ISSCR News
New Podcast Episode. Guidelines for Managing and Using the Digital Phenotypes of Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines
The ability of human pluripotent and somatic stem cells to differentiate into multiple cell types of the human body makes them uniquely useful to model human development and disease. As a result, these cells are shared, edited, and differentiated by laboratories across the world for basic research, clinical translation, and commercial applications. Large and genotypically diverse collections of pluripotent stem cells are being generated to support large cohort-scale research into conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, among many others. However, information about these cells, their derivatives, and the resulting data can be difficult to track due to a myriad of factors including poor naming practices, siloed datasets, and incomplete information on experimental practices in the published literature. As a result, the ability to maximize the utility of these cells and data from them is limited, and the rigor and reproducibility of the research and its application may be seriously compromised. Our guests today, who were part of the ISSCR Task Force that developed the Standards for the Use of Human Stem Cells in Research, will discuss in detail a framework to manage these issues using stem cell registries.
Stem Cells Shed Insight Into Cardiovascular Disease Processes
When thinking about the immune system, most people think about B and T cells and how they can be trained to recognize pathogens, preventing re-infections. Besides this “adaptive” immune system, we also have an “innate” immune system which acts as first line defense against e.g. bacteria and viruses. The textbook view is that the innate immune system is non-specific so that it’s response always follows the same pattern, even for recurring infections. However, research published today in Stem Cell Reports provides evidence that brief exposure to certain “danger signals” can prime the body’s innate immune system into a long-term hyperreactive and inflammatory state termed “trained innate immunity.”
Repurposing Drugs to Eliminate Cellular Origins of Brain Tumors
In an effort to rapidly identify new treatments effective against BTSCs, a team of researchers from the University of Ottawa, Canada, tested Edaravone, an FDA-approved drug, for its efficacy against BTSCs, knowing that Edaravone blocks cellular processes which are important for the growth and survival of BTSCs.
New Podcast Episode. PSC Developmental Bias: The Mechanism and the Variation in Human Neural Development
The guests on this episode of The Stem Cell Report studied functional variation in human PSC lines as they progress through neurectoderm versus mesendoderm lineages and fore- versus hind-brain development. They will discuss the origin and consequences of inter-individual variation in the early events orchestrating human neural development, the extent to which such variation might impact on adult health and disease, and how it might be exploited in stem cell therapy.
Scientists Aim to Decode the Genetic Roots of Mental Illness on a Large Scale
Neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders (NPD) including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, and depression are detrimental to individuals, their families and society as a whole, and in many cases still lack effective treatments. It’s becoming more and more clear that genetic mutations in certain genes can increase the likelihood of developing NPD, and several hundreds of those “risk genes” have been identified to date, but their role related to NPD remains a mystery.
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