Some scientists, even on Halloween, might be relatively immune to the fear of things that nonetheless freak out many everyday normal people. Brains, powerful lasers, antibiotic resistant genetically-modified bacteria, potent viruses, radioactivity. The list goes on and on. Mutant cells and animals. DNA containing cancer-causing genes. So as Halloween approaches, what does scare the heck out …
Last week I wrote a long post detailing the troubling multimillion-dollar reverberations between the Duke Autism Center and a for-profit stem cell clinic. The clinic in Panama is The Stem Cell Institute. The potential entanglements raise a bunch of questions and concerns. They center on questionable, unproven autism “treatments”. In Duke’s case, their own clinical …
More Duke Autism Center backstory: stem cell ‘magic’ & money Read More »
IPS cell research is a growing area of promise for regenerative medicine. These stem cells, also known as iPSCs or more formally as Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells, are engineered cells that are programmed to function the same way as embryonic stem cells. They can be differentiated into possibly any type of cell that is needed for …
Overview of IPS cell prospects for clinical impact Read More »
Maybe we can use science as an escape from politics during the last week or so before the election? I hope so. Here are my weekly recommended reads. Several papers ended up relating to nucleus, cell and embryo size and space as well as chromatin, which is very interesting. Cell and chromatin biology pubs, media …
Weekly science reads: CRISPR, stem cells, cell size & space, more Read More »
CRISPR applications in the real world The “breakthrough” gene-editing tool, CRISPR Cas9, has been utilized for various purposes since its popularization and commercialization in the early 2010s. While possible uses of gene editing in humans tend to get the most attention, the application of CRISPR-Cas9 also encompasses the animal world and the analysis of a …
It’s usually a tossup as to whether my weekly reads skew more towards stem cells/regenerative medicine or cancer. Other times they are more enriched for genomics and epigenetics articles. Seeds of cancer in normal skin, Nature News & Views Engineering synthetic morphogen systems that can program multicellular patterning, Science. Pig fat can be used to …
Regenerative reads: pig fat, cancer, organoids, more Read More »
It’s encouraging to see that the states including now Arkansas via their attorney generals (or is it attorneys general?) are taking more action against stem cell clinic firms, but the big scope of AG action has somewhat surprised me. Arkansas AG suit The latest AG action on a stem cell clinic type firm comes from …
Arkansas adds to wave of state AG actions vs. stem cell clinics Read More »
What do a Panama stem cell clinic and the Duke Autism Center have in common? More than I might have imagined. It’s a remarkable story that needs telling. Duke Autism Center There is a puzzle when it comes to the controversial idea of using cord blood for autism. Why? Because two of the strongest proponents …
Duke Autism Center has Panama clinic to thank for $10s millions? Read More »
As a researcher, is there ever enough time to get to everything that you want to read especially in newer areas like stem cells, organoids, and CRISPR, without even including non-scientific reads like Shakespeare or a new novel or something like that? Hopefully, putting together lists of recommended reads like today’s post is helpful. I …
Weekly reads on organoids, COVID, CRISPR, cold chromatin, more Read More »
Are Trump and the Republican Party showing major hypocrisy over Trump’s use of experimental COVID-19 therapies in part developed by Regeneron using embryonic and fetal cells? The Internet is kind of blowing up over this. Trump’s collision with stem cells For example, people are directly confronting Trump on Twitter over his recent all caps tweet …
Trump, GOP hypocrisy on Regeneron COVID-19 fetal, stem cell work Read More »