What is Stem Cell: November 2007

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

[StemCells] Stem Cells to Boost Memory

Stem Cells May Reverse Brain Injury and Restore Memory
By Aaron Elias
Memories help construct lives and life experiences—without them,
living life would be nearly impossible. Alzheimer's and Parkinson's
diseases are debilitating illnesses capable of ruining victims' lives
and inflicting pain and sadness on their families. Recent findings at
UC Irvine show that the use of stem cells can reverse memory loss
after brain injuries and diseases, such as Alzheimer's.

"This study can very well benefit people with diseases such as
Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as physical brain injuries and
neuron loss, if it becomes transferable to humans," said Debbie
Morisette, a stereologist working on the study. "But as of right now,
we don't think it will benefit cancer patients, though it is not
impossible it could be used as therapy."

The stem cells used in the research are not embryonic, meaning that
they do not come from unborn fetuses. Instead, the stem cells come
from fully developed organs, such as those donated by people who died
in car accidents.

Embryonic stem cells are much like lumps of clay waiting to be
molded. While embryonic stem cells can develop into anything, adult
stem cells have already begun to move down a particular pathway and
can only develop into certain types of cells—in this case, neural
(brain) stem cells. These adult stem cells create little to no
controversy and, as a result, scientists have encountered little
ethical protest, allowing them to focus on their study.

"It depends on funding and progress," said Matthew Blurton-Jones, a
UCI neuroscientist heading the research. "But realistically, I'd say
it would take about five to 10 years for this research to become
transferable to humans."

Scientists used a carefully-bred and maintained group of mice to test
the research. They destroyed neurons in the hippocampus to create
memory loss and recorded the mice's performance on a series of memory-
related tests.

The mice were then injected with neural stem cells and retested. In
most cases, the mice tested after stem cell injection scored much
higher than they did with memory impairment, almost as high as
healthy mice.

Contrary to initial inference, the number of neurons did not increase
very much after the injections, only by about 7 percent. It turns out
that the rest of the stem cells turned into memory-supporting cells,
such as astrocytes, which promote neural survival and connectivity,
and oligodendrocytes, which insulate neural connections. A popular
hypothesis is that these supporting cells help create stronger and
newer connections between existing neurons.

The scientists may have high hopes for this new research, but they
are by no means disregarding the possible drawbacks.

"We have a lot left to study," explained Misashi Kitazawa, a
toxicologist working on the study. "Stem cells multiply and rebuild,
so there are many possibilities. They may create tumors, they may
not."

The research is very costly, but it is not the cost of the stem cells
that weighs heaviest on the budget.

"The research as a whole has probably cost somewhere between $500,000
to $750,000," Blurton-Jones said. "Each tiny vial of stem cells costs
around $300 to $400, but the animal costs and maintaining of the mice
are the most expensive."

Trita Yamasaki, another head scientist working on the study, is in
control of breeding the mice to produce the desired characteristics.
Yamasaki is also one of the scientists who spearheaded the study
along with UCI professor of neurobiology and behavior Frank LaFerla,
but neither could be reached for comment.

Even non-medical students around campus seem to support the research.

"I'm all for it," said Saman Mohseni, a second-year psychology
major. "With the right amount of technology, anything can happen."
While the research is not 100 percent guaranteed to succeed, others
are hopeful that humans will one day be able to use it.

"[This is] some very promising research," said Diego Kapelusznik, a
second-year political science major. "If it has even a slight chance
that it might cure diseases like Alzheimer's, then it's worth a try."
With the potential advent of neural stem cells available as a memory-
enhancing drug, brain injuries and diseases will be easier to cope
with for both the victim and their loved ones.

Neural stem cell research provides some very promising possibilities,
but it will be quite a while before we see it enter the realm of the
human brain.

http://www.newuniversity.org/checkDB.php?id=6279

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StemCells subscribers may also be interested in these sites:

Children's Neurobiological Solutions
http://www.CNSfoundation.org/

Cord Blood Registry
http://www.CordBlood.com/at.cgi?a=150123

The CNS Healing Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CNS_Healing
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[StemCells] Stem Cells to Boost Memory

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[StemCells] Regeneration Skin 1st ... and then, who knows ....

Kiss a frog, heal an ugly scar
5:00AM Monday November 19, 2007
By Robin McKie

Photo / Richard Robinson
The secret powers of frogs are being exploited by scientists to
create drugs that will correct disfiguring facial scars and could one
day help in the regrowth of amputated arms and legs.

Researchers at Manchester University in northern England are
exploiting the ability of some amphibians to regrow limbs. These
creatures share much of their genetic make-up with humans.

"Human and amphibian proteins are very similar," said Professor
Enrique Amaya.

"That means the lessons you learn from frogs and salamanders are
applicable to humans. Their embryos - spawn - are also easier to
study."

The Manchester work on tissue regeneration began 10 years ago, when
Professor Mark Ferguson discovered most animals' embryos recover more
fully from cuts than adult animals. The latter are often left
scarred, but not embryos.

"The protein responsible for this recovery is known as Transforming
Growth Factor Beta 3," said Ferguson.

"It is present in small amounts in adults, but in large amounts in
embryos, where it plays a key role in helping skin to multiply inside
in a rapidly growing embryo." Ferguson's team has since isolated the
protein, TGF Beta 3, and has developed ways to manufacture it
artificially. The result is a drug called Juvista.

development has been taken over by a university spin-off company,
Renovo, which is now in phase two clinical trials.

Juvista could soon be used as a treatment for alleviating scarring
during surgery, added Ferguson.

"After surgery for really severe accidents, patients can be left with
really disfiguring scars.

"Using Juvista, which you inject into the skin during the operation,
we've found we can reduce scarring by a significant amount."

Researchers at both centres are now working on ways to make further
improvement in drugs to help scars heal after surgery.

"We are not doing this to help women who want to remove bags from
under their eyes," said Amaya.

"We want to help people who suffered really nasty facial deformities
after accidents."

A key to this work is Manchester's research on amphibians. Spawn -
usually from the genus Xenopus - is used to search for other
biochemical agents that aid scar recovery. In addition, some species
of amphibians, mainly salamanders, are known to grow replacement
limbs.

If the biochemical agents and growth factors involved in limb growth
can be discovered, then it could have profoundly important medical
implications, said Professor Cay Kielty.

"Limb regrowth involves blood, bone and muscle tissue growing in a
very ordered manner.

"If you can learn how it happens in amphibians, you could think of
replicating it in humans."

Researchers envisage erecting bio-degradable scaffolding on a limb
site, lacing these with a patient's stem cells and then adding
biochemical agents developed from their amphibian work.

The stem cells would evolve into blood, muscle and bone under the
direction of these agents, while the scaffold disintegrates slowly -
to form a new limb.

"It is encouraging, but it will take many years to realise," added
Ferguson.

"However, we are close to getting medicines that will reduce scars in
accident victims."

- Observer
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10476806

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[StemCells] embryonic to mature heart

Study reports evidence of mature heart cell potential in embryonic
stem cells
From our ANI Correspondent

Washington, Nov 28: A new study has reported the first functional
evidence that heart cells derived from human embryonic stem cells
exhibit one of the most critical properties of mature adult heart
cells, an important biological process called excitation-contraction
coupling.

The study, led by Ronald Li, an associate professor of cell biology
and human anatomy at UC Davis School of Medicine, observed cells that
had begun the maturation process toward becoming heart cells.

"Previous experiments were able to derive heart cells from human
embryonic stem cells. But those cells always remained too immature to
be of any therapeutic use and actually could cause lethal arrhythmias
in animal models," said Li.

"Now, what we've been able to do is push the therapeutic potential of
human embryonic stem cells further so that eventually they might be
used safely, and with enhanced efficacy, in transplantation cases,"
he said.

The main function of the heart is to mechanically pump blood in a
highly coordinated fashion throughout the body.

To do this, heart cells must receive electrical signals and contract
in response to those signals. This link, called the excitation-
contraction coupling, is dependent on the cells' ability to move
calcium ions across an internal organelle known as sarcoplasmic
reticulum, or the so-called "calcium store."

The ability to handle calcium is disrupted in the cells of patients
who experience heart failure.

In the study, the researchers took human embryonic stem cells and
grew them in cultures, allowing them to differentiate, or develop,
into heart cells.

Once they had these tiny, pulsing masses, the investigators energized
the cells with small amounts of electrical current and chemicals,
including caffeine.

Then, they measured how the amount of intracellular calcium changed
and looked for the presence of proteins and cellular structures known
to be involved in excitation-contraction coupling.

The analysis found evidence of the functional calcium stores for
excitation-contraction coupling.

For future stem cell based therapies to work, scientists will need to
have heart cells that exhibit mature excitation-contraction coupling.
The current study found protein functions, which were involved in the
early stages of this coupling process.

Our latest study gives us great hope of eventually achieving a
breakthrough where stem cell therapy could be used in the types of
cases that today require a heart transplant," Li said.

The study is published in the journal Stem Cells.

http://www.dailyindia.com/show/195084.php/Study-reports-evidence-of-
mature-heart-cell-potential-in-embryonic-stem-cells

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[StemCells] Endocytosis animation

Endocytosis is a process whereby cells absorb material (molecules
such as proteins) from the outside by engulfing it with their cell
membrane. It is used by all cells of the body because most substances
important to them are large polar molecules, and thus cannot pass
through the hydrophobic plasma membrane. The function of endocytosis
is the opposite of exocytosis.

http://bioisolutions.blogspot.com/2007/11/endocytosis-animation.html

or

http://tinyurl.com/24zjqx

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Monday, November 26, 2007

[StemCells] hi any one in the group havehuntingtons

i want to get stem cell. hw if u had stem cell how doid itelp your
syptoms

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Saturday, November 24, 2007

[StemCells] JAMA video on T1 Diabetes

In Windows Media or QuickTime

Clinical Trials recruiting
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00315133?
term=diabetes+stem+cells&rank=1

Video
http://www.thejamareport.org/qtPlayer.php?
daFile=files/vids/JAMA_REPORT_QT_4_10_07.mov&fim=198&par=47

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Friday, November 23, 2007

[StemCells] Growing new immune system (MS Diabetes ) in mice (for now)

Stem cell transplant can grow new immune system in certain mice,
Stanford researchers find

STANFORD, Calif. - Researchers at the Stanford University School of
Medicine have taken a small but significant step, in mouse studies,
toward the goal of transplanting adult stem cells to create a new
immune system for people with autoimmune or genetic blood diseases.

The researchers found a way to transplant new blood-forming stem
cells into the bone marrow of mice, effectively replacing their
immune systems. Many aspects of the technique would need to be
adapted before it can be tested in humans, said Irving Weissman, MD,
a co-senior author of the study and director of the Stanford
Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine. The work
was done on a particular group of mice that are a poor mimic for the
human immune system. Still, Weissman suggested the remaining hurdles
could eventually be overcome.

When those barriers are surmounted, the benefits are potentially big.
The study will be published in the Nov. 23 issue of Science.

A person with an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis has a
defective immune system in which immune cells attack the person's own
body. An immune system transplant, much like a liver or heart
transplant, would give the person a new system that might not attack
the body.

The way to get a new immune system is to transplant new blood-forming
stem cells into the bone marrow, where they generate all the cells of
the blood. But before transplanting new stem cells, the old ones
first must be removed, which is currently done by intensive
chemotherapy or radiation. Those processes eliminate the cells of the
bone marrow, but also damage other tissue and can cause lasting
effects including infertility, brain damage and an increased risk of
cancer. A treatment for M.S. at the expense of brain function is
hardly an ideal therapy.

Weissman and co-first author Deepta Bhattacharya, PhD, a postdoctoral
scholar in Weissman's lab, thought one way around this problem would
be to eliminate only the blood-forming stem cells without affecting
bone marrow cells or other tissues. They worked with Agnieszka
Czechowicz, first author and medical student, to accomplish that feat
by injecting the mice with molecules that latch on to specific
proteins on the surface of the blood-forming stem cells, effectively
destroying the cells. That technique eliminated the blood-forming
stem cells without otherwise harming the mice.

"It is essentially a surgical strike against the blood-forming stem
cells," said Weissman, the Virginia & D.K. Ludwig Professor for
Clinical Investigation in Cancer Research. When they transplanted new
blood-forming stem cells into the mice, those cells took up residence
in the bone marrow and established a new blood and immune system.

In a person with autoimmune disease, that new immune system would
likely no longer attack tissues of the body. Likewise, in people with
a genetic disorder such as sickle cell anemia, the new blood system
would not have the sickle-cell mutation, eliminating the cause of
disease. However, the barriers are still significant.

First, the researchers don't know whether the same molecule on human
blood-forming stem cells would be the right one to target with a
therapy. Also, the mice they used in the study lack a functioning
immune system. They'll need to get the therapy working in mice with a
normal immune system before they can begin testing the technique in
humans.

Although these steps will take time to overcome, Weissman said he
considered this work to be the beginning of research that could lead
to human studies.

###
Daniel Kraft, MD, a postdoctoral scholar, also contributed to this
work.

The work was funded by fellowships from the Stanford Medical Scholars
Program, the Cancer Research Institute and by the National Institutes
of Health.

Stanford University Medical Center integrates research, medical
education and patient care at its three institutions - Stanford
University School of Medicine, Stanford Hospital & Clinics and Lucile
Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. For more information, please
visit the Web site of the medical center's Office of Communication &
Public Affairs at http://mednews.stanford.edu.

Public release date: 22-Nov-2007
Contact: Amy Adams
amyadams@stanford.edu
650-723-3900
Stanford University Medical Center
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/sumc-sct111907.php

Stem cell hope for immune disease

Bone marrow stem cells are able to form new blood and immune cells
Common immune system disorders, such as multiple sclerosis and
arthritis, could one day be treatable with bone marrow transplants,
research suggests.
Currently, the procedure is reserved for life-threatening disorders
because chemotherapy or radiotherapy is needed before a transplant
can be done.

But a protein may do the same job without dangerous side-effects, a
mouse study published in Science suggests.

However, the technique is not yet ready for testing in humans.

Stem cell studies are an important avenue of research which hold
promise in terms of treatments for MS

Dr Laura Bell, MS Society

The purpose of a bone marrow transplant is to infuse the body with
healthy adult stem cells which are able to form fresh blood and
immune cells.

In order for the new blood-forming stem cells to take hold, the
faulty cells in the bone marrow must first be destroyed, but the
aggressive therapies used can cause severe side effects, such as
brain damage, increased risk of cancer or infertility.

A person with an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis has a
defective immune system in which immune cells attack the person's own
body.

Treatment with a bone marrow transplant would give the patient an
immune system that might not attack the body, but this could only be
done if the technique was less dangerous.

Antibodies

A team from Stanford University in the US found that injecting mice
with antibodies which latch on to specific proteins on the surface of
blood-forming stem cells, destroyed the cells without harming the
mice.

Blood-forming stem cells transplanted into the mice were then able to
take up residence in the bone marrow and set up a new blood and
immune system.

However, the barriers are still significant, the researchers said, as
the work was done on a particular group of mice that are a poor mimic
for the human immune system.

And it remains to be seen whether the same molecule on human blood-
forming stem cells would be the right one to use.

"It is essentially a surgical strike against the blood-forming stem
cells," said study author Dr Irving Weissman, director of the
Stanford Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine.

He added that he believed the hurdles to translating the research
into humans could be overcome.

Dr Laura Bell, research communications officer at the MS Society,
said: "Stem cell studies are an important avenue of research which
hold promise in terms of treatments for MS.

"This early stage study is interesting and we look forward to seeing
how the work translates into studies in people with MS."

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[StemCells] CP - Amazing results after own CB transplant

Sacramento Boy Undergoes Stem Cell Procedure
SACRAMENTO (AP) ¯ All we seem to hear about is the controversy
surrounding stem cells, but do know what they can actually do?

A Sacramento boy suffering from an incurable condition may be living
proof that stem cells can have remarkable results.

The little boy you are about to meet is one first in the nation to
undergo stem cell treatment for his disease.

Dallas Hextell cries like many toddlers do, but he is different.
It's his only form of communication.

"You just want him to be better. you just wish you could fix it and
take it away but you can't," Dallas' mother Cynthia told CBS13's Kris
Pickel.

Excited over their first born, it didn't take long for Cynthia and
Derek Hextell to suspect something was wrong with baby Dallas.

" He didn't open his eyes. He just cried a lot and they kept saying
it was colic," explained Cynthia.

Feeling her concerns were being ignored, Cynthia switched
pediatricians. At 8 months old, they were referred to a neurologist
who within 15 minutes diagnosed Dallas with Cerebral Palsy. Cerebral
Palsy is damage to the brain, affecting muscle control. There is no
cure, only treatments to help manage the debilitating effects.

"You can tell he's frustrated because his mind is healthy and he
want to do things physically. He just can't." said mom Cynthia.

At 18 months old, Dallas' physical development was closer to an 8
month old. He has trouble with hand control and can't wave or clap
or crawl. He doesn't talk or even babble. He just screams. Sad
screams. Frustrated screams. Even happy screams.

Dallas ' parents hope their decision to bank his umbilical cord blood
will give him a shot at a normal life. Because Dallas has access to
his own stem cells, he's been accepted into a clinical trial at Duke
University.

The family recently flew to Duke for a procedure where Dallas' stem
cells are put back into his blood stream in hopes they will find
their way to the damaged tissue in his brain and repair those cells.

After the procedure, Dallas and his family came back to Sacramento to
wait and see if the expensive treatment would pay off. They didn't
have to wait long.

Just 5 days after the procedure, Dallas said his first word "momma".
That was quickly followed by learning to wave and even laughing.

"That's the best feeling in the world to hear your little kid laugh,"
said Dallas' dad Derek, "He had never laughed before."

Three months after the treatment, the little boy who didn't have the
muscle control to crawl is now scooting all over without using a
walker. He also looking at his parents when they talk to him.

While there is no way to know if or how much the improvements are
directly related to the treatment, Dallas's is for the first time
making amazing strides forward instead of falling further back.

Cord blood stem cells are now being used to treat dozens of medical
conditions from heart disease to leukemia. But banking cord blood is
not cheap. The cost is about $2,000 initially and then $100 every
year after that in storage costs.

(© 2007 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may
not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

http://cbs13.com/local/Sacramento.Stem.Cell.2.592882.html

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Thursday, November 22, 2007

[StemCells] Starter of hES field says great to end it, too

Man who helped start stem cell war may end it
By Gina Kolata Published: November 22, 2007

If the stem cell wars are indeed nearly over in the United States, no
one will savor the peace more than James Thomson.

Thomson's laboratory at the University of Wisconsin was one of two
that in 1998 plucked stem cells from human embryos for the first
time, destroying the embryos in the process and touching off a
divisive national debate.

And on Tuesday, his laboratory was one of two that reported a new way
to turn ordinary human skin cells into what appear to be embryonic
stem cells without ever using a human embryo.

The fact is, Thomson said in an interview, he had ethical concerns
about embryonic research from the outset, even though he knew that
such research offered insights into human development and the
potential for powerful new treatments for disease.

"If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a
little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough," he
said. "I thought long and hard about whether I would do it."

He decided in the end to go ahead, reasoning that the work was
important and that he was using embryos from fertility clinics that
would have been destroyed otherwise. The couples whose sperm and eggs
were used to create the embryos had said they no longer wanted them.

Nonetheless, Thomson said, announcing that he had obtained human
embryonic stem cells was "scary," adding, "It was not known how it
would be received."

But he never anticipated the extent and rancor of the ensuing debate.
For nearly a decade now, the issue has bitterly divided patients and
politicians, religious groups and researchers.

Now with the new technique, which involves adding just four genes to
ordinary adult skin cells, it will not be long, he says, before the
stem cell wars are a distant memory.

"A decade from now, this will be just a funny historical footnote,"
he said in the interview.

As for the science behind it, the thrill of discovery, he
said, "Surprisingly, there is no 'Wow' moment," either from 1998 or
now."

Both times, the discovery came after he had spent months rigorously
testing the cells to be sure they really were stem cells, worrying
all the while that they could die or be lost to contamination. When
he knew he had succeeded, the suspense was gone.

But he knows what he wrought. Stem cells, universal cells that can
turn into any of the body's 220 cell types, normally emerge only
fleetingly after a few days of embryo development. Scientists want to
use them to study complex human diseases like Alzheimer's or
Parkinson's in a petri dish, finding causes and treatments. And, they
say, it may be possible to use the cells to grow replacement tissues
for patients.

The problem until now had been the source of the cells - human
embryos.

The topic, says R. Alta Charo, a University of Wisconsin
ethicist, "took on an almost iconic quality, the same way Roe v. Wade
has."

But Thomson, 48, did not set out to throw bioethical bombs. All he
wanted, he said, was to answer the most basic scientific questions
about cellular development.

First there was a degree in biophysics from the University of
Illinois. As a graduate student, Thomson began working with mouse
embryonic stem cells and then, with federal support, he extracted
stem cells from monkey embryos. After earning two doctorates from the
University of Pennsylvania, one in veterinary medicine and one in
molecular biology, he continued research at his own laboratory at the
University of Wisconsin.

Eventually he realized, though, that studying mice and monkeys could
take him only so far. If he wanted to understand how human embryos
develop and why their development sometimes goes awry, he needed
human stem cells. But, he says, he hesitated.

In 1995, he began consulting with two ethicists at his university,
Norman Fost, a physician, and Charo, a law professor. His plan was to
use unwanted embryos from a fertility clinic.

Fost was impressed.

"It is unusual in the history of science for a scientist to really
want to think carefully about the ethical implications of his work
before he sets out to do it," Fost said.

But Fost and Thomson guessed wrong about what would bother people
most. They thought it would be what Fost termed "the technological
power" of stem cells. What if someone put human stem cells into the
brain of a rat, for example?

"I thought at the time that this was possibly the biggest issue,"
Fost said. "It was unprecedented in the history of biology. It's
the 'Help, get me out of here' scenario. Let's say the rat brain
turns out to be entirely human cells. What's going on in there? Is it
a human brain? And how would you study it - you can't ask the rat."

Meanwhile, as Thomson was planning his effort to obtain human
embryonic stem cells, another discovery changed his entire view of
development. In 1997, Ian Wilmut, a scientist in Scotland, announced
the creation of the first cloned mammal, Dolly, cloned from frozen
udder cells from a long-dead sheep.

Wilmut had slipped an udder cell - a cell that normally would never
be anything but an udder cell - into an egg whose genetic material
had been removed. The egg somehow brought the udder cell's
chromosomes back to the state they had been in when embryo
development first began.

Four years ago he and, independently, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto
University, set out to figure out a way to mimic what an egg can do.

Both groups succeeded and both discovered that all they had to do was
add four genes to the cells and the cells would turn into what look,
so far, just like stem cells.

More work remains, but Thomson is confident that the path ahead is
clear.

"Isn't it great to start a field and then to end it?" he said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/22/america/stem.php

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What is Stem Cell

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

[StemCells] Stem Cells to Boost Memory

[StemCells] Stem Cells to Boost Memory

[StemCells] Regeneration Skin 1st ... and then, who knows ....

[StemCells] embryonic to mature heart

[StemCells] Endocytosis animation

Monday, November 26, 2007

[StemCells] hi any one in the group havehuntingtons

Saturday, November 24, 2007

[StemCells] JAMA video on T1 Diabetes

Friday, November 23, 2007

[StemCells] Growing new immune system (MS Diabetes ) in mice (for now)

[StemCells] CP - Amazing results after own CB transplant

Thursday, November 22, 2007

[StemCells] Starter of hES field says great to end it, too

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