New, fast method of creating pluripotent stem cells

Japanese scientists, in collaboration with Professor Vacanti of Harvard, Boston, report that they have created pluripotent stem cells by simply bathing blood cells in a weakly acidic solution for half an hour, triggering a remarkable reversion to the cells’ original…

Stem cell-based clinical trial for spinal injuries starting in Japan

Sapporo Medical University, Japan, will launch the nation’s first clinical trial for using stem cells to regenerate nerves in people with spinal cord injuries. The team will collect bone marrow fluid from patients who have sustained spinal cord injuries within…

Stem cell therapies show promise for spinal cord injury patients

Currently, most studies of stem cell therapies are conducted on small groups of mice, rats and other animals. As a result, scientists’ ability to extrapolate their findings to human patients is somewhat limited. The recent PLOS Biology study sought to…