Until now, reprogramming fully differentiated cells into a pluripotent state has had a major drawback: the use of genome-integrating retroviruses to do the job. But a new study published tomorrow in Science reports on the creation of reprogrammed cells without such integrating viruses.

"The number one priority for labs working on iPS translation is to alleviate this problem of integration of viruses into the human genome,"... Click to continue

In the last several years, stem cell banks and registries have begun springing up across the country and internationally. But are all these facilities helping research, or just duplicating efforts?

The latest addition to the list of such facilities is the stem cell registry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, launched earlier this month. That school also has a human embryonic stem cell (HESC) core facility to store and distribute the cell lines. There are plenty of others: the... Click to continue

Big pharma's interest in stem cell research is picking up speed. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is expanding its research into the technology and plans to open a second regenerative medicine unit in Cambridge, UK, this November, Reuters reported yesterday.

Pfizer isn't the only one. In July, GlaxoSmithKline entered a ... Click to continue

Were animals with four limbs the first to evolve fingers and toes-- or did such digits evolve long before? A study published today (September 21) in Nature claims to resolve this long-standing question.

For many years, most paleontologists debated whether digits arose 380 million years ago as a novel evolutionary trait in tetrapods, or four-footed creatures. The new study, led by Catherine Boisvert, at Uppsala... Click to continue

The National Institutes of Health may be getting a healthy funding boost by year's end.

Within the next couple of weeks, the US Senate is expected to debate a supplementary funding package that includes $500 million to NIH for 2008. Senate Committee on Appropriations chairman Robert Bryd (D- WVa) introduced the supplement at... Click to continue

Three researchers, Victor Ambros, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Gary Ruvkun, at Massachusetts General Hospital, and David Baulcombe, at the University of Cambridge in the UK, will share the 2008 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for their discovery of microRNAs, the Albert and... Click to continue

A new bill seeks to undo the NIH mandate requiring federally-funded research papers to be made publicly available within 12 months of acceptance for publication.

In a hearing yesterday (September 11) the US House Committee on the Judiciary considered whether the mandate violates publishers' copyright. The committee's chairman, John Conyers (D-Mich), sponsored the bill, HR6845, titled the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, which... Click to continue

A government hearing set for next week will discuss a bill in the works that may address publishers' concerns with public access laws, according to the Library Journal.

The House Committee on the Judiciary hearing is slated for September 11, according to the committee's online schedule. Although text for the legislation, entitled "Fair copyright in... Click to continue

Researchers have known for almost a decade that the adult brain produces new neurons. But a new study appearing yesterday (August 31) online in Nature Neuroscience gets a better look at what adult neurogenesis in two regions of the brain is actually for.

"I think the conclusions are really groundbreaking," Barbara Beltz, neuroscientist at... Click to continue