Research over the past decade has shown embryonic stem cells can undergo many disparate aspects of mammalian embryogenesis in vitro. But without the support of extra-embryonic stem cells that go on to form the placenta and yolk sac, development stalls. Now, two groups of researchers, led by scientists at the Weizmann Institute in Israel and Cambridge University, U.K., have taken the in vitro development of whole mouse embryos further, by adding or inducing the differentiation of trophoblast cells and extra-embryonic endoderm stem cells.

Using long-term in vivo imaging combined with computational modeling, a multinational team of researchers has gained new insights into what makes potential stem cells able to fulfill their role functionally.

Two studies published back to back in Nature have looked at the accumulation of mutations in blood-forming stem cells with age, gaining new insights into how the overall landscape of such cells changes across the lifespan. 

Mica Biosystems Ltd. is linking up with U.K. innovation center Cell and Gene Therapy Catapult (CGT Catapult) to accelerate commercialization of its regenerative technology platform. CGT Catapult is supporting the Birmingham, U.K.-based startup as it engages in conversations with the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency for clinical trials testing its remote-controlled stem cell therapy platform.

Japanese researchers have created complex 3D kidney organoids that could lead the way to better kidney research and even artificial kidneys for human transplant.

Ilex Medical Ltd. has injected $3.2 million into cell therapy company Kadimastem Ltd., as it prepares to list on the Nasdaq.

Ilex Medical Ltd. has injected $3.2 million into cell therapy company Kadimastem Ltd., as it prepares to list on the Nasdaq. As part of the investment, Ilex Medical was granted a total of 1,407,130 options (60% coverage) in two series, at exercise prices of $2.2 and $2.7 per share (up to 100% from the share price at the transaction). If exercised, it would increase the total investment to $6.7 million.

Sometimes, scientific progress comes from conceptual insights that arrive in a flash. More often, however, such progress arrives in a decidedly less glamorous, though no less important, manner.

Multiple companies are pursuing CD47-blockade as a tumor immunotherapy approach. Sana Biotechnology Inc., too, is interested in the therapeutic potential of CD47 – but from a very different angle. By overexpressing CD47 on stem cells, researchers at Sana want to make transplanted cells invisible to the immune system.

Sometimes, scientific progress comes from conceptual insights that arrive in a flash. More often, however, such progress arrives in a decidedly less glamorous, though no less important, manner – through the development of new technologies in what can be a very slow iterative cycle of getting a new method to work.