Category Archives: Medicine

Gene therapy using stem cells prevents inherited diseases

Posted on 17 July 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Originally written for The Conversation. Genetic traits like a bulbous nose or balding give some people reasons to moan about what they inherited from their parents. But more serious genetic flaws can cause debilitating disease. Now, Italian researchers have come … Continue reading →

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Posted in Disease, Genetics, Medicine, Science | Tagged ARSA, gene therapy, haematopoietic stem cells, metachromatic leukodystrophy, MLD, nerves, virus, WAS, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome | Leave a comment

A huge variety of fungi call your feet home

Posted on 29 June 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Human skin is a hardy, water-resistant covering that keeps important biological stuff from falling out of the body. It’s also a camping ground for millions of bacteria (picked out in magenta, above), fungi (seen in blue-green, above) and yeast that … Continue reading →

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Posted in Disease, Fungi, Genetics, Medicine, Microorganisms, Science | Tagged athlete's foot, diversity, fungi, infection, microbes, skin, swabs | 1 Comment

Turning insect viruses into cancer therapies

Posted on 8 June 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Gene therapy is a pretty promising approach for lots of different diseases, and has already overcome a huge hurdle with the approval of the very first gene therapy product, Glybera, by the European Commission in 2012. At its core, gene … Continue reading →

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Posted in Disease, Medicine, Microorganisms, Science, Viruses | Tagged baculovirus, cancer, DNA, gene therapy, immune, insect, prostate, tumour | Leave a comment

Stem Cells Wanted: Alive Not Dead

Posted on 16 April 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Stem cell therapies are taking off, in a surprisingly unregulated way. While most humans have to go to places like South Korea to receive them, horses, dogs, cats, pigs and tigers are already being treated in North America. The most … Continue reading →

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Posted in Bioengineering, Disease, Medicine, Science | Tagged adipocytes, bone marrow, CD34+, feeder, haematopoietic, MSC, niche, pericyte, perivascular cell, stem cell, survival | Leave a comment

Converting weeds into flowers: artificial stem cells create a blood supply for bioengineered organs

Posted on 20 March 2013 by mmmbitesizescience

Regenerating the human body by growing whole new organs or patching up damaged ones from just a few cells scraped from your own tissues is a fascinating area of science known as bioengineering. Every living cell in such an organ … Continue reading →