Scientists at Children’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have reported being able to promote optic nerve regeneration in an animal by activating two molecular pathways synergistically. Separately, the pathways have a less pronounced effect.
ReNeuron Group Plc has treated the first patient in a Phase 1 trial of a new stem-cell therapy that has been developed to treat patients left disabled by an ischaemic stroke. The trial is taking place in Glasgow, Scotland.
Researchers from the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at Wake Forest University’s Baptist Medical Center have seeded human liver cells in a laboratory and reportedly maintained them in a specialised bioreactor for up to one week.
GlaxoSmithKline Plc is to pay €10 million to the Italian medical charity, Fondazione Telethon, for access to a new gene therapy that can be carried out on stem cells taken from a patient’s own bone marrow. GSK will investigate the therapy for rare diseases.
Scientists at the Medical Research Council in the UK have identified a gene that they say plays a key role in the development of the central nervous system. The gene, Sox9, regulates the transformation of neuroepithelial cells into stem cells.
A new company has been set up in the Benelux to discover and develop small molecule drugs for treating bone and joint diseases. It combines assets from TiGenix NV of Belgium and Therosteon BV of the Netherlands.
US stem cell research involving human embryos received a setback after a US judge ruled that a 2009 Presidential order expanding funding for this research is illegal.
European researchers have reported that stem cells from the thymus of a rat can be reprogrammed into skin stem cells without the need for genetic modification. The research was published in the journal Nature on 19 August 2010.
Preclinical research showing that reprogrammed adult stem cells can repair damaged heart tissue in mice has been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The technology is also being tested in a human trial in Europe.
Geron Corporation said it has received clearance from the Food and Drug Administration to proceed with a human trial of an embryonic stem cell-based therapy in patients with acute spinal cord injury.