Scientists have revealed the earliest developmental changes that lead to Down’s syndrome.

Source: BBC

Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully. The research appears in the August 26, 2008, edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A patient who receives a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease might become depressed, and understandably so. But does the depression then exacerbate the progression of Parkinson’s?

Source: University of Cincinnati

The September issue of CSH Protocols is now available online, and this month brings a set of nine protocols from Renee Reijo Pera’s laboratory at Stanford describing methods for the generation, maintenance and analysis of human embryonic stem cells (hESC).

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.

The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell agency, issued the following statement regarding the research published today in Nature by a team from Harvard that showed it is possible to take a type of adult pancreas cell that doesn’t normally produce insulin and reprogram them to produce insulin.

Gene therapy has the potential to restore hearing in mice, offering hope for humans too, US scientists suggest.

Source: BBC

Fat removed from the lower abdomen and inner thigh through liposuction was found to be an excellent source of stem cells, with higher stem cell concentrations than other areas of the body, reports a Brazilian-based study in August’s Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS). This is the first study of its kind to examine whether fat tissues from different areas of the body vary in stem cell concentration.

The first effective treatment for the symptoms of Huntington’s disease has now been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after study results by the Huntington Study Group and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston showed the drug’s effectiveness.

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (NASDAQ: TEVA) announces that results of the phase III ADAGIO trial were presented today during the 12th Congress of European Federation of Neurological Societies (EFNS) in Madrid, Spain as part of a “Late Breaking News” session. The ADAGIO study showed that Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients who took AZILECT® (rasagiline) 1mg tablets once-daily upon entry into the trial, demonstrated a significant improvement compared to those who initiated the drug 9 months later.

Scientists have known for more than 10 years that a certain extract from leaves of the ancient eastern tree, Ginkgo biloba, can somewhat ease symptoms of memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease patients.

On October 24 and 25, 2008 the 3rd Fraunhofer Life Science Symposium will be held in Leipzig. The main themes are ischemia and regeneration. The preliminary programme is now available on www.fs-leipzig.com.

MIT engineers report a new approach to identifying protein structures key to Alzheimer’s disease, an important step toward the development of new drugs that could prevent such structures from forming.

Japanese scientists say they have created human stem cells from tissue taken from the discarded wisdom teeth of a 10-year-old girl.

Source: BBC

Scientists said Tuesday that they had devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the lab using human embryonic stem cells, potentially making blood drives a thing of the past.

Source: The Capital Times, Madison