Today’s post lists the best stem cell blogs and more generally the top biology blogs as well as websites.
Making lists of “the best” of anything is fun yet it can be tricky. However, I feel that it can also serve a purpose as a resource.
You might also enjoy these other “top” lists I’ve done including List of 50 stem cell influencers on Twitter to follow, a list of top stem cell journals, and for fun, Elephant in the lab series: top list of science excuses.
Blog-o-rama
Getting back to the top stem cell and biology blogs list, since this is kind of a “two-in-one” list of both stem cell and more general biology blogs, I’ve included more sites than in the past.
I can’t believe it’s already 11 years ago that I wrote about my first year blogging here on The Niche over at Nature back in 2011. That article starts with some of the backstory to my starting to blog:
“The final week of October 2009 started badly for me, when Nature closed its stem-cell blog The Niche — one of my favourites as it covered my field. A few days later, events took a more serious turn for the worse when — out of the blue — I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. I was 42. Blogs and blogging were suddenly the last thing on my mind.”
If you had told me back then in early 2010 that I’d still be here now in 2022 doing well without sign of cancer recurrence (knock on wood) and still blogging away, I’d have probably been skeptical.
Note that many stem cell clinics now have their own blogs but with few exceptions, those are mainly heavily promotional.
Best bio, cell bio, and stem cell blogs in 2022
How does one try to choose an exact order to the “best” list for anything? I’m not going to focus on the precise order so the blogs below are not in any exact order.
I’m starting with my own because I know it best and, of course, I’m glad you are already here reading it.
Also, note that I’m not including stem cell clinic and marketeer blogs since I don’t support their efforts, even if they may be good at gaming the Google system of website search ranking. Admittedly they sometimes have interesting articles and information.
In addition, I’ve added some biology blog sites that are new to me, but that I’ve checked out recently and that seem worth a regular read. And I’ve thrown in a few kind of different ones for fun too. You’ll probably notice a heavy emphasis on cell and molecular biology as well as genetics.
The Niche
Right here on this website we focus on stem cells, cell therapies, regenerative medicine in general, CRISPR, ethics, and scicomm. In that sense I guess we’ve evolved over the years into much more than a “stem cell blog.”
We’ve got some kudos over the years, which have been appreciated.
The CIRM Research Blog
The CIRM blog has a diversity of contributors and they collectively post more often than most other biomedical blogs. While their site The Stem Cellar is naturally CIRM-centric, it’s a great stem cell blog overall.
Signals Blog
This one from our friends in Canada is fantastic. They literally have dozens of authors, which is probably the most of any stem cell-related website, and their articles include many interesting angles. They post really often too. I might rank Signal and The Stem Cellar as tied for best stem cell blog in 2021. Signals is now celebrating its 10th anniversary, which is very cool.
EuroStemCell
Another great stem cell website! It’s got a number of unique, useful resources. Its motto in a sense is to help Europeans make sense of stem cells, but it’s actually doing the same thing for people around the globe.
EuroGCT
Note that EuroStemCell is evolving and the folks who bring it to us have launched a new site that merges cell and gene therapy topics. Check out the new site.
I’m not sure at what point the EuroStemCell site might be discontinued.
Cell Trials Data
While this one is not a blog, it’s an exceptionally useful cell medicine resource site so I’m including it on the list. The Cell Trial Data team includes Alexey Bersenev, Frances Verter, and Pedro Silva Couto.
The Stem Cell Podcast
It’s great to listen to interviews with stem cell scientists on this site.
NIGMS Biomedical Beat Blog
This is a relatively new one for me, but I wish I’d discovered it earlier. Great stuff.
Cell Culture Dish
This is a helpful website on more technical aspects of cell biology and regenerative medicine.
The Node
Do you like stem cells and developmental biology? Then you’ll love The Node from the journal Development. So many great articles and resources there.
ISSCR’s Closer Look at Stem Cells blog
This blog is useful and supports a positive agenda. I wish they posted more often! They also don’t say who writes the posts.
California Stem Cell Report
This long-running blog from my friend David Jensen is focused on CIRM, but has a lot to like.
Mayo Clinic Regenerative Medicine Blog
This looks interesting, although it’s kind of new to me. Frankly, I feel that Mayo has at times been too gung-ho about stem cell and regenerative medicine treatments, but I’m going to follow their blog to see how they portray things.
RegMedNet
RegMedNet has a lot of helpful resources and content.
Stem Cell Battles
This great blog by long-time stem cell advocate Don Reed is insightful and refreshing. Some great storytelling mixed with key info and perspectives.
PLOS Biologue
The PLOS Biology blog is worth a regular read.
The AddGene blog
Totally useful, very well-written, and often fun to read.
The PeerJ Blog
This is a great general science blog to follow.
Jung’s Biology Blog
Another professor blogging about biology. The tone of the pieces is refreshing.
The Tree of Life Blog
This blog from my UC Davis colleague Jonathan Eisen is worth being on your list of go-to science sites, even if not focused on cell biology.
Small Pond Science Blog
Long-time popular blog.
In the Pipeline
This blog by Derek Lowe is refreshing in its directness about science. He even got in a tussle over stem cells and got threatened by lawyers. A badge of honor for bloggers?
Other sites?
To wrap it up for today, here’s the end of my 2011 Nature blogging article I cited above:
“Savvy scientists must increasingly engage with blogs and social media. A new generation of young researchers has grown up with an ever-present Internet. Publishers have been quicker than academics to react to this new world, but scientists must catch up. Even if you choose not to blog, you can certainly expect that your papers and ideas will increasingly be blogged about. So there it is — blog or be blogged.”
What do you think has changed most in the last 11 years about science blogging?
What’s your favorite biology blog or website that I didn’t include on my list? Let us know in the comments. Maybe I can add it for next year.