The Pluripotent

LED street lights in Ann Arbor, Michigan

With the current economic problems and global climate change that we face today, new innovations have never been more important. Dubbed as “a pivotal emerging technology,” by the United States Department of Energy, light emitting diodes or LEDs have set the new standard for greener lighting. Once used basketball scoreboards, cellphone consoles, traffic lights and colored Christmas lights, rapid improvements have enabled its use in buildings  and streets.

There are several benefits to this new lighting. First, durability. LEDs are estimated to last for 22 years or more and they contain no toxic materials like fluorescent lights, thus disposal is not a problem. The fixtures itself are semi-permaneant in comparison to the disposable lightbulbs. Secondly, LEDs are more than twice as efficient as fluorescent lights which is currently the choice form of energy saving lighting.

Thirdly “Studies suggest that a complete conversion to the lights could decrease carbon dioxide emissions from electric power use for lighting by up to 50 percent in just over 20 years; in the United States, lighting accounts for about 6 percent of all energy use. A recent report by McKinsey & Company cited conversion to LED lighting as potentially the most cost effective of a number of simple approaches to tackling global warming using existing technology. ”

However, as always there are drawbacks. Because it is a fairly new piece of technology, cities are cautioned in taking rash actions that could lead to dissatisfaction. Also the initial cost may scare away some homeowners. “An outdoor LED spotlight today costs $100, as opposed to $7 for a regular bulb.” LEDs generally provide only “directional light” rather than a panoramic  glow, making it better suited for streetlights or ceiling lights rather than lamps.

Especially with President Obama energy stimulus bill, cities such as San Jose, Calif. have explored the possibility and “plans to use $2 million in energy-efficiency grants to install 1,500 LED streetlights.”

via [NYT]

Popularity: 13% [?]

The Anatomy of A Silent Crisis

It cannot be denied that global warming has made its presence more visible each year. The rise in temperatures   threaten the lifestyles of not only animals but humans as well.  As animals are forced to adapt to changing habitats, only the most adaptable will survive. This applies to humans as well.  The simple rise in temperature has acted as a domino effect in which the consequences are being discovered daily.

Most recently it has been reported that this climate change has led to  300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses as reported by the Global Humanitarian Forum. Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries, were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030. Although a few experts question the methodology and conclusion of the report, the Global Humanitarian Forum defends their report by saying that it serves merely as an estimate. Its real goal seems to be is to draw political and public awareness to a rising problem.

Although global warming has played a part in the economies of these denizens, this report has brought to light the more apparent need. The need to accommodate governmental policies  in order to reduce the vulnerability in dealing with global warming. We are the ones who need to adapt in order to be those that can survive.

via [NYT]

Popularity: 18% [?]

Hwang Woo-suk’s Sooam Biotech Research Center has claimed they have for the first time created cloned pig embryos and used them to make embryonic stem-cell lines.  If you’ve been living in a cave (or a lab) during 2004, Hwang is the man who claimed to have succeeded in cloning human embryos by nuclear transfer.  After much excitement for his alleged results, it all turned about to be quacky, sending Hwang’s reputation down to hell.

Hyun Sang-hwan, Hwang’s key colleague at Sooam, told The Korea Times that the study will be reported in Zygote, a peer-review journal published by Cambridge University, in two or three months. Hyun also said the study on cloned pig stem cells will mark the starting point of Hwang’s comeback.

Let’s just see how reproducible the data will be.

[Via The Korea Times]

Popularity: 12% [?]

Anjali Nayar reports that a gene on the extra chromosome that causes Down’s syndrome helps to protect those with the disorder from some types of cancer. Sandra Ryeom, a vascular biologist at Children’s Hospital Boston in Massachusetts, and her colleagues experimented with mice and with human cells to show that an additional third copy of the DSCR1 gene (also known as RCAN1) can suppress the growth of the blood vessels that feed cancerous tumours.  The paper by Baek, K.-H. et al. is in Nature’s advance online publication.

[Via Nature]

Popularity: 24% [?]

Besides clenching my teeth at the thought of writing up another organic chemistry lab report, here’s another reason I’m not a chemist.  A UCLA chemistry research assistant was withdrawing t-butyllithium from a container when a syringe malfunctioned, splashing her with the highly flammable solution. She wasn’t wearing a protective lab coat, and suffered extensive burns from the chemical, which ignites on contact with air.  She was critically burned and died on Jan 6.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health fined the university nearly $32,000.  UCLA was cited for failing to train personnel in the use of dangerous chemicals, for not requiring the wearing of protective clothing and for not correcting the deficient lab practices identified in an inspection last October.

Only $32,000?  Safety and Health might as well have told UCLA “The university’s fatal wrongdoing is worth a Toyota.”

[Via Nature]

Popularity: 24% [?]

What’s that thing I vaguely remember Warren Buffet saying something about buying stocks and something about fear? Oh right… buy up when fear is sending stock prices to plunge. “Be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.”  While the fear of the global economic downturn it causing the stock market to plummet, it’s time for you to think about that rich man’s sound bite.  So here are the top three stem cell stocks under what you pay for a Big Mac meal.

#1: Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (NASDAQ:ASTM)

Aastrom develops products for the repair or regeneration of human tissue.  Aastrom’s proprietary Tissue Repair Cell (TRC) technology involves autologous (meaning the patient’s own), mixed-cell products containing stem and early progenitor cells to treat cardiac and vascular tissue regeneration.

The Reason: The current market conditions have battered down stocks like this micro cap. But with the increased interest in stem cell research, federal grant money coming, and a treatment that — if it works — could change the lives of millions.

#2: Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CRIS)

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Curis develops drugs primarily for cancer treatment. They target signaling pathway technologies on a molecular level.

The Reason:  Curis has a bunch of drugs in phase I and II clinical trials.  According to sources, Curis is gaining solid financial footing.  Caveat emptor, but for the first quarter of 2009, the company reported a net income of $1.1 million. Compare that to Q1 2008 when it saw a net loss of $3.4 million.

#3: Sangamo Biosciences Inc. (NASDAQ:SGMO)

Sangamo’s ZFP TF technology allows researchers to target individual genes and work at turning them on and off.

The Reason:  Sangamo has a pipeline of incredible research and potential products. Competitors are willing to pay extraordinary amounts to get their hands on its technologies. And the company is in a strong financial position.

Take the jump for recommended shares.

[Via TFN]

Popularity: 6% [?]

Monya Baker of Nature Stem Cells has written a feature addressing some of the most important questions about iPS cells.  Here’s her introductory paragraph under iPS cell mysteries:

“Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have been minutely studied ever since their invention, but their fundamentals are still mysterious. How similar are they to ES cells? Will specialized cells generated from them adequately represent disease? Perhaps the key to answering these practical questions is the two most fundamental mysteries of all: how is it possible to turn a differentiated cell into a pluripotent one, and what is the pluripotent state?”

Read the full text here.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Here’s some exciting news regarding hematopoietic stem cell development coming from Boston (The Pluripotent headquarters).  Two studies by Leonard Zon’s and George Daley’s groups have supported the following hypothesis:  A beating heart and blood flow are necessary for development of the blood system, which relies on mechanical stresses to cue its formation.

Zon and colleagues found that compounds that modulate blood flow had a potent impact on the expression of a Runx1, a master regulator of blood formation.  Runx1 is also a recognized marker for the blood stem cells that give rise to all the cell types in the blood system.  They also observed that a strain of mutant embryos that lacked a heartbeat and blood circulation exhibited severely reduced numbers of blood stem cells.  And the key biochemical regulator that was in charge of all this?  Nitric oxide!  Increasing nitric oxide in the blood of mutant embryos rescued blood stem cell production.

Daley and colleagues discovered that just the stress and biomechanical forces on the lining of blood vessels were able to increase the production of progenitor cells that gave rise to blood cells.

The report by Children’s Hospital says “the authors of the two papers speculate that drugs that mimic the effects of embryonic blood flow on blood precursor cells, or molecules involved in nitric oxide signaling, might be therapeutically beneficial for patients with blood diseases. For example, nitric oxide could be used to grow and expand blood stem cells either in the culture dish or in patients after transplantation.”

Anyone up for testing nitric oxide for blood doping?  On second thought, please don’t try it.

Abstracts:

Zon:

During vertebrate embryogenesis, hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) arise in the aorta-gonads-mesonephros (AGM) region. We report here that blood flow is a conserved regulator of HSC formation. In zebrafish, chemical blood flow modulators regulated HSC development, and silent heart (sih) embryos, lacking a heartbeat and blood circulation, exhibited severely reduced HSCs. Flow-modifying compounds primarily affected HSC induction after the onset of heartbeat; however, nitric oxide (NO) donors regulated HSC number even when treatment occurred before the initiation of circulation, and rescued HSCs in sih mutants. Morpholino knockdown of nos1 (nnos/enos) blocked HSC development, and its requirement was shown to be cell autonomous. In the mouse, Nos3 (eNos) was expressed in HSCs in the AGM. Intrauterine Nos inhibition or embryonic Nos3 deficiency resulted in a reduction of hematopoietic clusters and transplantable murine HSCs. This work links blood flow to AGM hematopoiesis and identifies NO as a conserved downstream regulator of HSC development.

Full text

Daley:

Biomechanical forces are emerging as critical regulators of embryogenesis, particularly in the developing cardiovascular system^{1, 2}. After initiation of the heartbeat in vertebrates, cells lining the ventral aspect of the dorsal aorta, the placental vessels, and the umbilical and vitelline arteries initiate expression of the transcription factor Runx1 (refs 3–5), a master regulator of haematopoiesis, and give rise to haematopoietic cells⁴. It remains unknown whether the biomechanical forces imposed on the vascular wall at this developmental stage act as a determinant of haematopoietic potential⁶. Here, using mouse embryonic stem cells differentiated in vitro, we show that fluid shear stress increases the expression of Runx1 in CD41⁺c-Kit⁺ haematopoietic progenitor cells⁷, concomitantly augmenting their haematopoietic colony-forming potential. Moreover, we find that shear stress increases haematopoietic colony-forming potential and expression of haematopoietic markers in the para-aortic splanchnopleura/aorta–gonads–mesonephros of mouse embryos and that abrogation of nitric oxide, a mediator of shear-stress-induced signalling⁸, compromises haematopoietic potential in vitro and in vivo. Collectively, these data reveal a critical role for biomechanical forces in haematopoietic development.

Full text

[Via CHB]

Popularity: 10% [?]

Heather Chambers writes:

San Diego-based biotech startup Fate Therapeutics, which is testing drugs that help spur the body’s own adult stem cells to action to stimulate healing and block cancer growth, said it has acquired exclusive rights to a stem cell technology from Children’s Hospital Boston and Massachusetts General Hospital.

The intellectual property covers compositions and methods for supporting blood-producing stem cells, known as hematopoietic cells.

Leonard Zon, director of the stem cell program at Children’s and a scientific founder of Fate, developed the stem cell technology.

Financial terms of the deal were not released.

Popularity: 5% [?]

Popularity: 5% [?]