Month: July 2016

Gaetan Burgio New Data & Theory on NgAgo versus CRISPR

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By Gaetan Burgio CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing has dramatically changed our way to perform biological experiments. While highly efficient and easy to use, one limitation with CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing technology is the occurrence of off-target effects and the restriction of the PAM recognition sequence. Many modifications from the original system have been proposed to improve …

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Yamanaka’s baby turns 10: ten IPS cell hot button bullet points

Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka, the first to produce induced pluripotent stem cells

Has it really been 10 years since induced pluripotent stem cells (aka IPS cells or IPSC) came onto the scene in the stem cell field? Yes, it was a decade ago that now Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka (山中伸弥) published that seminal Cell paper on reprogramming to make mouse IPS cells and then human IPS cells …

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Stem cell good news: CIRM funds new cutting edge studies

VC-01-post-implant-final1-e1503703572933, viacyte

CIRM announced recently the funding of a number of exciting new studies. ViaCyte received additional funding to support its development of its hESC-based pancreatic progenitor cell product PEC-Direct clinic trials. This work is very promising. CIRM also funded additional diabetes-related research by Humacyte on engineering blood vessels for use in dialysis, which is very creative. I …

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Controversy over CRISPR challenger NgAgo irreproducibility reported

Fang-Shimin-方是民

Does the new gene editing method NgAgo work or not? If not, what happened? The answers to both questions seem to depend on who you ask and what you read. As much as CRISPR has been the revolutionary in the genetic modification technology arena over past methods, could CRISPR itself in the next few years …

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Nervana stem cell clinic: big ads in SacBee & big questions continue

Nervana-stem-cell-ad

The local stem cell clinic here in Sacramento, Nervana Stem Cell Centers, continues to advertise treatments in The Sacramento Bee and there continue to be big questions about this situation. I’ve blogged about Nervana before and you can see the archived posts here. Nervana must be spending big money on advertising because they have run many …

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Hint for $250 Easter egg in GMO Sapiens #CRISPR book

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Want $250 as well as at least a sliver of science-related glory? Within my new book GMO Sapiens on CRISPR and human genetic modification, I’ve hidden a scientific Easter egg. There’s more Easter egg info over here including the rules. If you are the first one to find and properly explain this egg to me after buying …

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Public stem cell skirmish erupts between Hanna & Jaenisch

Jaenisch-Hanna

Professor Rudolf Jaenisch of MIT and his former postdoc/now assistant professor at The Weizmann Jacob Hanna have gotten into a very public, stem cell skirmish over conflicting papers. Hanna raised concerns over a Jaenisch lab paper and things have escalated from there. This mess is playing out before our eyes on PubMed (there was a comment from Hanna …

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September FDA stem cell meeting looks to be big debate

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That much-anticipated public FDA stem cell meeting that was postponed from April will now take place in September and will have a much larger array of diverse speakers. Many more voices at an FDA stem cell meeting are collectively a good thing, but delay is not. The large and growing U.S. stem cell clinic industry makes …

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Listen to Leigh Turner’s interview on Science Friday on our stem cell clinic paper

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You can listen to my co-author Leigh Turner’s interview on Science Friday here about our Cell Stem Cell paper on the stem cell clinic industry in the U.S. Start listening around the 8:30 mark. It’s great that this paper has so strongly raised awareness about the booming stem cell clinic industry in America as well …

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