Comprehensive coverage

Stem cells

Cut in a fetal body. Courtesy of the researchers

How - and where - does a disease begin?

Researchers discovered which genes are required for each stage of cell differentiation into neural stem cells and neurons, i.e. for brain development, and which of them are involved in diseases of the nervous system
pluripotent stem cells. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Stem cells used as a basis for innovative medicine may contain cancerous mutations

  • No comments
A study by researchers at the Hebrew University found that in mature cells derived from stem cells, which are used in the field of regenerative medicine that focuses on renewing living tissues and creating organs for transplantation, cancerous mutations may appear
Nerves. Credit: Mahmoud Ali-Saleh

A mechanism has been discovered that causes sleep apnea in sick children

  • No comments
One of the diseases resulting from such mutations in the PHOX2B gene is the disease CCHS. This is a rare and life-threatening syndrome in which babies, children and adults stop breathing as soon as they fall asleep. The patients must be connected to ventilators in order not to die in their sleep
Embryonic stem cells. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Going deeper into the roots of the diseases

Researchers have built cellular models of genetic diseases such as fragile X syndrome and found the mechanism that causes them
Fertilization process illustration: depositphotos.com

Eggs from men and sperm cells from women: How stem cells may change the way we reproduce

  • No comments
In theory, a male skin cell can be turned into an egg and a female skin cell into a sperm cell. There is also the possibility of a child genetically connected to several parents, or only to one parent
Stem cells. Illustration: depositphotos.com

For the first time, human skin cells can be directly transformed into cells of a placenta

  • No comments
A research team led by Prof. Yossi Buganim from the School of Medicine of the Hebrew University succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells into functional placental cells so that there is no need to extract stem cells from embryos
Mice. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Mice with two fathers: Scientists create eggs from male cells

  • 2 תגובות
The researchers behind the new study were able to create baby mice with genetic material from two males without any genetic changes. They achieved this by using stem cells to create primordial germ cells (PGCs), which differentiate into sperm and egg.
Production of cultured pork from stem cells. Image: depositphotos.com

Stakeholder Foods succeeded in producing pig fat cells cultured from pluripotent stem cells (iPSC)

  • No comments
This achievement will improve the company's ability to produce high quality pork products * The pig stem cell line will allow the company to produce an unlimited amount of fat and muscle cells
Prof. Toledano and her team. Photo: Technion spokespeople

Extend the fertility period of men

A study of testicular tissues of fruit flies showed that the progenitor cells are engulfed by the cells that are supposed to support them, and that in adults this process is slower
Development of artificial embryos in vortexed laboratory beakers, from day 5 (top left) to day 8 (bottom right)

The synthetic embryo developed under the leadership of Weizmann researchers: a senior researcher in the field explains why this is a breakthrough

  • 6 תגובות
Many pregnancies are terminated at the stage when the fetus is implanted in the uterus and begins to develop. The discovery will make it possible to investigate this phase in detail
drug addiction. Image: depositphotos.com

Discovery of Bar-Ilan University: Placental cells for natural addiction treatment

  • No comments
Stem cells derived from the placenta are able to reach damaged tissues in the brains of drug addicts and initiate a rehabilitation process in them. The innovative treatment may solve one of the most difficult challenges in the field of detoxification: the difficulty of addicts to detach from the memory that brings them back again and again to the drug
Stem cells. Image: depositphotos.com

The very first program to create an embryo by creating artificial embryonic and placental stem cells

By creating artificial embryonic and placental stem cells and comparing them, the researchers from the Hebrew University identified about 14,000 sites in the genome that control the development of all the organs of the fetus
A diagram showing the innovative approach developed in Prof. Yaakov Hana's laboratory to create an artificial model of mouse embryos from stem cells - without egg, sperm or uterus

No egg, no sperm and no uterus: Weizmann Institute of Science scientists created an artificial model of mouse embryos

  • One response
The embryo model developed from stem cells that were grown outside the womb to a relatively advanced stage, showing normal development of organs and tissues
Embryonic stem cells. Image: depositphotos.com

The superpower of a newborn fetus

How can cells be returned to their initial and most powerful state?
From the right - Yaakov Chen, Deputy CEO and CFO of the Tnuva Group, Franco-Yehuda Chen, CFO of Pluristem, Eyal Melis, CEO of the Tnuva Group, from the left - Yaki Yanai, President and CEO of Pluristem at the signing of the The agreement. Photo: Tamar Matzafi

Tnuva and the biotech company Pluristem are establishing a joint company in the field of cultured food

  • One response
The joint company will leverage the cell growth technology developed with investments of approximately 500 million dollars in Pluristem * This is a technological platform that supports the development and production of a variety of cell-based products from different sources, such as: beef, chicken, fish and milk. In the first phase, the venture between Tnuva and Pluristem will develop cultured meat products
A discovery by the institute's scientists may make it possible to increase the amount of stem cells in bone marrow transplants - and improve their chances of success You are here Homepage > Publications > Science news in a friendly language > New blood flows Share Tags Idit Shehartai stem cell immunology bone marrow transplant stem cell transplant The blood in our arteries is constantly renewed Thanks to a small and inexhaustible supply of stem cells in the bone marrow that ensure a continuous supply of fresh blood cells. In bone marrow transplants, these stem cells are harvested from donors and transferred to patients who need them, for example leukemia patients or other types of blood cancer. However, the amount of stem cells is not always sufficient and there is currently no way to grow these cells in the laboratory without them losing their unique properties. The scientists of the Weizmann Institute of Science recently discovered a method that may make it possible to increase the amount of stem cells for transplantation, thus improving the chances of success of bone marrow transplants. Prof. Idit Shahar from the Department of Immunology and her group members are researching a receptor called CD74 which is found on the membranes of blood cells. After in a previous study, the scientists discovered that this receptor improves the survival ability of type B white blood cells - they wanted to check if the receptor is also used in a similar way in the stem cells in the bone marrow. To their surprise, it turned out that in the stem cells its action is completely opposite: it initiates a chain of biochemical reactions leading to the death of the cells. From the right: Hadas Levinsky, Dr. Shirley Becker-Herman, Prof. Idit Shahar and Keren David. Down to their bone marrow This fact was revealed after, in one of the experiments, larger than normal amounts of stem cells were found in the bone marrow of genetically modified mice without the CD74 receptor. In other words, disabling the receptor prevented the cells from dying and allowed them to survive for a long time and accumulate. How is it possible that the same receptor performs completely different actions in two types of cells? The reason for this probably lies in the conditions, for example the oxygen levels, or the different environments in which the cells operate - the blood circulation in the case of B cells and the bone marrow in the case of the stem cells. Later, the scientists implanted in bone marrow-deficient mice doses that included identical amounts of normal stem cells and stem cells without CD74. They were amazed to discover that the cells without the receptor were absorbed better, multiplied quickly and in a short time filled the entire bone marrow. In the next step, the scientists conducted a "competition" between the two types of cells - they performed a series of experiments in which they gradually increased the amount of normal stem cells at the expense of the engineered cells. The results were unequivocal: even when the cells without the receptor constituted only one tenth of the total number of cells in the transplanted portion, they were still absorbed better, divided rapidly and were the ones that eventually filled most of the bone marrow. In additional experiments, in mice that underwent chemotherapy treatments - similar to those given to cancer patients - it became clear that mice without CD74 survived and restored their immune system more efficiently than the control mice. "The research may help produce stem cells for transplantation in larger quantities and of higher quality" Finally, the scientists found that an antibody that blocks the active site of the CD74 receptor does indeed cause the stem cells to accumulate in large quantities both in laboratory vessels and in the skeleton of mice. In addition, they showed that blocking CD74 in stem cells taken from humans led to molecular changes similar to those observed in mice. These findings indicate that blocking the receptor may be relevant to bone marrow transplantation in humans. When there is no XNUMX% matching donor for a patient in need of a bone marrow transplant, it is sometimes possible to overcome the lack of a complete match by using huge doses of stem cells. Also, sometimes the source of cells for transplantation is umbilical cord blood, which contains a small amount of these cells. In both cases, increasing the amount of stem cells is essential. "Our research may help produce stem cells for transplantation in larger quantities and of higher quality," concludes Prof. Shahar.

Infusing new blood

A discovery by the institute's scientists may make it possible to increase the amount of stem cells in bone marrow transplants - and improve their chances of success
A mouse fetus grown six days outside the womb. His developing organs were marked with fluorescent genes

Weizmann Institute scientists grew mouse embryos outside the womb

For seven years, through trial and error, fine-tuning and repeated tests, in the laboratory of Prof. Hana, who specializes in embryonic stem cells, they developed a two-stage method that makes it possible to grow normal mouse embryos outside the womb from the initial stages of pregnancy in order to study the different stages of development of the embryo, Something that was not possible in mammals until now
From right to left: Anatoli Meler, Flonia Levy-Adam, Tahani Kedah, Reot Shelgi, Amal Younis, Shani Hadar and Kinneret Rosales-Shergenheim. Photo: Rami Shloush, Technion speakers

For the first time, a study reveals the decline of the protein control system with aging

  • One response
The research published in PNAS - the journal of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States - was led by Prof. Reut Shelgi, research colleagues Niv Sabat and Falonia Levy-Adam and doctoral student Amal Younis from the Rapaport Faculty of Medicine
cultured meat. Illustration: depositphotos.com

Meat-Tech succeeded for the first time in printing a cultured beef fat compound

  • 2 תגובות
The print was bovine fat cells and binder, which were grown and developed from stem cells in the company's laboratories
Freezing of stem cells that became biological drugs at the Pluristem plant in Haifa, 26/10/214. Photo: Avi Blizovsky

Pluristem treated the first three corona patients in Israel with stem cells as part of compassionate care

  • 4 תגובות
Gene editing of embryos. Illustration: shutterstock

The failure of the gene-edited babies experiment in China proves that we are not ready for gene-editing of human embryos

  • 8 תגובות
Stem cells differentiate into neurons and an unsorted stem cell colony. Prof. Yishai Avior, Hebrew University

Fetal stem cells that are used to treat diseases and in research - may contain cancerous mutations

  • One response
From the right: Dr. Ronit Nir, Ran Shahar, Miguel Engel Garcia-Campos, Dr. Modi Safra, Dr. Sharit Adelheit-Flor and Dr. Shraga Schwartz. There are many tags in the cell. Photo: Weizmann Institute Spokesperson

The golden tag: How does the m6A chemical tag involved in the control of the human genome work?

  • No comments
Mouse hematopoietic stem cells in culture. Right: the cells did not differentiate into blood cells after the activity of Mettl3 was disabled in them. On the left: the non-engineered stem cells differentiated in a short time into mature blood cells of different types

Kill the cancerous blood cells - without harming the healthy stem cells

  • No comments
Mouse embryonic stem cells were observed using a spinning disk confocal microscope. The levels of the protein that prevents stem cells from differentiating (green) decrease in the presence of high levels of another protein (purple) that causes mitochondria to elongate

The elongation of mitochondria in embryonic stem cells affects the process of differentiation into the various body tissues

  • No comments
Science website logo
SEARCH