Contrary to textbook models, many genes that should be “off” in embryonic stem cells and specialized adult cells remain primed to produce master regulatory proteins, leaving those cells vulnerable to identity changes.
Researchers have manipulated mouse fibroblasts and turned them into cells with such developmental elasticity that they appear identical to embryonic stem cells.
Scientists at Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research and University of Utah School of Medicine have begun to understand the biological processes of how the planarian flatworm achieves complete regeneration of damaged tissue.
"Regeneration is one of the great mysteries of biology that has puzzled developmental biologists for well over a century," says Whitehead Associate Member Peter Reddien. But that's changing quickly as researchers bring the powerhouses of modern biological analyses to studying these processes-with the hope that a better understanding of regeneration may eventually find medical applications.
Researchers working with human embryonic stem cells have uncovered the process responsible for the single-most tantalizing characteristic of these cells: their ability to become just about any type of cell in the body, a trait known as pluripotency.
The United States should follow the lead of Massachusetts in legalizing responsible human embryonic stem cell research, Senator Edward Kennedy declared on June 2 at Whitehead.
Researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Rudolf Jaenisch have discovered a mechanism that might enable scientists to multiply adult stem cells quickly and efficiently.
