A new study demonstrates that the embryonic mouse heart has an astounding capacity to regenerate, a phenomenon previously observed only in non-mammalian species.

Immune-defense cells influenced by embryonic stem cell-derived cells helped prevent the rejection of hearts transplanted into mice

One of the four ingredients in the genetic recipe that scientists in Japan and the U.S. followed last year to persuade human skin cells to revert to an embryonic stem cell state, is dispensable in ES cells, thanks to the presence of molecular alliance between specific group of key proteins known as transcription factors, a research team led by Genome Institute of Singapore under the Agency for Science, Technology and Research reports in current issue of Nature Cell Biology.

A human embryonic stem cell is reined in – prevented from giving up its unique characteristics of self-renewal and pluripotency – by the presence of a protein modification that stifles any genes that would prematurely instruct the cell to develop into heart or other specialized tissue.

The President has again vetoed the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act, which would expand federal support for embryonic stem cell research. AAAS, the world's largest general scientific society, stands with a broad coalition of Americans spanning all parties and faiths that supports this bill.

In a survey of more than one thousand infertility patients with frozen embryos, 60 percent of patients report that they are likely to donate their embryos to stem cell research, a level of donation that could result in roughly 2000 to 3000 new embryonic stem cell lines. Researchers from Duke University and Johns Hopkins University report the startling findings in the July 6, 2007 issue of Science.

USC researchers discover small molecule that may allow for growth of human stem cells without threat of contamination from mouse feeder cells