Sometimes, scientific progress comes from conceptual insights that arrive in a flash. More often, however, such progress arrives in a decidedly less glamorous, though no less important, manner – through the development of new technologies in what can be a very slow iterative cycle of getting a new method to work.

Two separate groups have recently shown that in mouse models, inactivation of a single gene was enough to directly convert other cell types in the brain into neurons.

Technical challenges at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) meeting led to at least one lively exchange of stem cell jokes in the chat box as the audience waited for talks to resume, including stem cell parental advice: “You can be anything you want when you grow up!”

LONDON – After the human brain organoid, here comes the gastruloid – a 3D organized model of key elements of the human embryo at around 18 to 21 days old.

Stem cells haven’t exactly panned out as hoped when it comes to approved therapeutics. There are only a couple that have received a nod from the FDA in very specific indications. But the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could push stem cells back into the limelight and more firmly establish them as therapeutically relevant.

MELBOURNE, Australia – Researchers at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne are pushing the boundaries on creating kidney tissue from stem cells. For more than two decades, Melissa Little and her team at Murdoch have investigated the molecular and cell development basis of kidney disease and the potential for regeneration. The team has developed approaches for directing the differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to human kidney organoids and is applying that knowledge to disease modeling, drug screening, cell therapy and tissue engineering.