Dana Farber Cancer Institute news from FierceBioResearcher

By manipulating levels of the protein BMP-7, Harvard Medical School researchers were able to generate a larger store of "brown" fat cells that burn calories--a pathway that could be used to pursue Read more...

San Diego-based Illumina is commercializing three new products aimed at a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms that give rise to cancer. Illumina's DASL Assay is designed to profile Read more...

Stem Cell Research The Jefferson Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine Center has been founded in Philadelphia. The new research center will probe stem cell therapies for neurological diseases, Read more...

Stem Cell Research Medistem Laboratories says they've found a new adult stem cell in menstrual blood that may prove an effective replacement for human embryonic stem cells. Read more...

Ronald DePinho, MD, director of the Center for Applied Cancer Science at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, says that using three or more kinase-blocking therapies like Gleevec and Tarceva in Read more...

Stem Cell Research

Advanced Cell Technology has turned embryonic stem cells into repair cells that can be used to repair tissue damage. Depending on the chemical used to spur change in the cell, the stem cells can be transformed to hemangioblasts that can be used as blood-building cells or cells that form the lining of blood vessels. Report

Scientists have …

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Stem Cell Research

A stem cell conference in San Francisco hosted a number of companies that have found it hard to attract venture support at a time the federal government has severely limited its role in supporting researchers in the field. Nevertheless, some 100 private stem cell companies have sprung up to tackle the field. …

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A team of scientists from the Whitehead Institute and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified a key set of genes that lie at the heart of autoimmune disease; findings that may help scientists develop new methods for manipulating immune system activity. Their work hinges on a greater understanding of the way regulatory T cells control the frontline T cells that attack pathogens. A failure of regulatory T cells can lead the front line white blood cells to attack the body's tissues, …

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Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers have developed a method for charting the positions of gene-regulating molecules called nucleosomes. The mapping tool could help uncover important clues for understanding and diagnosing cancer and other diseases, the scientists say. Moreover, it may shed light on the role of nucleosomes in the process of "reprogramming" an adult cell to its original embryonic state, which is a critical operation in cloning. Release

Immunologists studying T-cells say that the presence of even a small amount of virus can quickly turn on the T-cells, which hunt them down and kill them. Researchers at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia say that "antigen presenting" proteins recognize the virus, attach to the virus and make it visible to the immune system, which dispatches T-cells to kill the virus. …

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