Stowers News

KANSAS CITY, MO—New research from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research has identified a backup for an important biological system – the hematopoietic system, whose adult stem cells constantly replenish the body’s blood supply.

KANSAS CITY, MO—Researchers from the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have opened a window on another piece of evolutionary biology. They have found that Hox genes, which are key regulators of the way the bodies of bilaterally symmetrical animals form, also play a role in controlling the radially symmetric body plan of the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis.

KANSAS CITY, MO—Neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer of the sympathetic nervous system, is particularly deadly because it is difficult to detect and thus generally advanced before treatment begins. Scientists know that neuroblastoma develops from embryonic neural crest cells that fail to properly migrate or differentiate, but the details about exactly what causes these cells to go astray have been unclear.

KANSAS CITY, MO—Researchers at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research have captured the one cell that is capable of regenerating an entire organism. For over a century, scientists have witnessed the effects of this cellular marvel, which enables creatures such as the planarian flatworm to perform death-defying feats like regrowing a severed head. But until recently, they lacked the tools necessary to target and track this cell, so they could watch it in action and discover its secrets.