It seems reasonably likely that in the end, the final say on the embryonic stem cell case one way or another will be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. While yesterday brought a victory for science and patients and logic, this was just one battle, not the war. The war that opponents of ES cell …
How would the Supreme Court rule on embryonic stem cells? Read More »
A Federal Appeals Court ruled 2-1 today to overturn Judge Lamberth’s injunction against federal funding of ES cell research. Great news! You can read the decision here (warning: big pdf). A key part of the ruling was the following: “the plaintiffs are unlikely to prevail because Dickey-Wicker is ambiguous and the NIH seems reasonably to …
Victory for science and patients: what the appeals court ES cell ruling means (UPDATE) Read More »
What is a survivor? Dan Zenka, Senior VP of the Prostate Cancer Foundation, recently pondered this question in an excellent post on his blog. The post has also drawn more than 50 comments, which I found very interesting based on the range of opinions and different perspectives. The comments are about prostate cancer, but could …
The California Public Safety Committee today passed AB 190 and in so doing has funded the Roman Reed Spinal Cord Injury Research Act! The action will provide up to $11 million a year in funding for spinal cord injury research. This is amazing news and is the result of a lot of hard work by …
Roman Reed Act is funded! A great day for spinal cord injury research! Read More »
The vote was delayed a few weeks, but today is the big day. The California Assembly Public Safety Committee will vote on AB 190, funding the Roman Reed Act. So action is needed today! If AB 190 passes, there will be roughly $11 million/year for spinal cord research coming from $3 for each reckless driving …
Big Vote today on AB 190: we need 1 minute of your help for years of impact Read More »
When does politics trump hope? It seems all the time. I think politicians frequently take positions on science-related issues that they either don’t really believe or understand. Perhaps I’m wrong, but for example, I don’t believe that most national level Republican leaders oppose ES cell research. Most of us have either ourselves faced injuries or …
This is one of my favorite pieces and a reader favorite getting hundreds of hits! Let me know what you think. You can read the original post here with comments. If a stem cell could talk, what would it say (tweet?) I imagine stem cells like teenagers. So much potential but at times difficult. Below …
Who’s who in the iPS cell field? In this post, I examine the people, journals, places, funding agencies, and companies that are the leaders in the iPS cell field. I start with publishing. Last year we did a post on publishing trends in the iPS cell field. It suggested that the iPS cell field was exploding …
Who’s who in iPS cells: scientists, journals, funding agencies, countries, and biotechs Read More »
Six months ago, I published a Top 10 list of questions and predictions for the stem cell field. How did I do? A mixed bag. Below are the questions and predictions from October 2010 (in blue), along with an update as to how my predictions fared. 1) How will Geron’s Phase I Clinical Trial go? …
Stem Cell Questions & Predictions: how did I do? Read More »
What are iPS cells? We talk about iPS cells all the time. We are very excited about them. Heck, the web address for this blog is ipscell.com. But what are iPS cells, really? A simple definition of iPS cells is the following: Embryonic stem cell-like cells that are made from non-stem cells in a lab. …