News

Two specific cell types in the nose have been identified as likely initial infection points for COVID-19 coronavirus. Scientists discovered that goblet and ciliated cells in the nose have high levels of the entry proteins that the COVID-19 virus uses to get into our cells.The identification of these cells by researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Ins…

Research published in Nature Cell Biology today (Monday 30th March) has revealed insights into the molecular regulation of mammalian organ development.Shortly after fertilization, the mammalian embryo generates so called pluripotent cells, which have the capacity to contribute to all the future cell types of the organism. During a subsequent period…

New insights into the architecture of the brain have been revealed by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and their collaborators. The researchers discovered that cells in the cerebral cortex of mice, called astrocytes, are more diverse than previously thought, with distinct layers of astrocyt…

Cancer of the immune system, called lymphoma or leukaemia, generally affects the entire body’s bone marrow and lymph nodes. Because these types of cancers are so widespread, surgery isn’t useful, so patients are usually treated with chemotherapy. Although these treatments have become significantly better in the past ten years, lymphoma and chronic …

Researchers at the Babraham Institute, EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), CRUK Cambridge Institute and the Wellcome – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute have provided the first single-cell epigenomic analysis of gastrulation, a crucial process in early embryo development. The researchers analysed over 1,000 cells from mouse embryos…

The New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) announced the 2019 class of NYSCF – Robertson Investigators, welcoming six of the most talented stem cell researchers and neuroscientists into the NYSCF Investigator Program.The NYSCF Investigator Program fosters and encourages promising early career scientists whose cutting-edge research holds the potentia…

In a world first, scientists have created the human developmental liver cell atlas that provides crucial insights into how the blood and immune systems develop in the foetus. It maps changes in the cellular landscape of the developing liver between the first and second trimesters of pregnancy, including how stem cells from the liver seed other tiss…

New research published in Cell Stem Cell suggests a common diabetes drug could hold the key to stopping disease progression in multiple sclerosis (MS). The new finding offers hope to people living with advanced forms of the condition, who currently have no treatment and often see disability as inevitable.The MS Society funded research suggests alte…

Two new studies by an international team of researchers report progress in using stem cells to develop new therapies for Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease (PMD), a rare genetic condition affecting boys that can be fatal before 10 years of age.Often diagnosed at birth with symptoms of weakness and breathing difficulties, the progressive neurological prob…

The healthy cells immediately surrounding a tumour become more stem cell-like and support cancer growth, reveals a new study published in Nature. The discovery was made during a research collaboration between Dr Joo-Hyeon Lee at the Wellcome – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute and Dr Ilaria Malanchi at the Francis Crick Institute. The researchers…

How cells change their identity to become a different cell type and the route they follow to reach their final form is a fundamental unanswered question at the heart of developmental biology. In research published today in Cell Stem Cell, Cambridge scientists reveal, for the first time, that cells can actually follow a range of distinct molecular r…

New research, published today in Nature, reveals how increasing brain stiffness as we age causes brain stem cell dysfunction, and demonstrates new ways to reverse older stem cells to a younger, healthier state.The results have far reaching implications for how we understand the ageing process, and how we might develop much-needed treatments for age…

Professor Austin Smith from the Wellcome – MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute is one of the first round of researchers from the UK and Japan funded to tackle major global challenges in collaborative projects announced today, Friday 9th August 2019. The projects are the first to be funded through the Joint Call between UK Research and Innovation (UKR…

A combination of heart cells derived from human stem cells could be the answer to developing a desperately-needed treatment for heart failure, according to new research part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in Nature Biotechnology. Researchers have found that, by transplanting an area of damaged tissue with a combination o…

Scientists have discovered that a specific brain cell known as a ‘projection neuron’ has a central role to play in the brain changes seen in multiple sclerosis (MS). The research, published today in Nature, shows that projection neurons are damaged by the body’s own immune cells, and that this damage could underpin the brain shrinkage and cognitiv…