News

Genome rewiring during neural cell development

29 March 2017

Affiliate PI Peter Rugg-Gunn ’s group at the Babraham Institute has mapped the changes in the three-dimensional shape of DNA that occur as human stem cells specialise towards becoming developing neural cells, the cells that make up the nervous system. These changes in DNA shape rewire the circuitry that connects genes with...

New tool allows analysis of single-cell RNA data in pre-malignant tumours

27 March 2017

CSCI researchers and their collaborators at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute have developed a new analysis tool that was able to show, for the first time, which genes were expressed by individual cells in different genetic versions of a benign blood cancer. Single cell RNA sequencing can define cell types by revealing...

New stem cell method produces millions of human brain and muscle cells in days

27 March 2017

CSCI (Vallier lab) and Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists along with their collaborators at the University of Cambridge have created a new technique that simplifies the production of human brain and muscle cells - allowing millions of functional cells to be generated in just a few days. The results published in...

A Tale of Two States

24 March 2017

Researchers from Peter Rugg-Gunn’s lab (Cambridge Stem Cell Institute Affiliate PI, Babraham Institute) and colleagues at the Karolinska Institute have identified a set of molecular ‘flags’ that are present on the surface of human embryonic stem cells. Embryonic stem cells are cells that have the potential to differentiate...

Visualising the genome: researchers create first 3D structures of active DNA

13 March 2017

Scientists in Dr Brian Hendrich’s group at the Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, together with colleagues from the Departments of Biochemistry, Chemistry and the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology have determined the first 3D structures of intact mammalian genomes from individual cells, showing how the DNA from all the...

What is it like to be a student on our MRC Physical Biology of Stem Cells PhD programme?

23 January 2017

Given the unique nature of our MRC Physical Biology of Stem Cells PhD studentships , we asked two of our current PhD students about their Physical Biology of Stem Cells journey, to give us an insight into how these studentships work in context. Fiona Hamey (who began her studentship with us in 2014), and Sam Watcham (who...

Understanding X-chromosome silencing in humans

23 January 2017

Affiliate PI Peter Rugg-Gunn's Lab at the Babraham Institute and researchers at the Paris Diderot University, Institut Curie report today in Cell Stem Cell that a second long RNA molecule, XACT , which exists in humans but not in mice, accumulates with XIST on active X-chromosomes in human embryos. The two RNAs do not...

Commercial licence to produce platelets from stem cells

20 January 2017

Intellectual Property (IP) from Boston, MA, and Cambridge, UK, have combined to advance commercial development of safe, plentiful, non-donor-dependent platelets Platelet BioGenesis, a biotech startup developing a method for producing life-saving platelets without the need for human donations, has acquired exclusive...

Cambridge’s Stem Cell Institute receives five year funding boost

20 January 2017

Cambridge Stem Cell Institute has today been confirmed as a major research centre by biomedical research charity Wellcome and the Medical Research Council, receiving continued support for a further five years. The Wellcome / MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Wellcome / CRUK Gurdon Institute have been named as two of 14...

Controlling gene activity in human development

20 January 2017

06.12.16 - New research from Affiliate PI Peter Rugg-Gunn's Lab, published in Cell Reports , has revealed a new understanding of the molecular switches that control gene activity in human embryonic stem cells. This insight provides new avenues for improving the efficiency of being able to drive stem cells to create a...

Genome rewiring during neural cell development

New tool allows analysis of single-cell RNA data in pre-malignant tumours

New stem cell method produces millions of human brain and muscle cells in days

A Tale of Two States

Visualising the genome: researchers create first 3D structures of active DNA

What is it like to be a student on our MRC Physical Biology of Stem Cells PhD programme?

Understanding X-chromosome silencing in humans

Commercial licence to produce platelets from stem cells

Cambridge’s Stem Cell Institute receives five year funding boost

Controlling gene activity in human development

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