Each month or so, the leadership of CIRM, also know as the Board or the ICOC, meets to discuss CIRM issues of business, policies, grants, and so forth. Today the ICOC is having such a meeting here in Sacramento and I went to half the meeting. I would have gone to the whole thing, but …
What’s it like inside of a CIRM Board meeting? Impressive! Read More »
A lot of people are very upset at Pepsi for allegedly using stem cells in their research on artificial sweeteners. Why? What’s the real scoop here and what lessons can be learned from this more generally? I’ve been blogging as this controversy has evolved including posts such as Stem Cells in my Pepsi?, Stem cell myths: from …
The truth about Pepsi & Stem Cells: larger lessons to be learned Read More »
When it comes to stem cell therapy, there is a gray area that many companies across America are exploiting to sell stem cell-based transplants that are not explicitly approved: “minimally manipulated” cells. What does “minimally manipulated cells” mean? Who knows. Unfortunately, the definition is not clear and this term is interpreted differently depending on whom …
Minimally manipulated cells & maximally manipulated human guinea pigs? Read More »
What does the future hold for the California Stem Cell Agency, CIRM? AP Science Writer, Alicia Chang, weighs in with a new piece, quoting a number of scientists including me. As much as others are considering the future of CIRM, CIRM itself is thinking about this key question itself about halfway through its originally charted …
The venerable, unbiased website, LifeNews.com, reports that Pepsi has responded to the claims that there are fetal stem cells in their beverage and/or that Pepsi uses fetal stem cells for research. Pepsi responded that there are no fetal cells in any Pepsi products and further is quoted: “Thank you for contacting us at PepsiCo. There …
I recently did a post on the top 10 cancer myths out there and got some great feedback including some readers pointing out additional important myths. Here are some additional cancer myths. 1) The government and/or big pharma have cures for cancer, but they are hiding them from us so they can make more money …
Is trying to clone a woolly mammoth all just science hype? Hype is a bad thing and it hurts science in major ways. Hype channels resources away from valuable scientific pursuits and flushes them down the toilet. Hype makes people have unrealistic expectations so they end up disappointed by even very important science if it …
It seems like a lot of my blogs have the word “baldness” in them, huh? The latest post today is on the apparent inverse correlation between baldness and pediatric cancer, not using stem cells to try to treat baldness. You might be scratching your head (bald or not) at this point. The connection is …
Cancer invokes powerful feelings so it is not surprising that there are a lot of harmful myths and urban legends out there about it. As a cancer researcher and cancer survivor, I can see it from both the biomedical research side and the patient side. Here’s my top 10 list of myths & legends about …
Recently, there has been a brewing controversy surrounding a journal called American Journal of Bioethics (AJOB), a company called CellTex, a bioethicist named Dr. Glenn McGee who founded and used to run AJOB until he recently resigned, and two University of Minnesota professors, Drs. Carl Elliott and Leigh Turner who have been publicly critical of …
Celltex versus University of Minnesota: support for Elliott and Turner Read More »