Month: June 2014

Kick Off of ISSCR 2014: Some Top Highlights Of World Cup of Stem Cells

Azim-Surani

This morning at ISSCR 2014 in Vancouver things kicked off in an exciting way, kind of akin to a World Cup soccer/football match for fans of stem cells. Azim Surani (pictured at right) received the McEwen Award for his innovative research on germ cell fate and epigenetic control mechanisms. It was great to see Paolo Bianco, Elena …

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Poll indicates that STAP cells are stem cell story of 2014 so far

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What’s the biggest stem cell story of the year so far? I did a poll asking just that and the result so far overwhelmingly indicate that respondents believe the STAP cell scandal to be the top stem cell story of 2014 about half way through the year. You can see the results from the 210+ …

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Postdoc Job Opening at UC Davis School of Medicine

PostDoc Job Opening UC Davis School of Medicine An NIH and CIRM-funded postdoctoral fellow position in the Knoepfler Lab at UC Davis School of Medicine is open. The focus of research will be on the epigenomic and chromatin regulatory factors in human iPS cells and ES cells as well as cancer cells. Applicants must have a PhD, …

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Neuralstem flirting with noncompliance via Right To Try Law?

Is Neuralstem flirting with noncompliance via a Right To Try Law in Colorado? Colorado is an independent-minded state. For example, it is one of only a few states including Washington State with legalized marijuana use. More recently, Colorado passed a new law supported by the ultra-conservative Goldwater Institute, the so-called Right To Try Law. This law …

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Interview with Bob Lanza on new ACT MSCs for MS paper

I did a brief email Q&A interview with Dr. Bob Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on their new hES MSCs pre-clinical data for Multiple Sclerosis. I discussed the paper itself in a concise review yesterday here. Thanks to Dr. Lanza for doing the interview. 1. Were you surprised at the fact that the therapeutic …

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Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) Revs Up Pre-Clinical Studies for MS

advanced-cell-technology

There is more good news from leading stem cell biotech Advanced Cell Technology (ACT) on preclinical rodent studies using stem cells to treat mice with an MS-like condition. They published a new paper in the journal Stem Cell Reports entitled “Human ESC-Derived MSCs Outperform Bone Marrow MSCs in the Treatment of an EAE Model of …

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Multi-Billion Dollar NIH Brain Initiative A Stroke of Genius or Madness?

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Is the new multi-billion dollar NIH Brain Initiative a stroke of madness or genius? For some non-brain researchers scrambling for funding from NIH, it could well just give them a stroke. At the same time as the NIH and Obama are asking for $4.5 billion (yes, with a b) for the new “big science” Brain …

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Great 2nd Place ISSCR Essay Related to Vision and Stem Cells

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ISSCR and I held a short essay contest for a free registration to ISSCR 2014 in Vancouver. The winning piece was written by student Mohamed Gatie, but there was a great 2nd place essay by Sherry Hikita that deserved acknowledgment. I’m publishing that essay below and Sherry will be receiving a free signed copy of my book and a free stem cell …

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