CIRM Board Member, Jeff Sheehy, has a wonderful piece in Nature Medicine on why patient advocates play a critical role in decision making on research priorities (hat tip to Amy Adams who first blogged on Sheehy’s piece). Patient advocates bring a unique and valuable perspective to the table. Their role in guiding CIRM research funding …
Why scientists must be advocates too: Jeff Sheehy Read More »
Dr. James Sherley, the scientist behind the lawsuit against federally-funded ES cell research, has penned an opinion piece in The Daily Caller today calling on NIH to, in his words, ‘do the right thing.’ However, what Sherley is really asking is for the NIH, other stem cell scientists, and all Americans to think like he …
James Sherley of anti-ESC lawsuit calls on NIH to think like he does Read More »
2020 update: This post from almost 10 years ago on the HIV pandemic and particularly the first paragraph ring differently in the context of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic. Over the last several years, there has been great concern about a possible flu pandemic around the world, but meanwhile the great pandemic of modern history, …
The BLT is reporting that the DC Circuit Appeals Court has sided with the government and has stayed Judge Lamberth’s injunction against ES cell research. Great news! And I’m happy to admit our grim predictions yesterday were wrong. The judges took the action in a “per curiam” judgement, meaning collectively. So we will not know …
Appeals Court Stays Injunction, ES cell research remains legal Read More »
The severe spinal cord injury sustained by Jockey Michael Martinez and the possibility (not realized) that he might be enrolled in Geron’s hESC-based spinal cord regenerative medicine trial, have drawn recent attention to spinal cord injury. Christopher and Dana Reeve (see foundation here) as well as Don C. Reed (see site here) were instrumental in bringing …
In Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece, Alice in Wonderland, there is a wonderful passage that came to mind as I read the latest response from the self-proclaimed ‘adult stem cell researchers’ suing the government to stop federally-funded ES cell research: “I don’t know what you mean by ‘glory,’ ” Alice said. Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. “Of course you …
About one in ten people around the world will develop osteoarthritis (OA) at some point in their lives. In the U.S., it is the major cause of disability. This is an extremely serious illness in terms of its impact on society. At this time there is little in the way of effective treatments for OA. …
Osteoarthritis stem cell research moving forward Read More »
We live in a plastic world, full of BPA. Over the last 1/2 century, the proportion of our food and beverages that are consumed out of plastic containers has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, the concentrations of plastic-related chemicals in people around the world, even in remote corners, has gone up in parallel. I’ve written about avoiding plastic …
Here an anonymous stem cell scientist frankly answers questions about the field in an interview with me. Of course I have to ask you about the recent U.S. court ruling essentially declaring all federal funding of human ES cell work illegal. What’s your take on this? ANSWER: The ruling has so many flaws in it. …
Anonymous stem cell scientist frankly answers questions about the field Read More »
The Obama administration has announced it will “quickly” appeal the ES cell decision, but I’m not hearing anything about a stay on the judge’s order in the meantime or anything like that. It’s quite the opposite. The NIH, in the form of Director Francis Collins, has finally spoken about the federal judge’s ruling that apparently banned …
Grim reality of the impact of judge’s ES cell decision is emerging Read More »