Year: 2014

Future of Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer to make ES Cells

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
NT-ESC-versus-IPSC

Advances in therapeutic cloning reported in the past year have been very exciting as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) can be used to produce very powerful human embryonic stem cells (ESC). These new cells are called NT-ESCs for short. Neither embryos nor reprogramming factors are needed to produce human NT-ESCs. See here, here and here for discussions of the pioneering papers reporting creation of …

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Grad student Gonçalo Rodrigues Wins Free Registration to WAFSF Stem Cell Meeting

February 1, 2021 / By
Goncalo-Rodrigues-Picture

I put out a call for a flash contest for people to win free registrations to the great stem cell meeting, WAFSF, starting tomorrow in SFO (see meeting info here). The winner is Gonçalo Rodrigues (pictured at right) of UC Berkeley, a visiting Ph.D. student from Portugal. Here’s what he told me as the reason why …

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Stem Cell Person of the Year 2014: Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代)

December 22, 2023 / By / 1 Comment
Monkey-stem-cell-RPEs

Congratulations to Masayo Takahashi (高橋 政代), MD, PhD, the winner of the 2014 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. Dr. Takahashi received this award including the $2,000 prize for her exceptional achievements in stem cell research in 2014. She was selected as the winner from a stellar group of top 12 finalists this year. Takahashi leads …

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Open letter to UK Parliament: avoid historic mistake on rushing human genetic modification

February 1, 2021 / By / 1 Comment

Dear UK Parliament and Science and Technology Committee, I am writing to you about your deliberations on “mitochondrial donation” (also known as 3-parent technology) intended for the purpose of preventing heritable mitochondrial disorders. I am concerned about the Department of Health’s recent draft regulations that would allow 3-parent experiments to go forward and the possibility that the UK …

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Flash stem cell contest: free passes to see Yamanaka & more at WAFSF meeting in SFO

December 22, 2023 / By / 2 Comments
World-Alliance-Forum-San-Francisco

One of the best stem cell meetings each year is the World Alliance Form San Francisco (WAFSF) stem cell conference, where Shinya Yamanaka will be speaking. It brings together in San Francisco many of the very best stem cell researchers from around the world doing the most cutting edge translational research. You should go! The speakers …

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Diabetes Stem Cell Milestone: ViaCyte Transplants 1st Patient

February 1, 2021 / By / 4 Comments
viacyte-encaptra

Chalk up another exciting development for the stem cell and regenerative medicine field in 2014 related to diabetes. It’s been a huge year. (Update: read my Fall 2019 interview with ViaCyte here.) For the first time ever, an ES cell-based device has been transplanted into a diabetic patient. ViaCyte working together with Dr. Robert Henry …

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Update on Stem Cell Person of the Year Award 2014

February 1, 2021 / By
Logo3

This year is my third year handing out a Stem Cell Person of the Year Award. The winner each year should be the top, most positive, outside-the-box influencer in the stem cell. Each year it doesn’t get any easier picking just one winner from the groups of amazing finalists chosen by the readers of this blog. …

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Map Shows Geographic Surprises in Votes for Stem Cell Person of the Year Award

February 1, 2021 / By
Stem-Cell-Person-of-the-Year-Award-map

With over 4,000 votes cast to select our top 12 finalists for the 2014 Stem Cell Person of the Year Award from more than 50 different countries, how did the votes from various countries play out? You can see on the map above the top vote getter(s) from the countries that cast the most votes. The …

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