At first glance the naked mole rat (NMR), or Heterocephalus glaber to his Latin speaking friends, might not win you over with its looks, but it truly is an amazing animal. It’s obviously comfortable in its own skin, but it also thrives in harsh environments, lacks pain sensitivity in its skin, has low metabolic and […]
- Pluripotent Stem Cell
iPSC Generation Gets a “Little” Help from Microfluidics
Long complex steps, poor efficiency, expensive reagents, and scant results…don’t you wish that your cell-based experiments were a “little” bit easier and a “little” more efficient? These desires are commonplace for researchers generating induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in the hope of constructing patient-specific therapies. So what can we do to improve this important process? […]
Zika Virus Infection of Neural Progenitors Linked to Brain Abnormalities
The sight of newborn infants with radically reduced brain sizes (microcephaly) has seized attention worldwide and thrust the Zika virus into the limelight as the probable culprit. Zika spreads through mosquito bites and belongs to the Flaviviridae virus family, but how does Zika infection cause such devastating abnormalities in developing infants? A multidisciplinary team led […]
CRISPR Gene Editing Prefers the Naïve Side of Pluripotency
While many across the universe have been pondering over the decision between the light and the dark side of the Force, a more pressing decision confronts CRISPR-based gene editing in stem cells: the primed or the naïve side of pluripotency!? Pluripotent Stem Cells (PSCs), such as human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs), human embryonic stem […]
Automating Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture – The Rise of the Robots?
They help cook dinner, clean the dishes, and sweep up afterward. They also build our cars, help us explore space, and now they may be on the verge of aiding in highly complex tasks in the laboratory. In particular, robot-based automation is being explored as a means to enhance efficiency in laboratories studying pluripotent stem […]