I wrote earlier this week about genome sequencing of famous dead celebrities, pointing out that the trend seems full of ethical complexities. Genome news More broadly, sequencing the genomes of non-celebrities from hundreds or thousands of years ago can be important research. A new NYT piece covers such work on the Swahili people. Such research …
Weekly reads: genome sequencing, chemical reprogramming 2.0 Read More »
I recently did a poll on people’s reactions to the new paper reporting use an all-chemical approach to making iPS cells through cellular reprogramming. I got a good number of responses relatively quickly. The results so far suggest that by far most people think it is too soon to know the importance of this new …
How important is the new development of all chemical reprogramming to make iPS cells? The group led by Hongkui Deng at Peking University in Beijing reported in Science that they used 7 chemicals to make what appear to be mouse iPS cells. I’m hearing a wide range of opinions directly from people in the know. What’s …
What do you think of all chemical reprogramming? Take our poll Read More »
There’s some big, positive news on the stem cell front today. Two new innovative papers both by teams led by Sheng Ding of Gladstone Institutes with UCSF report all-chemical direct reprogramming of human somatic cells. Ding’s team took skin cells and by exposing them to cocktails of small molecules was able to turn them directly into …
Big stem cell news: dynamic duo of all-chemical direct reprogramming reports Read More »
Sheng Ding’s lab reports today in Cell Stem Cell (you can read it here) that they have replaced all genetic factors in a new iPS cell reprogramming method except Oct4. The other factors were replaced by chemical compounds. Thus, we continue a major transition in the iPS cell field away from genes and toward chemicals. …
From genes to chemicals: iPS cell field, reprogramming in transition Read More »
We often don’t think of them that way but reproductive cells like sperm and egg are also relatives of stem cells, and it turns out that there are stem cells that make the reproductive cells too like sperm stem cells. Sperm and germ cell stem cells DNMT3A-dependent DNA methylation is required for spermatogonial stem cells …
Recommend reads: CRISPR baby guy free, DNMT3, sperm, Editas, hearing loss, reprogramming Read More »
A new patent has been awarded to James Sherley for a very unusual method claimed for making induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The patent, No. 8,759,098, claims that a single non-genetic chemical agent, xanthine, can by itself reprogram adult stem cells (ASC) into iPS cells (aka iPSCs; see image they released at left). Surprising patent, huh? Another …
Sherley patent for reprogramming method like STAP cells Read More »
I recently did a poll asking readers of my blog to vote on the iPS cell paper of the year for 2013. The vote kind of seesawed at the beginning, but in the end with 100 votes cast the paper by the Hannah lab on near-perfect iPS cell production won out (see votes at left). …
Hannah near-perfect reprogramming voted as iPS cell paper of 2013 Read More »
What is “radically deterministic” cellular reprogramming? Jacob Hanna’s lab recently published a very high profile Nature paper on nearly 100% efficient iPS cell formation based on targeting a factor called Mbd3. This super efficiency is a major departure from past reported efficiencies. This morning here at the Till & McCulloch Stem Cell Meeting in Banff, …
Jacob Hanna on Radically Deterministic Reprogramming @TMM2013 Read More »
Who is David Sinclair and why is he all over the media related to anti-aging efforts? This post is my effort to fact-check Sinclair’s statements in the context of the broader rejuvenation arena. In the process I also review his most recent paper from my view as a stem cell and cancer biologist interested in …
Review of new David Sinclair paper, supplements & anti-aging glitz Read More »