Search Results for: mammoth

Weekly reads: Macchiarini pub, cloned journal, Mammoth genome, tweet of the week

April 8, 2023 / By / Leave a Comment
Paolo-Macchiarini

Remember Paolo Macchiarini, the famous-turned-infamous so-called “stem cell surgeon” who ended up in legal trouble and with trial participants who died? Before we get into this we have a new feature for our weekly reads, which is the stem cell and regenerative medicine tweet of the week. See that at the bottom of the post. …

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Why De-extinction of Woolly Mammoths is Still a Bad Idea

September 17, 2021 / By / 12 Comments
George Church De Extinction Mammoth

The push for de-extinction of woolly mammoths is a perfect example of when one notion can be both fun and a rotten idea. You can’t let the coolness push you down a bad path. You can see my new YouTube video covering the main points of this post from our YouTube channel further down. Please …

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Why I oppose de-extinction of woolly mammoths

February 1, 2021 / By / 5 Comments
mammoth-219x300

De-extinction is big right now and some of the extinct target creatures are big too like the woolly mammoth. “Let’s bring back these extinct creatures”, say proponents. Wouldn’t it be cool? I have to admit seeing a woolly mammoth, mastodon, or saber tooth tiger would be cool, but such efforts would not be without consequences …

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Cloning the mammoth: more than science hype?

February 1, 2021 / By / 3 Comments
mammoth-219x300

Is trying to clone a woolly mammoth all just science hype? Hype is a bad thing and it hurts science in major ways. Hype channels resources away from valuable scientific pursuits and flushes them down the toilet. Hype makes people have unrealistic expectations so they end up disappointed by even very important science if it …

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Weekly reads: De-extinction pros & cons with Dodo 2.0, CTCF, retraction

February 5, 2023 / By / 3 Comments
Dodo bird de-extinction, de-extinction

I don’t think de-extinction of animals just for the heck of it like woolly mammoths is a good idea, but what about de-extincting animals like the Dodo? Where humans caused them to disappear? If that’s even possible, is it a good idea? Dodo de-extinction A company is giving it a try. I can see the …

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2023 stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions

December 28, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
stem cell predictions

Toward the end of each year, I make stem cell & regenerative medicine predictions for the coming year. It’s a fun tradition here on The Niche that goes way back. The stem cell field has changed dramatically as reflected in each year’s predictions. Here’s a list of past predictions with my grades of how they …

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Regenerative medicine reads: retraction, FDA warning, CAR-T, ARM CEO

August 13, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
Timothy D. Hunt, new CEO of ARM, Alliance for Regenerative Medicine

I’ve tried to find some time to do some stem cell and other regenerative medicine reading too, but it’s been a busy week of teaching for me as a professor in our new academic year for the UC Davis School of Medicine. I help to teach the Histology part of the first-year curriculum. It’s an …

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Weekly reads: NIH grants, side effect of darker hair, FDA warning, CRISPR

July 2, 2022 / By / Leave a Comment
Grant writers handbook, grants cartoon

The last six months I’ve been spending even more time than usual writing NIH grants (and a few others). The last two weeks have been especially busy on this front as I am getting an R01 renewal out the door. My paper reading lately has been mostly related to the grant writing I’m doing. Still, …

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Weekly reads: news, legos for stem cells, FDA, cancer, more

September 19, 2021 / By / Leave a Comment
Legos for stem cells Fig 1b

I’ve been busy recently focusing more on grant and paper writing than reading papers on stem cells, but my piece on trying to de-extinct mammoths via cloning-like methods drew strong opinions on both sides. Recent news and resources on stem cells We’re still awaiting a verdict in the big California federal court case where the FDA is …

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