Are there any guidelines for genomics studies of famous dead people like sequencing their genomes? It doesn’t seem like it. I remember when I first heard of the idea of trying to clone John Lennon from an old molar. Fortunately, as far as I know no one ever tried that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if …
Stem cell biologist Jacob Hanna has a new startup called Renewal Bio. Its goal is to harvest cells or tissues from human embryo or fetus models for clinical use. I believe that their commercial ambitions have so far outstripped careful thought and discussion in the broader community of researchers. There are major risks here for …
‘We don’t want to freak people out’: about that Jacob Hanna human embryo model startup Read More »
How should we view biohackers and their DIY use of CRISPR outside of the traditional industry or academic lab environment? Introduction to “Biohackers” and DIY CRISPR Who are biohackers exactly? They are people who “hack” their own biology by transforming their bodies through the insertion of technology or modification of their DNA. More rarely, biohackers …
After all this time writing on The Niche here since 2010, I still haven’t entirely resolved certain blogging dilemmas including when a patient discloses something. It’s kind of a jungle out there on the internet. What kinds of tough blogging dilemmas do I face? I’m just going to give you some examples of the more common …
Stem cell blogging dilemmas: patient disclosures, lawsuits, & more Read More »
In this post I list some recent interesting stem cell and science pubs including artificial human embryo research. Engineered human embryo research continues. Scientists for years have been advancing the types of embryo-like structures made from both human and other creature’s cells. In a new Nature Cell Bio pub entitled, “A 3D model of a …
New stem cell pubs including artificial human embryo work Read More »
Here are some stem cell reads for the weekend, ranging from media to research articles. TGIF! What are your stem cell or other science weekend reads? Let’s start with how difficult it is to make IPS cells from naked mole rats! Naked Mole Rat Cells Have a Stable Epigenome that Resists iPSC Reprogramming. It takes more than …
Weekend Stem Cell Reads: Naked mole rats, geckos, brain gel, & more Read More »
The debate over whether the main conclusions of the Nature paper on human embryo CRISPR led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov’s lab at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) are correct remains unresolved. Note that Nature just added an editorial alert just above the references section to their paper: “Updated online 02 October 2017. Editorial Note: Readers are alerted that some …
Why Mitalipov’s ‘magic’ room for human embryo CRISPR may give us pause Read More »
The FDA issued a historic statement today promising to more clearly define its regulatory policies on stem cell therapies and to take strong action on some stem cell clinics that it views as “bad actors”. I’ve never the FDA use such clear-cut language before. I give big kudos to new FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb. It already …
Six questions as FDA takes new shot at stem cell clinics Read More »
The FDA sent a stern letter today to Dr. John Zhang, PhD, MD, the physician who last year created a genetically modified human embryo in the U.S. and then exported it to Mexico where he self-reported creating a genetically modified baby boy. While the genetically modified baby created in Mexico was reportedly seemingly OK, it’s not clear …
FDA chides US doc who genetically modified human embryo in reported 3-person IVF Read More »
The human embryo CRISPR paper with Shoukhrat Mitalipov as senior author is coming soon. It will reportedly be focused on the use of CRISPR to genetically modify viable human embryos for reversal of a disease-associated mutation. While strangely press already broke early on this paper last week, as much as a week before the paper …
Big 5 questions anticipating Mitalipov human embryo CRISPR paper Read More »