Of all the illnesses that one might have to face throughout life, one of the most frightening is that of experiencing a stroke, where a circulatory problem in the brain delivers either too much or too little blood flow to a given region, resulting in impairment in that part of the brain. The effects can be life-changing, resulting in the loss of various functions in the patient, including impairment of vision, speech, and motor functions. However, a new study from Stanford University may be offering researchers a new glimpse into how the brain heals itself, using a stem cell therapy that triggered profound healing effects in its patients, including giving one formerly wheelchair-bound individual the ability to walk again.
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In a controversial move, Britain’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) regulatory body has approved a research application for a London-based laboratory to carry out gene-editing experiments on human embryos. While the proposed experiments are aimed at researching fertility issues, critics of the issue say that this could open the door to creating designer babies.
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Research into regenerative medicine is an area where significant progress continues to be made, and the latest breakthrough has been heralded as a "major scientific discovery."

Two recent studies published on Wednesday in the journal Nature outline a ground-breaking new method of creating stem cells merely by dipping blood cells into acid.

Dr. Haruko Obokata at the Riken lab in Kobe, Japan, described how her team had "shocked" blood cells with acid and found that this triggered their transformation into stem cells. The new form of cells have been termed "STAP" (stimulus-triggered acquisition of pluripotency) cells.
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Scientists from Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have made ground-breaking discoveries that could help to reverse the ageing process.
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