Month: June 2015

Monday morning musings: stocks, ISSCR, grants, CRISPR, New Book

Wake-up-its-Monday

What’s on your mind on this Monday morning and are you caffeinated enough yet? Depending on where you live it may even be time for dinner, bed, or already early Tuesday. Here are some Monday musings… To get safe and effective stem cell treatments to patients in a responsible, compliant manner you need commercial efforts …

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Congress: FDA should consult religious experts on embryo CRISPR

Crystal_Structure_of_Cas9_in_Complex_with_Guide_RNA_and_Target_DNA

The US Congress recently held its first hearing on human germline genetic modification. The meeting included CRISPR-Cas9 pioneer Jennifer Doudna (see video here) on the panel. See image of Cas9 structure from Wikipedia. CRISPR-Cas9 is a powerful, strikingly efficient tool for genetic engineering of cells and whole organisms. Now Republican congressional leaders have included a …

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Biotech Talks #ISSCR2015: StemCells Inc, Semma, ViaCyte, & Le Blanc

Katarina-Le-Blanc

The path to the clinic is a slow and arduous activity, frustrating not only to the researcher and patient, but investors and biotech companies. Successful clinical translation of technologies requires a balance of science, streamlined translation and funding. To develop fantastic science and then realise the most important components cannot be adapted to the clinical …

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Carla Kim & Hans Clevers talks on organoids at #ISSCR2015

liver-organoid

Organoids are pretty big in stem cells right now with the last couple of years having attracted a lot of media attention on mini lungs, mini brains, mini kidneys, mini guts and more, giving the impression that scientists know how to specify and organise cells into mini functional organs in the lab. Organoids have become …

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Overview of Yamanaka Talk at #ISSCR2015 by Heather Main

Heather_Main

The day of plenary is the most enjoyable in my view including at ISSCR 2015 on the first day with a Yamanaka talk. You don’t need to make the choice between sessions and the judgement on the viability of shifting sessions versus staying put and listening to the slightly less relevant. ISSCR 2015 plenary was, …

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Insider Trends on Stem Cells to Look Out for at ISSCR 2015 Stockholm

isscr2015_lockup_hi-res

The annual ISSCR meeting has started in Stockholm. This is always a great annual meeting both for the science and for connecting with people including new friends and colleagues as well as old friends. Another element to the meeting is the insider conversations in the halls, restaurants, and bars that tell a behind the scenes …

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250,000-fold oversight on 3-person IVF mitochondrial transfer?

mitochondrial-genes

Remember the debate over so-called 3-person IVF? The goal of this technology, also referred to as mitochondrial transfer and 3-parent IVF, is to prevent mitochondrial disease through nuclear transfer in oocytes or one-cell embryos. The resulting genetically modified (GM) human embryos and ultimately children if it works could have dodged mitochondrial disease, but also could have serious or …

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Muddier stem cell waters: Stemedica teams up with UCSD doc?

stemedica

Stemedica announced it is teaming up with UC San Diego (UCSD) to do stem cell research. This fits with an increasing trend in the stem cell arena is the teaming up of clinical partners with very different backgrounds and priorities. For instance, academic institutions are more often working together with for-profit stem cell clinics. Another branch …

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Doudna & Others Testify to Congress on CRISPR, Human Germline Editing

Jennifer-Doudna

The House Subcommittee on Research and Technology on Tuesday held a CRISPR hearing: “The Science and Ethics of Genetically Engineered Human DNA”. At the meeting, CRISPR pioneer Dr. Jennifer Doudna gave testimony along with Dr. Victor Dzau who is the President of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), Dr. …

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