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A leading University of Michigan researcher said Tuesday the school now can accept private donations of unused human embryos for creating new stem cell lines. (The Associated Press)

The second phase of a clinical trial testing a new stem-cell-based therapy on injured heart muscle has been launched by researchers at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. It is the only study site in the Texas Medical Center. (ScienceDaily)

Journal of Medical Ethics (Volume 35, Number 12, December 2009) is now available by subscription only.

Articles include:

• “The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 2008: A Missed Opportunity?” by Amel Alghrani, 718-719.
• “Clinical Ethics: Genetic Selection for Deafness: The Views of Hearing Children or Deaf Adults” by C Mand, R E Duncan, L Gillam, V Collins, and M B Delatycki; 722-728.
• “Clinical Ethics: Medical Chaperoning at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Saudi Arabia: Survey of Physicians” by E A Al-Gaai and M M Hammami, 729-732.
• “Clinical Ethics: Best Interests, Dementia and the Mental Capacity Act (2005)” by T Hope, A Slowther, and J Eccles; 733-738.
• “Ethics: Who Gets the Liver Transplant? The Use of Responsibility as the Tie Breaker” by V Thornton, 739-742.
• “Ethics: Can the Catholic Church Agree to Condom Use by HIV-discordant Couples?” by L Bovens, 743-746.
• “Ethics: Moral Pluralism Versus the Total View: Why Singer is Wrong About Radical Life Extension” by R Blackford, 747-752.
• “Research Ethics: The ‘How’ and ‘Whys’ of Research: Life Scientists’ Views of Accountability” by J M Ladd, M D Lappé, J B McCormick, A M Boyce, and M K Cho; 762-767.
• “Research Ethics: Embryonic Stem Cell Research is Not Dehumanising Us” by L Kostergaard, 774-777.
• “Does Bioethics Exist?” by L Turner, 778-780.

Several Massachusetts firms are forging ahead with ambitious stem-cell research plans, circumventing the heated debate over embryonic research by using other, less-controversial methods. (Washington Times)

Twenty-seven human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines are ethically derived and should be approved for use in research funded by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), a committee advising the NIH director recommended today (December 4). These findings come just two days after the approval of the first 13 lines earlier this week. (The Scientist)

The National Institutes of Health cleared 13 human embryonic stem cell lines for use in experiments by federally funded scientists, opening the door to a new era of research into promising but controversial treatments.

The move Wednesday is part of a new federal policy that supporters of stem cell research expected the Obama administration to champion and could have implications for California’s stem cell research funding organization. (San Francisco Business Times)

The U.S. government approved the first 13 batches of human embryonic stem cells on Wednesday, enabling researchers using them to get millions of dollars in federal funding as promised by President Barack Obama in March. (Reuters)

Researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered a possible way to protect the fragile lungs of premature babies by using stem cells harvested from bone marrow. In experiments on laboratory mice, they found that bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), a type of stem cell with the potential to form lung cells, were able to reduce inflammation in lung tissue. Inflammation is the key factor that leads to chronic lung disease in premature babies. Surprisingly, even the fluid in which the cells were grown was able to protect the lungs - in fact, better than the stem cells themselves. (PhysOrg)

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)