2013

Harvard-led researchers offer potential new treatments for subtype of acute myeloid leukemia

December 23, 2013

An international team of researchers working in the Boston and Singapore labs of Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Blood Program leader Daniel Tenen, MD, recently identified new candidates for the treatment of an acute myeloid leukemia (AML) subtype caused by mutations of CEBPA, a tumor suppressor. The findings were published in two separate studies:... Read more about Harvard-led researchers offer potential new treatments for subtype of acute myeloid leukemia

New research implicates immune system cells in muscle healing

December 20, 2013

Harvard stem cell scientists have found that cells known primarily for tempering immune response also exist in injured muscle tissue, an unexpected role for regulatory T cells.

Regulatory T cells, or Tregs for short, accumulate in the skeletal muscles of mice after injury or after the animals developed muscular dystrophy, the researchers found. Their...

Read more about New research implicates immune system cells in muscle healing

Human muscle stem cell therapy gets help from zebrafish

November 7, 2013

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, makes muscle cell therapy a more realistic clinical possibility.

The work, published this week in the journal Cell, began with a discovery by Boston Children’s Hospital researchers, led by...

Read more about Human muscle stem cell therapy gets help from zebrafish

HSCI researchers regrow hair, cartilage, bone, soft tissues

November 7, 2013

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 called Lin28a, which is active in embryonic stem cells, researchers were able to regrow hair and repair cartilage, bone, skin...

Read more about HSCI researchers regrow hair, cartilage, bone, soft tissues

Bone drug kills resistant cancer stem cells by making home unlivable

November 6, 2013

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 researchers at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology, and Massachusetts General Hospital.... Read more about Bone drug kills resistant cancer stem cells by making home unlivable

HSCI co-director Douglas Melton and Evotec collaborate on diabetes

November 6, 2013

Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Co-director Douglas Melton, PhD, and Evotec AG have entered into their second research collaboration to find biological pathways and signals that could be therapeutically relevant to diabetic patients.

The objective of this new collaboration, dubbed “TargetEEM” (Target Enteroendocrine Mechanisms), is to screen disease-relevant animal models for novel pathways and targets that have the potential to repair mechanisms involved in insulin resistance and abnormal...

Read more about HSCI co-director Douglas Melton and Evotec collaborate on diabetes