all Douglas Melton stories

Driven:

404132862 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:29:50 -0400

When the baby vomited again, Gail Melton knew something was seriously wrong with her second child, a son she and her husband, Doug Melton, had named Sam.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers turn one form of adult mouse cell directly into another

404132862 — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 16:40:13 -0400

In a feat of biological prestidigitation likely to turn the field of regenerative medicine on its head, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) co-director Doug Melton and post doctoral fellow Qiao "Joe" Zhou report having achieved what has long been a dream and ultimate goal of developmental biologists – directly turning one type of fully formed adult cell into another type of adult cell.

Daley and colleagues create 20 disease-specific stem cell lines

404132862 — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 10:48:17 -0400

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researcher George Q.

Stem cells used to treat muscular dystrophy in mice

404132862 — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 10:45:11 -0400

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have for the first time demonstrated that transplanted muscle stem cells can both improve muscle function in mice with a form of muscular dystrophy and replenish the stem cell population for use in the repair of future muscle injuries.

Experiment advances understanding of cell reprogramming

404132862 — Thu, 22 May 2008 15:54:35 -0400

The announcement last year by scientists in Japan, at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), and at the Whitehead Institute that they had each — independently — coaxed adult cells into reverting to an embryonic stem cell-like state was arguably the biggest news in developmental biology since the cloning of Dolly the ewe.

Reprogrammed adult skin cells treat Parkinson's disease in animal model

404132862 — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 16:01:23 -0400

Researchers at the Whitehead Institute and Harvard Stem Cell Institute(HSCI) have reported successfully reducing symptoms in a Parkinson's disease rat model by using dopamine producing neurons derived from reprogrammed adult skin cells(iPS).

The work was reported in a study published in the online Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Harvard researchers achieve stem cell milestone

404132862 — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:12:52 -0500

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers have successfully turned back the clock on human skin cells, causing them to revert to an embryonic stem cell-like state from which they can become any cell in the body.

Researchers in Japan and Wisconsin report major advance in stem cell research

404132862 — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 11:36:41 -0500

“The field is moving at lightning speed,” said Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) Co-Director Doug Melton in response to just-published papers by Japanese researchers and researchers at the University of Wisconsin reporting reprogramming adult human skin cells to produce cells similar to human embryonic stem cells.

Flier hails new, cooperative era in Harvard science

404132862 — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 14:02:11 -0500

Harvard Medical School Dean Jeffrey Flier Friday evening issued a call for new approaches to advance the fight against disease, embracing cross-institutional collaborations at Harvard as a way to bring new thinking to old problems.

Flier, the keynote speaker at the Fourth Annual Tony and Shelly Malkin Stem Cell Symposium at the Harvard Club of Boston, said he has spent a lot of time in his first months as Harvard Medical School Dean thinking about how and why the School does business. As he has gone through this process, Flier said, he’s given thought to who people mean when they speak of “we” at the Medical School.

Stem Cell Summit draws 500 participants

404132862 — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 12:44:43 -0400

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick Wednesday (Oct. 3) called on those attending the second day of a Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI)-sponsored Stem Cell Summit to support his proposed $1 billion life sciences initiative “so we can get partnering with you.”

While Massachusetts has a unique concentration of researchers, academic institutions, biotech companies, and investment in the life sciences, “we can’t just rest on our laurels,” Patrick said. “I ask you to make your voices heard,” the governor continued. “Make your interests known. When the bill comes out for hearings — show up.”

Stem cell research sheds light on organ regeneration

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 10:33:24 -0400

The rules governing mammalian organ repair and regeneration are so widely varied as to suggest at first glance that there are no rules: Blood has such an enormous regenerative capacity that you can literally give it away by the pint and be none the worse for wear; rip a hole in your skin and new skin will cover it; donate a portion of your liver and it will regenerate; but lose a kidney or suffer damage to your pancreas, and what's lost is lost.

Major progress toward cell reprogramming

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 09:34:31 -0400

Two Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers and scientists at Whitehead Institute and Japan's Kyoto University have independently taken major steps toward discovering ways to reprogram cells in order to direct their development - a key goal in developmental biology and regenerative medicine.

Additionally, the group led by Kevin Eggan, an HSCI principal faculty member - whose study is featured on the cover of the latest issue of the journal Nature - has disproved a long-held view of developmental biologists by demonstrating in mice that it is possible to use previously fertilized ova to produce disease-specific stem cell lines using somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) - commonly referred to as therapeutic cloning.

New department approved

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:08:11 -0400

The Harvard Corporation has approved, with the support of the deans of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and the Harvard Medical School (HMS), the establishment of a new Department of Developmental and Regenerative Biology, the first academic department in Harvard’s 371-year history to be based in more than one of the University’s Schools. The new department will bring together researchers from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Harvard Medical School.

Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers granted approval

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:27:50 -0400

After more than two years of intensive ethical and scientific review, Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers at Harvard and Children's Hospital Boston have been cleared to begin experiments using Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT) to create disease-specific stem cell lines in an effort to develop treatments for a wide range of now-incurable conditions afflicting tens of millions of people.

As far as is known, this decision marks the beginning of the first noncommercial effort in the United States to use human embryonic stem cells in a series of experiments whose principle has already been proven in animals.

The work is being entirely supported with private funds because of the federal restrictions on human embryonic stem cell work.

Stem cell issues discussed at Barker

50443248 — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:12:38 -0400

The second in a series of gatherings described by Michael Sandel as "conversations that transcend the areas that we normally populate" was a far cry from the first such conversation, conducted a month earlier.
The "Between Two Cultures" series, co-sponsored by the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) and the Humanities Center, is intended to foster understanding of and discussion about stem cell science and the social and ethical issues it raises. Scientists and humanists of diverse points of view take part in these talks. The inaugural session in late October, featuring a lecture on human cloning by Leon Kass, past director of the President's Council on Bioethics, developed into an intense, at times heated, debate.