Scientists Solve DNA Puzzle of Cord Stem Cell Infection
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Researchers studying diseases with an unknown cause may have a new method to try, as scientists reverse engineered a new bacterium responsible for a syndrome discovered fewer than two years ago.
The quest began in 2011, after doctors reported a syndrome they called cord colitis in a small group of patients treated with umbilical cord stem cells for blood cancer and other hematologic diseases. Researchers at Dana-Faber Cancer Institute in Boston hypothesized that the new ailment, which responded to antibiotics, stemmed from a previously unknown infectious agent.