Featured series 
Tag: Stem Cells
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Science & Tech
President Faust issues statement supporting federal funding of stem cell research
A temporary restraining order last month that blocked federal funding for certain kinds of stem cell research was viewed by many as a blow to cutting-edge science that already is yielding clues to cures for a number of fatal illnesses and chronic diseases. Harvard has been in the vanguard of such research, and the University,…
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Health
Scadden, Zon win Hematology Society awards
Two Harvard professors will receive awards from the American Society of Hematology for their “significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic diseases.” David Scadden, who is co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Jordan Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of stem cell and regenerative biology, and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at…
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Health
Two HSCI groups find residual genetic ‘memory’ in iPS cells;
Two groups of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have independently made similar discoveries about the characteristics of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), but they have reached somewhat different conclusions about the implications of the findings. Groups lead by CONTACT _Con-379F41B299 Konrad Hochedlinger at Massachusetts General Hospital and George Daley at Children’s Hospital Boston have each found that iPSCs retain…
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Campus & Community
Three Harvard scientists named Pew Scholars
Assistant Professor of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Fernando Camargo, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School (HMS) Alexander Gimelbrant, and Sun Hur, assistant professor of biological chemistry and molecular pharmacology at HMS, have been named 2010 Pew Scholars in the biomedical sciences by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
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Health
New type of human stem cell may be more easy to manipulate
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Regenerative Medicine (MGH-CRM) have a developed a new type of human pluripotent stem cell that can be manipulated more readily than currently available stem cells. As described in the latest edition of Cell Stem Cell, these new cells could be used to…
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Health
Gene silencing may cause limitations of induced pluripotent stem cells
Scientists may be one step closer to being able to generate any type of cells and tissues from a patient’s own cells, according to the results of a new study by Harvard stem cell researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). Konrad Hochedlinger, PhD, an associate professor in Harvard’s inter-school department of stem cell and regenerative biology (SCRB),…
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Health
“Good” cells can go “bad” in a “bad neighborhood”
Normal.dotm 0 0 1 375 2142 Harvard University 17 4 2630 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false The general theory of cancer development holds that malignancies occur because of the presence of certain genetic elements within the affected cells. But a new study by Harvard researchers at Massachusetts General…
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Health
Blood tells old cells to act young
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center (JDC) have taken a major step toward eventually understanding — and perhaps slowing — the aging process. In a series of careful experiments, Amy J. Wagers and colleagues have demonstrated that the stem cells of old mice exposed to certain factors present in blood from young mice…
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Science & Tech
Harvard Stem Cell Institute – First 5 years
What has the Harvard Stem Cell Institute accomplished in its first 5 years?
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Campus & Community
Harvard team grows heart muscle
Harvard researchers have created a strip of pulsing heart muscle from mouse embryonic stem cells, a step toward the eventual goal of growing replacement parts for hearts damaged by cardiovascular disease.
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Health
From stem cells to heart muscle
A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and collaborators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has taken a giant step toward possibly using human stem cells to repair damaged hearts.
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Health
From stem cells to functioning strip of heart muscle
A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) scientists at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and collaborators at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) has taken a giant step toward the possibility of using human stem cells to repair damaged hearts. http://www.kaltura.com/p/616782/sp/61678200/embedIframeJs/uiconf_id/5415041/partner_id/616782 The researchers led by HSCI Principal Faculty member Kenneth Chien, M.D., PhD, report using…
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Campus & Community
Scientists get closer to making safe patient-specific stem cells
But many scientists think the safest approach is to replace the genes altogether with so-called small molecules. In a study published online today in the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers from the Harvard Stem Cell Institute report that a single compound they dubbed RepSox can replace two of the four key reprogramming genes.
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Health
Three Harvard teams to receive $9 million each in federal funding for stem cell research
Three teams of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers are slated to receive $27 million over seven years in National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) grants for the development of stem-cell based tools and treatments to understand and treat cardiovascular and blood disorders. The NHLBI Progenitor Cell Biology Consortium will consist of nine research…
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Health
Harvard team reports major step forward in cell reprogramming
A team of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers has made a major advance toward producing induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, that are safe enough to use in treating diseases in patients. “This demonstrates that we’re halfway home, and remarkably we got halfway home with just one chemical,” said Kevin Eggan, an HSCI…
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Health
Concentrating on stem cells
New concentration is the latest example of the University’s commitment to and pre-eminence in the promising field of stem cell research.
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Health
Study finds promise in combined transplant/vaccine therapy for high-risk leukemia
Two of the most powerful approaches to cancer treatment — a stem cell transplant and an immune system-stimulating vaccine — appear to reinforce each other in patients with an aggressive, hard-to-control form of leukemia, Harvard scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI) have found. The researchers report that patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) or…
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Health
New steps forward in cell reprogramming
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have substantially improved the odds of successfully reprogramming differentiated cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) by blocking the activity of the gene that instructs the cells to stop dividing. Konrad Hochedlinger and colleagues at the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine also found that…
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Health
First molecular steps to childhood leukemia identified
A Harvard research based at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified how a chromosomal abnormality known to be associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children – initiates the disease process. In the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, they describe how expression of this mutation in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs),…
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Health
Glimpsing the birth of our earliest reproductive cells
It has long been a mystery how the developing embryo designates those rare, precious cells destined to produce sperm and eggs — enabling us to have offspring – since these primordial germ cells’ existence is fleeting and hard to spot with the tools of biology. Now, using mouse embryonic stem cells, Harvard Stem Cell Institute(HSCI)…
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Health
Human cardiac master stem cells identified
Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells – ISL1+ progenitors – that give rise to a family of cells that form the essential portions of the human heart. The discovery, by a group led by Kenneth Chien, director of…
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Science & Tech
Massachusetts Lt. Governor tours Harvard research facilities
Massachusetts Lt. Governor Timothy Murray on Wednesday toured Harvard labs in both Cambridge and Boston. “The Patrick Administration has been very supportive of the university research sector in Massachusetts and we welcomed the opportunity to show him the range of projects ongoing at Harvard, in both Cambridge and Longwood, that are cutting-edge, multidisciplinary and often…
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Health
AML patients benefit from stem cell transplants
A stem cell transplant (SCT) from a compatible donor early in the course of disease is the best approach for the majority of young and middle-aged adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a new analysis of two dozen clinical studies. The findings of the research, published in the June 10 issue of…
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Campus & Community
Three honored with gift to support science
An anonymous donor honored the extraordinary service of three Harvard veterans with a $15 million gift to support innovative science. From left, Robert L. Scalise, M.B.A. ’89, Nichols Family Director of Athletics; William R. Fitzsimmons ’67, Ed.M. ’69, Ed.D. ’71, dean of admissions and financial aid; and John P. Reardon Jr. ’60, executive director of…
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Health
How stem cells find their way around
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have for the first time identified in mice a cellular mechanism that directs stem cells to their ultimate destination in the body.
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Science & Tech
Five at Harvard named HHMI Early Career Scientists;
Five Harvard scientists are among 50 young scientists nationwide who will have their work supported for the next six years by a new initiative from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). HHMI today announced that the selected scientists are at 33 institutions across the United States and have led their own laboratories for two to…
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Health
Mechanism directing stem cells to their destination identified;
Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have for the first time identified in mice a cellular mechanism that directs stem cells to their ultimate destination in the body. The finding in blood stem cells by HSCI co-director David Scadden and colleagues holds the promise of greatly increasing the efficiency of the bone marrow transplants used…
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Campus & Community
Concentration in human development, regenerative biology added
Inviting a new generation of scientists into the study of human development, disease, and aging, Harvard University will offer a new undergraduate concentration in Human Developmental and Regenerative Biology (HDRB) starting this fall.
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Health
Faculty approves undergraduate concentration in human developmental, regenerative biology
Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences late today voted to approve a new undergraduate concentration, or major, in Human Development and Regenerative Biology. One of the first of its kind in the nation, the new program will be available this fall to students starting with current freshman, the Class of 2012. The concentration will focus…