NEW YORK (May 24, 2010) - A technique pioneered in the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory of Dr. Jeremy Mao, the Edward V. Zegarelli Professor of Dental Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center, can orchestrate stem cells to migrate to a three-dimensional scaffold infused with growth factor, holding the translational potential to yield an anatomically correct tooth in as soon as nine weeks once implanted.

People who have lost some or all of their adult teeth typically look to dentures, or, more recently, dental implants to improve a toothless appearance that can have a host of unsettling psycho-social ramifications. Despite being the preferred (but generally painful and potentially protracted) treatment for missing teeth nowadays, dental implants can fail and are unable to "remodel" with surrounding jaw bone that undergoes necessary changes throughout a person's life.

HOUSTON – Deleting a gene in mouse embryos caused cardiac defects and early death, leading researchers to identify a mechanism that turns developmental genes off and on as an embryo matures, a team led by a scientist at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reported today in Molecular Cell.

Scientists working to understand more about the brains ability to learn and change in relation to the age of the cells have reported a new finding that they were able to prompt a new period of plasticity in the brain of juvenile mice. Their study involved the transplant a specific type of immature neuron from embryonic mice to the visual cortex of juvenile mice. The visual cortex has a period of very high plasticity during the earliest stages of development. During the period of plasticity, cells in this region react strongly to visual cues and respond with rapid synaptic transmissions produce the neural circuitry that is crucial for proper visual function.

Researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy and Karolinska Institutet have used novel technology to reveal the different genetic patterns of neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer. This discovery may lead to significant advances in the treatment of this malignant disease, which mainly affects small children.

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers and their colleagues have identified an enzyme that can effectively wipe a cell’s developmental slate clean, essentially giving a fresh start. The enzyme, which is thought to help genetically reprogram fertilized eggs as part of normal development, may help scientists create stem cells and arrest the growth of cancers.

Cancer stem cells have many of the same characteristics as regular stem cells - and are thought to be directly responsible for tumor formation and growth. Tufts University researchers have recently identified that the STAT3 gene regulates cancer stem cells in the aggressive brain cancer, Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) - offering a promising new option in the fight against such cancers.

Stem cells continue to offer great promise. Researchers at the University of Sheffield in London have discovered how to turn stem cells into cells that behave like sensory hair cells or auditory neurons - giving hope that one day this treatment could help deaf people to hear.

Researchers from DaVinci Biosciences, Costa Mesa, California, in collaboration with Hospital Luis Vernaza in Ecuador, have recently reported the benefits of bone marrow stem cell injections in helping improve the lives of spinal cord injury (SCI) patients.

Discovery demonstrates the feasibility of using iPS-derived motor neurons to model and treat diseases. Stem cells scientists at UCLA showed for the first time that human induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells can be differentiated into electrically active motor neurons, a discovery that may aid in studying and treating neurological disorders.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared the way for the first trial to see if human embryonic stem cells can treat people safely, a company involved in the controversial research reported on Friday.