Month: October 2012

Truly frightening questions for stem cell field on Halloween

The Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa is going on in my former hometown of La Jolla, Ca on Halloween. I wish I could have been there, but I’m too swamped with a lot of stuff right now including teaching. If I was there, I’d be asking questions including, I hope, tough ones. Here are …

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If Romney wins, look for extremist Witherspoon Council to control his stem cell policy

The odds of Mitt Romney becoming our next President seem to be increasing. If Romney becomes our next president, what will he do about stem cells? He’ll be an active enemy of embryonic stem cell research. He’ll support the crazy personhood movement. Why do I say that? Earlier this year I had a run in …

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Digital prediction: the end of print science journals

I predict by 2015 most major journals will have ended their hardcopy print versions and will be entirely digital. It just makes good sense from so many perspectives including financially and from an environmental view. This is a radical change from just a few decades ago. During my youngest childhood years, there were no personal …

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Brain cancer: why histones including H3.3 are so important

Why are most brain cancers so difficult to treat leaving the unfortunate patients who suffer from them in dire circumstances so often? The short answer is that we don’t know why. This lack of understanding is like a wall standing between the cures and us for these patients. We have to climb or knockdown this …

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A tribute to Nobel Laureate E. Donnall Thomas, a true stem cell pioneer

I was fortunate enough to do my postdoctoral studies at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (aka “The Hutch”) in Seattle. I was a postdoc for more years than I’d like to admit, but it was a wonderful experience. The Hutch is the kind of place where you can imagine making the impossible become possible …

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New paper on iPS cell metabolomics: striking, yet incomplete metabolic reprogramming

I love collaborative science. I believe it advances science faster. An example? My lab recently collaborated with another lab here at UC Davis of Dr. Oliver Fiehn, a metabolomics guru. Our paper on this just came out in PLOS ONE here. Admittedly, we got scooped by another lab that published the first ever metabolomics paper …

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Massachusetts General Hospital official statement on Moriguchi patent app

I emailed Dr. Raymond Chung about the patent application that was filed with him and Hisashi Moriguchi as inventors and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) as the assignee (owner). I have already heard from Harvard about the patent, but I also heard today from MGH Public Affairs Officer Sue McGreevey in response to my inquiry to …

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Celltex response to FDA says transplants stopped: what are the other key points?

The Houston Chronicle has posted the response letter from Celltex to the FDA in regard to the FDA Warning Letter issued to Celltex. The Chronicle also has a piece up on the warning letter that is a great read here. My thoughts on the possible paths for Celltex moving forward can be found here. The …

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Harvard spokesman: MGH withdrawing puzzling Moriguchi 2010 iPS cell patent application

Hisashi Moriguchi. He is arguably at the center of one of the biggest science scandals of 2012. This is the guy who lied about doing iPS cell transplants into human patients. He also lied about being affiliated with Harvard & its primary teaching hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), for many years after he left there. He …

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