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Harald Ott and team from MGH creates functional, stem cell-derived small bowel segments

Press release of the Massachusetts General Hospital

Using human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) research team has bioengineered functional small intestine segments that, when implanted into rats, were capable of deliver nutrients into the bloodstream. The investigators describe their accomplishment in the online journal Nature Communications.

“In this study we have been able to bridge the gap between differentiation of single cells – driving stem cells to become a specific cell type – and the...

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HSCI Faculty "extraordinary" innovation recognized by the NIH

HSCI Faculty ‘extraordinary’ innovation recognized by the NIH

HSCI Principal Faculty members Jeffrey Macklis, Alex Schier and Brian Wainger were recently recognized ‘for exceptional creativity’ by the NIH’s High-Risk, High-Reward Research program. Jeff and Alex each received the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award which challenges investigators at all career levels to pursue new research directions and develop groundbreaking, high-impact approaches to a broad area of biomedical or behavioral science.  Brian was bestowed the...

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Organoids - A New Window into Disease, Development and Discovery

Scientists have found ways of culturing organ-specific tissue from stem cells that could change the way diseases are studied and treated.

by Javier Barbuzano for HSCI

Imagine the possibility of creating individualized, complex collections of cells that bear a resemblance to a patient’s own tissues. That technology — the ability to grow ‘organoids’ — is becoming a reality and is finding new uses every day, in part thanks to the work of scientists at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute.

Organoids are tiny, self-organized three-...

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Making Mature Nephrons

Using normal kidney development as a roadmap, HSCI Executive Committee member Joseph Bonventre and a team of researchers developed an efficient method to make human kidney precursor cells. The precursor cells self-assembled into organoids,...

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MSC Colloquium

HSCI Executive Director, Brock Reeve, welcomes scientists to HSCI's MSC Colloquium.“Mesenchymal stem cells are like sushi,” Jacques Galipeau, MD, told an audience of the world’s premiere MSC researchers, clinicians, and bioengineers in his keynote address at Harvard Stem Cell Institute’s (HSCI) Mesenchymal Stem Cell Colloquium. “Fresh is best.”... Read more about MSC Colloquium