Gladstone Collaboration Yields Insights into Genomic "Dark Matter"
October 13, 2011 - A team of scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the Broad Institute at MIT, Baylor College of Medicine, and Wahsington University analyzed the genomes of 29 mammals, revealing non-coding regions of the genome that are conserved throughout evolution and control gene regulation. These findings may help highlight mutations that are associated with human disease. Gladstone Associate Investigator Katherine Pollard and Gladstone scientist Alisha Holloway contributed to this work, which was published online in the journal Nature.
Gladstone Scientist Bruce Conklin Inducted into the California Academy of Sciences
October 11, 2011 - The California Academy of Sciences has inducted Gladstone Institutes Senior Investigator Bruce Conklin, MD, as an Academy Fellow. Dr. Conklin, who studies how hormones direct fetal development of complex tissues such as those in the heart, is the first scientist at Gladstone to receive this honor.
Gladstone Experiments Suggest Research Avenues for Treating Excess Fat Storage and Obesity
October 4, 2011 - A team of scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and Yale University have begun to unravel the complex process by which cells take in and store microscopic fat molecules, suggesting new directions for further research into solutions for obesity and its related conditions, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease.
Gladstone Scientists Offer New Insight into the Regulation of Stem Cells and Cancer Cells
August 14, 2011 - Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have gained new insight into the delicate relationship between two proteins that, when out of balance, can prevent the normal development of stem cells in the heart and may also be important in some types of cancer.
Gladstone Scientist Discovers Genetic Factor Implicated in Heartbeat Defect
August 8, 2011 - Benoit Bruneau, Ph.D., of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, has discovered how gene regulation can make hearts beat out of sync, offering new hope for the millions who suffer from a potentially fatal heart condition.
Gladstone Scientist Converts Human Skin Cells into Functional Brain Cells
July 28, 2011 - Sheng Ding, Ph.D., of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease has discovereda novel way to convert human skin cells into brain cells, advancing medicine and human health by offering new hope for regenerative medicine and personalized drug discovery and development.
Juy 1, 2011 - The Gladstone Institutes has been named America's best place to work in academia, capping a seven-year stint in which readers of The Scientist have ranked the independent biomedical research organization among academia's top ten places to work.
Gladstone Scientist Wins $1.7 Million Grant for Cardiovascular Research
May 9, 2011 - The Gladstone Institute's Deepak Srivastava, M.D., has received a $1.7 million grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) for further investigation into treatments for heart disease.
Shinya Yamanaka Elected to National Academy of Sciences
May 3, 2011—The United States' National Academy of Sciences today elected Gladstone Senior Investigator Shinya Yamanaka MD, PhD, to its membership, bestowing yet another honor on the Japanese scientist whose discovery of a promising new stem-cell technology has major implications for human health.
Sheng Ding, PhD, has joined the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease as a Senior Investigator. His research focuses on developing and applying innovative chemical approaches to stem cell biology and regeneration.
See the Ding Lab web site for further details on his research.
Gladstone Scientist Makes Key Innovations in Stem Cell Technology
April 25, 2011—A scientist at the Gladstone Institutes has made two significant stem-cell discoveries that advance medicine and human health by creating powerful new approaches for using stem cells and stem-cell-like technology. In two papers published on April 25 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Sheng Ding, PhD, reveals novel and safer methods not only for transforming embryonic stem cells into large numbers of brain cells with multiple uses, but also for transforming adult skin cells into so-called neural stem cells—cells that are just beginning to become brain cells.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Genes Involved in Embryonic Heart Development
April 16, 2011—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified networks of genes that play an important role in embryonic heart development, advancing knowledge of how healthy hearts develop—and offering clues about how to combat a common birth defect known as congenital heart disease.
Shinya Yamanaka Wins International Awards for Advances in Stem Cell Research
Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and Kyoto University, has won the 2011 Wolf Prize in Medicine, along with Dr. Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute, for their groundbreaking contributions to stem cell research. Dr. Yamanaka has also been awarded the 2011 King Faisal International Prize for Medicine, shared with Dr. James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin, and the 2011 Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, shared with Dr. James Thomson and Dr. Elaine Fuchs. Yamanaka, who is the L.K.Whittier Investigator in Stem Cell Biology at Gladstone and professor of anatomy at UCSF, was cited for his discovery of a method of reprogramming adult skin cells to become embryonic-like stem cells. The discovery has opened up the field of stem cell research and dramatically changed the field of cell biology.
New Center Looks at How Human Systems Function or Fail
November 2, 2010—A new center called the National Resource for Network Biology (NRNB) will help researchers and clinicians analyze an ever-growing wealth of complex biological data and apply that knowledge to real problems and diseases.
Gladstone Scientists Discover New Method for Regenerating Heart Muscle by Direct Reprogramming
August 5, 2010—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found a new way to make beating heart cells from the body's own cells that could help regenerate damaged hearts. In research published in the current issue of Cell, scientists in the laboratory of GICD director Deepak Srivastava, MD, directly reprogrammed structural cells called fibroblasts in the heart to become beating heart cells called cardiomyocytes. In doing so, they also found the first evidence that unrelated adult cells can be reprogrammed from one cell type to another without having to go all the way back to a stem cell state. See press release.
Deepak Srivastava Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 20, 2010—Deepak Srivastava, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease and Professor of Pediatrics and Biochemistry at UCSF, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Established 230 years ago by John Adams and other founding fathers, the Academy is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies and a center for independent policy research.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Target That May Reduce Complications of Obesity
February 3, 2010—Although obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and coronary heart disease worldwide, only some obese individuals go on to develop these metabolic complications, while others are relatively protected. Defining these protective factors could help scientists prevent disease in the wider population. To this end, a research team at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, led by Suneil Koliwad, MD, PhD recently added new details that link obesity to diabetes and heart disease.
Gladstone's Yamanaka Receives March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology
January 26, 2010—Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, of the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) was awarded the 2010 March of Dimes Prize in Developmental Biology. Yamanaka, who is also a professor at Kyoto University, Japan, was honored for his pioneering work that has fundamentally altered the field of developmental biology and will aid research into the prevention of birth defects. See press release.
Gladstone and Stanford In Collaboration to Develop Induced Pluripotent Stem (IPS) Cells for Cardiac Therapies
November 1, 2009—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and Stanford University School of Medicine will collaborate in a new consortium funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to develop stem cell and regenerative medicine therapies. GICD investigators, led by GICD Director Deepak Srivastava, MD, will collaborate with a Stanford team led by Robert Robbins, MD, professor and chair of cardiothoracic surgery, to investigate how to use induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, to repair damaged heart muscle. See press release.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Genetic Factors that Hold Promise for Treatment of Vascular Diseases
July 5, 2009—Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have discovered a key switch that makes stem cells turn into the type of muscle cells that reside in the wall of blood vessels. See press release.
What Makes Us Human?
Comparisons of the genomes of humans and chimpanzees are revealing those rare stretches of DNA that are ours alone
Katherine S. Pollard's work on what tiny genetic changes say about our evoluation was featured on the cover of the May 2009 issue of Scientific American. See article.
International Society for Stem Cell Research educational video contest winners!!!
Mark White, Kathy Ivey, and Josh Arnold created a short educational video, explaining the fundamentals of stem cells, to be used in conjunction with the Gladstone high school and community outreach programs. This video was selected as the winner of an educational stem cell video contest sponsored by the ISSCR.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Key Factors in Heart Cell Creation
April 26, 2009—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease have identified for the first time key genetic factors that drive the process of generating new heart cells. See press release.
Gladstone's Shinya Yamanaka Wins “Baby Nobel”
April 8, 2009—Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, of the Gladstone Institutes and Kyoto University is one of seven recipients of Canada's prestigious Gairdner Award. The Gairdner is referred to as the “Baby Nobel,” since many winners then go on to win the Nobel Prize. See press release.
Gladstone Scientists Find Clues That Guide Division and Expansion of Heart Cells for Regenerative Therapies
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—February 17, 2009—Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California, San Francisco have unraveled a complex signaling process that reveals how different types of cells interact to create a heart. See full press release.
Gladstone Scientists Reveal That Fat Synthesizing Enzyme is Also Key to Healthy Skin and Hair
DGAT1 Regulates Retinoic Acid
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—February 5, 2009—Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) have found that an enzyme associated with the synthesis of fat in the body is also an element in healthy skin and hair. See press release for details.
Yamanaka Eliminates Viral Vector in Stem Cell Reprogramming
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—October 9, 2008—Shinya Yamanaka MD, PhD, of Kyoto University and the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) has taken another step forward in improving the possibilities for the practical application of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell technology. See press release for details.
Katherine S. Pollard Joins GICD Faculty
Katherine S. Pollard, Ph.D., joined the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease as an associate investigator. Her research focuses on analysis of high-dimensonal genomic data. See the Pollard Lab web site for details.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Single microRNA That Controls How Heart Chambers Form
SAN FRANCISCO, CA—October 27, 2008—Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have identified a genetic factor critical to the formation of chambers in the developing heart. The discovery of the role of a microRNA called miR-138, could offer strategies for the treatment of congenital heart defects. See press release for details.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Single microRNA That Controls Blood Vessel Development
SAN FRANCISCO, CA –August 11, 2008--Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and UCSF have identified a key regulatory factor that controls development of the human vascular system, the extensive network of arteries, veins, and capillaries that allow blood to reach all tissues and organs. The research, published in the latest issue of Developmental Cell, may offer clues to potential therapeutic targets for a wide variety of diseases, such as heart disease or cancer, that are impacted by or affect the vascular system. See press release.
CIRM Announces New Faculty Awards — Two to Gladstone Investigators
Gladstone investigators Benoit Bruneau and Yadong Huang were among the 23 new recipients of CIRM faculty awards for stem cell research. (PDF of CIRM press release)
Gladstone Scientists Create Wikipathways to Foster Research Collaboration
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - June 11, 2008 -- GICD senior investigator recognized for contributions in reprogramming skin cells to pluripotent stem cells. See press release.
Gladstone Scientists Identify Role of Tiny RNAs in Controlling Stem Cell Fate
SAN FRANCISCO, CA –March 5, 2008--Researchers at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease (GICD) and the University of California, San Francisco have identified for the first time how tiny genetic factors called microRNAs may influence the differentiation of pluripotent embryonic stem (ES) cells into cardiac muscle. See press release for details.
Shinya Yamanaka Reprograms Human Adult Cells Into Embryonic-like Stem Cells
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 20, 2007 – Acclaimed stem cell researcher Shinya Yamanaka, MD, PhD, has reported that he and his Kyoto University colleagues have successfully reprogrammed human adult cells to function like pluripotent embryonic stem cells. See press release for details.
Shinya Yamanaka, Japan's Leading Stem Cell Scientist, Joins the Gladstone Institutes
Will pursue human applications of his research creating embryonic cells from adult cells
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – August 16, 2007—Acclaimed Japanese stem cell scientist Shinya Yamanaka has joined the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease, where he will continue his research into reprogramming adult cells into embryonic stem (ES) cells. See press release for details.
Gladstone Scientists Featured on KQED series Quest
