Top Storylines and Resources
New Insight Into Cellular Reprogramming Mechanism
Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston have gained new insight into the mechanism of reprogramming human somatic stem cells into induced pluripotent stem cells, cells that have been brought back from one particular cell type to a state where they can become any type of specialized cell.... Read More »
Children’s Researchers Receive NIH Grant to Develop Blood Disease Gene Therapy
Children's Hospital Boston's Stem Cell Program's Dr. George Daley and colleagues at Children's and Dana-Farber have received an NIH grant to develop a stem cell-based gene therapy to treat Fanconi anemia, a fatal blood disease.... Read More »
Children’s Responds to Treatment of First Patient in Spinal Cord Injury Clinical Trial
On October 11, 2010, Geron Corporation announced the enrollment of the first patient in a spinal cord injury clinical trial involving human embryonic stem cells. This is the first FDA-approved study of the therapy, in which millions of embryonic stem cells are injected into the site of damage from a recent spinal cord injury. Read our response. ... Read More »
Award-Winning Diabetes Proposal by Daley Lab Student
An MD/PhD student from George Daley's lab, Srinivas Viswanathan, PhD, is one of twelve winners of the first Harvard Catalyst/InnoCentive Ideation Challenge, which posed the question: "What do we not know to cure type 1 diabetes?"... Read More »
A Safer Method for Creating Pluripotent Stem Cells
Rossi and his colleagues have developed a new method of creating induced pluripotent stem cells. The technique involves the use of modified RNA, a potentially safer alternative to the current virus- and DNA-based techniques, which irreversibly alter the genome of the cell. The use of modified RNA allows the genome to remain unchanged.... Read More »
iPS cells: A promising new platform for drug discovery
Dr. George Daley, Director of Children's Hospital Boston's Stem Cell Transplantation Program, wrote a blog post for the hospital's newly launched science and clinical innovation blog, Vector.... Read More »
Children’s Hospital Researcher Participates In ‘Stand Up To Cancer’ Event
A Children's Hospital Boston scientist recently spent a star-studded night in Los Angeles taking part in the second Stand Up To Cancer event. Dr. Fernando Camargo, a Principal Investigator in the Stem Cell Program at Children's Hospital Boston, was one of thirteen recipients of Stand Up To Cancer 2009 Innovative Research Grants: $750,000 over three years to "support early-career scientists with novel ideas that have a strong potential to impact patient care - projects that are high-risk but could also be high-impact."... Read More »
Dr. George Daley gives testimony on importance of embryonic stem cell research
Dr. George Daley, Director of Children's Hospital Boston's Stem Cell Transplantation Program, was one of five panelists to testify at a September 16, 2010 Senate subcommittee hearing regarding the importance of federal funding for human embryonic stem cell research.... Read More »
Children’s stem cell scientist wins innovation research grant
Dr. Fernando Camargo and his research team are the recipients of a Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) Innovative Research Grant to further study a tumor suppressor pathway to human cancer, which may lead to future targeted therapies for human cancers and pediatric tumors.... Read More »
Stem cell researchers at Children’s respond to injunction forbidding the use of federal funds to support embryonic stem cell research
Leading stem cell researchers, Leonard Zon, MD, and George Daley, MD, PhD, respond to the ruling and how it will affect the progress of stem cell research.... Read More »
Father with first-hand experience expresses the need for embryonic stem cell research
Andres Trevino, who attributes his son’s health to Children’s doctors and the medical knowledge and procedures attributed to stem cell research, explains what the injunction forbidding the use of federal funds to support embryonic stem cell research could mean for families like the Trevinos. More.... Read More »
Scientists see new hurdles in push to make stem cells
The Boston Globe reports that as researchers move to understand the full nature and promise of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, they are finding a variety of signals that suggest they are different from embryonic stem cells in key ways. The work of George Daley, MD, PhD, and his colleagues to distinguish the differences between iPS and embryonic stem cells is highlighted.... Read More »
Offshore Stem Cell Clinics Sell Hope, Not Science
Children’s George Daley, MD, PhD, is featured in a story on NPR’s “Morning Edition” that discusses foreign stem cell clinics that sell unproven treatments at a high price and a new consumer watchdog program set up by the International Society for Stem Cell Research.... Read More »
Dr. Leonard Zon Among Six Researchers to Receive Prestigious Awards From ASH
The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world’s largest professional society of blood specialists, will honor six scientists who have made significant contributions to the understanding and treatment of hematologic diseases — including Children’s Leonard Zon, MD.... Read More »
Children’s stem cell scientist wins innovation research grant
Adult cells that have been reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) do not completely let go of their past, perhaps limiting their ability to function as a less controversial alternative to embryonic stem cells for basic research and cell replacement therapies, according to researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, John Hopkins University and their colleagues.... Read More »
Spotlight
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Boston Globe
The work of Dr. Leonard Zon and Dr. George Daley is discussed in an article examining the slowing of research progress as a result of the ongoing court battle for federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research. Read More.
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CNN
Dr. Leonard I. Zon reflects on the latest developments in the court battle regarding federal funding of human embryonic stem cells. Read More.
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Boston Globe
A December 1, 2010 article in the Boston Globe‘s business section highlights the work of Verastem Inc., a local company for which Children’s Hospital Boston’s Dr. George Daley is on the scientific advisory board. “The founding scientists and advisors of Verastem are some of my favorite colleagues,” said Dr. Daley. “I am looking forward to the quest to find drugs that kill the rare cells that sustain some cancers.” Read More.
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On NPR
Leonard Zon, MD reflects on a decade of stem cell research. Read More.
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Forbes
Dr. George Daley comments on the possibility of converting specialized cells directly to other specialized cells. While other researchers are reporting very early successes, clinical trials are a long way off. “There’s a lot of experiments failing,” Daley told Forbes. “A lot of people are just taking a trial-and-error approach, and that’s fundamentally inefficient. And yet, it may create a breakthrough.” Read More.
