Government-backed Japanese institute Riken accepts resignation of Haruko Obokata, one of its highest-profile scientists, after she fails to replicate research results that were once hailed as breakthrough in stem cell research. MORE
Experimental stem cell procedures, once talked about but not put into practice, are starting to be used in trial settings; as many as 4,500 clinical trials involving stem cells are under way in United States to treat patients with conditions such as heart disease, blindness, Parkinson's and spinal cord injury; enthusiasm for such procedures, however, sometimes outstrips supporting science. MORE
Colleagues of Yoshiki Sasai, leading Japanese life science researcher, say he has taken his own life; Sasai was co-author of discredited stem cell study published in journal Nature that was retracted due to factual errors and allegations of misconduct. MORE
Journal Nature retracts two scientific papers it published that initially electrified biologists by describing easy way to make stem cells; says papers were error-filled and had not been verified by anyone else. MORE
Op-Ed article by evolutionary geneticist Svante Paabo warns against using sequenced genomes of Neanderthals to re-create Neanderthal individuals; contends from an ethical perspective such an idea should be condemned, and argues that using stem cells to create cells and tissues in test tubes for research is far more ethically defensible and technically feasible. MORE
Scientists, reporting in journal Cell Stem Cell, move step closer to goal of creating stem cells perfectly matched to a patients DNA in order to treat diseases; say they have created patient-specific cell lines for 'therapeutic cloning' out of skin cells of two adult men. MORE
Japanese research institute concludes that study published in journal Nature that was once hailed as breakthrough in creating stem cells contains fabricated and doctored images that cast doubt on its findings; singles out study's lead author Haruko Obokata, stem cell biologist, saying she had altered or misrepresented illustrations in her research papers. MORE
Japanese research institute acknowledges that study billed as breakthrough in stem cell research contained spliced image, material recycled from lead author's doctoral thesis, and other mistakes; disclosure threatens to discredit newly acclaimed researcher Haruko Obokata, whose team found that simple acid bath might turn cells in the body into stem cells; findings appeared in journal Nature. MORE
Teruhiko Wakayama, one of the authors of startling study that claimed to have found a simple way to make stem cells, says he is no longer sure of its conclusions; calls for its retraction. MORE
Study published in journal Nature finds that simple acid bath might turn out to be quicker and easier source of multipurpose stem cells than methods now in use; technique was developed by researchers at Riken Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan, and Brigham and Womens Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston MORE
Stem cell clinics in United States and Mexico, like Regenerative Medicine Institute in Tijuana, are offering unproven stem cell treatments for high price to desperate clients, posing challenge for scientists who are moving cautiously and seeking more data; efficacy and safety of such treatments remains in question. MORE
Hamburger made from cow muscle stem cells grown in a laboratory is fried, served and eaten in London demonstration in effort to make case that so-called in vitro, or cultured, meat deserves additional financing and research; proponents argue that lab-made meat could provide food for world's growing population while avoiding environmental issues related to livestock production. MORE
Researchers in Japan have used human stem cells to create tiny human livers like those that arise early in fetal life; when scientists transplanted rudimentary livers into mice, little organs grew, made human liver proteins, and metabolized drugs as human livers do; findings appear in journal Nature. MORE
Surgeons at Children's Hospital of Illinois build and implant a windpipe, using plastic fibers and human stem cells, into 2-year-old Hannah Warren; groundbreaking surgery makes Warren, who was born without a trachea, the youngest person ever to receive a bioengineered organ. MORE
Stem-cell face-lifts, cosmetic surgery procedure in which fat and stem cells are injected into face, stirs debate between doctors who argue it is merely fat grafting and patients who find it youth-restoring. MORE
John B Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka are awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their foundational work in regenerative medicine; their discoveries, which occurred fifty years apart, concern manipulation of living cells and lie at the heart of techniques for cloning animals and generating stem cells. MORE
Texas Medical Board approves controversial new rules on the use of adult stem cells, raising concerns that Texans could receive therapies that have not yet been proven to work and that could be unsafe; rules allow doctors to perform stem cell procedures as long as they are done for research and receive approval from an institutional review board, which can be private and profit-making. MORE
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital say they have extracted stem cells from human ovaries and made them generate egg cells; the advance, if confirmed, might provide a new source of eggs for treating infertility, though scientists say it is far too early to tell if the work holds such promise; the new research, led by the biologist Jonathan L Tilly, is published online by journal Nature Medicine. MORE
Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rules that federal law prohibiting payment for donated organs does not apply to stem cells extracted from circulating blood, in decision that could make it easier for patients with diseases like leukemia to find matching bone marrow donors. MORE
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