With human research trials resulting in dozens of successful deliveries in the US and abroad, doctors move toward offering the surgery clinically, while working to learn all they can about uterine and transplant biology from the still-rare procedure.

Image: Courtesy of Gwenn-AEL Dnaet ©2002 National Academy of Sciences STEM CELL XENOGRAFT: Identification of human hepatocytes in livers from immune-deficient mice transplanted with human adult hematopoietic stem cells. Photomicrographs of NOD/SCID mouse liver sections from mice transplanted with purified human Lin-CD38-CD34-C1qRp+ cells isolated from umbilical cord blood, harvested 8-10 weeks post-transplant. Tissue sections were stained for HSA (hepatocyte-specific antigen) or c-met

Bacteria that live in the digestive tracts of animals may influence the adaptive trajectories of their hosts.

Are female mammals born with all the eggs they'll ever have, or can they produce new eggs into adulthood? The question has been vociferously debated, but now, a study published online in Nature Cell Biology today (April 12) reports that at least in mice, adult female ovaries have a store of stem cells that have the potential to generate new eggs. Human oocyte Image: Wikimedia CommonsThe study "is a huge step in quelling this debate," Jonathan Tilly, a reproductive biologist at Harvard Medical

Sequencing and gene-editing advances make tracing a cell’s journey throughout development easier than ever.

Photo: E.D. Laywell, UT MemphisMultipotent clones of cells derived from the adult human brain With the promises and challenges of stem cell research in the headlines, visions of artificial livers dance in the public's eye. Bioethicists, politicians, and citizens alike continue to debate whether public funds should be used to obtain cells from human embryos and fetuses. On the scientific front, however, the implications of stem cell research are even more profound than offering replacement parts.

A notoriously poor proxy for the human experience of cancer, mouse models are now undergoing a major renovation.

Biopharmaceutical researchers fear how pending federal legislation outlawing the cloning of human cells will restrict their abilities to find cures for major degenerative diseases.1,2 Some also see lawmakers impinging on established nonhuman cloning techniques essential for the discovery of new drugs and therapies. The source of all this worry? The US House of Representatives passed July 31 by a wide margin a bill (H.R. 2505) sponsored by Reps. David Weldon (R-Fla.) and Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) th