Dr. Benjamin Dekel is a leading investigator in the field of human renal stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. He is the Head of the Pediatric Stem Cell Research Institute and the Director of the Division of Pediatric Nephrology at the Edmond and Lily Safra Children’s Hospital, Sheba Medical Center, Israel.

Gene Editing Creates Mice with Two Dads – Researchers gathered fathers’ stem cells, and used them to produce embryos that were implanted into surrogate mothers.

A New Microscope to Visualize Mammalian Development – A new microscope uses laser light to image growing mammal embryos. Scientists used the instrument to track a mouse embryo as it developed over two days.

Rising Temperatures and Drought Target Barley Crops Worldwide – Climate change impacts on barley crops could lead to less beer and skyrocketing prices.

Hundreds of Dietary Supplements Are Tainted with Potentially Harmful Drugs – Most of the nearly 800 dietary supplements flagged by the FDA as tainted with potentially harmful drugs from 2007 to 2016 were marketed to improve sex drive, help with weight loss or build muscle.

HOPX-Dependent Cardiomyocyte Maturation – Single-cell RNA-seq during cardiac hPSC differentiation reveals cellular heterogeneity.

CRISPR Screens to Identify Factors that Drive Neuronal Fate – Researchers activated the expression of all endogenous transcription factors and other regulators via a pooled CRISPRa screen in embryonic stem cells, revealing genes including epigenetic regulators such as Ezh2 that can induce neuronal fate.

A Biodegradable Device for Electrical Stimulation of Nerve Regrowth – Researchers have developed an implantable, biodegradable device that delivers regular pulses of electricity to damaged peripheral nerves in rats, helping the animals regrow nerves in their legs and recover their nerve function and muscle strength more quickly.

In Utero CRISPR Mediated Therapeutic Editing of Metabolic Genes – For the first time, scientists have performed prenatal gene editing to prevent a lethal metabolic disorder in laboratory animals, offering the potential to treat human congenital diseases before birth.

Treatment of a Metabolic Liver Disease by In Vivo Genome Base Editing in Adult Mice – A team of researchers applied a newly developed editing tool to target and correct genetic mutations. By doing so, the researchers healed mice suffering from a genetic metabolic disorder that also affects humans.

Photo Reference: Courtesy of Dr. Benjamin Dekel

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