2013

Starting with a discovery in zebrafish in 2007, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have published initial results of a Phase Ib human clinical trial of a therapeutic that has the potential to improve the success of blood stem cell...

Heart attacks cause the death of billions of the heart’s muscle cells. If these cardiomyocytes could be made to regenerate after an infarct, the heart could potentially be mended and its function restored. Researchers have struggled to find the right...

A bone drug already on the market for osteoporosis may kill chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) stem cells thought to persist in the bone marrow after standard therapy, lowering the likelihood of disease recurrence, according to a new study in mice led by...

Harvard Stem Cell Scientists have discovered that the same chemicals that stimulate muscle development in zebrafish can also be used to differentiate human stem cells into muscle cells in the laboratory, an historically challenging task that, now overcome...

Young animals are known to repair their tissues effortlessly, but can this capacity be recaptured in adults? A new study from Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital suggests that it can. By reactivating a dormant gene...

HSCI investigators have developed a better picture of why a recently discovered therapy for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is more effective than anything currently available to patients. In 2011, human clinical trials showed that immune system...

Like humans, fruit flies are diurnal animals. They wake at dawn, eat what they can find, and sleep at dusk. This twenty-four-hour routine, called a circadian rhythm, is controlled by the sun’s light-dark cycle. The clock is set so a fly, or human, is...

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have found a link between male infertility and a mutation in a gene critical for sperm production. If the gene, Elongator Protein 1/Inhibitor of KappaB Kinase-associated Protein (Elp1/IKAP), is turned off...

HSCI scientists have developed new ways to identify, grow, sort, and transplant the dopamine-producing cells that are lost in Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, they have learned how to identify and remove unwanted cells prior to transplantation, such as...

New data showing human embryonic stem cell gene expression and epigenetic activity (e.g., tagging DNA to silence specific genes) reveals that stem cells prepare early to differentiate into their next form. The research, led by HSCI Principal Faculty...