Yesterday Geron announced it would be immediately stopping its stem cell research program. What does this mean? While this program has (or should I say “had”) a number of elements, at its heart was of course its hESC-based OPC drug (GRNOPC1) for spinal cord injury, which was in an FDA-approved Phase I Clinical Trial that …
The day after Geron’s news: a realistic outlook for the stem cell field Read More »
Geron abruptly announced today that it will no longer pursue its spinal cord injury trial using oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) derived from hESC. Several sources indicate that Geron is hoping to find a buyer of its drug for this trial, GRNOPC1 and the hope is that the trial could be rescued in a sense. Why …
Rumors flying on Geron, ACT, CIRM and the stem cell field Read More »
Reportedly, Geron has decided to only focus on cancer research and for financial reasons has shut down its hESC trial for spinal cord injury. This is a very sad day for stem cell science. (Update in 2020: the firm still exists, but is working in different areas. The stock has struggled.) No more spinal cord …
Bad news as Geron to quit hESC SCI trial for financial reasons Read More »
I recently did a post telling you about one of my favorite molecules, Myc, which is important not only in cancer but also in most, if not all stem cells including iPS cells. There’s a lot more to Myc and how it does it’s tricks in embryonic stem cells and iPS cells. It cannot do …
Today the Vatican held the first day of its adult stem cell conference. Embryonic stem cells remained not surprisingly uninvited. This conference is an unprecedented event in the thousands of years of history of The Church so not surprisingly many people are very interested in the event and trying to understand what it means. Interestingly, …
What are the goals of the Vatican stem cell meeting and why no press releases so far? Read More »
What with the Mississippi “personhood” amendment up for a vote today and also the Vatican Adult Stem Cell Conference beginning tomorrow, I thought today was a good time for a post about adult versus embryonic stem cells. Does stem cell research have to be either/or? Adult or stem? Can’t someone be for both adult and …
Key points about adult versus embryonic stem cells Read More »
Tomorrow night voters in Mississippi will vote on the so-called “Personhood Amendment”. If passed, the amendment would make a fertilized egg by definition a human being with the same rights as a living, breathing, thinking, walking person in the state of Mississippi. The consequences are not clear, but possibilities include such things as complete bans on …
Why Horton was wrong: a person is not a person no matter how small, even in Mississippi Read More »
Often when we dig a little into the science of stem cells, people get turned off by all the strange names of molecules and jargon. However, whether you are a scientist, patient, investor, reporter, etc. there are some aspects of stem cell science that are ‘musts’ to know about. For example, you need to know …
Want to understand stem cells? Then you have to know Myc! Read More »
You can pick more than one answer.
What does “ethical” stem cell research mean? What is “unethical” stem cell research? Who decides the answers to these questions? A church? Governments? Individual people? The reality is that we all have our own opinions about what is ethical or unethical not only when it comes to stem cells, but for pretty much everything. For …