News

An interdisciplinary team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison has developed a promising new cell therapy with potential to improve tissue healing after orthopedic injuries. The new cell therapy, recently described in the journal Stem Cells, accelerated the recovery of ruptured Achilles tendons in a rodent model, and may similarly aid other healing tissues, shortening the time until these structures regain functional strength.

In a study published today (April 15, 2019) in the journal Nature Methods, a team led by University of Wisconsin–Madison associate professor of cell and regenerative biology and chemistry SCRMC member Ying Ge reports the development of a novel strategy capable of extracting and driving hard-to-reach proteins into water solution where they can be effectively studied using mass spectrometry, a powerful analytical technique. The new approach promises a trove of biological insights and, importantly, may help identify therapeutically relevant proteins and provide new disease diagnostic techniques.

The transcription factor GATA-2 is critical regulator of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cell (HSPC) development and function, and mutations in the enhancer region of GATA2 are linked to blood disorders. In this episode, Emery Bresnick and colleagues develop and characterize a mouse model that harbors a human disease-associated GATA2 enhancer mutation. In this model, hematopoietic development and function were normal unless the animals were exposed to a secondary stress that necessitated blood cell regeneration. The results of this study provide important insight into GATA-2-dependent pathogenesis.

SCRMC faculty member, Linda Schuler, was a member of the first class of professors hired to inaugurate the UW–Madison School of Veterinary Medicine in 1983. Her research defined the genetic details of the hormonal control of milk production in dairy cows. That work led Schuler to discover that the milk-stimulating hormone prolactin can induce breast cancer, distinguishing her as a researcher eager to pursue leads toward the next problem.

SCRMC member Melissa Skala, an associate professor of biomedical engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a principal investigator at the Morgridge Institute for Research, has earned recognition in 2019 as a fellow of both the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and SPIE, an international society for optics and photonics.

The UW Program for Advanced Cell Therapy (PACT) will conduct a study to examine a cutting-edge therapy to treat a viral infection faced by up to 50 percent of bone-marrow transplant recipients.

Forward Bio Institute director Bill Murphy and David Gamm, director of the McPherson Eye Research Institute, where stem cells are being turned into retinal cells to try to find cures for blinding disorders, explain how stem cell scientists are working with industry to put scientific breakthroughs on the path to helping patients.

Every summer since 2007, students from some of the smallest high schools in Wisconsin have descended upon campus for the Morgridge Rural Summer Science Camp. The immersion program has allowed more than 500 high-academic achievers from across the state to spend a week learning from leaders in stem cell research. The students arrive passionate and motivated in science, but the hope is this deep dive into real research will seal the deal for a future scientific caree

Together with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we look back on 20 years of stem cell research and see where we’re going next. Catch up on what’s happened since James Thomson’s prescient prediction that stem cells “will change medicine, period.”