Patenting parthenotes: High Court asks if parthenotes are 'human embryos' under the Biotech Directive

The UK's High Court has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to clarify if human parthenotes fall under the definition of a human embryo for the purposes of patentability... [Read More]

3D printing technique uses human embryonic stem cells

For the first time human embryonic stem cells have been used in a 3D printing process and retained the properties that make them unique... [Read More]

Leprosy spreads by turning adult cells into stem cells

The bacteria that cause leprosy appear able to perform an unlikely manoeuvre that scientists are calling 'biological alchemy' - they can infect specialised nervous system cells and change them into stem cells... [Read More]

Safety of stem cells supported by mouse study

Tissue derived from induced pluripotent stem cells causes 'limited or no immune response' in mice, a study published in Nature has found... [Read More]

What Gurdon and Yamanaka's Nobel Prize means to the stem cell community

It took 50 years for the Nobel committee to acknowledge one of the key developments in biology... [Read More]

Professors Gurdon and Yamanaka awarded Nobel Prize for work on stem cells

Professor Sir John Gurdon of the University of Cambridge has been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on stem cells. He shares the prize for medicine or physiology with Professor Shinya Yamanaka from Japan... [Read More]

A break is not the end: pluripotent stem cell research gives insight on DNA damage disorder

The biological basis of a rare congenital disorder has been clarified, thanks to stem cell technology. The researchers say their work shows how advances in stem cell science can provide insights into genetic conditions... [Read More]

Sperm precursor cells grown from skin sample

Stem cells found in human skin can be turned into sperm precursor cells, US researchers have found. The findings could help restore fertility to cancer patients, and could provide a new way of studying the development of sperm cells in the lab... [Read More]

Single genetic tweak allows scientists to transform skin cells into brain cells

Skin cells have been transformed into working brain cells thanks to the introduction of a single gene.Previous studies used several genetic factors and chemicals to perform the same feat but scientists in the USA report that just one gene, Sox2, is sufficient... [Read More]

Brain cells made from skin cells, bypassing stem cell phase

Mouse skin cells have been converted directly into neural precursor cells which go on to form the major cells in the brain... [Read More]

First chimeric monkeys born in US

Three chimeric rhesus monkeys born in the USA have been described as the world's first primate chimeras... [Read More]

Film Review: Stem Cell Revolutions - A Vision of the Future

The short film 'Stem Cell Revolutions: A Vision of the Future' uses interviews to document how stem cells have 'vitally changed our understanding of the human body'. The film opens with a voiceover by the film's celebrity commentator novelist Margaret Atwood: 'Sometimes it seems stem cells are proposed as the answer to everything... What can't they do?'... [Read More]

Study finds abnormalities in iPS Cells

Adult human cells maintain a 'memory' when reprogrammed into a stem cell-like state, US scientists have found. The finding suggests the resulting induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells are not yet a viable alternative to human embryonic stem (ES) cells for modelling or treating disease... [Read More]

Human trial to use stem cells to treat spinal cord injury

A patient paralysed through spinal cord injury has become the first person to receive human embryonic stem (ES) cell treatment in a clinical trial being conducted in the United States... [Read More]

Reprogramming adult epithelial cells into embryonic-like stem cells improves therapeutic safety

Japanese researchers announced last week that they have advanced their understanding and ability to safely 'reprogramme' adult stem cells to resemble embryonic stem (ES) cells without inducing tumours or harmful genetic abnormalities. The Japanese team of researchers, lead by Dr Shinya Yamanaka at Kyoto University, reprogrammed liver... [Read More]