Move over, DNA. Life’s other code is more subtle and far more powerful
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Legacy content author
5y ago
By Hayley Bennett NOT a lot of people know this, but babies are made with a handshake. True, that isn’t all that is involved. Often it starts with two people falling in love. But at some point biology takes over and a sperm must burrow its way into an egg. There is, however, more to the story. On reaching the egg, the sperm meets the zona pellucida, a thick jacket of sugars that only sperm cells have the right biochemical tools to grab hold of. That “molecular handshake”, as Kamil Godula at the University of California, San Diego, puts it, is the most crucial step in the process that gets huma ..read more
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The sugary language of our cells is giving us a new kind of medicine
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Legacy content author
5y ago
By Hayley Bennett NOT a lot of people know this, but babies are made with a handshake. True, that isn’t all that is involved. Often it starts with two people falling in love. But at some point biology takes over and a sperm must burrow its way into an egg. There is, however, more to the story. On reaching the egg, the sperm meets the zona pellucida, a thick jacket of sugars that only sperm cells have the right biochemical tools to grab hold of. That “molecular handshake”, as Kamil Godula at the University of California, San Diego, puts it, is the most crucial step in the process that gets huma ..read more
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2019 Preview: People will receive transfusions of artificial blood
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Legacy content author
5y ago
By Clare Wilson Blood transfusions save lives, but supply doesn’t always meet demand, which can lead to fatal consequences. Soon, we will be able to end that problem by making blood in the lab on demand, with no donors required. Transfusions depend on armies of donors and complex networks for collecting and storing donated blood. Some countries are unable to build the infrastructure required to do this. Even in developed nations, hospitals can run short of supplies for people belonging to particular blood groups. Such problems would be solved if we had a way to make effective artificial blood ..read more
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Stem cells implanted into the brain stop epilepsy seizures in rats
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Sam Wong
5y ago
By Clare Wilson For people with severe epilepsy, no medication is effective – but a radical approach of implanting stem cells into the brain could stop seizures at their source. The technique, which has so far shown promise in rats, would involve taking some of a patient’s own skin cells and turning them into embryonic-like stem cells in the lab. These can then be directed to become a kind of brain cell that damps down seizures. Epilepsy arises when there is an imbalance between two different kinds of nerve cell in the brain; excitatory ones, which cause other cells to fire, and inhibitory one ..read more
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Human placenta stem cells help people recover from hip surgery
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Legacy content author
5y ago
By Clare Wilson STEM cells taken from placentas have healing properties that can help people recover from having their hip joint replaced. Placentas are normally thrown away after childbirth, but now Israeli company Pluristem has taken discarded placentas and developed a batch of mesenchymal stem cells from them. These cells have the potential to turn into different kinds of tissue and release chemicals that promote healing. To see how the cells affect muscle repair, Tobias Winkler of Charité – Berlin University of Medicine in Germany and his colleagues tested two different doses of the cells ..read more
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The cancer-fighting multi-organ: 9 ways the placenta is amazing
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Julia Brown
5y ago
Everything a baby needs before birth comes via the placentaGetty Images By Alison George The placenta is a multi-organ kit The placenta forms in the first few weeks of pregnancy from both fetal and maternal cells, implanting on the wall of the uterus and enabling the fetus to get everything it needs to develop. Though it looks like an amorphous blob of tissue, it carries two separate but intimately connected blood vessel systems that enable the placenta to carry out the job of many organs, acting as a lung, liver, gut, kidney and hormone-producing endocrine system. It filters out waste product ..read more
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Frozen placentas could be the ticket to a long and healthy life
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Legacy content author
5y ago
By Catherine de Lange IF YOU were listing organs on which your life depends, you would probably overlook the placenta. Yet it plays a vital role in supporting a developing fetus, providing it with nutrients and oxygen, and removing waste products. Made from both fetal and maternal tissue, it is also a rich source of stem cells, which can turn into any cell needed by the body. Most placentas are discarded, but according to XPrize founder and space-flight entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, we could be missing a trick. He and Bob Hariri have set up a new company, Celularity, to harness placental cells ..read more
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Blood from umbilical cord may help fix your brain after a stroke
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Penny Sarchet
5y ago
A source of valuable stem cellsBURGER/PHANIE/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY By Alice KleinA healing balm for the brain? Infusions of umbilical cord blood seem to help people recover better after a stroke. Strokes occur when blood can’t reach brain cells because of a blocked or burst blood vessel, causing them to rapidly starve and die. Joanne Kurtzberg at Duke University, North Carolina, and her colleagues wondered if young blood might help heal brains that have been damaged in this way. Blood from babies and teenagers has previously been shown to reverse brain ageing in older mice, and there are ..read more
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Stem cells may reveal how Neanderthal DNA works in modern humans
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Michael Marshall
5y ago
Many of us carry DNA inherited from NeanderthalsDPA Picture Alliance Archive / Alamy Stock Photo By Colin BarrasWe could soon find out how the Neanderthal DNA many of us carry actually affects us. It turns out that stem cells, which have been hyped as a way to treat incurable diseases, can also be used to examine what Neanderthal genes do. Since 2010 evidence has been growing that many living people carry tiny amounts of Neanderthal DNA in their cells. It’s been suggested that this Neanderthal DNA has all sorts of effects, from our immune systems to …To continue reading this premium article ..read more
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Self-repairing organs could save your life in a heartbeat
New Scientist | Stem Cells
by Anne Marie Conlon
5y ago
WHAT becomes of the broken-hearted? In cardiac medicine, the answer is usually brutally straightforward: they die. Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and there is often precious little we can do about it. Pacemakers bring some relief and transplants work, but there are nowhere near enough donated hearts to go around. And unlike skin and liver cells, heart muscle cells can’t remake themselves. Once they get damaged or die, they are gone forever. Lab-grown stem cells, once the great hope for mending hearts, have disappointed. But over the past few years, cell biologists have ..read more
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