Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

How amazing would it be if we could use our own cells to transport cancer therapies to their target and avoid unwanted side effects? Well, soon we may be using red blood cells for just that purpose.

Science has yet to unravel a complete understanding of the brain and all its intricate workings. Its not for lack of effort.

Scientists at the UNC School of Medicine and NC State have created an injectable gel-like scaffold that can hold combination chemo-immunotherapeutic drugs and deliver them locally to tumors in a sequential manner. The results in animal models so far suggest this approach could one day ramp up therapeutic benefits for patients bearing tumors or after removal of the primary tumors.

Automated robots now have the tools to grow imitation, simplified human organs out of stem cells. Thankfully, we weren’t transported to a sci-fi dystopia where the machines have risen up and started to farm humans, but rather a world where pharmaceutical and other biomedical research just became much easier and faster.

By destroying the regulatory genes of the AIDS virus HIV-1 using the genome editing system CRISPR/Cas9, a Japanese research group has succeeded in blocking the production of HIV-1 by infected cells.

Arefian, manager of the workshops of the third national festival and international congress of stem cells and regenerative medicine, which will be held with the support of stem cells sciences and technologies development headquarter, regarded these workshops a step toward empowering the researchers of the field.

Belgian biotech Celyad has raised substantial funding on Euronext Paris and the NASDAQ to support its CAR-T cell therapy, which can be applied to both solid and blood tumors. CYAD-01, its most advanced drug candidate, is currently in Phase I trials. The funding could help Celyad keep up with other CAR-T developers.

BioLamina, based in Stockholm, is collaborating with the world-leader in diabetes treatment Novo Nordisk to develop stem cell therapies that use BioLamina’s protein cell culture matrices. BioLamina’s technology could enhance Novo Nordisk’s stem cell therapies effectiveness in treating diabetes.

In research published today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, scientists at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons present the most definitive evidence to date that the human brain makes new neurons throughout life.

By taking a deep dive into the molecular underpinnings of Diamond-Blackfan anemia, scientists have made a new discovery about what drives the development of mature red blood cells from the earliest form of blood cells, called hematopoietic (blood-forming) stem cells.