Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

T cells, a subtype of white blood cells, play key roles in cell-mediated immunity, be it to fight infections and cancer or, when corrupted, to react against the body’s own cells in more than 80 autoimmune diseases, including type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and others. However, isolating disease-related T cells from the body to better study or eliminate them poses a formidable challenge to researchers and clinicians.

The gene editing technique CRISPR has been in the limelight after scientists reported they had used it to safely remove disease in human embryos for the first time. This follows a "CRISPR craze" over the last couple of years, with the number of academic publications on the topic growing steadily.

Using stem cells, scientists have managed to restore nerve function in monkeys with Parkinsons disease. The findings may change therapeutic practices in humans.

Each one of our cells has the same 22,000 or so genes in its genome, but each uses different combinations of those same genes, turning them on and off as their role and situation demand. It is these patterns of expressed and repressed genes that determine what kind of cell—kidney, brain, skin, heart—each will become.

CRISPR Therapeutics and Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center (MGHCC) announced today that they have signed a two-year research collaboration and license option agreement to develop novel T-cell therapies for cancer.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a historic action today making the first gene therapy available in the United States, ushering in a new approach to the treatment of cancer and other serious and life-threatening diseases.

It’s been well established that obesity is a contributor to cancer risk, but how it actually causes cancer is still a question that hasn’t been fully explained.

UTRECHT, Netherlands — Els van der Heijden, who has cystic fibrosis, was finding it ever harder to breathe as her lungs filled with thick, sticky mucus. Despite taking more than a dozen pills and inhalers a day, the 53-year-old had to stop working and scale back doing the thing she loved best, horseback riding.

New research has discovered a potential means to trigger damaged heart cells to self-heal. The discovery could lead to groundbreaking forms of treatment for heart diseases. For the first time, researchers have identified a long non-coding ribonucleic acid (ncRNA) that regulates genes controlling the ability of heart cells to undergo repair or regeneration. This novel RNA, which researchers have named "Singheart," may be targeted for treating heart failure in the future.

Scientists have slowed down the ageing process by implanting stem cells into the brains of animals, raising hopes for new strategies to combat age-related diseases and extend the human lifespan.