Aging

Potential drug treatments for telomere diseases

April 24, 2020

HSCI researchers have identified potential drugs to treat telomere diseases such as dyskeratosis congenita (DC), in which cells age prematurely. The researchers tested over 100,000 compounds on patient stem cells, and identified several drugs that restored  the cells’ telomeres — the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes that regulate how cells age.

“We envision these to be a new class of oral medicines that target stem cells throughout the body,” said Suneet Agarwal, an HSCI principal faculty member at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We expect restoring telomeres in...

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Healing without scars

November 7, 2018

George Murphy wants to use stem cells to replace scarring with regenerative healing.

  • George Murphy’s goal is to coax skin stem cells into healing wounds by regenerating tissue instead of forming a scar.
  • To figure out how to do it, he is studying scarless healing during fetal development and “stem cell burnout” during aging.
  • Insights into scarless healing will help research into regenerating other vital organs, including the heart.

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