Click here to read Stem Cells 101, an overview of stem cell research

A new study points to promising use of adult stem cells, which can be injected into the arm or leg and heal hearts. (Miami Herald)

A novel technology involving use of stem cells, developed by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers, has been applied to provide better and rapid healing for patients suffering from complicated bone fractures. (PhysOrg)

Dr. Bernard Thébaud lives in two very different worlds. As a specialist in the Stollery Children’s Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, he cares for tiny babies, many of whom struggle for breath after being born weeks before they are due. Across town, in his laboratory in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta, Dr. Thébaud dons a lab coat and peers into a microscope to examine the precise effect of stem cells on the lungs. (ScienceDaily)

Embryonic stem cell therapy got a step closer to the clinic Thursday after US researchers said they filed a request for government approval of human trials. The trials would involve 12 patients losing their sight to a currently untreatable disease called Stargardt, which is one of the most common forms of juvenile blindness. (AFP)

In an unusual pushback against President Obama’s expansion of federal financing of human embryonic stem cell research, the University of Nebraska is considering restricting its stem cell experiments to cell lines approved by President George W. Bush. (New York Times)

The largest national stem cell study for heart disease showed the first evidence that transplanting a potent form of adult stem cells into the heart muscle of subjects with severe angina results in less pain and an improved ability to walk. The transplant subjects also experienced fewer deaths than those who didn’t receive stem cells. (ScienceDaily)

Patents offer the economic guarantees scientists and companies need to develop new treatments, Oliver Bruestle told Deutsche Welle. He’s at the center of a German court battle surrounding embryonic stem cell research. (Deutsche Welle)

Shares of Geron Corp shot up 8 percent Wednesday, as the company said its troubled stem cell therapy showed benefits in treating spine injuries in rodents’ cervical region. (Forbes)

The Journal of the American Medical Association (Volume 302, Number 18, November 11, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Genome-wide Association Studies and Human Disease: From Trickle to Flood” by Peter M. Visscher and Grant W. Montgomery, 2028-2029
• “The Purpose and Limits to Professional Self-Regulation” by Cyril Chantler and Rebecca Ashton, 2032-2033
• “New Screening Tool Identifies Chemicals that May Destroy Cancer Stem Cells” by Tracy Hamptom, 1958
• “Women Physicians and the Culture of Medicine” by Pat Fosarelli, 2039-2040
  

Cell Stem Cell (Volume 5, Issue 5, November 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “Competition Among Stem Cells Gets Sticky” by D. Christine Wu and Laura A. Johnston, 259
• “Brain Cancer Stem Cells: Think Twice Before Going Flat” by Brent a. Reynolds and Angelo L. Vescovi, 466
• “Brain Cancer Stem Cells: A Level Playing Field” by Steven Pollard, Ian D. Clarke, Austin Smith, and Peter Dirks, 468
• “Culturing Stem Cell Awareness” by Kathleen M. Wong, 470
• “Fighting Fat with Fat: The Expanding Field of Adipose Stem Cells” by Daniel Zeve, Wei Tang, and Jon Graff, 472
• “Stem Cells in 2009″ by Ronald D. McKay, Derek van der Kooy, Thomas P. Zwaka, and Haifan Lin, 483

Given the right conditions, any adult cell can be coaxed into becoming stem-cell like, according to a team of researchers based in the United States. The team, led by Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, were also able to speed up the process, cutting the time required for cells to become stem-cell like by around half. (Nature News)

Traditionally, treatment for severe second-degree burns consists of adding insult to injury: cutting a swath of skin from another site on the same patient in order to graft it over the burn. The process works, but causes more pain for the burn victim and doubles the area in need of healing. Now a relatively new technology has the potential to heal burns in a way that’s much less invasive than skin grafts. With just a small skin biopsy and a ready-made kit, surgeons can create a suspension of the skin’s basal cells–the stem cells of the epidermis–and spray the solution directly onto the burn with results comparable to those from skin grafts. (Technology Review)

The same genes that are chemically altered during normal cell differentiation, as well as when normal cells become cancer cells, are also changed in stem cells that scientists derive from adult cells, according to new research from Johns Hopkins and Harvard. (PhysOrg)

Scientists in Belgium have successfully differentiated human embryonic stem cells (hESC) into major cell types of lung epithelial tissue using a convenient air-liquid interface. The technique, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Respiratory Research, could provide an alternative to lung transplants for patients with lung injury due to chronic pulmonary disease and inherited genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis. (EurekaAlert)

A family from Cheshire have become the first in the country to have tissue from their baby’s umbilical cord frozen as a health-insurance in case they become sick. (Mail Online)

The American Journal of Bioethics (Volume 9, Issue 11, 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles Include:

• “Centenarians as Stem Cell Donors” by Ricki Lewis and Renad I. Zhdanov, 1-3.
• “‘Listen to the People’: Public Deliberation About Social Distancing Measures in a Pandemic” by Nancy M. Baum, Peter D. Jacobson, and Susan D. Goold, 4-14.
• “Public Engagement on Social Distancing in a Pandemic: A Canadian Perspective” by Joint Centre for Bioethics Pandemic Ethics Working Group, 15-17.
• “The Value of Public Deliberation in Public Health Preparedness” by Lawrence O. Gostin, 20.
• “Promoting Justice, Trust, Compliance, and Health: The Case for Compensation” by Michael J. Selgelid, 22-24.
• “A Jewish Response to the Vatican’s New Bioethical Guidelines” by Ari Z. Zivotofsky and Alan Jotkowiz, 25-30.
• “The Complex Nature of Jewish and Catholic Bioethics” by Jason T. Ebert, 31-32.
• “The Catholic Position on Germ Line Genetic Engineering” by James J. Delaney, 33-34.
• “Judaism, Human Dignity and the Most Vulnerable Women on Earth” by Y.M. Barilan, 35-37.
• “A Jewish Response to the Vatican?” by Alyssa Henning, Mitchal Raucher, and Laurie Zoloth, 37-39.
• “How Should a Non-Catholic Respond to Catholic Moral Teaching” by Craig J. Ifland, and James A. Brown, 39-41.
• “Religious Traditions and Embryo Science” by D. Gareth Jones and Maja I. Whitaker, 41-43.
• “A Sibling Rivalry on Personhood, Procreation, and Evil” by Tihamer Toth-Fejel and Christopher Dodsworth, 43-45.
• “Jewish Views on the Beginnings of Human Life and the Use of Medical Intervention to Produce Children” by John D. Loike, Ruth L Fischbach, and Moshe D. Tendler, 45-47.
• “Assessing Social Risks Prior to Commencement of a Clinical Trial: Due Dilligence or Ethical Inflation?” by Scott Burris and Corey Davis, 48-54.

Biotechnology company Geron Corp. said Friday it hopes to pave the way for restarting human studies on a potential stem-cell treatment for spinal cord injury by conducting additional preclinical studies. (Forbes)

IT MAY not surprise parents that the head-banging, string-shredding world of heavy metal can seriously damage your health. But now Tony Iommi, the British guitarist who helped to invent the genre, has revealed that he is undergoing stem-cell treatment to save the hand that inspired a generation. (The Australian)

Over the last year, the general public has learned a lot about the use of Ritalin and other psychotropic drugs by healthy people to improve alertness and concentration. And with that awareness there appears to be a growing acceptance, or at least resignation, as a series of recent publications strongly suggests. zz9New York Times)

U.S. researchers have found a way to coax human embryonic stem cells to turn into the types of cells that make eggs and sperm, shedding light on a stage of early human development that has not been fully understood. (ABC News)

Hwang Woo-suk’s research was supposed to be the harbinger of a medical revolution. In the space of 18 extraordinary months in 2004 and 2005, his team claimed to have created the first cloned human embryo, and then to have produced cloned embryonic stem (ES) cells, apparently paving the way for a new era of regenerative therapy. (Times Online)