Dr Shona Lang investigates the advantages and disadvantages of using organoids within R&D, highlighting the most important questions to ask before using these models. Source Drug Target Review Organoids are three-dimensional (3D) cell cultures which mimic tissue architecture. Their growing importance in various fields of research saw them named ‘Method of the Year 2017’1 and their
Source STAT The Lilliputian versions of human brains that scientists have grown in lab dishes have developed distinct structures such as the hippocampus, grown glia and other cells like those in actual brains, and produced a diverse menagerie of neurons that connect with each other and carry electrical signals. Now scientists have grown hundreds of cerebral organoids
Source https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/full/10.2217/rme-2019-0062 Growing evidence supports the antagonistic pleiotropy theory of mammalian aging. Accordingly, changes in gene expression following the pluripotency transition, and subsequent transitions such as the embryonic–fetal transition, while providing tumor suppressive and antiviral survival benefits also result in a loss of regenerative potential leading to age-related fibrosis and degenerative diseases. However, reprogramming somatic
The development of new bone can be a multistep process: first, stem cells differentiate into cartilage cells. Next, the cartilage cells become bone cells. But that’s not all: the cells must experience some mechanical stresses during the transformation in order to transform efficiently from stem cells to bone cells. Researchers at the University of Illinois
Scientists from Basel have investigated the activity of stem cells in the brain of mice and discovered a key mechanism that controls cell proliferation. According to the researchers, the gene regulator Id4 controls whether stem cells remain in a state of rest or enter cell division. The results were published in “Cell Reports” and may
Thirty patients have died after taking Symdeko, a Vertex Pharmaceuticals treatment for cystic fibrosis, according to a government database. The deaths, reported to the Food and Drug Administration’s database of side effects, are tied to Symdeko, a Vertex medicine approved last year. Reports to the database are commonly submitted by health care professionals and often contain
Scientific investigations conducted by people on the International Space Station (ISS) are currently contributing to our knowledge in many fields. The research alliance between the University of Pittsburgh’s (Pitt) McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine (MIRM) and the ISS is a great example of the ultimate vision of a space development that could result in the advancement of biomedical products in space,
Allergic diseases have become a global health problem and the most prevalent allergic disorders include allergic asthma, allergic skin diseases, allergic rhinitis, and allergic conjunctivitis. In the therapy of allergic diseases, corticosteroids, antihistamines, antileukotrienes and β2 adrenergic receptor agonists temporarily inhibit inflammation mediators and immune cells. However, long-term treatment causes various adverse effects. Drug resistance and intolerance
There is a growing demand for diagnostic markers for early disease detection and prognosis. Exosomes are potential biomarkers for cancer progression and neurodegenerative disease but it can be difficult to identify what tissue a specific exosome comes from. Researchers at Uppsala University and spin-off company Vesicode AB have solved the problem by developing a method
The development of a retina-on-a-chip, which combines living human cells with an artificial tissue-like system, has been described today in the open-access journal eLife. This cutting-edge tool may provide a useful alternative to existing models for studying eye disease and allow scientists to test the effects of drugs on the retina more efficiently. Many diseases that
