6/22/2012
6/08/2012
5/29/2012
...antipsychotic drug, Thioridazine, has activity against cancer stem cells
Mick Bhatia’s lab has found that the antipsychotic drug, Thioridazine, has activity against cancer stem cells.
The work, published in Cell (read paper here), indicates that Thioridazine works not by killing cancer stem cells, but rather by encouraging the stem cells to differentiate.
Bhatia’s group used a novel screening approach (see graphical abstract from the paper above) to find molecules that specifically differentiate cancer stem cells. Interestingly they found Thioridazine, which intriguingly targets the dopamine receptor expressed on certain cancer stem cells. Bhatia can be seen in the interview below talking about the finding.
You might think then that Thioridazine would be safe because it only targets cells expressing dopamine receptor, however the drug reportedly has significant safety concerns due to causing fatal heart arrhythmias and regulators have largely phased it out in both Canada and the U.S..
Even so, it may be safe for cancer treatments since it could be used for a much shorter period of time, speculated Bhatia. However it is still early days in this story so there is much to learn about this new route to attacking cancer. Still, a very exciting and important development.
Thanks to https://www.ipscell.com/2012/05/psyching-out-cancer-stem-cells-using-old-antipsychotic-drug-as-a-new-weapon-against-cancer/ for the information.
5/26/2012
Stem Cell Comics
Open publication - Free publishing
Beautiful educational comics about stem cells! ‘Hope Beyond Hype’ is a story about stem cell therapies from science discovery to working therapy.
4/19/2012
Beautiful Cell Pictures
Those beautiful cell pictures were found at
http://bpod.mrc.ac.uk/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&keywords=stem+cells
4/16/2012
Cool Article About the History of Stem Cell Research!
That's wonderful! I thought about it lots of times!
Who really discovered stem cells?
Is it even possible that one scientific team all by themselves discovered something so ubiquitous as stem cells?
In theory “yes”, but after much historical research including this great historical article in Cell Stem Cell, I would argue that no one group really discovered stem cells.
Instead I believe the “discovery” of stem cells was an ongoing team effort over a period of many decades and there is much credit to go around.
Who gets the credit now according to most people now for “discovering” stem cells?
Canada rightly takes pride in the work of their scientists Drs. James Till and Ernset McCulloch, who did pioneering studies in hematopoietic stem cell research.
In Canada, Till and McCulloch are unambiguously called the world’s discoverers of stem cells. Period. No ambiguity.
But is that correct?
Nope.
2/24/2012
Stem Cell Aging
http://www.fightaging.org/images/aging_of_stem_cells.jpg
the problem of Stem Cell Aging is one of the most intrigueing in stem cell biology field.
2/13/2012
Funny Cord Faces
Thanks to medicineisfun
2/07/2012
Phase I safety study on the use of cord blood stem cells to treat children with sensorineural hearing loss
Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Cord Blood Registry® (CBR) are launching the first FDA-approved, Phase I safety study on the use of cord blood stem cells to treat children with sensorineural hearing loss.
2/05/2012
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