Tag Archives: Huntington’s disease

Neuron function damaged by Huntington’s restored by stem cells

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Researchers from South Korea, Sweden, and the United States have collaborated on a project to restore neuron function to parts of the brain damaged by Huntington’s disease (HD) by successfully transplanting HD-induced pluripotent stem cells into animal models.

Induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) can be genetically engineered from human somatic cells such as skin, and can be used to model numerous human diseases. They may also serve as sources of transplantable cells that can be used in novel cell therapies. In the latter case, the patient provides a sample of his or her own skin to the laboratory.

In the current
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ITALY – Como, scientific summit on embryonic stem cells

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Summit at Lake Como with 100 European stem cell experts.
At the summit, 16 research teams part of the Neurostemcell consortium that have been working for months on finding treatments for Parkinson’s and Huntington’s disease met. The network, coordinated by Elena Cattaneo, Director of Unistem, the interdepartmental stem cell research centre of the University of Milan, met on April 1 in Bellagio, on the shores of Lake Como for their first annual meeting.

“The meeting is an opportunity to discuss the results obtained until now and to refine our methods,” explained Cattaneo, who pointed out the objective of
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Stem Cell Technology to fight Huntington’s Disease

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Scientists at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes and an international team of researchers have generated a human model of Huntington’s disease — directly from the skin cells of patients with the disease.

For years, scientists have studied Huntington’s disease primarily in post-mortem brain tissue or laboratory animals modified to mimic the disease. Today, in Cell Stem Cell, the international team shows how they developed a human model of Huntington’s disease, which causes a diverse range of neurological impairments. The new model should help scientists better understand the development of Huntington’s — and provide better ways to identify and screen potential therapeutics
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UC Davis stem cell researchers awarded $53 million

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UC Davis Health System researchers who are working to speed therapies to patients suffering from critical limb ischemia, osteoporosis and Huntington’s disease received approval today for three separate research grants from the state’s stem cell agency totaling more than $53 million. Each of the research studies that can now begin at UC Davis are specifically designed to lead to U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of human clinical trials using stem cells and regenerative therapies.

At today’s meeting of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in San Francisco, the agency’s 29-member governing board approved five other grant
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ITALY – Study: Italy furthest behind in the world for stem cell research

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Image by pablocanateam via Flickr

Research in Italy, in the coming years, will suffer much more compared to research in other countries, because, explained a study on the future of biomedical research in Italy described yesterday in Siena by Stefano Palumbo, “the national debate on bioethical issues will continue to be affected by pre-established ideological positions, and often, will be aimed at imposing limits on scientific research”.

Due to the overwhelming “majority of Catholic members in the National Bioethics Committee, Italy will be,” according to the study, “the most conservative country in the world regarding stem cells,” which will result in
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