There were three talks today on iPS cells here at the American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy in Seattle. Dr. James Ellis made the interesting case that it may actually be preferable to make iPS cells using genetic methods (while everyone else seems to be saying that non-genetic methods will be better). Dr. Ellis …
News on iPS cells from some top scientists at ASGCT meeting today Read More »
I’m in Seattle for the ASGCT (American Society for Gene and Cell Therapy) Meeting. Stayed tuned for posts tomorrow! Paul
Ten days ago I put up a poll asking readers of this blog when they thought the life of a human being starts. The poll is above and you can still participate. I purposefully tweeted this poll to as wide an audience as possible. We have gotten a lot of responses and interestingly the most …
This past week was a wacky and wild one for the stem cell field. All kinds of crazy things happened all in one week. What does it all mean? Stem cells the new steroids for sports? Reports surface this week that NY Yankees pitcher Bartolo Colon, had received a non-FDA approved stem cell treatment for …
A crazy week for stem cells: what the heck does it all mean? Read More »
Today is Friday the 13th, which is supposed to be bad luck, and it seems to be a bad luck day for iPS cells. A paper came out today in Nature that will be highly upsetting for anyone hoping that iPS cells can follow a fairly direct path to the clinic. The paper from Yang …
What’s the most amazing, weird, funny, bad, good thing that has happened to you in the lab? Here’s one from me. One day as a graduate student I was finishing up a long weekend of work and was ready to go home. No one else was around in our lab or even in the building …
A funny thing happened on the way to the incubator Read More »
Not all minutes of our lives are created equal. The minute (many minutes) I spent as a kid in the basement of our house watching Gilligan’s Island…hmm, not much impact there. But some minutes can potentially have a mega impact. I call these mega-minutes. A seemingly small, even momentary act can have years of impact. …
Make a mega-minute for spinal cord injury research Read More »
Yesterday I ran a cancer stem cells meeting here at UC Davis School of Medicine. We had some great speakers and over 150 participants including our outstanding keynote speaker, Dr. Jeremy Rich, Director of Stem Cell Research at the Cleveland Clinic. One of the ideas percolating through the meeting was that during cancer development, there …
Behind the stem cell “war” that has been going on for years is a deceptively simple question: when does the life of a human being begin? As someone who works with human embryonic stem cells and iPS cells, I’ve given this a lot of thought. But first, before I post on that, I want to …
When Does Human Life Begin? Please take part in our poll Read More »
Ideas are the foundation of stem cell research, but funding makes those ideas a reality. We talk a lot about governmental funding of stem cell research through CIRM and NIH. The funding from these agencies is essential and will undoubtedly lead to new treatments and cures, possibly for millions of patients. But there is another …
Why invest in stem cells? Progress, Patients, and Patents Read More »