Dr. Justin Ichida is the Assistant Professor in the Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine at the University of Southern California.  Dr. Ichida’s laboratory creates in vitro models of human neurodegenerative diseases by converting patients’ cells into disease-affected neural cells.

Featured Resource: Madeline Lancaster on Brain Organoids: Modeling Human Brain Development in a Dish Webinar

New Budget Not So Bad for Science – Following a new congressional deal that will boost federal spending by nearly half-a-trillion dollars this year and next, the administration rescinded many of the planned cuts and instead requested flat funding at major research agencies.

Household Products Significantly Contribute to Pollution – A detailed mass balance demonstrates that the use of volatile chemical products—including pesticides, coatings, printing inks, adhesives, cleaning agents, and personal care products—now constitutes half of fossil fuel volatile organic compound emissions in industrialized cities.

Hunting Threatens Endangered Orangutan – From 1999 to 2015, numbers of orangutans on the island of Borneo declined by nearly 150,000 individuals, a new study estimates.

Lowering an Enzyme Eliminates Brain Plaques – According to researchers, sequential and increased deletion of BACE1 in an adult Alzheimer’s disease mouse model (5xFAD) was capable of completely reversing amyloid deposition resulting in significant improvement in gliosis and neuritic dystrophy.

Tribute to Stem Cell Scientist Ihor Lemischka – Ihor Lemischka, PhD, Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, known for his great sense of humor and his pioneering work on embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells, died much too young from a stroke early in December 2017.

New Stem Cell Treatment for Stroke – Researchers have developed a new treatment called AB126 using extracellular vesicles for stroke that reduces brain damage and accelerates the brain’s natural healing tendencies in animal models.

Stem Cells to Grow Mini Kidneys – One new study shows how human kidney tissue could be grown inside of a living organism, demonstrating the potential to one day save the lives of millions.

World’s First Human-Sheep Hybrid – A team of researchers at Stanford University successfully grew embryos inside a surrogate for three weeks which had both sheep and human cells.

Efficient Technique Discovered for Isolating Embryonic Stem Cells in Cows – Scientists at the University of California, Davis, were able to develop a new culture system that allows them to efficiently derive stem cells on almost every single attempt.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Justin Ichida

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