What if we told you that you could view transparent human cells? The Allen Institute for Cell Science researchers have invented a new data imaging technique in order to see the inside of stem cells. The images are not animation of cells, rather based on the insights derived from high quality photomicrographs with 6,000 induced pluripotent stem cells or IPS cells. All these stem cells are collected from human skin. The team fondly calls the technology as Allen Cell Explorer.

The process involved the IPS cells undergoing a gene editing, so the fluorescent markers could be attached to form 11 types of different structures. The idea was to know the inner machinery of our cell system. Followed by this, the researchers applied a deep analyzing computational method to document the entire structure of each stem cell, as viewed from the 3D maps.

Rick Horwitz, The executive director of the Allen Institute for Cell Science said, “This is the first time researchers have used deep learning to try and understand the elusive question of how actual cells are organized. The cartoons we rely on in textbooks, which are based on an artist’s interpretation of data from a relatively small number of cells, will eventually be replaced by data-driven models of this kind from very large numbers of cells.”Molly Maleckar, the director of modeling shared the complexity of this system, as she mentioned, “We’re actually having brainstorming sessions to see what else can we do with this data.”

The tool will prove a path breaking discovery in the history of medical science, as predicted by the scientists, as they can now see the changes the cells go through after receiving various drugs. Susanne Rafelski, the director of assay development said, “The idea that we can build a cell, and think of the cell as a whole, and see how that cell changes as it grows, divides, differentiates or gets sick – to me, it’s really a new frontier in thinking about cells and the cellular basis of disease.”

In other words, cell functions like mitochondria, microtubules and cell-to-cell junctions are the challenges that scientists wanted to address with this invention. Maleckar remarked, “There’s this assumption outside the world of cell biology that people must know where everything is. … That’s actually not true.”

The tool is often compared to the city maps that show all the highways, power plants, toll booths inside a city. Apart from the Allen Cell Explorer, there is a 3D Cell viewer that highlights 3D visualization of stem cells. There is also a cell catalog that shows all the required information about the gene-edited stem cell lines, offered by the institute. Any researcher can order the tools and the cell lines through a non-profit AddGene repository, run by the Allen Institute for Cell Science.

The team aims at a concrete visualization of stem cells as they are modified into different types of cells. Rafelski said, “It’s astounding that we get to do this, that we get to do science and then share science as beautifully as possible”, while Maleckar added, “I would absolutely agree. Science altruism: It really works.”

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According to a recent study, published in Stem Cell Reports on April 6, a new set of improved tools are here to advance stem cell researches. The study was led by Dr. Kelly Frazer, the professor of pediatrics and director of the Institute for Genomic Medicine at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. The team described the collection of “222 systematically derived and characterized iPSC lines generated as part of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s NextGen consortium.”

The Stem Cell Reports is one of the four studies, published by four different teams of researchers. But Frazer is the common factor in all four as he is senior author for all of them. The fourth study concentrated on iPSCORE, whereas the other three studies utilized the iPSCORE resource in order to explore answers to different questions related to human genetics. Some of the studies also focused on developing new tools to analyze iPSC lines.

The study confirmed that the induced pluripotent stem cells or iPSCs are collected from human adult cells. These cells are able to be differentiated in order to transform into a variety of cell types. By using this attribute, the scientists will be able to use the tool for all critical medical trails; from analyzing molecular processes that cause diseases to genetic variants that lead to human phenotypes.

According to Kelly Frazer, the iPSC Collection for Omic Research or iPSCORE is a collection that will be capable to address various issues that are currently disturbing iPSCs use as a standard system to study human genetics.

He mentioned in the study, “The iPSCORE collection contains 75 lines from people of non-European ancestry, including East Asian, South Asian, African American, Mexican American, and Multiracial. It includes multigenerational families and monozygotic twins. This collection will enable us to study how genetic variation influences traits, both at a molecular and physiological level, in appropriate human cell types, such as heart muscle cells. It will help researchers investigate not only common but also rare, and even family-specific variations.”

Frazer and his team utilized the entire genome sequencing and gene expression analyzing 215 human iPSC lines, derived from different donors. The idea was to identify genetic variants related to RNA expression for 5,746 genes. The study highlighted that iPSCs are valuable to analyze genetic association investigate gene expression genetic regulation in pluripotent stem cells (PSCs). The team also showed important analysis and insights into aberrant methylation patterns in iPSCs. The patterns are helpful to use these cells in various studies as well as to treat diseases.

Another important thing to note in the study is, Frazer and his team built a set of easy-to-use techniques to decrease the cost and at the same time increase the production of effective iPSC lines. In other words, the group of scientists has invented a less expensive technique to develop highly effective iPSC lines. So, the invention will not only help the doctors to detect the source of the disease effectively, but also will help the medical teams to opt for it.

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What is autism? What makes autistic people different from others? What causes autism? There are hundreds of questions in people’s mind when it comes to this condition. What is it actually?

Autism is a mental condition that remains present from the early childhood days and lasts for a lifetime. It’s characterized by minor to major difficulties in social interaction and framing language abstract concepts. And the critical part is, it’s incurable. However, a new study shows that stem cell therapy may show great improvement in children with autism.

It’s the story of Gracie Gregory, one of the 25 autistic children who participated in the study at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina involving stem cells to tone down the issues associated with autism. The idea behind the research was to find out if a transfusion of the self-umbilical cord blood with the rare stem cells can cure autism or at least reduce the severity.

Gracie was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. When Gracie’s mother first came to know about the research, she immediately enrolled her without knowing what to expect and what not to expect. Such was the difficulty; they were facing with their autistic child. There was a time when Gracie’s sister, Ryleigh was afraid of her because of her unmanageable behavior like hitting and kicking. But now that very Ryleigh thinks Gracie is “very sweet and kind.” And it only became possible after the stem cell therapy.

Gracie was on the mild to moderate scale of autism. During the trial, Gracie, then 5, started with the same symptoms like kicking, spitting, screaming and even hitting her therapists. It was almost impossible to make her sit at one place.

The results were beyond what Gracie’s parents were expecting! Her parents recollects how difficult their life was back then when managing her would take 75% of their daily life and now after the therapy she only consumes 10% of their daily time. When asked about rating her improvement on a scale of 1 to 10, her parents proudly rated 8/9.

She now attends regular school, plays with her sister, and enjoys life to the fullest, something that her parent would never have thought of.

According to her father, “We will say we don’t think it’s cured her. You still see some of the small idiosyncrasies that she does have. But again, I think it’s supercharged her learning curve. It’s pushed her to do things she normally wouldn’t do.” Her mother added, “She got better, and we’re just thankful for that — whether it be the stem cells or not. We’re just thankful for what changes have happened”.

Two thirds of the children, involved in the study showed great improvement. This is the results of the first phase of the study and a broader second level trail is on its way, which promises a long-term treatment for autistic children.

Skeptics are still saying that no matter what autism cannot be cured and there are quite a few unanswered questions that need to be addressed before going gaga over it. Even researchers at Duke acknowledge that the study is at a very early stage and still there is a long way to go. But for families like Gregorys, it’s a life-changing experience.

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Maria Torres, a healthy, fit woman of 43 was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. It was totally out of the blue. She was a woman who took her health and fitness seriously with regular exercise, healthy eating and weight management. She just couldn’t believe it. Refusing to accept the reports, she requested her doctor to re-test her. Nonetheless, the results were the same. Her life would now undergo dramatic transformation and no one could fully explain why this was happening.

“It really scared me,” says Maria. “I thought I was going to die soon.”

No one was surprised at Maria’s refusal to accept the diagnosis. She just did not fit in with the profile of a typical Type 2 diabetes patient. The probable reason behind this could be some undiscovered genetic element that made Maria vulnerable to the condition.

In order to manage her diabetes, she had to modify her existing lifestyle. Whilst her pancreas was producing insulin, that instruct the cells to take in the blood sugar, her cells had developed insulin resistance and therefore not co-operating in the scheme of things.  Consequently, with glucose accumulation in her blood, Maria was facing a host of health risks like heart disease, nerve damage and eye issues.

It had come down to regular insulin injections five times a day in order to absorb the glucose and frequent monitoring of her blood sugar levels.

She has followed this regimented lifestyle for 20 odd years. But insulin is not the cure. It only helps to control the condition. She faces massive side effects like mood swings and serious complications when her glucose levels are on the rise and fall.

Working Towards a Cure

An encouraging strategy to combat diabetes by transplanting beta cells, allowing the blood to sense the sugar levels and generate insulin thereby reducing them in time, has gained momentum. Those suffering from Type 1 diabetes would gain, as the new beta cells will be able to substitute the cells that had been lost due to the disease. For patients with the Type 2 condition like Maria, transplanting beta cells could possibly increase the body’s potential to generate insulin and in turn decreasing blood sugar levels and lessening the requirement for injections.

A San Diego based organization received significant funding from CIRM to work on this prognosis. They have been working towards developing innovative methodologies to transform human embryonic stem cells into insulin-producing beta cells. With stem cells unique potential to transform into any form or tissue, the research team was looking to reproduce the precise indicators that could change a stem cell into a beta cell, rather than a neuron or muscle cell.

Success came and the research team was able to develop progenitor cells, just a single step short of creating mature beta cells. These progenitor cells were given adequate gestation period so that they could develop in the body. Under clinical conditions using animals, the tougher progenitor cells endured the transplant procedure and, on attaining maturity started producing insulin. In addition to this, the research team started with inserting the progenitor cells in a porous capsule prior to initiating the transplantation under the skin. By doing this, they were able to keep the cells out hence circumventing potential attack and denunciation by the patient’s own immune system.

An FDA approved clinical trial for Type 1 diabetes is currently underway. With continuous progression, their aim to ultimately also help those who are suffering from Type 2 diabetes as well. For Maria, this is an important breakthrough, not only for herself but also for her family.

“I have three kids, and I know they could have the same thing I have,” says Maria. “If they find a cure, for me, that’s peace of mind.”

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As the science of stem cells took off in the 1970s when doctors realized that the stem cells found in the blood inside an umbilical cord could offer a much more secure substitute to bone marrow transplants that may find its way in the utilization of treating conditions such as leukaemia, lymphoma, and sickle cell anemia. This is so since cord blood is power packed with multipotent, self-renewing hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are the forerunners to blood cells.

The process of extracting this cord blood immediately after birth and storing it in state-of-art laboratories in India and overseas for future use is now a convenient and affordable reality for many Indians, thanks to health companies like Cordlife India. In fact, Cordlife is the only private Cord Blood Bank in India to offer automated cord blood processing with Sepax2, a versatile patented Swiss technology. This advanced technology enables easy handling and safety of processing and aids in highly efficient and consistent cell recoveries.

Once the umbilical cord has been clamped from the newborn, the cord blood is collected from the umbilical cord vein attached to the placenta. Cord Blood extraction is not only a painless process for both mother and baby unlike bone marrow extraction, but there is a 60% higher chance of matching cord blood unit in the family vis-a-vis bone marrow. Cord Blood cells are mature, flexible and have more usage advantages than stem cells extracted from the bone marrow or umbilical blood.

After cord blood is extracted, Stem Cell Banks preserve the stem cells via Cryopreservation. Under various such methods of Cryopreservation, any damage to the stem cells caused by any enzymatic or chemical activities is prevented by cooling to very low temperatures, without further damage being triggered by the formation of ice during freezing.

Stored Cord Blood can now be available between days or weeks of processing for treatment. There is a low risk of complications when cord blood is applied for stem cell transplants and therapy since they have the ability to regenerate in the desired way.

Globally, an estimated 35,000 transplants have taken place where cord blood stem have been utilized to treat over eighty life-threatening ailments, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, bone marrow failures, genetic disorders, blood disorders and immune disorders. Several medical professionals are also researching cord blood as a potential cure for conditions that cannot be remedied presently. Umbilical Cord Blood banking is no more an option, but a necessity to secure a healthy future for the entire family.

For more details about – Why Banking Umbilical Cord Blood should be on your “To Do” List? – visit https://www.cordlifeindia.com

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