A lot has happened in the week since the first human embryo genetic modification paper was published by a team led by Junjiu Huang. There have been a number of new events just in the last few days. Jocelyn Kaiser over at SCIENCEINSIDER has a new piece reporting a couple important developments including that the journal …
News bites & rumors on human embryo genetic modification Read More »
By David Brafman (from a stem cell clinic infomercial event). With the vast amount of information about stem cells available to the general public, many misconceptions exist regarding stem cells and their potential applications. Paul and other prominent stem cell scientists have done an excellent job of educating the public about the facts regarding stem …
David Brafman: Attending Stem Cell Clinic Infomercial Read More »
‘Roundup Ready’ Humans? What the heck does that mean? One of my favorite parts of doing a blog is getting reader comments. It definitely makes the blogging experience more fun and keeps me on my toes. I also learn a lot. The more discussion there is, the better. One of the most frequent commenters is …
Last week was a big one for the life sciences in that we saw the milestone of the first ever published paper reporting human embryo genetic modification (see here and here). It was one of those situations where we knew it was coming, but it was still a jolt. Not surprisingly this event sparked intense discussion …
4 areas of debate on 1st human embryo genetic modification paper Read More »
The paper that came out Wednesday from a research group in China reporting the first genetic modification of human embryos has sparked a lot of discussion. Some concerns about this paper have surfaced. 2-day review? The paper (HT to John Borghi) was in review only from March 30-April 1 — so at most 48 hours. Really? That certainly …
Concerns surface on Chinese paper on genetic modification of human embryos Read More »
There is a big old blind spot in the discussion over germline gene editing in humans: preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD). There’s been a lot of talk in 2015 about worries over how gene editing technology such as CRISPR might be used prematurely in the clinic in an unsafe or unethical manner in humans in the …
The big blind spot on CRISPR for human embryo editing: PGD Read More »
The Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte group published a Cell paper today on using gene editing to reverse mutations associated with human mitochondrial disease. The paper is Reddy, et al. and is entitled, “Selective Elimination of Mitochondrial Mutations in the Germline by Genome Editing”. The authors report success using TALEN-based gene editing or mitochondrial-direct restriction enzyme (mito-ApaLI) …
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte Cell Paper on Gene Editing for Mitochondrial Disease Read More »
Rumors have been flying for months that researchers in China and possibly elsewhere were shopping papers around at high-profile journals that reported gene editing and genetic modification of human embryos. Update: apparently this paper (HT to @JohnBorghi) was only reviewed for 2 days (see image at bottom of post), raising major concerns about the depth of …
Researchers in China make genetically modified human embryos Read More »
There is no hotter technology than CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing tools. Perhaps it is not surprising then that there is a patent dispute over it, which falls into two camps: (1) Jennifer Doudna & Emmanuelle Charpentier, and (2) Feng Zhang. Who deserves the intellectual property for use of CRISPR-Cas9 in human cells? Take our poll.
I invited the Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) of Bioheart, Kristin Comella, to do an interview after hearing some buzz that this could be a critical time for the company and that it might have been recently visited by the FDA. Note that Comella not just Bioheart CSO, but also the primary instructor for physician training in stem …
Interview with Bioheart CSO, Kristin Comella including on FDA Read More »