The procedure, conducted on Sept. 30 under the auspices of the Sanford Stem Cell Clinical Center at UC San Diego Health System and in collaboration with Neuralstem, Inc., a Maryland-based biotechnology firm, is the first of four in the Phase I clinical trial. …
There are two important processes that need to happen to maintain skeletal-muscle health. First, when muscle is damaged by injury or degenerative disease such as muscular dystrophy, muscle stem cells — or satellite cells — need to differentiate into mature muscle cells to repair injured muscles. Second, the pool of satellite cells needs to be replenished so there is a supply to repair muscle in case of future injuries. In the case of muscular dystrophy, the chronic cycles of muscle regeneration and degeneration that involve satellite-cell activation exhaust the muscle stem-cell pool to the point of no return. …
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140530154107.htm
source : http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140228103510.htm
In a new paper appearing today online in the journal, ACS Medicinal Chemistry Letters, researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have developed nanoparticles that appear to solve a big challenge in delivering the RNA molecules, called small interfering RNA, or siRNA, to the cells where they are needed. By synthesizing a nanoparticle that releases its siRNA cargo only after it enters targeted cells, Dr…