Author name: Professor Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D.

Paul Knoepfler, Ph.D. is a Professor at UC Davis School of Medicine in Cell Biology and Human Anatomy. His lab does research on stem cells and cancer, especially from an epigenomic angle. He also has been working on policy and ethics matters for many years. The author of 3 books, he also has a popular TED talk on designer babies.

Who do you call Superman?

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkSaAhbceBk How we choose or heroes, our Supermen and Superwomen, says a lot about who we are. There’s a scene (above) in one of the Superman movies, starring Christopher Reeve, where Lex Luther puts a Kryptonite necklace on Superman. Superman is powerless around Kryptonite and collapses to the ground.  I always remember that scene because

Who do you call Superman? Read More »

A reality check on the radiation spreading across the globe

Radiation-nuclear-protestors

  The tragic 9.0 earthquake and tsunamis that hit Japan a few weeks ago are having lasting consequences not only for Japan, but also for the world via radiation. One area of particular concern is the radiation that has leaked and is continuing to leak from the damaged nuclear reactors. At this point, the radiation

A reality check on the radiation spreading across the globe Read More »

Is RNA-based iPS cell production a flash in the pan/tissue culture dish?

What is RNA-based iPS cell research? It was only six months ago that the stem cell field was aflutter over the report by the Rossi group that they could reprogram iPS cells with an astonishingly high efficiency using just RNAs. This completely non-genetic, high-efficiency approach seemed like a revolution for the iPS cell field. It

Is RNA-based iPS cell production a flash in the pan/tissue culture dish? Read More »