Human cloning is not so far-fetched any more. Cloning of the Star Wars variety where new copies of people (although they would be babies, not adults of course at first) are produced is something I believe that we’ll see in the next 1-2 decades. Why would anyone bother to clone? Fame. Money. Vanity. There are …
Fertility clinic floats idea of human cloning for infertility Read More »
I worry that NASA is suffering from apophenia and pareidolia. Both acute and chronic cases. What the heck? Let me explain. Do you ever look up at the clouds and see fluffy animals? Or maybe other things that clouds look like such as a train, plane, or a dragon? Pareidolia is the tendency of people …
NASA suffering from pareidolia & apophenia? The watery science of Mars Read More »
Is a treatment based on stem cells for Parkinson’s Disease on the horizon? A Japanese team of researchers led by Dr. Jun Takahashi, professor at Kyoto University is reportedly aiming to start on human studies of an induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell-based treatment for Parkinson’s Disease (PD) as early as fiscal year (FY) 2014. In …
Trial of Stem Cells for Parkinson’s Disease on Horizon Read More »
This blog has sure put me in some interesting spots over the years such as meeting with Texas Guv Rick Perry. It happened again today. I got a letter from someone in prison (see above). I have obscured the prisoner’s name. I hope there’s no anthrax in it or something. So I ask you in …
With all the excitement over the potential of stem cells to transform medicine, a key bottleneck is physician training. Just how many doctors in the entire US have years of real experience and training in clinical use of stem cells….hmmm, let’s see….I can only think of a few in the whole country. Yes, it’s really …
Crash course stem cell training for docs puts patients at risk Read More »
Over at the Harvard Law “Bill of Health” blog, Mary Ann Chirba and Alice A. Nobel posted a piece entitled “Our Bodies, Our Cells” a few days ago that has generated a lot of discussion about FDA regulation of stem cell interventions. Their piece really has two parts. In the first part they go through …
My response to ‘Our Bodies, Our Cells’ Harvard post on deregulation Read More »
Are MUSE cells for real? Stem cells come in different types that vary in a key property called “potency”, but very few are pluripotent. The more potency, the greater the flexibility of a stem cell to make other cell types. Flexibility in the cellular world is power. The most powerful stem cells generally used are …
Jury is still out on purported adult pluripotent stem cells despite new MUSE paper Read More »
Today, I would say not a single stem cell-based treatment for baldness being sold out there claiming it works seems promising and legit. (Update: see this 2019 piece on where things stand on stem cells for hair loss.) Sad, huh? Is there reason for hope for stem cells helping hair loss? But there is reason …
Stem cells to cure baldness: how would that work & when? Read More »
People have been confused about human cloning issues in the last few weeks on a number of levels. The confusion has come along with the excitement, concern, and increased interest in cloning lately since the lab of Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov reported a few weeks back in Cell the astonishing feat of successful human embryonic stem …
Cellular Dynamics, the stem cell company founded by Dr. James Thomson, is filing for an IPO. Hat tip to David Jensen. The company, which will go under the stock symbol ICEL, is focused on iPS cell-produced products. They describe their portfolio as follows: Cellular Dynamics is developing and deploying a number of cell types derived from …
Cellular Dynamics IPO: big money, iPS cell IP rights, trade secrets Read More »