Topic description and stories

Stem cells, the 'building blocks' for every type of cell in the body, have tremendous potential to improve human health.

Embryoid at start of appearance of SOX17 positive cells (green cells), which depict birth of human germ cell lineage

Egg and sperm race: Scientists create precursors to human egg and sperm

24 Dec 2014

Scientists at the University of Cambridge working with the Weizmann Institute have created primordial germ cells – cells that will go on to become...

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Early stage embryo

Shaping up: Researchers reconstruct early stages of embryo development

04 Nov 2014

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have managed to reconstruct the early stage of mammalian development using embryonic stem cells, showing...

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"Growing brains in the lab"

The man with a thousand brains

31 Oct 2014

Forty million people worldwide are living with Alzheimer’s and this is only set to increase. But tiny brains grown in culture could help scientists...

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Mouse blastocyst at the pluripotent stage, when cells have the capacity to generate all of the cell types of the adult

The ‘ultimate’ stem cell

29 Oct 2014

In the earliest moments of a mammal’s life, the developing ball of cells formed shortly after fertilisation ‘does as mother says’ – it follows a...

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Mines

Immorality and invention: the “great stem cell debate”

28 Oct 2014

Human stem cell research holds promise for combating some of the most recalcitrant of diseases and for regenerating damaged bodies. It is also an...

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Testing time for stem cells

Testing time for stem cells

23 Oct 2014

DefiniGEN is one of the first commercial opportunities to arise from Cambridge’s expertise in stem cell research. Here, we look at some of the...

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Taking a shot

Taking a shot at Parkinson’s

15 Oct 2014

Just one shot of dopamine cells derived from stem cells could be enough to reverse many of the features of Parkinson’s disease for decades – and the...

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Stem cells show auxeticity; the nucleus expands, rather than thins, when it's stretched

Stem cell physical

10 Oct 2014

Looking at stem cells through physicists’ eyes is challenging some of our basic assumptions about the body’s master cells.

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Conductor's baton

Orchestral manoeuvres: multiple sclerosis faces the music

03 Oct 2014

Like conducting an errant orchestra to play together, researchers are guiding processes that go awry in multiple sclerosis to repair themselves.

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Brain cells obtained in tissue culture from human embryonic stem cells

Stem cells: master builders, drug testers, immortal elements

01 Oct 2014

Today, we commence a month-long focus on research on stem cells. To begin, Professors Austin Smith and Robin Franklin discuss how Cambridge...

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Stem cells use “first aid kits” to repair damage

18 Sep 2014

Neural stem cells – master cells that can develop into any type of nerve cell – are able to generate mini “first aid kits” and transfer them to...

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Colony of human pluripotent stem cells

Scientists reset human stem cells to earliest developmental state

11 Sep 2014

Scientists have successfully ‘reset’ human pluripotent stem cells to the earliest developmental state – equivalent to cells found in an embryo before...

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