Year: 2015

Human GMO Method Given OK by UK Parliament in Historic Vote

human-GMO

The UK Parliament just voted to legalize the production of genetically modified human beings. To my knowledge, this is the first time in history that such a vote has given the green light to make GMO human beings in any country of the world. There are other hurdles before this method can actually be used including the …

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Big push for 3-parent IVF technology in UK

3-person-technology-letter

A new piece came out yesterday on the Wellcome Trust Blog, strongly promoting approval of so-called “3-Parent IVF” or Mitochondrial Transfer technology by the UK Parliament. As I written in the past (here and here), my view is that this would be a mistake at this time. There is room for respectful disagreement on this issue between scientists, …

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Landmark New Stem Cell Trial for Multiple Sclerosis Raises Hopes

Mark-S.-Freedman

A new stem cell clinical trial for Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in Canada is raising hopes amongst patients and researchers. According to the Ottawa Citizen, the trial will be led by Dr. Mark S. Freedman (pictured, photo from Ottawa Hospital), director of the multiple sclerosis research unit at The Ottawa Hospital and “The Canadian trials which …

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Personal Reflections on STAP Cell Mess On 1-Year Anniversary

Obokata_Vacanti

It seems hard to believe it was a year ago that the STAP cell Nature papers came out to much fanfare on January 29, 2014. These now discredited and retracted papers reported a supposed new method to easily make reprogrammed powerful stem cells, a finding touted as a Nobel Prize-worthy discovery. Now a year later on …

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Stem cell clinics, FDA, & giant, unapproved for-profit human experiments

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When I started blogging in 2010 the stem cell arena was a very different place including the fact I could count the number of US stem cell clinics on one hand. This blog, called The Niche for many years, was just “Knoepfler Stem Cell Blog” back then. Also, back then the hot topic was the …

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Silva Comments on MBD3/NuRD Debate with Jacob Hanna

Jose-Silva

What’s the deal with the tension between José Silva and Jacob Hanna over pluripotency? Researchers probing how to reprogram cells into powerful stem cells (induced pluripotent stem cells or IPSCs) and what the molecular mechanisms are behind this process have become entangled in a conflict. Of course over the years scientists including stem cell scientists have …

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This is your brain on diapers: new mindbogglingly cool imaging trick

ninds-23_l

In what NIH describes as “outside-the-box” thinking, an MIT team led by Edward Boyden has found a way to use a diaper ingredient to transform microscopy including brain imaging. This is cool stuff. Boyden’s group found that the super-absorbent diaper compound sodium polyacrylate, can be used in a very novel way for microscopy. For any who have …

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Stemedica reply to Olbermann interview on Gordie Howe

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The stem cell company Stemedica along with Mexican partner Novastem conducted a stem cell intervention on hockey legend Gordie Howe, who had suffered strokes in 2014. This situation has sparked a lot of discussion and media attention including a recent interview with Stemedica leadership on the Keith Olbermann show on ESPN. For balance and fairness …

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TGIF: Biomedical weekend reading includes some cool papers

TGIF: I’m working on an R01, but I still try to find time to read a wide variety of papers. Below are the science pubs that I’m hoping to get to this weekend. Less Myc, longer “health span” Cell paper from Sedivy Lab. ESC Histone H3.3 nucleosomal functions Epigenetics & Chromatin paper from Keji Zhao Lab. Human …

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