Month: May 2011

The valley of death: stem cells, biotechs, and money

For those of us conducting stem cell research, especially human stem cell research, I don’t have to tell you how expensive it is. Even just doing pre-clinical or basic science research costs a fortune. When you start talking about the kind of pre-clinical research specifically designed to get in the near future to a Phase …

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Stem Cells on Memorial Day: please read important Sac Bee article

As we celebrate Memorial Day we need to pay our respects to the servicemen and women who have given the ultimate sacrifice, their lives, for our country. I hope that in the future stem cell research can perhaps slightly lessen the burden on our servicepeople and their families through technologies to save the lives of …

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Greatest hits: stem cell talking points for Republicans

In the debate over funding for embryonic stem cell research, it is usually assumed that Democrats are in favor of embryonic stem cell research and that Republicans are opposed. But recent polls suggest that amongst the U.S. population as a whole, most political and religious groups are widely in favor of embryonic stem cell research. …

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A new approach to promoting stem cell research on the Internet

What are the top stem cell websites and blogs in the world? Who decides? Americans and people all over the world are inexorably changing how they get their information. While newspapers and the nightly news used to spoon-feed us the “top stories” in the news, their heyday is over and now most people get their …

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Shut Down This Stem Cell Blog or Else!

shut-it-down-blog-threat

While most readers here tell me they greatly value our stem cell blog, after some threats I’m wondering: is it time to shut this blog down? Some people are saying I should or else! Unfortunately, threats to scientists, scientific openness, and science itself are not unusual. This stem cell blog in its current incarnation has …

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Get a life!

One of the commenters on this blog told me, in response to my post on the opponents of stem cell research, to “get a life.” What’s a “life” according to this guy? To me? To you? We all lead different lives and have different ideas about what is a valuable life. We all face different …

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Clinical Trials Part II: Viacyte Director of Stem Cell Research Dr. D’Amour speaking today in Seattle

Dr. Kevin D’Amour, Director of Stem Cell Research at Viacyte, gave an excellent, extremely interesting talk Friday morning: Developing an Encapsulated Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetes. In the talk, Dr. D’Amour gave a very detailed description of their products Pro-Islet and Encaptra. Together these products form an encapsulated beta-cell product that is in pre-clinical development …

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Stem Cell Clinical Trials Part I: Geron VP Lebkoswki speaking today in Seattle

This morning there was a fantastic session here at the ASGCT meeting in Seattle on Clinical Trials on Stem Cells. One of the speakers was Geron VP, Jane Lebkoswki, PhD: Development of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Based Therapies for Treatment of Human Degenerative Diseases. The talk was focused on OPC1 for the treatment of spinal cord …

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Summary of George Daley talk on iPS cells today in Seattle

The best talk today was the keynote address by Dr. George Daley focused mostly on iPS cells. Dr. Daley is one of the world’s experts on iPS cells and pluripotent stem cells more generally. He covered many interesting elements of the iPS cell field including the genetic mutations that seem to occur during the reprogramming …

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