Patient-Specific, Pluripotent Stem Cells - Testis is a New Source
March 17, 2010 | Ann A. Kiessling, PhD

Improving treatments for damaged organs and tissues is the promise of human pluripotent stem cells. The power of pluripotent stem cells to alleviate damage to organs, a form of regenerative medicine, has been amply demonstrated in many animal and laboratory model systems (see: State of the Stem Cell). In some studies, the pluripotent stem cells need to differentiate into the type of cell needed for normal function prior to transplantation, whereas in other studies, the presence of the transplanted stem cells themselves appears to alleviate damage and help restore organ function (1). It is not hype to assert that pluripotent stem cells are the foundation upon which regenerative medicine will grow.

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The State of the Stem Cell
January 27, 2010 | Ann A. Kiessling, PhD

Too many choices?
As we enter a new decade of this new millennium, stem cell science is in a state of confusion. The power of pluripotent stem cells to alleviate damage to organs has been amply demonstrated in many model systems (1). It is not hype to assert that pluripotent stem cells are the foundation upon which regenerative medicine will grow. The over arching problem now, however, is lack of consensus about which stem cells to use and how to use them.

Simply put, the big question facing scientists is: what type of pluripotent stem cell will ultimately prove to be the most therapeutically valuable? This report on the state of the stem cell outlines the choices, the concerns, and the unknowns, for each candidate therapeutic stem cell.
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Can stem cells cure HIV?
January 19, 2010 | Ann A. Kiessling, PhD
A promising new case report of stem cell therapy for leukemia re-opens the possibility of curing HIV infection with stem cell transplantation.
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Dr. Ann A. Kiessling honored with the Jacob Heskel Gabbay Award for Biotechnology and Medicine
November 9, 2009 | Bedford Research Foundation
Dr. Kiessling’s work has also helped bridged a gap between assisted reproduction and basic research in stem cells. Using the micro-array technologies of previous Gabbay Awardees, Patrick O. Brown and Stephen P. A. Fodor, she is revealing the cellular machinery that gives rise to human embryonic stem cells. Understanding of this cell cycle regulation is urgently needed. It will revolutionize outcomes in assisted reproduction, the derivation of stem cells and our understanding of cancer.
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Stem Cell scientists from major universities attend a conference of 100-scientists and invited guest
November 5, 2009 | Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation
Friday, Nov 6, 2009: Discussions will include estimates of time to develop new stem cell based therapies for degenerative diseases, including diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, spinal cord diseases, AIDS and heart failure.
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Leading experts in basic science and clinical care discuss barriers to a
November 3, 2009 | Shepherd Center
To identify and address these barriers, leading experts in neuroscience and stem cells recently came together for the one-day workshop at the University of Georgia. “The concept of this workshop grew out of a need for better communication between stem cells scientists, who dared to use the term ‘cure’ for spinal cord injury, and care providers, who are worried about raising ‘false hopes’ and setting unrealistic goals for people with spinal cord injury,” says Ann Kiessling, Ph.D., associate professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School and director of the Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation, which organized the second annual gathering in cooperation with Shepherd Center. “Both groups clearly have the patient’s best interest at heart, but were not hearing each other’s concerns.”
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NIH Stem Cell Research Guidelines - Urgent Response Needed
May 21, 2009 | Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation
Deadline: Tuesday, May 26, 2009. The NIH has already received over 10,000 letters opposing embryonic stem cell research. Your voice is urgently needed!
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The Moral Status of the Embryo
June 30, 2007 | Harvard Magazine
Is a blastocyst—an early-stage human embryo—a person? As part of the University’s efforts to encourage public dialogue about stem-cell research, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI), in conjunction with Harvard Divinity School (HDS) and the Boston Theological Institute, sponsored a March 14 forum, “Religious Perspectives on Stem-Cell Research,” which centered on this fundamental question. Moderated by Philip Clayton, a visiting professor of science and religion, the forum featured four panelists representing the three Abrahamic faiths: Eric Cohen, executive director of the Tikvah fund (a foundation devoted to Jewish ideas and culture) and a consultant to the President’s Council on Bioethics; Omar Sultan Haque, a Muslim theologian currently studying at HDS and Harvard Medical School (HMS); professor John Davis of the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an evangelical Christian theologian ordained in the Presbyterian church; and the Reverend Doctor Llewellyn Smith, B.D. ’67, of Andover Newton Theological School, a Congregational minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC). (HSCI faculty members M. William Lensch and Jerome Ritz attended as well to provide scientific input and clarification.)
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Stem Cell Wars: The Cultural and Ideological Bases
March 23, 2007 | Jeffrey E. Horvitz
Originally published, October 19, 2006 Why has stem cell research been singled out of many stunning advances in this, the Golden Age of biology and medicine? Why is there such a tempest in a Petri dish?
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Connecticut Legislature committed 100 million dollars to embryonic stem cell research
November 21, 2006 | Connecticut
History was made in Connecticut this week. Nearly three dozen stem cell scientists were awarded public funds to conduct embryonic stem cell research. This puts Connecticut in a leadership position in stem cell research in the U.S.
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New Battle Lines Are Drawn Over Egg Donation
September 13, 2006 | Los Angeles Times - By Lee Romney, Times Staff Writer
The issue of whether to pay women to be stem cell research donors has split feminists, causing some to align with Christian conservatives. Ann Kiessling, director of the Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation in Massachusetts, said banning it was no guarantee that women wouldn't be exploited. "They're only going to be protected by good medical care and fully informed consent," she said. "How well they're cared for is independent of whether they're going to be compensated."
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City seeks to lure stem cell labs
August 24, 2006 | Somerville Journal - By David L. Harris/ Journal Staff
With the encouragement of a little-known stem cell research lab, Somerville’s going all-out in its bid to attract more cutting edge biotech companies. "The mayor said, ’What, you’re kidding?" said Ann A. Kiessling, the director of Davis Square-based Bedford Stem Cell Research Foundation, when she recently told him they exist. "Now’s the time. Everything has now fallen into place." Kiessling, a Harvard-affiliated researcher, has maintained the Bedford Foundation’s location on Elm Street, not far from Redbones, Starbucks and The Burren, since 1998. Since 2000, Kiessling and fellow researchers have been successfully replicating monkey, cow and mouse eggs trying to eventually use unfertilized eggs to develop human stem cells.
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Donor Payments and Stem Cell Research
January 31, 2006 | WBUR By Allan Coukell
Now some scientists here are worried that new restrictions on payments to egg donors in Massachusetts may make local stem cell research more difficult.
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