pancreas news from FierceBioResearcher

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

Geron CEO Tom Okarma used BIO 2007 as a setting to tout upcoming clinical trials of an embryonic stem cell therapy for spinal cord injuries. "The world's spotlight will be on this trial," he maintains, which some observers see as a possible blessing or a curse. Report

UC Irvine neurobiologist Hans Keirstead and his research team have launched a …

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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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Doctors in the UK are preparing to begin a study to see whether injecting stem cells harvested from a patient's bone marrow can repair the damage on heart muscle inflicted by a heart attack. The injections will be given within five hours of a heart attack, a critical period in the eyes of investigators. Doctors will recruit 100 patients for the procedure, which will also include angioplasty to clear blocked arteries--a standard therapy in these cases. Earlier studies have demonstrated …

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Taking precursors of the pancreas of embryonic pigs and transplanting them into rats was an effective way to get them to start producing insulin without triggering a response from the immune system, according to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. As a result, they were able to cure not only type 1 but type 2 diabetes in the animal models. Their work points to a possible therapy for type 2 diabetes that won't require powerful immune …

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A single molecular switch plays a central role in inducing stem cells in the brain, pancreas, and blood to lose function as they age, researchers have found. Mice lacking that switch show considerably reduced aging-related decline in stem cell function and tissue regeneration. "People tend to think that old tissues have less regenerative capacity because they are wearing out," said Sean J. Morrison, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of Michigan who led the …

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