Synthetic gene circuits that improve stem cell quality

Because iPS cells can be made into just about any cell type in the body, they have great promise for cell therapies. One major problem, however, is that not all reprogramming cells successfully become iPS cells, resulting ...

Protein domain structures affect the quality of stem cells

The original iPS cells were reprogrammed by transducing four genes: OCT3/4, SOX2, KLF4, and c-MYC. Later experiments would show that c-MYC can be replaced with MYCL. Both are MYC proteins and thus oncogenes, but animal experiments ...

How you mix cells changes the brain

Brain organoids are models of the brain made from growing stem cells like iPS cells into three-dimensional structures. They are used to study all sorts of brain-related phenomenon, including neural networks and disease development. ...

Transforming DNA repair errors into assets

A new bioinformatics tool, MHcut, developed by researchers in Kyoto, Japan, and Montreal, Canada, reveals that a natural repair system for DNA damage, microhomology-mediated end joining, is probably far more common in humans ...

A map app to track stem cells

Researchers who work with stem cells have ambitious goals. Some want to cure cancer or treat heart disease. Others want to grow the tissues and organs that patients need for transplants. Some groups are even working to develop ...

Ribosomes found to induce somatic cell pluripotency

In 2012, a Japanese research group discovered that human skin cells acquire pluripotency when introduced to lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacillus acidophilus). Now, the same group of researchers has found that the cause of ...

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