Researchers had used brain organoids to study how Zika virus affects brain development in the embryo and causes small-sized brain called microcephaly. This study would have been nearly impossible using human brain at the embryo stage for obvious ethical reasons. On October 21, at the Society for Neuroscience’s 49th meeting Neuroscience 2019 held in Chicago, … Continue reading Explained: How lab-grown organoids can transform medicine
Adult Stem Cells
NCCS finds dual mechanism that helps embryonic stem cells maintain pluripotency
NCCS researchers have found two mechanisms that turn off the expression of endocytosis-associated genes, thus helping the stem cells to maintain their pluripotency. The dual mechanism functions in such a way that even if one mechanism fails, the other can function as a back-up. Understanding of the mechanism will be helpful in regenerative medicine using iPS cells. … Continue reading NCCS finds dual mechanism that helps embryonic stem cells maintain pluripotency
A step closer to regenerative medicine
A landmark study published today (September 12, 2013) in Nature shows that reprogramming of adult cells that behave like stem cells can be achieved right inside the body (in vivo). Till now, reprogramming of adult cells has been achieved only in labs (in vitro). This opens a promising window to repairing tissues right inside the … Continue reading A step closer to regenerative medicine
Editorial: Food for thought
At €2,50,000, the burger produced recently using meat cultured in a lab is probably the world’s most expensive sandwich. But it marks a major milestone in the long pursuit by a few scientists to grow meat in vitro. The small piece of meat containing 20,000 strips of muscle tissue, each one mm thick by 2.5 … Continue reading Editorial: Food for thought
Editorial: Organs, made to order
Producing fully functional human organs using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) will, in the foreseeable future, cease to remain in the realm of science fiction. In a game-changing study published recently in Nature, a team of Japanese scientists led by Takanori Takebe from the Yokohama City University Graduate School of Medicine has taken a … Continue reading Editorial: Organs, made to order
Editorial: Turning the clock back
Published in The Hindu on October 10,2012 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded on Monday to Sir John B. Gurdon of the Gurdon Institute in Cambridge and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka from Kyoto University for their path-breaking discoveries was not unexpected. Dr. Yamanaka had won two other prestigious science awards — the Albert Lasker … Continue reading Editorial: Turning the clock back
Induced pluripotent stem cells cure liver cirrhosis
Published in The Hindu on October 13, 2011 Treating human diseases using adult cells taken from a patient and genetically reprogramming them so that they behave like embryonic stem cells has come a step closer. In a paper published in Nature today (Oct 13), scientists report the sequence of events for successfully correcting a gene … Continue reading Induced pluripotent stem cells cure liver cirrhosis
Editorial: Milestone in stem cell research
Published in The Hindu on August 1, 2009 Research on reprogramming adult cells to make them behave like embryonic stem cells crossed a milestone recently when two Chinese teams succeeded in producing mouse pups using such cells. Ever since induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells were produced in 2006 by reprogramming adult cells, researchers across the … Continue reading Editorial: Milestone in stem cell research
Embryonic stem cell research winter ends
Published in The Hindu on March 12, 2009 By signing an executive order, President Barack Obama on March 9 has reversed George W. Bush’s limited federal funding for embryonic stem cell research. Bush’s policy made only those embryonic stem cell lines created before August 9, 2001 eligible for federal funding. By this order, medical research … Continue reading Embryonic stem cell research winter ends
A decade of embryonic stem cell research
Published in The Hindu on November 13, 2008 Medical science got a big boost when James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced on Nov 6, 1998 that he had successfully derived and sustained the culturing of human embryonic stem cells. There was hope of using the technique to treat/cure certain diseases in about ten … Continue reading A decade of embryonic stem cell research
Science Chronicle 