Project News and Media Releases

EuroStemCell researcher challenges amniotic stem cell claims

In the March 2008 issue of Nature Biotechnology EuroStemCell scientist Elena Cattaneo (University of Milano), with Mauro Toselli (University of Pavia), Elisabetta Cerbai (University of Florence) and Ferdinando Rossi (University of Torino), have challenged findings published in the same journal last year that amniotic fluid-derived stem cells can produce cells of the nervous system.

Read more (PDF file, 119KB, opens in a new window)

Commentary by Ole Isacson and Oliver Cooper (PDF file, 20KB, opens in a new window)

Read the original De Coppi et al. article, Isolation of amniotic stem cell lines with potential for therapy, on the Nature Biotechnology website (subscription required)

Read the latest correspondence, Do amniotic-fluid derived stem cells differentiate into neurons in vitro?, from the Nature Biotechnology website (subscription required).

EuroStemCell scientists at the European Parliament
Parliamentary briefing: "Research on stem cells in Europe"

EuroStemCell scientists and advisers took the platform at the European Parliament in Brussels last month, to provide parliamentarians and staff with an up-to-date overview of how far European stem cell research has come. The briefing, chaired by Pia Locatelli, reviewed obstacles and opportunities on the horizon, and was accompanied by a poster exhibition. In his opening statement, Commissioner Janez Potocnik said:
The work of the European Consortium for Stem Cell Research is an outstanding success story...It is an example of the successful integration of science, communication, ethics and training. And it demonstrates how European science can become a world-wide reference in a particular field. Programme (PDF format, 674Kb, link opens in new window)

Scientists call for action on European stem cell legislation
Leading stem cell scientists are today calling for action to remove political and legislative barriers that hinder collective research across Europe

Scientists from EuroStemCell and ESTOOLS - the two major European-funded stem cell research consortia - are working together to highlight the impact that differing national legislation positions in European countries has on collaborative research, particularly in Germany and Italy.

In a joint statement sent to the Members of the European Parliament, they are calling for harmonisation of current laws in the hope that their European counterparts are able to collaborate on international projects without fear of legal reprisal.

Download full press release (PDF format, 161Kb, link opens in new window)
Download the Statement (PDF format, 625Kb, link opens in new window)

Scaricare il Comunicato Congiunto (PDF format, 78Kb, link opens in new window)

Italian embryonic stem cell researchers publish Manifesto
The Group of the Italian Researchers on Embryonic Stem Cells (IES Group), including EuroStemCell's Elena Cattaneo, presented a Manifesto during their 2nd National Congress in Rome today.
The Manifesto argues for the commitment of significant intellectual energy and resources in Italy, as elsewhere in Europe, to research using embryonic stem cells.

	Download the Manifesto (PDF format, link opens in new window)
	Scaricare il Manifesto (PDF format, link opens in new window)

Read more about the Congress

Human muscle stem cells from blood vessels
EuroStemCell researcher Giulio Cossu and his team from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute this week reported an important development in their quest to develop new treatments for muscular dystrophy.
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EuroStemCell scientists meet Bill Gates

EuroStemCell scientists Clare Blackburn, Oliver Brüstle and Sally Lowell discussed their research with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates this week. Their work on rebuilding the immune system and developing new prospects for repairing the nervous system were among seven research projects presented to the world-renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist. Mr Gates, who received an honorary degree during his visit to Edinburgh, said of the event:

Tanya Medley, Nick Bredenkamp, Clare Blackburn

" It is also a real pleasure to meet ... some of the talented young researchers from across the world who have come to Edinburgh to carry out exciting and ground-breaking research into stem cell science and tropical medicine in the quest to increase our understanding of degenerative and infectious diseases and to discover new treatments."

New nerve cells in diseased brain
Nerve cells generated from stem cells in an adult diseased and damaged brain function as normal nerve cells. The new cells also seem to counteract the effects of the disease.   These findings, by EuroStemCell researchers at Lund University in Sweden, are published in Neuron this week.
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Careers in embryonic stem cell research in Europe - Science report
Science magazine last week published a story on careers in embryonic stem cell research in Europe. The article looks at training opportunities, funding, and the political and regulatory frameworks in different European countries, and details experiences of several EuroStemCell researchers interviewed - Evangelia Papadimou, Elena Cattaneo, Malin Parmar, Oliver Brüstle and Ernest Arenas.
Read the article, Navigating the Stem-Cell Research Maze

Stem Cell Research - Status, Prospects, Prerequisites
EMBO report on stem cell research in Europe
The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO) has published an introduction to stem cell biology and its terminology for non-specialists.   It sets current research in the context of scientific knowledge production, relevance to major non-infectious diseases, and economic value.

Download the report and read the recommendations on the EMBO website.

Stem cells reverse muscular dystrophy in dogs
Stem cells from blood vessels have helped dogs with muscular dystrophy to walk again - opening up new possibilities for treating this disease in humans.

EuroStemCell researchers from the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, led by Giulio Cossu, had previously shown that the mesoangioblast muscle stem cell, which lives in the walls of blood vessels, could help mice with a form of muscular dystrophy.

Now, in research published online last week in Nature, they've applied their findings to golden retriever dogs with a mutation in the dystrophin gene - a disease much closer to human muscular dystrophy.
Read more

A Stem Cell Story , produced by EuroStemCell, won the award for best short film at SCINEMA 2006, the 6th International Festival of Science Film, in Sydney last month. 45 films from around the world competed for 15 trophies, with the winners selected by a jury of scientists, journalists and film-makers.

Festival director Cris Kennedy said of the top films: "while our Festival celebrates science and the art of science filmmaking, the winning films all share a strong human element."

Read full press release
Watch the award-winning film online
Order a DVD copy

Lost in the labyrinth: decoding the instructions that tell cells how to become blood
Two EuroStemCell research groups, from EMBL in Italy and the University of Lund in Sweden, have uncovered how an intracellular communication pathway contributes to the replacement of blood cells needed by the body. Because defects in such pathways and in the development of stem cells frequently lead to leukemia and other diseases, the work should give researchers a new handle on processes within cells that lead to cancer. The work is published in this week's online issue of Nature Immunology.
Read more
View publication abstract

Agreement for European Union funding of stem cell research in Framework 7
The European Union agreed yesterday to fund some elements of human embryonic stem cell research. This new agreement will allow scientists in countries where human embryo experiments are legal to apply for funding from the EU's Framework Seven research programme, which takes effect next year. EuroStemCell is funded under the previous Sixth Framework Programme.
Read more (BBC report on the agreement - opens in a new window )
Read the full text of yesterday's agreement
How is human embryonic stem cell research regulated in the 25 European member states?

Stem cell glossary and progress towards the clinic - EuroStemcell articles in Nature this week
Nature today published a special Insight on Stem Cells. The supplement includes a glossary of 33 key stem cell terms, written by EuroStemCell co-ordinator Austin Smith in consultation with EuroStemCell PIs.
View the stem cell glossary
Have your say (Nature web forum)

In the same issue, EuroStemCell PIs Olle Lindvall and Zaal Kokaia review the progress towards the clinic in using stem cells to treat neurological disorders. They consider the ways in which stem cells might be used to treat Parkinson's Disease, stroke, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord lesions.
Read the article
Comment via Nature's web forum

EuroStemCell researchers find new evidence that stem cells contain immortal DNA
Shahragim Tajbakhsh's group at the Pasteur Institute in Paris have demonstrated one of the body's most sophisticated ways of regulating the genetic material of stem cells.   Their findings, published today in Nature Cell Biology, show for the first time the mechanism used by adult muscle stem cells to protect their DNA from mutations.   Understanding this mechanism has important implications for cancer research, the study of gene regulation, and ultimately growing stem cells of therapeutic potential in the laboratory.
View abstract
Download PDF press release
Research headline on EU website

European and international scientists applaud Italian stem cell shift
EuroStemCell, along with the International Society for Stem Cell Research, endorse the stance of the Italian Minister of Research and University and the new Government of Italy on the removal of Italy's signature from a "declaration of ethics" objecting to the use of European Union funds for human embryonic stem cell research.
Read the letter (PDF format)

Stem cell film takes top award at European science media festival
EuroStemCell's short film, A Stem Cell Story, beat off strong competition from European broadcasters to take top honours at a science media festival in Tromsø, Norway, last week.  The international jury was impressed by director Cameron Duguid's hand-drawn animations, and cited the film's clarity and scientific accuracy as important factors in reaching their decision.  
Download PDF press release
Watch the film (Flash player required)

   
Click on the picture to download a high resolution version.

EuroStemCell PIs write to MEPs about funding for stem cell research in Framework 7
Final details of the Seventh Framework Programme - FP7 - are being worked out in the European Parliament. A group of EuroStemCell researchers wrote to the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) committee, who voted recently on amendments to the FP7 proposal, about the importance of stem cell research to European bioindustry and health.

Read the letter

What is the Seventh Framework Programme?
The Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) is the EU's chief instrument for funding scientific research and technological development over the period 2007 to 2013. EuroStemCell is funded under the preceding Framework Programme, FP6.
Read more about FP7

The Notch effect steers stem cells into cells of the nervous system
Last year a group of EuroStemCell researchers from Edinburgh and Milan described a technique for multiplying pure brain stem cells. Now using Notch, a protein first discovered more than 80 years ago in the fruit fly, they are able to create the brain stem cells from embryonic stem cells in the laboratory.   These unexpected findings pave the way for using lab-grown cells to model disease and test the effects of new drugs, and are published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS Biology.

What is Notch?
Notch is a protein that can pass a signal from a neighbouring cell and change activity of genes. Notch was first discovered in 1919, as a fruit fly mutation that caused notches in the wing.   Notch mutant flies also have many more neural cells than normal flies.

Read more about the research, and EuroStemCell's role

View full paper
Download PDF press release

Skeletal muscle and smooth muscle: different tissues from one cell
We all know about the muscles that help us to move, sit and stand - and how important they are.   But what about the muscles we can't see, working behind the scenes?   These muscles - smooth muscles - are found in the walls of hollow organs like blood vessels and the digestive tract.   Their movements and contractions keep the body functioning, without us even realising.

For the first time, scientists have discovered where these smooth muscle cells come from. EuroStemCell research fellow Milan Esner, from the Pasteur Institute in Paris, collaborating with the Stem Cell Research Institute in Milan, show that two different kinds of muscle in the body have a common origin in the embryo.

Read more

High school students get a taste of stem cell science
EuroStemCell scientists will demonstrate how stem cells can be used to test and screen new drugs, at a careers roadshow in Edinburgh next week.

From 7-9 February, at the Make It In Scotland careers event, more than 300 pupils from Edinburgh high schools will get the chance to see live stem cells, made from mouse embryos.

Researchers from two EuroStemCell partners, ISCR and Stem Cell Sciences, will then guide pupils through a simulated drug test - demonstrating an important biomedical application of stem cells.

Lab-grown stem cells, produced in large numbers, provide improved models for testing and screening new medical treatments, and may reduce the need for animal testing.

The workshop has been devised by EuroStemCell and the ISCR, and is supported by The University of Edinburgh , Stem Cell Sciences and the Scottish Stem Cell Network .

Update 14 Feb 2006 - Read workshop report

EuroStemCell researchers respond to revelations about Hwang Woo-suk's cloning research
The revelation that some of Dr Hwang’s work has been exposed as fraud is shocking to professional scientists, but highlights the success of investigative processes that ensure the highest scientific standards.

Dr Hwang works in a very specific area of stem cell research – generation of patient-specific stem cell lines by cloning. His fraud does not alter the opinion of most scientists that this goal will be achievable. However, this is not a central goal of stem cell research. Most importantly, therefore, these revelations about Dr Hwang do not invalidate the body of rigorous scientific evidence supporting the potential of a range of human stem cells, including embryonic stem cells, to provide medical benefit.

Related papers, statements and news coverage
Letter to Science about Human Embryonic Stem Cells, co-signed by EuroStemCell's Project Co-ordinator, Austin Smith.

Oxygen and development - stem cell researchers notch up new insight
EuroStemCell researchers at Stockholm’s Karolinska Institute have made an important new discovery about the role of oxygen in development. Their research, published this week in Developmental Cell, may shed light on the processes at work in tumour development and has implications for successfully growing stem cells in the laboratory.
Read more (PDF file, 58KB, opens in a new window)

Isolation of adult muscle stem cells for skeletal muscle repair
EuroStemCell researchers from the Institut Pasteur have isolated muscle stem cells displaying a high potential for muscle repair. These stem cells are much more effective in promoting muscle repair than the cultured cells previously used. This work, published today in Science, tells us more about adult muscle stem cells and sheds new light on the potential of these cells in the treatment of muscular defects.
Read more (PDF file, 58KB, opens in a new window)

Stem cells open the door to greater understanding of neurological diseases
Scientists at the Universities of Edinburgh and Milan have developed a new technique to grow pure brain stem cells. These neural stem cells (pictured below) may be used to model diseases of the nervous system, like Parkinson's and Huntington's, and develop new drugs to treat these diseases.
Read more (link opens in new window)
Italian version (link opens in new window)

View movie 1 - Neural stem cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cells show dynamic shape changes (Low Magnification)
View movie 2 - Neural stem cells derived from mouse embryonic stem cells show dynamic shape changes (Higher Magnification)

Muscle stem cells exist in the embryo and in the adult. In the embryo and the fetus proliferation of these cells leads to muscle growth. In the adult, muscle stem cells called “satellite cells” are located along the muscle fibers in a quiescent state. The activation and proliferation of these cells on intense physical exercise leads to an increase of muscle mass in the adult. These cells also play a critical role in muscle repair. In elderly people these cells have a reduced ability to multiply, which leads to a reduction in their muscle mass...
More... (link opens in new window)

International effort to answer stem cell questions

Stem cell research still poses more questions than answers. A gathering of 300 stem cell experts will address these questions at a conference in Milan this week, in the hope of moving closer to the answers required to take stem cell research to the clinic.
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