Latest Regeneration Stories

A new study co-authored by University of Florida researchers on the endangered Ozark Hellbender giant salamander is the first to detail its skin microbes, the bacteria and fungi that defend against pathogens. Published today in the online journal PLoS One, the study details changes in the salamander's declining health and habitat, and could provide a baseline for how changing ecosystems are affecting the rapid decline of amphibians worldwide. "Scientists and biologists view amphibians...

Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue. In the Dec. 12-16 online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers reported their promising results from mouse tissue tests. The new treatment has not yet been tested on human patients. But the researchers say the procedure, which promotes the formation...

EAST NORRITON, Pa., Dec. 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Tengion, Inc. (NASDAQ: TNGN), a leader in regenerative medicine, today announced that new data from the Company's Neo-Urinary Conduit(TM) (NUC) and Neo-Kidney Augment(TM) (NUC) programs are featured in several presentations at the TERMIS North America Annual Conference being held December 11-14, in Houston, TX. The NUC program is further supported by various cellular and molecular studies demonstrating the genetic stability of...

For the first time, scientists have altered natural bioelectrical communication among cells to directly specify the type of new organ to be created at a particular location within a vertebrate organism. Using genetic manipulation of membrane voltage in Xenopus (frog) embryos, biologists at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences were able to cause tadpoles to grow eyes outside of the head area. The researchers achieved most surprising results when they manipulated membrane voltage...

Neuroscientists find genetic trigger that makes stem cells differentiate in nose epithelia University of California, Berkeley, neuroscientists have discovered a genetic trigger that makes the nose renew its smell sensors, providing hope for new therapies for people who have lost their sense of smell due to trauma or old age. The gene tells olfactory stem cells the adult tissue stem cells in the nose to mature into the sensory neurons that detect odors and relay that information to the...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A newly discovered and flourishing pool of stem cells in the heart has the ability for long-term expansion, and can form a variety of cell types, including muscle, bone, neural and heart cells. A damaged heart often doesn’t repair itself well, so the discovery of these stem cells may lay a foundation for much needed regenerative therapies aimed to enhance tissue repair in the heart. "In the end, we want to know how to preserve the stem cells that are there and to...

Damage to podocytes -- a specialized type of epithelial cell in the kidney -- occurs in more than 90 percent of all chronic kidney disease. Now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have uncovered an unexpected pathway that reveals for the first time how these cells may regenerate and renew themselves during normal kidney function. This finding is an important step toward one day therapeutically coaxing the cells to divide, which could be used to treat people with...

Researchers have identified a new and relatively abundant pool of stem cells in the heart. The findings in the December issue of Cell Stem Cell, a Cell Press publication, show that these heart cells have the capacity for long-term expansion and can form a variety of cell types, including muscle, bone, neural and heart cells. The researchers say the discovery may lay a foundation for much needed regenerative therapies aimed to enhance tissue repair in the heart. The damaged heart...

A team of scientists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and CellThera, a private company, have regenerated functional muscle tissue in mice, opening the door for a new clinical therapy to treat people who suffer major muscle trauma A team of scientists from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and CellThera, a private company located in WPI's Life Sciences and Bioengineering Center, have regenerated functional muscle tissue in mice, opening the door for a new clinical therapy to treat...

In liver disease, extent of tissue damage depends on the balance between the generation of scar tissue and the regeneration of new liver cells. In a significant minority of people who get injury to their organs instead of repairing them, they form scars. This can progress to chronic liver disease and cirrhosis where the scarring is so extensive the liver is unable to clean blood or produce vital hormones and clotting factors. Liver scars also provide an ideal environment for the development...