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...
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...
In 2006, Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, discovered a way to reprogram mature skin cells back to a stem cell state so they can be converted into any cell type a scientist is interested in studying. That work earned him last year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
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 member...
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 primed to be active during the day and...
In 2006, 
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 member...
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 primed to be active during the day and...
Five years after 
Scientists may be one step closer to being able to generate any type of cells and tissues from a patient’s own cells, according to the results of a new study by Harvard stem cell researchers at 