Key Stem Cell Research

PHOTO: Martin Evans, a co-winner of the Nobel Prize in recognition of his gene targeting work.

• 1908: The term "stem cell" was proposed for scientific use by the Russian histologist Alexander Maksimov (1874–1928) at congress of hematologic society in Berlin. It postulated existence of haematopoietic stem cells.
• 1960s: Joseph Altman and Gopal Das present scientific evidence of adult neurogenesis, ongoing stem cell activity in the brain; like André Gernez, their reports contradict Cajal's "no new neurons" dogma and are largely ignored.
• 1963: McCulloch and Till illustrate the presence of self-renewing cells in mouse bone marrow.
• 1968: Bone marrow transplant between two siblings successfully treats SCID.
• 1978: Haematopoietic stem cells are discovered in human cord blood.
• 1981: Mouse embryonic stem cells are derived from the inner cell mass by scientists Martin Evans, Matthew Kaufman, and Gail R. Martin. Gail Martin is attributed for coining the term "Embryonic Stem Cell".
• 1992: Neural stem cells are cultured in vitro as neurospheres.
• 1997: Leukemia is shown to originate from a haematopoietic stem cell, the first direct evidence for cancer stem cells.
• 1998: James Thomson and coworkers derive the first human embryonic stem cell line at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
• 1998: John Gearhart (Johns Hopkins University) extracted germ cells from fetal gonadal tissue (primordial germ cells) before developing pluripotent stem cell lines from the original extract.
• 2000s: Several reports of adult stem cell plasticity are published.
• 2001: Scientists at Advanced Cell Technology clone first early (four- to six-cell stage) human embryos for the purpose of generating embryonic stem cells.
• 2003: Dr. Songtao Shi of NIH discovers new source of adult stem cells in children's primary teeth.
• 2004–2005: Korean researcher Hwang Woo-Suk claims to have created several human embryonic stem cell lines from unfertilised human oocytes. The lines were later shown to be fabricated.
• 2005: Researchers at Kingston University in England claim to have discovered a third category of stem cell, dubbed cord-blood-derived embryonic-like stem cells (CBEs), derived from umbilical cord blood. The group claims these cells are able to differentiate into more types of tissue than adult stem cells.
• 2005: Researchers at UC Irvine's Reeve-Irvine Research Center are able to partially restore the ability of rats with paralyzed spines to walk through the injection of human neural stem cells.
• August 2006: Mouse Induced pluripotent stem cells: the journal Cell publishes Kazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka.
• October 2006: Scientists at Newcastle University in England create the first ever artificial liver cells using umbilical cord blood stem cells.
• January 2007: Scientists at Wake Forest University led by Dr. Anthony Atala and Harvard University report discovery of a new type of stem cell in amniotic fluid. This may potentially provide an alternative to embryonic stem cells for use in research and therapy.
• June 2007: Research reported by three different groups shows that normal skin cells can be reprogrammed to an embryonic state in mice. In the same month, scientist Shoukhrat Mitalipov reports the first successful creation of a primate stem cell line through somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• October 2007: Mario Capecchi, Martin Evans, and Oliver Smithies win the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for their work on embryonic stem cells from mice using gene targeting strategies producing genetically engineered mice (known as knockout mice) for gene research.
• November 2007: Human induced pluripotent stem cells: Two similar papers released by their respective journals prior to formal publication: in Cell byKazutoshi Takahashi and Shinya Yamanaka, "Induction of pluripotent stem cells from adult human fibroblasts by defined factors", and in Science byJunying Yu, et al., from the research group of James Thomson, "Induced pluripotent stem cell lines derived from human somatic cells": pluripotent stem cells generated from mature human fibroblasts. It is possible now to produce a stem cell from almost any other human cell instead of using embryos as needed previously, albeit the risk of tumorigenesis due to c-myc and retroviral gene transfer remains to be determined.
• January 2008: Robert Lanza and colleagues at Advanced Cell Technology and UCSF create the first human embryonic stem cells without destruction of the embryo
• January 2008: Development of human cloned blastocysts following somatic cell nuclear transfer with adult fibroblasts.
• February 2008: Generation of pluripotent stem cells from adult mouse liver and stomach: these iPS cells seem to be more similar to embryonic stem cells than the previously developed iPS cells and not tumorigenic, moreover genes that are required for iPS cells do not need to be inserted into specific sites, which encourages the development of non-viral reprogramming techniques.
• March 2008-The first published study of successful cartilage regeneration in the human knee using autologous adult mesenchymal stem cells is published by clinicians from Regenerative Sciences
• October 2008: Sabine Conrad and colleagues at Tübingen, Germany generate pluripotent stem cells from spermatogonial cells of adult human testis by culturing the cells in vitro under leukemia inhibitory factor (LIF) supplementation.
• 30 October 2008: Embryonic-like stem cells from a single human hair.
• 1 March 2009: Andras Nagy, Keisuke Kaji, et al. discover a way to produce embryonic-like stem cells from normal adult cells by using a novel "wrapping" procedure to deliver specific genes to adult cells to reprogram them into stem cells without the risks of using a virus to make the change. The use of electroporation is said to allow for the temporary insertion of genes into the cell.
• 28 May 2009 Kim et al. announced that they had devised a way to manipulate skin cells to create patient specific "induced pluripotent stem cells" (iPS), claiming it to be the 'ultimate stem cell solution'.
• 11 October 2010 First trial of embryonic stem cells in humans.
• 25 October 2010: Ishikawa et al. write in the Journal of Experimental Medicine that research shows that transplanted cells that contain their new host's nuclear DNA could still be rejected by the invidual's immune system due to foreign mitochondrial DNA. Tissues made from a person's stem cells could therefore be rejected, because mitochondrial genomes tend to accumulate mutations.
• 2011: Israeli scientist Inbar Friedrich Ben-Nun led a team which produced the first stem cells from endangered species, a breakthrough that could save animals in danger of extinction.
• 2012: Katsuhiko Hayashi et al reported in the Journal Science that they used mouse skin cells to create stem cells and then used these stem cells to create mouse eggs. These eggs were then fertilized and produced healthy baby offspring. These latter mice were able to have their own babies