“Latest Stem Cells News”

Destroying abnormal stem cells could be a way to kill off bowel cancer in its very earliest stages, say UK experts.
Immature cells line the gut and normally replace and repair the tissue but malfunctions can lead to cancer.
Scientists believe detecting and obliterating these rogue cancer stem cells as soon as they appear could be a potent new anti-cancer strategy.

A UK National Stem Cell Network conference heard the same method might also work for other cancers.
Professor Malcolm Alison, of Barts and The London School of Medicine, has been looking at how bowel cancers grow and spread in the body.
He said there was mounting evidence to show that faulty self-renewing stem cells are to blame.

And like the root of a weed, unless they are removed they will continue to propagate.
Scientists are still uncertain exactly which cells in the gut become cancer stem cells.
But they know definitively that they exist – and that they play a central role in the formation of cancer.

Once these are found, it would be possible to identify and treat these cells before life-threatening tumours develop, said Professor Alison.

There’s a medical breakthrough for the deaf.
Scientists at United Kingdom’s Sheffield University have created stem cells from embryos to replace damaged cells in the inner ear — reversing hearing loss.

The embryonic stem cells could be converted into workable hearing cells for people born with inherited hearing problems and who’ve suffered damage to their ear cells during their lifetime, according to the scientists.
The breakthrough stem-cell discovery is “incredibly promising” and “opens up exciting possibilities,” Dr. Ralph Holme, a biomedical researcher, told the British Broadcasting Corporation.

But the stem-cell research could be halted by critics who argue that the controversial process destroys embryos in the name of science – a debate that’s raged since stem-cell studies began years ago.
Earlier this year, President Barack Obama lifted the ban on embryonic stem-cell research, reinforcing the science world’s belief that studying embryonic cells is necessary for the development of new medical treatments.

Health Minister Nelson Bascome on January 28 said his Ministry will not be doing anything about Bermuda’s lack of adult stem cell regulations at this stage — but pledged to ensure good practices would be in place before a stem cell clinic opens.
At a news conference yesterday about a revised Bermuda Health Council, Mr. Bascome was questioned about his position on the Brown-Darrell Clinic, which is scheduled to open early this year.

When asked specifically about introducing legislation to effectively monitor and regulate the clinic, the Minister said nothing had come across his desk.
He said: “Anything that has to do with health in Bermuda will come across the desk of the Health Minister. Right now and I told the media last week, we put out the regulations for medical clinics.

“As the development of that clinic goes and other clinics on the Island, in terms of health we will ensure best practices and that the public is protected and at this time that is all we can say because there have been no official applications that have come across my desk.
“Until we see something that has to be affected by legislation I cannot really answer. It would have to be something proposed to use to deal with.”

In June last year, Premier Ewart Brown and his wife Wanda announced the opening of a stem cell research clinic in partnership with the American company Stemedica Cell Technologies on the site of the former Winterhaven property in Smith’s.
Since then, doctors have aired concerns about the lack of adult stem cell regulations in Bermuda, compared with jurisdictions such as the US, Canada and the UK, where the practice is heavily monitored by legislation introduced by those governments.