Science shines in a new virtual SY-Stem.

The third 'Symposium for the Next Generation of Stem Cell Research' (SY-Stem) was held virtually on 3-5 March 2021, having been cancelled in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As in previous years, the meeting highlighted the work of early career researchers, ranging from postgraduate students to young group leaders working in developmental and stem cell biology. Here, we summarize the excellent work presented at the Symposium, which covered topics ranging from pluripotency, species-specific aspects of development and emerging technologies, through to organoids, single-cell technology and clinical applications.

[George Lucas: prophet of transhumanism?] / George Lucas : Prophète du transhumanisme ?

Star Wars, a "general public" film saga, raises questions about human nature and transhumanism. It features different characters who are neither "real" humans nor robots; there are creatures that can be likened to advanced humans (cyborgs, chimeras or genetically-modified humans). Based on the "Star Wars" movie, we will approach some ways of modifying the human person both in his body and in his consciousness and we will wonder about the man of tomorrow by asking ourselves if George Lucas (director of the first film released) might have not been a visionary of the men of tomorrow.

TITLE: George Lucas : Prophète du transhumanisme ? ABSTRACT: La Guerre des étoiles, saga cinématographique « grand public ¼, permet de se questionner sur la nature humaine et sur le transhumanisme. Elle met en effet en scène différents personnages qui ne sont ni de « vrais ¼ humains, ni des robots, des créatures pouvant être assimilées à des humains évolués (des cyborgs, des chimères ou des humains génétiquement modifiés). À partir de cette approche cinématographique, nous aborderons certains moyens de modification de la personne humaine à la fois dans son corps et dans sa conscience, et nous nous interrogerons sur l'homme de demain, en se demandant si George Lucas (réalisateur du premier film) n'était pas un visionnaire des hommes de demain.

Between mice and sheep: Biotechnology, agricultural science and animal models in late-twentieth century Edinburgh.

In this paper, we investigate the ways in which a group of scientists in Edinburgh worked across mice and sheep during the last quarter of the twentieth century. With this local episode, we show the utility of an interspecies perspective to investigate recent historical transformations in the life sciences. We argue that the emergence of animal biotechnology was the result of interactions between neoliberal policymakers, science administrators, molecular biologists, agricultural breeders, and the laboratory and farm organisms with which they worked. During the early 1980s, all these actors believed that the exportation of genetic engineering techniques from mice to farm animals would lead to more effective breeding programmes in the agricultural sciences. However, the circulation of people, money, expertise and infrastructures that the experiments required, as well as the practical constraints of working with mice and sheep, resisted a simple scaling-up from one organism to the other. This displaced the goals of the Edinburgh scientists from the production of transgenic sheep to stem cell research and human regenerative medicine. We account for this unexpected shift by looking at the interplay between science policy and its implementation via collective action and bench work across different organisms. The emergence of animal biotechnology in Edinburgh also provides historiographical insights on the birth of Dolly the sheep and, more generally, on the interactions between the molecular and the reproductive sciences at the fall of the twentieth century.

20 Years of Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Research: It All Started with Five Lines.

November 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of the seminal human embryonic stem cell (hESC) publication, which reported the initial hESC derivations and launched the field of human pluripotent stem cell research. To commemorate this significant milestone, we reflect on the scientific, economic, and clinically relevant impact of this groundbreaking achievement.

[Historical review of reprogramming and pluripotent stem cell research in China].

The research of stem cell field has developed rapidly in recent decades. With the enhancing of China's economic power, the strength of scientific research is steadily increasing, and the stem cell research even has reached international advanced level. Here, we make a historical review of important research in China, focusing on somatic cell nuclear transfer, induced pluripotent stem cells, haploid pluripotent stem cells and early embryo development. The fast development of single cell sequencing will greatly help the understanding of various development process, and the stem cell clinical application will blossom in China in the future.

A Crispr Future for Gene-Editing Regulation: a Proposal for an Updated Biotechnology Regulatory System in an Era of Human Genomic Editing.

Recent developments in gene-editing technology have enabled scientists to manipulate the human genome in unprecedented ways. One technology in particular, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Pallindromic Repeat (CRISPR), has made gene editing more precise and cost-effective than ever before. Indeed, scientists have already shown that CRISPR can eliminate genes linked to life-threatening diseases from an individual's genetic makeup and, when used on human embryos, CRISPR has the potential to permanently eliminate hereditary diseases from the human genome in its entirety. These developments have brought great hope to individuals and their families, who suffer from genetically linked diseases. But there is a dark side: in the wrong hands, CRISPR could negatively impact the course of human evolution or be used to create biological weaponry. Despite these possible consequences, CRISPR remains largely unregulated due to the United States's outdated regulatory scheme for biotechnology. Moreover, human embryo research, which is likely critical to maximizing the therapeutic applications of CRISPR, is not easily undertaken by scientists due to a number of federal and state restrictions aimed at preventing such research. This Note examines the possible benefits and consequences of CRISPR and discusses the current regulations in both the fields of biotechnology and human embryo research that hamper the government's ability to effectively regulate this technology. Ultimately, this Note proposes a new regulatory scheme for biotechnology that focuses on the processes used to create products using CRISPR, rather than the products themselves, with a focus on enabling ethical research using human embryos to maximize the potential benefits of CRISPR.

Deconstructing and reconstructing the mouse and human early embryo.

The emergence of form and function during mammalian embryogenesis is a complex process that involves multiple regulatory levels. The foundations of the body plan are laid throughout the first days of post-implantation development as embryonic stem cells undergo symmetry breaking and initiate lineage specification, in a process that coincides with a global morphological reorganization of the embryo. Here, we review experimental models and how they have shaped our current understanding of the post-implantation mammalian embryo.

An interview with George Daley.

George Daley is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Professor of Biological Chemistry and Molecular Pharmacology, and Caroline Shields Walker Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. A former Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) from 2007-2008, his lab works on the biology and clinical application of stem cells, with a particular focus on hematopoiesis. He was awarded the Public Service Award at the ISSCR 2017 meeting in Boston, where we caught up with him to discuss his move from the lab to the clinic and back again, his quest to derive human hematopoietic stem cells in vitro, and his advocacy for science in uncertain political times.

Logros y conflictos en la investigación con células troncales / Achievements and struggles in stem-cell investigation research

Se relatan circunstancias, peripecias y conflictos que han rodeado a varios de los investigadores que han protagonizado el avance de los conocimientos sobre las células troncales a lo largo de cien años, desde el establecimiento del dogma de la inmortalidad celular hasta las técnicas desarrolladas para obtenerlas y utilizarlas en medicina regeneradora. En este último aspecto, se incluye un breve análisis de las perspectivas previstas para las células pluripotentes inducidas (iPS) en relación con las células troncales producidas por transferencia nuclear (NT-ESC) y la producción de embriones humanos por transferencia nuclear de células somáticas (embriones SCNT) (AU)

This report describes events, circumstances and conflicts that have surrounded to several researchers protagonists of the advances on the stem cells knowledge along a hundred of years, from the cell immortality dogma to the discovery of tecnics to produce them to be used in regenerative medicine. At this respect, a brief analysis of the expected outlook for induced human pluripotent cells (iPS) is included and compared with nuclear transfer human stem cells (NTESC) and production of human enbryos by somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT embryos) (AU)

Hubrecht Institute Centennial - From embryos to stem cells.

During the last 100 years, the Hubrecht Institute evolved from a small laboratory aimed at providing research material to the scientific community to a modern, fully equipped research institute with state-of-the-art infrastructure, performing research at the highest standard. The past 100 years have been eventful for the Hubrecht Institute with many glorious moments, but also threats to be shut down on several occasions. Here, we will briefly review the rich history of the Hubrecht Institute.

Embryonic hematopoiesis under microscopic observation.

Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) are at the origin of adult hematopoiesis, providing an organism with all blood cell types needed throughout life. During embryonic development a first wave of hematopoiesis (independent of HSCs) allows the survival and growth of the embryo until birth. A second wave of hematopoiesis that will last into adulthood depends on the production of HSCs that begins at mid-gestation in large arteries such as the aorta. HSC production occurs through a hemogenic endothelial to hematopoietic transition (EHT) process and the formation of hematopoietic clusters in most vertebrate species. Advances in understanding EHT, cluster formation and HSC production were triggered by combined progresses made in the development of in vivo assays, microscopy, imaging and fluorescence tools. Here, we review the current knowledge on developmental hematopoiesis with a focus on the first step of HSC production in the aorta and how microscopic approaches have contributed to a better understanding of the vital process of blood cell formation.

On the shoulders of Hubrecht: From embryos to stem cells.

One hundred years of the Hubrecht Institute were celebrated in May 2016 with the organization of a one-day symposium "From embryos to stem cells" on the Uithof Campus, Utrecht, the Netherlands. Nine distinguished speakers were invited. They all represent a research branch originating from the passion of Institute founder, Ambrosius Hubrecht, for embryology:, regulation of gene expression, genome structure and function, embryonic and adult stem cells, nuclear reprogramming, and understanding cancer and other diseases using model organisms. The centennial symposium not only retraced the history of the Institute and of modern developmental biology, but was also a tribute to basic research. From there, avenues to therapeutics are being developed and implemented. The symposium was organized, introduced and chaired by Jeroen den Hertog and Alexander van Oudenaarden, the present Directors of the Institute, who also stand on Hubrecht's shoulders.

Timeline: iPSCs--The First Decade.

Research into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) has expanded at a remarkable pace in the decade since Shinya Yamanaka and Kazutoshi Takahashi first reported their groundbreaking discovery in 2006. This Timeline highlights the key events in the development of this field, including basic insights into the production of iPSCs and how they have been applied to improve our understanding and treatment of human disease. To view this Timeline, open or download the PDF. You can also listen to the associated interview with Debbie Sweet, Editor of Cell Stem Cell, and Elena Porro, Editor of Cell. PAPERCLIP.

History of Neural Stem Cell Research and Its Clinical Application.

"Once development was ended…in the adult centers, the nerve paths are something fixed and immutable. Everything may die, nothing may be regenerated," wrote Santiago Ramón y Cajal, a Spanish neuroanatomist and Nobel Prize winner and the father of modern neuroscience. This statement was the central dogma in neuroscience for a long time. However, in the 1960s, neural stem cells (NSCs) were discovered. Since then, our knowledge about NSCs has continued to grow. This review focuses on our current knowledge about NSCs and their surrounding microenvironment. In addition, the clinical application of NSCs for the treatment of various central nervous system diseases is also summarized.