Heady research: Stanford study finds molecule triggers hair growth in mouse embryos

By ERIN DIGITALE

STANFORD, Calif. — Comb-overs might not be the only solution for those who are losing their hair. A molecule that prompts hair follicle development in utero might one day be used to treat hair loss or combat excess hair growth.
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Stanford fruit-fly study adds weight to the theories about another type of adult stem cell

STANFORD, Calif. — It turns out that an old dog—or at least an old fruit-fly cell—can learn new tricks. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have found that mature, specialized cells naturally regress to serve as a kind of de facto stem cell during the fruit-fly life cycle.
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Researchers Identify Gene Responsible for Rare Childhood Disease

By Debra Kain

The chromosomal abnormality that causes a rare, but often fatal, disorder that affects infants has been identified by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who happened to treat two young children with the disease in San Diego – two of perhaps a dozen children in the entire country diagnosed with the disorder.
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Spinal cord stem cells could be basis of new treatment

Deborah Halber, News Office Correspondent

A researcher at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory has pinpointed stem cells within the spinal cord that, if persuaded to differentiate into more healing cells and fewer scarring cells following an injury, may lead to a new, non-surgical treatment for debilitating spinal-cord injuries.

Image / Konstantinos Meletis
Coronal sections of injured adult spinal cord, anterior to posterior.
The labelling shows recombined ependymal cells and their progeny (white)
migrating out to the injury area in the dorsal funiculus, as a reponse
to the injury (injury is in the image on the right hand corner). The mouse
is a FoxJ1-CreER x R26R-LacZ reporter.

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Researchers Discover Remnant of an Ancient ‘RNA World’

New Haven, Conn. — Some bacterial cells can swim, morph into new forms and even become dangerously virulent – all without initial involvement of DNA. Yale University researchers describe Friday in the journal Science how bacteria accomplish this amazing feat – and in doing so provide a glimpse of what the earliest forms of life on Earth may have looked like.

Ronald Breaker and the chemical structure of cyclic di-GMP.

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“SMOTHERED” GENES COMBINE WITH MUTATIONS TO YIELD POOR OUTCOME IN CANCER PATIENTS

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center researchers have identified a set of genes in breast and colon cancers with a deadly combination of traditional mutations and “smothered” gene activity that may result in poor outcomes for patients.
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New technique produces genetically identical stem cells

Nicole Giese, Whitehead Institute

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Scripps Research Study of Disease-Causing Mutations Uncovers Surprising Pattern
Findings May Lead to Wealth of New Targets for Drug Treatments

LA JOLLA, CA, June 27, 2008—A new Scripps Research Institute survey of genetic mutations definitively tied to diseases has revealed clustering in a specific region of an important class of enzymes. The pattern was so clear it suggests that other mutations contributing to a wide range of diseases are likely to be tied to the region. New searches focused there may therefore lead to a wealth of new targets for drug treatments.
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MENDEL DIDN’T HAVE THE WHOLE PICTURE: OUR GENOME CHANGES OVER LIFETIME, JOHNS HOPKINS EXPERTS SAY

--Epigenetics Research Among Utah and Iceland Populations May Explain “Late-Onset” and Other Diseases
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Lancelet genome shows how genes quadrupled during vertebrate evolution

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations

BERKELEY – The newly sequenced genome of a dainty, quill-like sea creature called a lancelet provides the best evidence yet that vertebrates evolved over the past 550 million years through a four-fold duplication of the genes of more primitive ancestors.
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Old muscle gets new pep in UC Berkeley stem cell study

By Sarah Yang, Media Relations

BERKELEY – Old muscle got a shot of youthful vigor in a stem cell experiment by bioengineers at the University of California, Berkeley, setting the path for research on new treatments for age-related degenerative conditions such as muscle atrophy or Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.
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Stem cell discovery sheds light on placenta development

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Researchers studying embryonic stem cells have explored the first fork in the developmental road, getting a new look at what happens when fertilized eggs differentiate to build either an embryo or a placenta.
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Researchers Discover Synthetic Chemicals that Create Pluripotent Stem Cells from Adult Cells

LA JOLLA, CA, June 4, 2008—Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute report that they have significantly improved upon a revolutionary technique that uses genes to turn skin cells from an adult back into pluripotent stem cells.
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Stem Cells Correct Defect in Child’s Fatal Skin Disease
Blood and marrow transplant corrects collagen VII deficiency
Columbia Skin Researcher Develops, Confirms Basic Science Behind Clinical
First

NEW YORK (June 3, 2008) – Researchers and clinicians have paved the way toward a cure for a young boy’s genetic and fatal skin disease, recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB), by using a cord blood and bone marrow transplant. Nate Liao, 25 months old from Clarksburg, N.J., underwent the experimental therapy in October 2007, as the result of a research and clinical collaboration between researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York and Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and physicians at the University of Minnesota and University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Fairview.
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Human Stem Cells Show Promise Against Fatal Children's Diseases

Scientists have used human stem cells to dramatically improve the condition of mice with a neurological condition similar to a set of diseases in children that are invariably fatal, according to an article in the June issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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Human Stem Cells Show Promise Against Fatal Children's Diseases

The green shows neurons in the brain of
a mouse that have been remyelinated as a result
of stem cell research.

Scientists have used human stem cells to dramatically improve the condition of mice with a neurological condition similar to a set of diseases in children that are invariably fatal, according to an article in the June issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
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Gene That Magnetically Labels Cells Shows Potential as Imaging Tool

Mammalian cells can produce tiny magnetic nuggets after the introduction of a single gene from bacteria, scientists have found. The gene MagA could become a valuable tool for tracking cells’ movement through the body via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), says Xiaoping Hu, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at Emory University and the Georgia Institute of Technology.
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Personal genomes may lead to personalized vitamin supplements

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations

BERKELEY – As the cost of sequencing a single human genome drops rapidly, with one company predicting a price of $100 per person in five years, soon the only reason not to look at your "personal genome" will be fear of what bad news lies in your genes.
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X chromosome exposed

An enzyme that binds differently to male and female sex chromosomes helps males to make up for their X chromosome shortage

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