New Developments in Stem Cell Research

✍ Scribed by Mary Herbert; Karim Nayernia; Chay Keogh

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2009
• Weight: 461 KB
• Volume: 11
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1439-4243
• DOI: 10.1002/imic.200990082

✦ Synopsis

Both are located in Newcastle's Centre for Life -a multimillion pound science village. Newcastle's Centre for Life is a science village that brings scientists together from a wide range of disciplines. Scientists in Newcastle have already built a reputation for excellence in the stem cell research environment: they were the first to successfully clone a human embryo using the technique of intracytoplasmic nuclear transfer and were one of the first laboratories to be granted a research license from the Human Fertilization and Embryo Authority (HFEA) to develop intracytoplasmic hybrid embryos.

Professor Nayernia arrived at Newcastle University from the Georg-August University of Göttingen, Germany, where he was part of a team that isolated a new type of stem cell (spermatogonial stem cell) from adult male testes (male sex organs). It was found that some of these cells were multipotent and could differentiate into other cell types such as heart, muscle and brain cells. Professor Nayernia's team is now isolating human spermatogonial cells could be extracted from human male testes to establish cells capable of treating a wide range of diseases. The risk of tissue rejection is avoided as cells are genetically similar. Current work is focused on finding the best conditions under which to grow human spermatogonial cells in culture. "It is important is to understand when and how stem cells from the testes start to differentiate into gametes," Professor Nayernia, explains. "This in turn will help us to understand how we can use spermatogonial stem cells to differentiate them into other cell types to treat degenerative disease. The aim is to produce