Past issues / 22 February 2010 /
It would be fair to say that these past 12 months have been a watershed year for stem cell science. In years to come we may look back on 2009 and recognise it as the year in which nascent areas of science, medicine and technology came together to slowly nudge stem cell biology into the mainstream. Scientific and academic progress aside, it also may mark the year in which the field first matured to a stage at which commercial viability came to the cusp of realisation. (more…)
Issue 6 2009, Past issues / 12 December 2009 /
The promise of stem cell-based therapy is predicated on harnessing the plasticity of stem cell phenotypes to repair or replace damaged tissues. As technologies for detecting, isolating, modifying, and tracking stem cells improve, the very definition of what constitutes a stem cell is now an open question. Addressing this fundamental problem has triggered an explosion of activity that spans the entire breadth of biological fields, from molecular biology to population biology. While this has clearly increased the gross amount of information concerning stem cells, its net impact is limited by a lack of integrative multiscale models that are readily accessible to researchers from many disciplines. The field of mesenchymal stem cell biology is a good example of the strengths and limitations of this segregative approach. The goal of this brief review is to highlight some of the most promising recent advances in mesenchymal stem cell research, with an emphasis on how data gathered from one level can benefit research across multiple scales. (more…)
Issue 6 2009, Past issues / 12 December 2009 /
The 4th annual Stem Cells World Congress and exhibition will be held in South San Francisco, the Birthplace of Biotechnology. This year there are two parallel tracks focused specifically on: (more…)
Issue 3 2009, Past issues / 29 May 2009 /
Nearly fifty years ago, it was hypothesised that terminally differentiated cells such as fibroblasts could be forced to take on a pluripotent state, similar to the embryonic stem cells (ES cells). The basis of the concept is the observation that all cell types, with minor exceptions, have the same genetic code. The only difference is how the code is read. This ability of differentiated cells to acquire a pluripotent state or, more generally, the process of cell fate conversion is termed cellular reprogramming. Reprogramming here means transition between cell fates or dedifferentiation. The classic and earliest change of direction of cell differentiation comes from the research of nuclear transfer. Another milestone showing that the nuclear transfer technology can reverse the cell fate of somatic cells to pluripotent stem cells was the production of the normal adult sheep Dolly. Recent and spectacular advances in this field fell in 2006 when mouse fibroblasts were reprogrammed to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The next big step was the in vivo reprogramming of adult pancreatic exocrine cells to beta cells. This series of excellent work turns back the clock of somatic cells to create the first (iPS) cells, or stem cells, made without the use of embryos. In this article, we will focus on cellular reprogramming; in particular on transcription factor induced reprogramming as well as its implications for therapeutic use. (more…)
Issue 2 2009, Past issues / 20 March 2009 /
Dr Paul Andrews (Senior Scientist, ITI Stem Cell Technology Programme, University of Dundee), Professor Peter Andrews (co-Director of the Centre for Stem Cell Biology, University of Sheffield), Fergus McKenzie PhD. (Programme Manager, ITI-Life Sciences), Dr Stephen Minger (Senior Lecturer in Stem Cell Biology, Kings College London) and Will Rust (Section Manager, Cell Systems R&D, Lonza Bioscience) take part in a roundtable to discuss stem cell research. (more…)
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