Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

Stem cell researchers at Emory University School of Medicine have made an advance toward having a long-lasting "repair caulk" for blood vessels. The research could form the basis of a treatment for peripheral artery disease, derived from a patients own cells. Their results were recently published in the journal Circulation.

Both, blood and bone of human beings have the potential to regenerate. This capacity is owed to multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into various cell types: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are precursors of all cell types of the blood; mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are precursor cells of the connective tissue and may differentiate to bone, cartilage, and muscle cells.

In a phase 1 trial, axicabtagene ciloleucel (axi-cel), an autologous anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, showed efficacy in patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma after the failure of conventional therapy.

A type of mouse widely used to assess how the human immune system responds to transplanted stem cells does not reflect what is likely to occur in patients, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Ataxias are locomotor disorders that can have an origin both neural and muscular, although both impairments are related. Unfortunately, ataxia has no cure and the current therapies are aimed at motor re-education or muscular reinforcement.

Using genetic engineering for personal enhancement is a controversial topic — not to mention, presently, a practical impossibility.

Bone formation in mammals requires continuous production of osteoblasts throughout life. A common molecular marker for all osteogenic mesenchymal progenitors has not been identified

This year could be a defining one for CRISPR, the gene editing technique, which has been hailed as an important breakthrough in laboratory research.

Scientists at the National Eye Institute (NEI), part of the National Institutes of Health, report that tiny tube-like protrusions called primary cilia on cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) — a layer of cells in the back of the eye — are essential for the survival of the retina’s light-sensing photoreceptors.

Last month, the FDA approved a gene therapy called Luxturna, which can treat a rare eye disease that causes blindness. Now the treatment has a price tag, CNBC reports. It will cost $425,000 per eye, and while $850,000 is steep, its lower than the $1 million at which many expected the treatment to be priced