Month: February 2012

Komen Foundation open to funding human embryonic stem cell research

Interestingly, the Komen Foundation appears open to funding human embryonic stem cell (hESC) research. The latest report from Science includes a quote from Komen that denies any changes in funding policy for research and suggests they have not ruled out funding such research: Contrary to circulating online reports, Komen has not “de-funded” any grantee based on human embryonic stem …

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From boobs to baldness: stem cells go cosmetic

The use of stem cells for cosmetics and cosmetic procedures is exploding even while many important questions remain. How legitimate are these stem cell cosmetic products and procedures? Are they safe and effective? What kinds of medical conditions are they being used to treat? I also recently did a post on another area of medicine …

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Lessons from the Komen Fiasco and Propaganda Wars

Komenboycott

The Komen foundation has had a rough couple weeks, huh? First, it said it would not longer provide support to Planned Parenthood under pressure from anti-choice extremists, some of whom appear to have infiltrated Komen itself. Predictably, there was a firestorm of criticism that has damaged Komen and arguably may have actually been quite helpful …

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Witherspoon word cloud is surprisingly revealing

Remember that Witherspoon report on stem cells earlier this week that was supposed to be an authoritative look at embryonic stem cell research in its 100+ pages? I posted my own thoughts on it here including some criticisms but also some surprising areas of agreement between this blog and them, even though they cited this …

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Update on Komen: extremists now also demand no stem cell research

The Susan Komen Foundation has abandoned Planned Parenthood and the thousands of women who depend on it for breast cancer screening and health care. You’d think the right-wing extremists who made this happen would be happy, right? It’s not good enough, they reportedly say and now folks like Tony Perkins of the FRC demand that …

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Transdifferentiation does not make iPS cells obsolete

human-IPS-cells-made-in-Knoeplfer-lab-stained-for-TRA-160

Do we still need iPS cells if transdifferentiation is so cool? Wait, how did we get to the point that people are asking me that extreme question? When iPS cells were first introduced to the world by Shinya Yamanaka, who I think will win the Nobel Prize sometime in the next few years, some folks went …

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