ESC & iPSC News Volume 6.19 | May 18 2011

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    ESC & iPSC News 6.19, May 18, 2011

         In this issue: Science News | Current Publications | Industry News | Policy News | Events
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    TOP STORIES

    Study Finds Therapies Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Could Encounter Immune Rejection Problems
    Biologists have discovered that induced pluripotent stem cells could face immune rejection problems if they are used in future stem cell therapies. [Press release from the University of California, San Diego discussing online prepublication in Nature]

    STEMcircles 645x110

    SCIENCE NEWS

    From a Single Adult Cell, Flatworm Crafts a New Body
    A single adult cell from one of the most impressive masters of regeneration in the animal kingdom – the planarian – is all it takes to build a completely functional new worm, researchers have learned. [Press release from Howard Hughes Medical Institute discussing online prepublication in Science]

    Stem Cells Reverse Disease in a Model of Parkinson’s Disease
    A team of researchers has now compared the ability of cells derived from different types of human stem cell to reverse disease in a rat model of Parkinson disease and identified a stem cell population that they believe could be clinically relevant. [Press release from ScienceDaily discussing online prepublication in the Journal of Clinical Investigation]

    Winding Back the Clock with Kidney Stem Cells
    For the first time, scientists have shown that they can make human stem cells from healthy adult kidneys without working on human embryos, circumventing ethical concerns around this research. [Press release from Monash University discussing online prepublication in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology]

    Stem Cells Take Root in Livers and Repair Damage
    Researchers have demonstrated that human liver cells derived from adult cells coaxed into an embryonic state can engraft and begin regenerating liver tissue in mice with chronic liver damage. [Press release from Johns Hopkins Medicine discussing online prepublication in Science Translational Medicine]

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    CURRENT PUBLICATIONS (Ranked by Impact Factor of the Journal)

    Immunogenicity of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
    Scientists show that, whereas embryonic stem cells (ESCs) derived from inbred C57BL/6 (B6) mice can efficiently form teratomas in B6 mice without any evident immune rejection, the allogeneic ESCs from 129/SvJ mice fail to form teratomas in B6 mice due to rapid rejection by recipients. [Nature]

    Clonogenic Neoblasts Are Pluripotent Adult Stem Cells that Underlie Planarian Regeneration
    Investigators used ionizing radiation and single-cell transplantation to identify neoblasts that can form large descendant-cell colonies in vivo. They conclude that broadly distributed, adult pluripotent stem cells underlie the remarkable regenerative abilities of planarians. [Science]

    Protein-Based Human iPS Cells Efficiently Generate Functional Dopamine Neurons and Can Treat a Rat Model of Parkinson Disease
    Researchers compared multiple human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells lines derived by virus- and protein-based reprogramming to human ES cells (hESCs). [J Clin Invest]

    Global Analysis of Parental Imprinting in Human Parthenogenetic Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells
    To study the role of parental imprinting in human embryogenesis, scientists generated parthenogenetic human induced pluripotent stem cells with a homozygote diploid karyotype. [Nat Struct Mol Biol]

    Reprogramming of Skeletal Myoblasts for Induction of Pluripotency for Tumor-Free Cardiomyogenesis in the Infarcted Heart
    The objective of this study is to reprogram skeletal myoblasts (SMs) to pluripotency and show that reprogrammed SMs express embryonic gene and microRNA profiles and that transplantation of predifferentiated cardiac progenitors reduce tumor formation. [Circ Res]

    Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Human Kidney Mesangial Cells
    Investigators reprogrammed normal human mesangial cells to pluripotency by retroviral transduction using defined factors (OCT4, SOX2, KLF4 and c-Myc). [J Am Soc Nephrol]

    Safeguarding Nonhuman Primate iPS Cells with Suicide Genes
    Researchers demonstrate the utility of suicide genes to safeguard induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and their derivatives. [Mol Ther]

    In Vivo Liver Regeneration Potential of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells from Diverse Origins
    Investigators show that human induced pluripotent stem cells-derived hepatic cells at various differentiation stages can engraft the liver in a mouse transplantation model. [Sci Transl Med]

    INDUSTRY NEWS

    ACT Announces Oregon Health & Science University as Clinical Trial Site for its Phase I/II Clinical Trial Using hESC-Derived RPE Cells for Macular Degeneration
    Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. (ACT) announced that the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Ore., has received institutional review board approval to be a site for its Phase I/II human clinical trial for Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). [Advanced Cell Technology, Inc. Press Release]

    Texas’s Cancer Fund Lures Leading Stem Cell Researcher
    University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, stem cell researcher Sean Morrison has been wooed to Texas by its $3 billion state cancer research program. [ScienceInsider]

    POLICY NEWS

    A Clearer Regulatory Pathway for Cell Therapy May Help Improve Investment
    Cell therapy took an important step forward recently in the U.S. when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services suggested that the federal government reimburse older men who use Dendreon’s drug Provenge for the approved hormone-refractory prostate cancer indication. [Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, United States]

    NIH Director: Fewer Than One in Five Grant Applications May Get Funded This Year
    At a Senate hearing, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins warned that the fraction of grant applications that are funded this year could drop below 20% for the first time. [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Science Escapes Cuts in Australian Budget
    Despite cuts of about Aus $22 billion (US $24 billion) in the 2011–12 Australian budget, announced on 10 May, scientists are relieved that spending on the major research agencies has been maintained. [Australian Government, Australia]

    Ten-Year Plan Aims to Make Slovenia a Regional Science Leader
    Slovenia’s parliament is expected to approve a 10-year strategy to give the country’s research and innovation sectors a major facelift. The plan aims to boost government funding for science, attract more scientific talent from abroad, and make the nation of 2 million the science and innovation hub of the western Balkans. [Slovenian Parliament, Slovenia]

    Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings (FR Doc No: 2011-11397) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Cancellation of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11404) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings (FR Doc No: 2011-11661) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings (FR Doc No: 2011-11661) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11938) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Notice of Closed Meetings (FR Doc No: 2011-11960) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11663) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11667) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11780) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11663) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11667) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11786) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11921) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Center for Scientific Review; Amended Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11949) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Laboratory Animal Welfare: Proposed Adoption and Implementation of the Eighth Edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (FR Doc No: 2011-11490) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    National Institutes of Health Notice of Meeting (FR Doc No: 2011-11791) [National Institutes of Health, United States]

    Agency Information Collection Activities; Announcement of Office of Management and Budget Approval; Information From United States Firms and Processors That Export to the European Community [FR Doc No: 2011-11360] [Food and Drug Administration, United States]

    EVENTS
    NEW Joint Cold Spring Harbor Asia/International Society for Stem Cell Research (CSH Asia/ISSCR) Conference on Cellular Programs & Reprogramming
    October 24-28, 2011
    Suzhou, China

    Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the ESC & iPSC community.

    JOB OPPORTUNITIES

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of Ottawa)

    Postdoc in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Bioprocessing (School of Biotechnology at the Royal Institute of Technology)

    Postdoctoral Position in Stem Cells and Epigenetics (Mount Sinai School of Medicine)

    Postdoctoral Fellow (Stanford University)

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow (University of Ottawa)

    Postdoctoral Positions in Epigenomics (Umeå University)

    Postdoc in Human Embryonic Stem Cell Bioprocessing (School of Biotechnology at the Royal Institute of Technology)

    Postdoctoral Position (Spanish National Cancer Center)

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